Charter School Track Meet at Stanford an Olympic Success

What is a charter school? Charter schools are public schools, supported by public funds. They are open to any child that wishes to attend, and they do not charge tuition. When it comes to spending money, charter schools have greater latitude than other public schools. Thus the programs at charter schools are more likely to meet the needs of the student population it serves. In exchange for this extra freedom, charter schools are held to a higher standard of accountability for producing achievement results.

My daughter Kayden and I had a really cool charter school experience last weekend. We attended the first-ever Charter School Invitational Track Meet. There were events for kids in grades K through 6. On the track, they contested the traditional 50, 100, 400, 800 and 1600 individual track events, as well as the 4×50, 4×100 and 4×400 relay events. Field events included the shot put, the long jump and the broad jump. And for the younger grades, they also held competitions in less traditional field events such as the soccer kick, the basketball shoot-out, the football throw, and the egg-and-spoon relay. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medals were awarded for first, second and third, and other participants got ribbons. These awards were given out by local Olympians, who kindly donated their time.

The meet was hosted by Bullis Charter School of Los Altos, California, and was held at Stanford University’s Cobb Track and Angell Field, with its cool FinishLynx photo-finish timing system. In all, nine teams attended, and they were: Bullis Charter School, Charter School of Morgan Hill, Escuela Popular, KIPP Heartwood, Livermore Valley Charter School, Making Waves, Rocketship One, and Voices.

As a rough guess, I would say there were 700 children who competed, maybe more. This was an incredibly ambitious effort, especially considering the fact that 1) this was the first time Bullis had hosted an event like this, and 2) this was a first track meet for 90 percent of the kids who competed. My hat is off to the Bullis Principal, Wanny Hersey. Along with Kerry and Abbie McCoy, Wanny was responsible for handling a great part of the pre-meet preparation. And then on game day, there she was, all day long with bullhorn in hand, directing the flow of the meet like it is something she does every day. I spoke with a couple of Bullis parents about her. They shook their heads with a mix of disbelief and admiration at what she can accomplish. With regard to the meet, they would ask her, “On top of every thing else you have going on, why do you want to put this on your plate too?”. Her reply, they said was “This is the fun stuff.“

To Ms. Hersey and the Bullis Charter School, thank you for such a wonderful event. You really did the Charter World proud.

For more information on charter schools, you can check out your state department of education website. In California, that’s the CDE.

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