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 Photo Elliott Burr/ Town CrierMelissa Graeber teaches poetry to full-time student Sam Trinkaus at the School for Independent Learners in Los Altos last week. The school is working toward gaining non-profit status so it can offer its services to more students. Administrators at the School for Independent Learners in Los Altos have initiated a request to qualify for non-profit status to expand their services to additional students.
The school is a Western Association of Schools and Colleges accredited high school and offers a UC-approved course list. It assists any student who may need extra help.
“There is no one we can’t help,” said Jean Ohme, who co-founded the school with her husband, Herman. “We give everyone who walks through the door exactly what they need.”
The school provides services for part-time students who need credits, full-time students with schedule constraints, those who need extra help with a subject or students preparing for the SAT or ACT.
The varied student body includes gifted students, special-education students, students who aren’t feeling challenged enough and those who are feeling too challenged.
The Ohmes said that achieving non-profit status would make the school eligible for grants and initiate fundraising to enable them to enroll students that need financial assistance.
“I estimate 90 percent of the kids who really need what we have can’t afford it,” Herman said. “So we are at a point now where we really need to reach out.”
The school has grown significantly in the past few years, adding to the student body, increasing the number of classes offered and enlarging its facilities at 909 N. San Antonio Road. The school currently enrolls 25 full-time students and approximately 200 part-timers. The co-founders said they want to help every student who needs the program.
“A lot of our students are bored in the traditional classroom setting and nothing seems relevant to them,” said Principal Josh Wise. “Here they can connect with their teachers and it becomes real to them and something they want to be involved in.”
Ashley Sarver, co-director, said local school counseling offices and teachers refer students to them.
“We foster collaborative relationships,” she said. “We don’t see ourselves as in competition with local schools, rather a complement to them.”
The school emphasizes success. Herman believes that academic failure is toxic, so he implemented a “do no harm” grading policy. If a student doesn’t understand a key concept or does poorly on a test, the tutor will teach and retest until the material is mastered.
“We are here to set the standard for public schools and charter schools,” Herman said. “If you do no harm, if there is no fail and (if you) don’t think that one size fits all, it creates a different world of learning.”
Even after receiving non-profit status, the school will continue to enroll paying students, but will be able to accept those who need financial assistance.
“We are the School for Independent Learners, but we don’t require that everybody comes to us as an independent learner,” Sarver said. “That is something we want to foster in students.”
For more information, visit www.sileducation.com.
Contact Traci Newell at
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