Chalk One up for High Schools!

National Heritage Academies president, J.C. Huizinga, is finally going to open a charter high school! For years, NHA limited their focus to K-8 charter schools. NHA does a great job with the educational program, operations, facilities and almost all their schools demonstrate marked academic success. It's exciting to see J.C. entering this new phase!

I've been a part of a K-8 charter school board when we wrestled with whether or not to open a high school. I tell folks starting a high school is about 20 times harder than a K-8 school. There's so many additional things to think about such as the sports program, how to be competitive with the local "smorgasbord" high school, and it just plain costs more to do a high school. But, it is REALLY worth the extra work! Talk about being able to make a difference in student's lives! Plus, when there's students feeding in from a comparable K-8, it just makes sense to reap the benefit from years of work put into the academic success of those students.

J.C. Huizinga is starting a new company to do high schools. This is another example of J.C. making wise business decisions on behalf of his management company; he's not willing to dilute the focus of the K-8 operation. It'll be interesting to watch the development of this high school--the curriculum that's selected, the extracurriculars the school offers, and how it pans out financially, specifically.