Gael Larsen retires, she wants to walk through a K-12 HOPE Community Academy complex, running her hands over the bare brick walls as she rejoices. The larger vision of the Hmong community is that it would be K-12,'' she says. But it's a long road between starting the charter school and making that larger vision a reality. A charter school, funded by public money but financially independent of a traditional school district, is essentially a small business.
Small businesses are notoriously hard the first couple of years.
If we stop dead in the tracks, to get that momentum going again is going to be hard,'' Larsen says. We saw what could happen if the board wasn't strong, if the management was not under control of the board. Operating costs next year will be paid for in part with state lease aid, plus general education funding. Time will tell if they can do that, more likely sooner than later.