North Star Academy, region's second public charter school, planned for Ossipee

OSSIPEE — A nonprofit dedicated to providing classical education through studying texts from Western civilization has received a $1.1 million federal grant to open North Star Academy, a public charter school in the Ossipee area, with the first students entering in fall 2024.

“The pillar of classical education is the idea of preparing students to find truth, to be sovereign thinkers, and to be able to look at tons of information to find the narrative that rings true for them,” said James Miller of Alton Bay, director of the Institute for Classical Culture, which earned the grant. Miller, formerly a headmaster at a private school in Ossipee, currently teaches at Acton Academy in Laconia. North Star’s goal, he said, is to teach students how to think, not what think.

The tuition-free public school will eventually serve elementary through high school students, and will use the Barney Charter School curriculum model developed by Hillsdale College in Michigan, a private, non-denominational liberal arts college that does not accept federal funding. Two other New Hampshire charter schools follow this model: Lionheart Academy in Keene and Seacoast Academy in Exeter, which is applying for a charter next month.

“We see ourselves as an option” for families to have choices, with an alternative that may match a student’s needs and parents’ desires, Miller said. “Maybe public school isn’t working for their child. We’ll provide a service to our community by providing another option.”

He said North Star Academy will be located in the Ossipee area, which includes low-income families, high-risk students and prevalent substance misuse. No site has been finalized yet. The school will draw students who typically live within a half hour’s drive, although there is no distance requirement.

In the greater Ossipee area, roughly 50% of students are not proficient in math or reading, according to recent achievement tests, which points to a need for a different approach, Miller said.

North Star Academy will use the Singapore curriculum in math and focus on training students in basic skills in reading and writing in elementary school. In middle and high school, students will progress to reading and analyzing original texts, developing a thesis and defending their position orally and in writing. Miller said discussions will include answering questions about the human condition, such as "what is justice?" and "what does it mean to live a valuable life?"

“There’s value in training the mind,” he said. Even when the material is challenging, “with the right support, you make your way through.”

In our current culture, people are divided into camps, left or right, without a desire or ability to listen and learn from each other and come away with mutual understanding or a cooperative solution, he said. Students need to learn how to be listeners and learners and have dialogues, how to ask questions and sift through a variety of facts and opinions to understand their world and find the best way forward. At North Star, students will learn to articulate their positions and explain why they think what they think, he said.

“It’s a classical approach and it’s very socratic,” Miller said. “I hope people coming out of North Star Academy will be open to the ideas and positions of others.”

The $1.1 million grant is part of yearslong federal funding from the U.S. Department of Education to New Hampshire charter schools. It will help North Star purchase computers and desks and hire staff as the school opens. The plan is to serve a 90 students in kindergarten through fourth grade the first year, gradually expanding to include eighth grade by 2027, with a target enrollment of 315, according Miller and the school's application with the state. The school will open with six teachers, growing to 22 educators in five years.

The curriculum will be geared to students who are preparing for college, as well as those who want to work in the trades or careers that don’t require further academic training.

“Although it can feel like we’re competing, we’re just another public school in the area,” Miller said. Out of the $26,000 the Kingswood Regional School District spends per student, $7,200 will go with each student who attends North Star, and the balance to Governor Wentworth School District. Students who live locally will be bused by the district. Admission will be by lottery in the spring before school starts.

North Star’s grant is part of an $8.34 million grant announced last week that will go to four existing or recently approved public charter schools to four others currently seeking approval. The grants represent the latest round of installments from a $46 million federal grant to New Hampshire in 2019, one of three states to receive awards that year from by the U.S. Department of Education’s Charter School Program.

“This program is expanding public school choices for New Hampshire children and is offering students an unconventional path to success,” said Frank Edelblut, commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education. “Startup costs are often an insurmountable hurdle for new charter schools, but this federal funding helps provide more options families seeking something different for their children. We have accelerated this program substantially and have awarded $17 million to public charter schools” so far.

New Hampshire now has 30 public charter schools currently operating with a total of roughly 5,256 students. Those opened since 2020 include Heartwood Public Charter School in Jefferson and Northeast Woodlands Chartered Public School in Conway. The charter public school operating now in the Lakes Region is Compass Classical Academy in Franklin, which did not respond to requests for information for this story.

During the pandemic, charter schools across the country experienced an increase in enrollment when schools shifted online, and when students of varying abilities needed to make up what they missed.