School Launches August 2020
MOSAICS Public School, a new STEAM charter school in Caldwell, was recently awarded an $800,000 federal CSP grant from Idaho’s Communities of Excellence consortium. “We want to bring a state-of-the-art schooling option for our students, and the funding from this grant will provide us the opportunity to do that,”said school principal Anthony Haskett. The school will be able to equip its makerspace with cutting edge tools like 3D printers and a laser engraver to allow students to participate in high-tech, hands-on learning. Additionally, the school will be able to upgrade their classroom technology to allow teachers to encourage student collaboration through an interactive touchscreen display, allowing students to share their digital learning with others. Further, the grant will fund a variety of other resources, like classroom resources, curriculum, and professional development for teachers. Finally, the school will be able to add 2 additional teachers to reduce class sizes in kindergarten and first grade.
Students at MOSAICS will engage learn about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) through hands-on learning. Along with studying reading, writing, and math, students at MOSAICS will create LEGO robots, code computer programs, and construct real-world solutions to authentic problems as a part of their schooling experience. Also embedded into the school’s projects will be a service component, where community members partner with students to help them discover how they can better the area through the wise use of time, talents, and resources.
The goal of the CSP program is to increase the number of quality charter school seats…especially for our most educationally disadvantaged and rural students. To date, the Communities of Excellence Consortium, led by nonprofit Bluum, has awarded $10 million in grant support to a total of 11 schools that will collectively serve 5,275 students–nearly half of whom attend school in a rural community.
The school is authorized to open the 2020-21 school year with 60 seats per grade level for students entering kindergarten through fourth grade. The date for their initial lottery is set March 14, 2020; however, the deadline for applications to be in the lottery is March 7, 2020. For more information about MOSAICS Public School or to apply online, visit www.mosaicsps.org.
