OISD explores adopting charter model

OLNEY— The Olney Independent School District  approved initiating the first step in designating OISD as a District of Innovation.

Superintendent Greg Roach said the approval by the board would allow it to operate under regulations similar to a charter school. 

“There are a lot of school districts that are taking a good, long look at this and I believe some are for the right reasons and some are for the wrong reasons,” Roach said. “You can get waivers to what extent you choose and run on the same guidelines as charter schools. You can get waivers on school start dates, certification, classroom size - about 22-to-1 - and other odds and ends things that you can do.”

According to the Texas Department of Education website, any school is eligible for the District of Innovation so long as it receives an acceptable rating on its annual academic performance evaluation. Should a district achieve that level, it may receive the District of Innovation distinction, which would allow the board to make decisions such as establishing: a uniform start date, minimum instruction minutes, class size ratios, student attendance and discipline guidelines among many other options usually only reserved for charter schools. 

“What this entails is the board voting yes or no if we can initiate this process,” Superintendent Greg Roach said. “If the process is initiated, then we will form a committee, probably of site based people, that will look at a list of items and will say ‘Will any of this fit our district? Will it be helpful to us?”

Roach said the adopting the distinction would assist the district in resolving start date and certification issues.

 ”Practically speaking, it can help us with two things: school start dates and certification issues,” Roach said. “It gives you just a little bit of wiggle room on certification. It’s hard to find people that are secondary math certifified or secondary science certified. People who may not have the coursework, but really know the stuff and teach it. It’s getting to that point at the junior high level.