Charter School Eyeing Fogelsville Area Gets Hearing

People hoping to start a new charter school in a building on the former Penn State Lehigh Valley campus made their case to the Northwestern Lehigh School Board District Thursday, according to WFMZ.

Most of the campus near Fogelsville is in the Parkland School District but the building Circle of Seasons charter school is considering is in Northwestern Lehigh, WFMZ reported. Phil Arnold, a former charter school administrator who is organizing the effort, told the board about the advantages of the Waldorf method of education, which emphasizes cooperation over competition and shuns the use of traditional textbooks and computers in the classroom.  

In December 2011, Arnold for putting the charter school on a portion of the Manito Farm and Equestrian Center off North Cedar Crest Boulevard in South Whitehall or part of the former Penn State Lehigh Valley campus.

In February of this year, the Parkland School Board the application. Jayne Bartlett, Parkland board president, said afterwards that she could not ask the taxpayers to fund something that did not meet state standards. 

The Waldorf method nutures imagination and enthusiasm for learning in children, according to organizers. For example, it does not use conventional textbooks, but rather learned by having them draw a picture about the lesson. At the end of a school year, students have a journal or workbook chronicling each lesson.