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Stagecoach — The steering committee has set a goal of submitting its charter application to the South Routt School District by Aug. 15, and if it decides a school is feasible, opening the charter school in some form for the 2010-11 school year, steering committee member Kim Rabon said Saturday.

The steering committee shared its mission and vision with about a half-dozen people Saturday morning at the Stagecoach fire station and asked the community to get more involved in envisioning what the school should look like.

"There's a lot of work that needs to be done, but in my mind, it's do-able," Rabon said.

That work includes researching grants and facility options, getting more input from interested families and obtaining non-binding letters of intent to quantify support, Rabon said.

The steering committee began working on generating interest in the charter school last year, with two-pronged interests: to provide education in their community and to have a facility that can serve as a "nucleus" for Stagecoach, in the words of steering committee member Ken Burgess.

The school's vision, presented Saturday by Rabon, emphasizes the all-community benefit charter school proponents hope to obtain: "Stagecoach charter school is a community school nurturing the best in all of us."

In addition to providing education for Stagecoach children, an eventual school facility also could serve as a community center and meeting place, even a public library. The only thing close Stagecoach has now is the fire station.

Parents interested in the charter school have no qualms with the education in either South Routt or Steamboat Springs and simply want to provide another option for families, Rabon said.

There are 22 Stagecoach children whose parents take them to school in Steamboat Springs, mostly because the parents work in town, Rabon said. Other families have gone so far as to move out of Stagecoach, mostly to Steamboat, to live near where their children go to school, Burgess said.

In addition to being an asset to community in terms of education, a charter school also would have a positive influence on property values and attracting new residents, Burgess said.

"The first thing people ask when they're looking for a place to live is, 'What are the schools like?' That's the first question," Burgess said.

Colorado public school districts receive funding from the state on a per-pupil basis. Charter schools receive the same funding, funneled through a local school district or other entity. Parents in Colorado can send students to any school they choose, as long as there is space available.

The proposed Stagecoach charter school would be public, free of charge and affiliated with the South Routt School District, though its curriculum, method of instruction and facilities have not yet been identified. The district has a parcel of land adjacent to Red Hawk Village, and Rabon said Saturday that the steering committee hopes the charter school will be able to use that land.

That work will be done in the coming months by committees of interested parents and community members, and the steering committee now is recruiting people to serve on the following subcommittees: curriculum, facility, financial plan, governance, employees, public relations and charter application.

"Now the work begins," Rabon said. "The community has to be involved in getting it up and running - you can't do this based on one person's dream.