Unique programs offered at Odyssey Charter School
Odyssey Charter School received a conditional use permit from the city of Idaho Falls on Tuesday. Odyssey is a public school for grades 6-12. Currently the school has 183 students enrolled.
The school building is across from Health District in Idaho Falls, on the corner of Hollipark Drive and Jones Street.
Fiveclassrooms and the administration offices will be in the main building. The shop space next door will be converted to a cafeteria and gym and two portables will be brought in which will provide four additional classrooms.
“We have an after-school program and a Friday program. We have a horse program, an equestrian program, and a 4-H goat program,” said co-founder and board member Chris Peterson.
4-H leader Shawna Murdoch, whosefour kids will be attending Odyssey Charter, says the students in the 4-H program will apply lessons from the classroom to work on the farm.
“They’re gonna be working with math as far as the weight of the seeds, how much time they need to water.This is going to be a very in-depth experience for them,” said Murdoch.
The 4-H program will be offered Fridays because Odyssey Charter will have a four-day school week, with Fridays off.
“We want families to spend more time together. We feel a child’s most important part of day is with their family,” said Peterson and added a lot of homework cuts into family time. “We’ve done a lot of research about homework and we feel like homework needs to be at a minimum. We’ll do some with math and some with personal reading, but very low homework loads,” said Peterson.
Designing the school, I think of what type of school I want for my children. That’s been a huge benchmark, in trying to find people that I would be happy with as a parent and as an administrator,” said founder Karl Peterson.
Odyssey Charter will be partnering with the YMCA to offer a climbing program after school. Odyssey will have an orchestra program, drama, and some unique after school programs like Lindy Hop, jump roping, and fencing.
Odyssey Charter School is still accepting students. They do have attendance zone restrictions, but school buses will available for students in Jefferson County and Shelley.
