New Charter School on School Board's Agenda

Novato's superintendent of public schools on Tuesday will address a tentatively planned for the 2013-14 academic year.

Shalee Cunningham is scheduled to speak at the board of trustees meeting about the North Bay Educational Foundation and its bid to open a charter school based on the Core Knowledge system of learning. The foundation has held s to gauge public support for the effort.

Momentum is slowly gaining for a kindergarten-through-eighth grade public charter school that would serve as an alternative to options available now, according to the foundation's organizers. The curriculum would follow the Core Knowledge model similar to more than 700 other schools in the country, and provide a much different educational path than the 's Waldorf-based strategy.

Core Knowledge, created by a former university professor, is a methodology that mixes educational lessons — math with history, history with science, science with social studies — and has a track record of improving standardized test results.

Also on Tuesday's agenda are a financial update and the results of a transportation study.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the district office.