About Coburg Community Charter School
Our History
Coburg Community Charter School (CCCS) started as a partnership between parents, teachers, and our community members to provide academic excellence in an environment that encourages strong character and respectful behavior.
"There are two lasting gifts we can give our children. One is roots, and the other wings."
– Hodding Carter
The overarching theme for the Coburg Community Charter School is “strong character and academic excellence through community immersion”. Our philosophy is based on the following beliefs and values:
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A small school is the ideal setting for creating a strong sense of belonging and community (roots) and for nurturing curiosity and compassion (wings)
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Strong school-community connections support strong academics, strong families, and vibrant community life (roots)
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Academic excellence, including basic skills and critical thinking, is possible & necessary for all students (wings)
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A strong education includes an appreciation and understanding of history, including local heritage (roots)
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A strong education includes understanding larger global issues and technology as a learning tool (wings)
Our vision
Our “roots and wings” philosophy fosters students’ identity and belonging while preparing them to become productive members of society. Our commitment is to provide a unique program that lays a solid foundation upon which our children’s intelligence, creativity, social and environmental awareness can flourish. These solid roots will enable our students to soar into a bright future.
We maintain the feeling of a small neighborhood school by limiting classroom ratios to approx. 1:25 and the overall school population to approximately 225 for Kindergarten-8th grade.
Academic Excellence
Coburg Community Charter School offers a comprehensive educational program for grades Kindergarten-8 combining the Core Knowledge Sequence for daily history, science, geography, literature, music and visual arts with special emphasis in reading, writing, and mathematics. Children’s mental and physical health are nurtured through regular Physical Education classes. Our development of school values, dress code, and our character building exercises, foster a strong sense of belonging for staff and students. Fridays often consist of school-wide assemblies, skill days, and community service activities. CCCS offers FULL DAY Kindergarten!
Community Immersion
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Skills Days – Members of the community come into the school to share their areas of expertise, or a skill, with K-5th grade students for a 4 week session. Students then showcase their newly learned skill at a school-wide assembly at the end of the Skill Day session. We have approximately 3 Skill Day sessions a year.
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Community Involvement – Students are involved in projects around the Coburg community such as Arbor Day tree planting, Senior Meals, Scrap Metal Drive, and other community service opportunities. CCCS has strong partnerships with Coburg Police, Coburg Fire District, the City of Coburg, local farmers and businesses.
Our History
The City of Coburg was founded in 1847. The first schoolhouse was built and district 43 was founded in 1865. As the city grew, a new school building was needed to house the increasing student population. In 1911 the new school building was completed. The
school, the city, and the nation weathered tough times. World War I, The Great Depression, and World War II left their mark, but the school continued to educate and support its students. It was there in good times too. In the 1950’s community pride swelled as the Coburg Broncos became state champions in basketball and football.
In 1962 District 43 was annexed by 4j School District, and Coburg High School was closed. For the first time in one hundred years Coburg students had to leave the city to complete their education. Although the loss of the high school and upper grades was difficult, the community rallied to support Coburg’s local elementary school. When the school district’s budget grew tighter over the years, the community leveraged new resources to support its elementary school.
Community has been an integral part of our school throughout its history. Generous contributions over the years from the Coburg Connections Program, the parent fundraising group “PCS”, and the city of Coburg, provided students at Coburg
Elementary School with extra support, resources, and opportunities and further enhanced the strong relationship between the city and the school.
The school has been an integral part of the community for generations. The presence of a small local school not only provided a uniquely tailored educational setting for Coburg's children, but it has also helped shape the character of the community as a whole. As a former administrator notes, “The school has been a source of generational heritage: parents and grandparents would come in and fondly share their memories of their time at the school. It was also the focal point for organizing events when families and businesses had a need.”
Over the years, the regular threat of losing the town’s only school was very unsettling for the community. Thus, in anticipation of the possible closure of Coburg Elementary School in 2010, a broad-based citizen group began working to organize a feasible
strategy for sustaining a high quality local school in Coburg. CCCS is the result of that effort.