PORT TOWNSEND — A proposal to create a private middle school and high school has been raised by interested parents, who are holding two public meetings this month to gauge support.
The meetings will be held at 5 p.m. on consecutive Sundays — Nov. 7 and Nov. 14 — to discuss the creation of a sixth- through 12th-grade school in Port Townsend named Jefferson Academy.
The meetings will be held at the Jefferson County Recreation Center, in the lower level of the community center at Lawrence and Tyler streets.
They will be led by Rob Roberts, who teaches political science at Peninsula College, Julie Marston, founder of LOFT, a private school she ran for 13 years, and Crystie Kisler, who created middle school options for the Port Townsend School District’s ICE program and now teaches literature at Peninsula College.
Roberts, Marston and Kisler are consultants for the proposal, which needs a minimum of 30 students to open, Roberts said.
Tuition for the school, which would start next fall, may be assessed under a pledge system where families pay what they can afford and the rest is made up through donations or fund-raising, he said.
“It’s very successful at other schools we’ve looked at,” Roberts said.