Local charter school sees growth

BARSTOW • Mojave River Academy, a local charter school, has grown by 80 students this year, according to school officials.

Teacher Brandy Redman said she sees at least seven new enrollees walk through their doors each week.

The charter school, now located inside the Mercado Mall on East Main Street, opened three years ago with about 20 students, according to MRA executive director Joe Andreasen. They currently have about 180 students, he said.

Students like Trey Johnson come to MRA for a variety of reasons. For the 13-year-old, it was due in part to attendance and social problems Johnson had while at Barstow Intermediate School last year.

For Noemi Espiricueta, completing her class work through the charter school’s independent study program allows her to hold down a daytime job. The 17-year-old works as a cashier and ticket agent at Barstow Station, which Espiricueta says helps her make car payments and pay her cell phone bill.

Espiricueta and Johnson are among a growing number of students in Barstow enrolling at MRA, a Victorville-based charter school with branches in Barstow, Apple Valley, Colton, Tehachepi and other cities.

The school enrolls grades K-12 but currently mainly serves seventh through 12th-graders, said teacher Geddes Mohammed.

“This year we really bumped up,” he said.

According to Andreasen, parents are increasingly looking at options outside of mainstream schools. He noted that MRA targets at-risk students, including those who have been expelled from other schools.

According to BUSD Superintendent Susan Levine, expelled students in BUSD get referred to the county’s community day school. Some students, however, also end up at MRA but work back towards readmittance in BUSD, said Rhonda Powell, a pupil services administrative assistant.

For Espiricueta, working through a home-schooling program where she meets with MRA teachers once a week has turned her grades around.

“I used to go home, dump my backpack on the floor and leave,” she said. Now, home has become the classroom. Espiricueta’s grades rose from C-minuses, D’s and F’s to A’s and B’s gradually over two years.

“A lot of our students become self-driven,” said Andreasen. “They know it’s their last ditch effort.”

While Espiricueta may be an example of a success story, MRA’s overall academic performance, measured by the state Academic Performance Index, has suffered.

MRA’s 2009 Growth API Report was 520, with the state setting its goal for schools at 700. Excelsior, a similar independent study charter program, has a score of 753. Barstow High School’s API totals 636.

Mohammed said part of the reason for the low score is because many  students who come to the charter school bring along transcripts from their previous school showing poor performance often due to missing classes. It takes time to turn those scores around, he said.

Parents, however, are still giving MRA a chance to help students take another shot at earning a diploma, according to Mohammed. And the enrollment numbers show it.

“They’re willing to let us prove ourselves,” he said.