(Radio Iowa) – The State Board of Education has approved plans for three new charter schools across the state, including two located for public school systems. Sumner-Fredericksburg in northeast Iowa plans to open a charter high school next fall focused on work-based learning. Superintendent Ryan Cunningham says students would explore careers through five-week internships with local businesses. “We think that this is a way to support people coming back to small towns. As students go through this process, they learn about what’s in their community and whether they come back to that small town or another place they know more what are in the rural communities of Iowa,” Cunningham says.

The Board of Education also approved a request from the independent Horizon Science Academy to open a charter school in Cedar Rapids next fall that would start with kindergarten through fifth grade and add grades over time. Chris Murphy oversees Horizon schools in Iowa and says classwork focuses on science and technology.  “To start with elementary, we really do focus on developing the love for science, the love for inquiry, and really developing that interest in thinking and asking questions and being very collaborative with one another,” he says.

The Council Bluffs school district was approved to open a STEM-focused charter school in the fall of 2027