The new Discovery Charter School will open for its first school year on Monday, two days earlier than the Duneland School Corporation, with an enrollment at full capacity of 312 students.

Today, the school held an open house for families, during which parents met with teachers and students turned in their materials and got to see their new classrooms. Although the school has had smaller open houses, today’s event was the first time that the entire school was open to most of the families.

“Everyone is so happy ... The excitement is incredible,” said Discovery School Board President Laurie Metz. “It feels like this is an adventure.”

Principal Karen Poplawski said she hopes to have a similar event next year, so that incoming students get to see their classroom and meet their teachers before the school year starts. Having a relaxed day before school should help make the start of school smoother. “It’s fun to see all the families,” she said.

The new charter school is open to kindergarten through sixth graders, with plans to add a seventh grade next year and an eighth grade in 2012. As a public school, Discovery must be open to any Indiana student, regardless of the community in which they live. Roughly half of the students are from the Duneland area; because the school doesn’t provide transportation, families will have to drive their students to school.

Metz noted that the building was basically an office building and had to be gutted to prepare for the new school. The end result is a building that looks much like any other new elementary school, with brightly decorated classrooms, office space, a library and cafeteria. The color theme consists of brown, green and orange, which make up the school colors.

The school doesn’t have a gymnasium at this point, but with its focus on place-based environmental education, the school intends to take advantage of the wooded areas and nearby hiking trails within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. An outdoor modular classroom will provide space for music instruction.

The cafeteria, located on the lower floor, will not include processed foods and will incorporate organically grown food as much as possible, Metz said. The milk will be hormone and antibiotic free, and a vegetarian option will be available. Students who bring in their own lunches will be urged to use waste-free packaging.

Class sizes will be smaller than what one may find in traditional public schools, with the kindergarten classes each having about 20 students. The school day will also be somewhat different than a traditional school, with a start time of 8 a.m. and an end time of 3:30 p.m., except for Wednesdays, when school will be dismissed earlier, at 1:50 p.m., for teacher professional development time.

Another difference is that the students will wear uniforms, which are actually T-shirts printed with the name of the school.

Posted 8/20/2010