Early College High School to Open on Utah State University’s Innovation Campus in 2006

Utah State University President Kermit L. Hall, along with Governor's Office Deputy for Education Darrell White and school superintendents from the Logan, Cache, Box Elder and Rich districts, announced at a press conference Friday, Dec. 10, 2004, that Utah's sixth and final “New Century” early college high school (ECHS) will open its doors Fall 2006.

 

The new charter school, to be located on the university's Innovation Campus, will be the state's first ECHS located on the campus of a research park and university.

 

“The new school will be an impressive collaborative effort of university and community teaching and research,” said Carol Strong, interim dean of Utah State 's College of Education.

 

Faculty and doctoral students from the College of Engineering 's National Science Foundation Center for Engineering and Technology will assist in preparing the new school's curricula. In addition, the department of English will provide consultation in integrating reading, writing and research throughout the school's course offerings.

 

Hall noted that Utah State has a long history in providing hands-on opportunities in science and math to children throughout the state, including programs targeting women and minorities. He cited the university's 15-year-old Engineering State program, a summer camp in which nearly 4,000 teens have participated; the summer Biotech Academy, Physics Day at Lagoon and Utah State Extension's Junior Engineering and Discovery Science camps as examples of outreach activities. Hall also noted Utah State 's successful 75-year collaborative operation of the on-campus Edith Bowen Elementary Laboratory School with local school districts.

 

To date, three early college high schools have opened in the Salt Lake and Ogden areas, with two additional schools scheduled to open Fall 2005 in Utah and Iron counties, respectively. The six charter high schools were authorized by the 2002 Utah Legislature as part of former Governor Mike Leavitt's engineering and technology initiative.

 

Utah received $3.5 million in seed money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the six schools. Of that money, the Cache Valley school received $500,000 in start-up funding.

 

Utah State is seeking additional funding from private donors to fund construction of a new building for the as yet unnamed Cache Valley school. Additional state monies, included in Governor Walker's proposed budget, may also contribute to construction costs. Ongoing operations will be funded from the weighted-per-pupil-unit formula in the same way that other public charter schools are funded in Utah.

 

For more information on the Cache Valley ECHS, visit http://www.usu.edu/featurestories/highschool/.