Our History

1988 - Bass Lake School District establishes the Home Study Program/Independent Study.
1990 - Home School building opens to serve as offices and resource center.
1991 - School status given to Mountain Home School, supporting homeschooling through Independent Study.
1993 - California created the Charter School Law which allowed for the creation of 100 innovative schools not limited in scope by the Education Code and geared to the needs of the community. The charter has to be approved by the local school board and the State Department of Education. In California, a charter school is approved for operation in 5 - year increments. During that time the school must show that the goals established in the charter are being realized.
Early 1994 - Staff and Parents of Mountain Home School developed a charter to create a school which supported home based, personalized learning without some of the restrictions imposed on home independent study. The charter provided the ability for parents and teachers to create a truly individualized education for each student. The charter chose to recognize the parent as the primary teacher and give the parent more voice and responsibility in the school program.
September 9, 1994 - Mountain Home School Charter became California Charter School #63
1999 - School District purchases the Old Proprietor Unfinished Furniture store and Mountain Home School Charter moves into its new facility at 41267 Highway 41.
1999 -Mountain Home School Charter renews it's charter petition for another five-year period.
2002 - Mountain Home School Charter helps foster the beginning of another charter school, Glacier High School Charter.
2003 - Mountain Home School Charter renews its charter in October for another five years.
2007 - Mountain Home School renews its charter for another five years.
2008-09 Mountain Home School left the Bass Lake School District and joined with Glacier High School Charter to form a non-profit educational entity called Western Sierra Charter Schools.
2015 - Mountain Home School partners with Glacier High School to open satellite campus in Fresno.

Our Vision

The vision of Mountain Home Charter School is to create a rigorous, dynamic and accountable learning community that is built upon voluntary association, parent leadership, personalized student learning, and high academic standards for all students. Mountain Home Charter School will accomplish these four complementary goals by providing all students and parents with:

  1. Personal, experienced teacher guidance and support.

  2. Powerful and proven instruction.

  3. Ongoing, multiple modality assessments.

  4. A large and growing inventory of high quality, standards-aligned instructional resources that offer both breadth and depth in curriculum and auxiliary materials.

Learning Goals:
Mountain Home Charter School is a personalized learning, charter school providing the best of homeschool instruction and classroom-based instruction. These two terms “charter” and “personalized learning” by necessity provide the instructional framework for everything we do. Charter schools are required by statute to be built upon voluntary enrollment and staffing, parent leadership and measurable student learning. Mountain Home Charter puts these in to practice the following ways.

  • Voluntary- The concept of “voluntary association” is embraced program wide and has broad implications for our school. As a school we do not dictate to students and their parents how to engage the learning material. Rather, we set before them the educational goals and work cooperatively with them in creating customized learning plans that best reach those goals. The students and their families enrolled at Mountain Home Charter are with us by choice. Student desires, strengths, and needs are crucial to how the school works with them as individuals.

  • Personalized Learning- All methodology, both curricular and instructional, is built around each student’s needs, abilities, and interests. All students participate with their teacher and parents to create their own personalized learning plan. This is done on an annual basis with regular (at least monthly) evaluation regarding its effectiveness and needed supplementation or change.

  • Parent Led- Mountain Home Charter believes that parents are natural educators of their children and that as such have great potential to be very effective educators of their children. The parents’ priorities, their leadership and their daily, hands-on involvement are essential to the progress and success of each student at Mountain Home Charter.

  • A high academic standard for all- Mountain Home Charter is required by law to insure that all students are learning and adequately attaining the academic standards. We believe and are required by law to ensure, that every student can and must learn. Our entire educational structure is built upon and driven toward this proposition.

We accomplish these goals by providing each and every student with:

  • Professional guidance- Every student is assigned to a credentialed teacher who works closely with both the student and parent through frequent meetings. The teacher serves as an instructor, guide and counselor for the student’s entire learning program. The teacher insures that each student’s learning needs are assessed appropriately, that their goals are both rigorous as well as reasonable, and that the student is progressing toward the learning goals.

  • Direct instruction- Provides standards-aligned, direct instruction in all curricular areas.

  • Large variety of high quality, standards-aligned curriculum and instructional materials- Mountain Home Charter offers a vast and deep menu of learning materials so that we truly have the ability to customize each student’s learning program.

  • Variety of assessment options- Mountain Home Charter provides a multiple measures approach in assessing every student. Each student’s progress is constantly monitored. This information shapes their personalized learning plans.