A new charter school for dropouts and others for whom a traditional high school isn't working plans to open next month in Santa Fe.

On Tuesday, Santa Fe Public Schools offered the Colegio Sin Fronteras use of space in a west-side building being vacated by Carlos Gilbert Elementary School students who are moving back into their own renovated building downtown.

The proposal for space in the Bilingual Early Childhood Center, near the former Alameda Middle School building, garnered a positive response from administrators and school board members at a Tuesday evening meeting, although the official vote on a memorandum of understanding will come later this month.

"We know we lose too many of our young people," Superintendent Bobbie Gutierrez said. "We are looking for more ways to bring young people back to school."

And this idea had a least one thing going for it, she added. "They're not asking for anything," Gutierrez said.

Colegio Sin Fronteras will pay for its own maintenance and computers, curriculum and software, as well as staffing expenses. And it will lease the district property for as much as $42,000 during the first semester.

Penny Bickley, a student adviser to the board, called the proposed school "very exciting."

"I definitely could see this flourishing here in Santa Fe," she said.

Shelley Cohen, the co-director of the Santa Fe Partnership for Communities and Schools, which is spearheading the new school, said between 40 and 50 students have already indicated they want to attend.

The new school will be a pilot project of the Robert F. Kennedy Charter School in Albuquerque, which has an enrollment of 275 and is chartered for up to 350 students. It has a similar mission and already has a couple of other satellite campuses in New Mexico.

RFK's director, Robert Baade, said he had about $500,000 in carryover funds, part of which will be used for the Santa Fe pilot.

He anticipates hiring about four educators to teach the computer-based core curriculum to about 60 students in the first semester.

The new school is looking for certified teachers who are bilingual — although a bilingual certification is not required — and experienced with Web-based learning.

If the school succeeds, it will qualify for new funding from the state next year based on the first year's enrollment. Money for the lease comes out of a different pool of state money, Baade said.

Students who complete credits for graduation will receive diplomas from Robert F. Kennedy Charter School.

Baade, a former math teacher and licensed administrator, will be the director; Miguel Angel Acosta will be co-director of the partnership; and a former Albuquerque school board member who lives in Santa Fe will be on-site leading other aspects of the mission, including work force and career readiness, personal and family effectiveness and community and civic engagement. RFK students, for example, have built 33 Habitat for Humanity houses.

"Miguel has the program; I'm the educational component," Baade said.

Prospective students must complete a three-week orientation to be admitted, and every nine weeks they participate in goal-setting sessions.

When the partnership — which has been in existence for more than a decade but mostly focused on substance abuse — began discussing the idea for the school, Acosta called Baade because of his reputation for educating students who have dropped out or who are in danger of dropping out.

RFK's student body includes teen parents, kids who are getting out of jail, juvenile detention, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, Spanish-speaking students who immigrated here when they were teens, kids who need to work — the same population targeted in Santa Fe. Most of them read well below grade level when they enter, but Baade said they are showing two years of growth for every year in school. And for nine years, the school has had clean audits.

Cohen, whose background is in community organizing, said serious talk about the school only began in September when the mother of some students at Capital High School approached the partnership, saying she was really concerned about kids who had been suspended for long periods of time. The group gathered 15 or more of them and their families to talk about how it could help.

"They were clear that what they wanted was an education but they couldn't get it because of long-term and back-to-back suspensions," Cohen said. The conversation turned to creating their own school and, she said, "They were, like, cool."

Most of these students have fallen behind and lack the credits to graduate with their classes. In many cases, Cohen said, they are told they may as well leave school, making them what she calls "pushouts" rather than "dropouts."

The final form of the school will take shape using many ideas from the students. "This school is not about sitting behind a desk and listening to a teacher. This is their school," she said.

There will be a core curriculum, of course, but the school will also involve mentoring, work study and community service. Classes will be held in the evenings and on weekends.

Although many in the school community were still in the dark about the new school, Baade said RFK doesn't have any problem getting the word out. The Albuquerque school has 575 on the waiting list, Baade said.

"People find me," he said.

Contact Anne Constable at 986-3022 or aconstable@sfnewmexican.com.

MORE INFORMATION

• Contact Santa Fe Partnership for Communities and Schools, 1804 Espinacitas St., 955-1812.