The Tuition-Free,
Public Charter Option
Olive Grove Charter Schools
Provide Another Choice
to Tri-County Families
By Tyler Hayden | November 16, 2023
Read all of the stories in our “Schools of Thought 2023” cover here.
Children and families on the public-school track often assume their options are limited. They might think they’re locked into their neighborhood campus, which may or may not be a good fit, simply because they don’t know they have a choice.
“It’s so ingrained in us that we roll out of bed, take the bus to school, graduate from middle school, go to high school, and so on,” said Meg Rydman, executive director of Olive Grove Charter Schools, Inc. “And there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that for a lot of kids. But for others, it may not necessarily be the best thing for them.”
Olive Grove, Rydman explained, is a tuition-free, public charter school for home-schooled and independent study students in grades TK-12. With four learning centers in Santa Barbara, Buellton, Lompoc, and Orcutt/Santa Maria, along with a resource center San Luis Obispo, the organization offers an alternative for families who want to educate their children in a home or blended setting with parents serving as the primary educators.
Authorized by the California State Board of Education and licensed by the Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC), Olive Grove provides guidance, support, and resource materials to parents so they can create their own learning plans to fit their student’s individual personality and academic needs, she continued.
“Not every child at every point in time, even in the same family, needs the same thing,” Rydman said, speaking from personal experience with her two sons and emphasizing that Olive Grove is just one of the many education models available to Santa Barbara County families. “Schools cannot be a one-size-fits-all proposition,” she said. “Everyone at Olive Grove is involved in advocating for school choice, having chosen to work or attend school here, each for their own unique reason.”
Moreover, said Rydman, who has worked in the charter school space for more than two decades, plentiful options breed productive competition, which raises all boats. “Charter schools were created to be petri dishes to try new, innovative things,” she said. Plus, COVID highlighted how important flexibility can be in an academic setting. “Olive Grove was actually very well-positioned for the pandemic,” Rydman said of their remote options. “It’s what we already did.”
Though awareness around models like Olive Grove’s has increased in recent years, there is still a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to how it actually fits within the public school system.
Rydman gets questions about tuition (there isn’t any), why they only cater gifted or disabled students (they actually serve everyone, depending on space availability), and where their geographic boundaries are (per state code, they can accept students from Santa Barbara and its contiguous counties, including San Luis Obispo, Ventura, and Kern).
“It really comes down to families informing themselves,” said Rydman of the learning curve around the public charter option. But once they discover they have a choice, the path ahead can be incredibly exciting. “There’s room for everyone,” she said.
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