The Barney Charter School Initiative now has an assistant director.
Alumna Rebecca Fleming ’09 and her husband left Colorado to come to Michigan during winter break so Fleming could start her new job in January.
The initiative, primarily the brainchild of President Larry Arnn and Assistant Professor of History Terrence Moore, was started in 2009. In 2010, the college hired Phillip Kilgore to be the program’s director. Kilgore publicized the initiative by reaching out to communities that wanted to improve K12 education.
The college no longer needs to do much advertising. Two charter schools opened in 2012, and two more opened in 2013. Five are on track to open this year.
“The program has grown. It’s gotten traction all over the country,” Kilgore said.
Kilgore felt the need to hire an assistant director for 2014. He eventually turned to Fleming, who taught science at Cheyenne Mountain Charter Academy, where Kilgore’s triplets attended school.
“She has some great experience,” Kilgore said. “She understands what education is. She was a leader at that school, where she taught science for four and a half years, and she became the science chair.”
Fleming’s scientific background is something for which Kilgore and Moore, the initiative’s adviser, share enthusiasm.
“Very often, these classical schools put so much emphasis on the humanities and on teaching history and government that it appears that the sciences are getting slighted,” Moore said. “The sciences are, in fact, taught better in these classical schools, but the people who tend to run them are not trained in the mathematics or the sciences. To have someone who is not only a teacher, but whose expertise is in the sciences is a real asset.”
STEM schools, schools that emphasize the teaching of science, technology, engineering, and math, are becoming increasingly popular in U.S. K12 education, as many people believe they are what’s needed to make America competitive in the global economy. But Kilgore thinks such schools have some fundamental deficiencies.
“I think the fault of those kinds of schools is that the pendulum swings way over, and they don’t
understand why math and science should be studied and in what context,” Kilgore said. “That’s where the humanity comes into play: in understanding the material world and loving the beauty that can be found in it.”
Fleming is happy with her new position and enjoys many aspects of it.
“I’m passionate about charter school education and education in general. I also really enjoy talking with students here who are in the same position that I was in five years ago — looking to teach and maybe not having that much experience and not having certification,” Fleming said. “Letting them know what my experiences were, what I liked about teaching, how to prepare for the job fair, how to prepare for interviews, things like that.”
Fleming may also participate in teacher training seminars for the new schools and classroom observations for the schools already in existence alongside Moore, Associate Professor of English Justin Jackson, Associate Professor of Education Daniel Coupland, Associate Professor of Mathematics Thomas Treloar, and Associate Professor of Chemistry Matthew Young.
Kilgore has complete confidence in Fleming’s abilities to fulfill the new role.
“When I’m not here, she’s in charge. When I’m here, most of the time, we’re working on things together,” Kilgore said.
Arnn’s goal for the initiative is to start 50 charter schools by 2022, about five per year.
“I think that’s very executable,” Kilgore said.
