“Tucked in the back of a Surprise office complex, out of sight from the intersection of Greenway and Reems roads, is the city’s only “excelling” high school.
Across the parking lot is a CVS Pharmacy, some insurance agencies and a self-storage center.
There’s no football stadium. No marquees or murals.
Only a small blue banner above the entrance—”PHHS”—indicates this is Paradise Honors High School, one of a growing number of charter schools that has seen success in Surprise.
Nearly 20 percent of students in Surprise are enrolled in charter schools, according to 2010 figures by the Arizona Charter Schools Association. That represents the highest percentage of students of all cities in the Valley. The Arizona average is 12 percent. ‘Having a percentage higher than the state average is pretty significant,’ said Jeff Janas, vice president of the charter association, though he could not pinpoint why the percentage in Surprise is so high.
Charter schools gained an early and strong foothold in Arizona, one of the first states to provide financial support to charter schools. Dysart officials, like those at many public schools in the Valley, are aware of the heightened competition and say they welcome it.
Parents’ satisfaction
Like many Surprise parents interviewed for this story, Genie Donahoe said she is extremely satisfied with her child’s charter-school experience.
‘They just seem to have a different atmosphere,’ said Donahoe, whose sixth-grade daughter has attended Paradise Education Center since kindergarten. “It seems more one-on-one.”
When her family moved to Surprise about 10 years ago, Donahoe said she began looking for an alternative to traditional public schools.
‘Honestly, I just hadn’t heard the greatest things about the Dysart district,’ she said.
When parents want to transfer their children from traditional public schools to Imagine Prep at Surprise, Principal John Buzzard usually asks why.
‘Definitely a smaller school size is important to parents,’ Buzzard said. Concerns about bullying and violence, as well as academic concerns, also top parents’ lists, he said.
‘Overall, it’s a small community. It’s a close community,’ Buzzard said of Imagine Prep and its elementary counterpart, Rosefield.
Sean Queen, a Surprise parent whose three children are enrolled in Imagine charter schools, credits the charter with ‘a 180-degree’ change in his oldest son.
Charters’ disadvantages
However, keeping his children in charters has not come without trade-offs. Many charter schools do not provide transportation, and Queen stayed self-employed until his oldest son was of driving age so he could take his kids to school. He said he has poured much of his time volunteering at the school, something he never imagined doing when his children were in traditional public districts.
‘We’re much happier, where we feel like we’re pulling some success back out of it,’ Queen said. ‘This one has my heart. It has my dedication.’
In addition, the smaller school sizes and non-traditional facilities can sometimes limit athletic opportunities at charters.
‘It is a shortfall,’ Queen said. ‘And I suppose if you are going to raise your children to play in a major-league sport and you know they’re going to do that, maybe that school isn’t going to be the best because they’re not going to have the training that they need.’
Samantha Ryckman, 11, a sixth-grader at Paradise Education Center, said she sometimes wonders what student life would be like in a public school—’Would it be nicer or would it be even bigger? How would you dress? Would it be strict or not?’—but that ultimately she enjoys her charter-school life, dress code and all.
‘See, at a public school I think you have more freedom,’ Ryckman said. ‘I’d rather be at a charter school since it’s kind of locked down, ’cause if it wasn’t, then it’d be all chaos.’
Dysart’s ‘hyper-growth’ period—the district grew from 4,500 students to nearly 25,000 over the last decade—may have contributed to frustrations.
Traditional vs. charter schools
‘There was a time in this district that, because of the massive growth, we were having to change school boundaries every year,’ Dysart spokesman Jim Dean said. ‘Students were moved sometimes five times in five years to five different schools.’
As for parents’ doubts about Dysart’s academic reputation, Dean said the school district has come a long way.
‘We’re very proud of the work we’ve done in the last four or five years,’ Dean said. ‘We certainly welcome any competition and understand that school choice is an important thing for parents.’
Dean also pointed out that enrollment numbers at Dysart often dwarf those of charter schools: A ‘highly performing’ high school in the district might have thousands of students, rather than a few hundred at an “excelling” charter school, he said.
‘If there are going to be comparisons made, let’s make certain that we’re all playing under the same guidelines,’ Dean said.
The Arizona Department of Education classifies both traditional and charter schools based on their student academic performance. The top designation for Arizona schools is excelling, followed by highly performing, performing plus, performing, underperforming and failing to meet academic standards.
Charter schools are growing, too. Paradise Honors High School broke ground on a new campus in late February. The project was the result of a lot of fundraising, said Dawn Merritt, an administrative assistant at the high school. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools receive no state money for new buildings.
Surprise Mayor Lyn Truitt thinks there’s room for both charters and traditional public schools to thrive in the city.
‘The point: we have good education and we have great options,’ Truitt said. ‘I’m extremely proud of how they’re (both) doing. I’m just excited about education because it’s so critical to building a quality community.'”
Article published on March 10, 2011 by The Arizona Republic