Imperial Beach Charter School Opens for First Time

Imperial Beach Charter School will open its doors to students for the first time Monday with campuses at schools before known as and .

Near 70 7th graders will take classes this year, with the possibility of classes for 8th graders next year.

The charter school's Educational Program is based on 21st Century Skills, which stresses things like problem solving, creativity, communication and technology.

See the attached document to read more about the school's Educational Program.

The different approach to learning and laptop program will begin with 7th graders but long-term may permeate other grades at the K-7 school, said Imperial Beach campus principal Pamela Reichert-Montiel.

"We still have some things to figure out because there are two campuses," she said.

For the new school, Student Site Councils, PTAs and staffs combined.

Mascots were also combined and may now be a dolphin riding waves.

The change to charter school has been a source of confusion for some parents, Reichert-Montiel said, but except for 7th graders, classes will function as normal.

Students will first receive about a month of training on how to use their Lenovo "student-proof" ThinkPads before they are able to take them home.

Last week classes began for Sweetwater Union High School District students, . Over the course of the next six years the district plans to put iPads in the hands of all its students.

IB Charter School went with laptops over iPads after analysis by staff and an advisory group.

"I didn't feel, nor did the team, that what was being offered was reason enough to go with iPads," she said. "We didn't feel at this point in time that the iPad had enough to offer us."

Programs and applications are not yet available from major book companies the school works with for 7th graders, she said.

Tablets will be used for interactive instruction. The charter school may consider iPads in the future.

Like students at Sweetwater schools, filters and firewalls will keep students from accessing some inappropriate sites at school.

But once they go home, responsibility falls to parents.

"We can't control what you have going on at home," Reichert-Montiel said. "You will have to be aware of what your kids are doing."

Reichert-Montiel said homework will not require students to use the internet at home.

To give some elements of social life more like the average middle school, dances will be held and a yearbook assembled. Chess, ecology and music clubs will meet, and an Associated Student Body (ASB) will be formed and elect officers.

Imperial Beach Charter School is the second charter in the South Bay Union School District. Nestor Language Academy Charter School offers a bilingual English-Spanish education.