The Story of Creekside

Creekside began as a cooperative effort of a few families in the Tahoe City area who were looking for education options for their children. Since 1998, we have operated as a learning center under several programs, including various schools within the Tahoe Truckee Unified School District and for four years with Forest Charter School. During this time our Cooperative successfully developed a unique hybrid education model of independent study and learning center class options. In the spring of 2009, the Creekside Cooperative team felt confident that our educational philosophies and approaches were well developed and would benefit from establishing our own charter school, bringing continuity and autonomy to the Creekside experience.

In May of 2009, a partnership was formalized with the Newcastle Elementary School District, and the Creekside Cooperative Learning Center became Creekside Cooperative Charter School. Creekside's choice to establish itself as a Charter School not only mitigated the negative financial impact that our affiliation with Forest Charter School was causing with our district of residence, TTUSD, but also allows us to serve families residing in Placer, Nevada and El Dorado Counties, an option that we did not have with Forest Charter School.

The Newcastle Elementary School District is housed in Newcastle, California, between Auburn and Roseville. The district serves Kindergarten through Eighth Grade through a single site-based campus with approximately 600 students. Newcastle is very excited to include an independent study option to their small district and plans to develop an independent study charter school in Newcastle to mirror the model developed by Creekside. Our two organizations forged a strong relationship to bring quality education options to students both in Newcastle and the Tahoe Truckee area.

Through its transitions, Creekside's student population has grown from a hand full of students and parents to an anticipated 80 students in the 2011-2012 school year. We continue to develop our experiential model of education while forming partnerships with our stakeholders and our community.