2 Rivers APC pitches homestead charter; board presses on enrollment, lottery, facility and staffing

The Fairbanks North Star Borough School District heard a charter application from the 2 Rivers Homestead APC on Nov. 3, when parents, educators and community members proposed opening 2 Rivers Homestead Charter School as a K'8 school with preschool and an in-building Best homeschool hub.

APC leaders told the board the school would center hands-on, place-based instruction tied to homesteading values — agriculture, environmental stewardship and practical life skills — and would intentionally keep in-person enrollment small to support a multigrade, project-based model. "I am Jasmine Wicks. I am the president of our APC," said Jasmine Wicks, the APC president, in the presentation, introducing the applicant team.

The presenters described a campus plan that pairs core academic instruction with homestead integration, afternoon skill-based classes, an expanded after-school clubs program and community-run vocational offerings. Christine White, who led curriculum discussion via Zoom, said the APC expects to keep in-person enrollment around 100 students, and to expand only modestly "to a 125 through a 150 students" if the district requests it; the APC also described recruiting correspondent (homeschool) students who would use the school's hands-on offerings. John White, who presented budget details, said the APC had recorded 72 intent-to-enroll forms and explained the group's cost-neutrality calculations: the APC described a high-end budget of $1,650,000 tied to a 125-student scenario and said a $22,000-per-student BSA (basic student allocation) puts a 75-student threshold in one modeling scenario; the APC also noted a more…