FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

We are a free public school open to all students in Grades 6-12 in the state of Wisconsin. We are an independently authorized charter school, which means we are not part of nor associated with a school district.

A charter school is a free, public school that is created under a contract between an authorizer and an operator. Charter schools are given the autonomy and flexibility to be creative and innovative in return for higher expectations and more accountability. At One City, our mission is to seed a new model of public education. We take our mission seriously and innovate in ways we hope larger districts can imitate once our data proves our methods to be successful.

We have a head chef and multiple sous chefs who provide healthy, prepared-from-scratch breakfast,
snack, and lunch on a daily basis to our scholars. We strongly believe in the importance of physical,
mental, and emotional health and well-being.

We have a full special education department, including speech and language services. For specific
questions related to your scholar, please reach out to our Director of Special Education, Kimberly
Anderson, at kanderson@onecityschools.org.

No. We are a commuter school located on a Madison bus line. Families must arrange transportation
to and from school for their scholar(s).

We run a longer school day and longer school year in order to provide as many opportunities as
possible for our scholars. Our school day runs from 8:15 a.m. until 4:45 p.m. (or longer depending on
whether your high school scholar is involved in athletics). Our school year runs from September 1,
2022 through July 28, 2023 with standard school year breaks such as Thanksgiving, winter break,
spring break, and national holidays that typically align with the MMSD School Calendar There is a
1-week intercession in June as well as August vacation for scholars.

Every child is unique in their individual pacing and course selections. With a longer school day, we
aim to build in time for individual, small group, and large group work. However, we will have highschool scholars taking college level courses and they may need to do some work outside of school
hours depending on the course and their involvement in other activities.

In middle school, we offer four fully-integrated 8-week expeditions and 3 1-week stand-alone
workshops. In high school, we offer a combination of integrated and stand-alone courses as well as
workshops, job shadows, apprenticeships, and internships.

As a public school in the state of Wisconsin, our teachers are required to be certified.

Our standards are based on Common Core standards as well as standards provided through various
subject-specific organizations such as Next Generation Science Standards. The Expeditionary
Learning curriculum is an ELA-based curriculum which uses the Common Core ELA standards.

Middle school (Grades 6-8) will serve 72 scholars per grade with a maximum of 24 scholars per
classroom. High School (Grades 9-12) will serve 96 scholars per grade with approximately 24
scholars per class (number may vary slightly depending on course choices). In 2022-23, we will serve
scholars in grades 6, 9, and 10.

Our first graduating class will be in July of 2025!

In brief, we encourage safe and informed usage of technology to aid in teaching and learning. We
understand many scholars have cell phones. We do not permit cell phones to be used during the
school day except with explicit permission. We will provide computers for scholar use during the
school day.

A collaborative and respectful partnership between families and One City is critical to the success of
our scholars. We expect our families to be engaged in their scholars’ education, to get them to and
from school on time, to ensure they are getting necessary sleep and nutrition, and to communicate
with us on a regular basis. We greatly appreciate and need parent volunteers on a regular basis. We
offer parent education and networking opportunities through FAST (Families and Schools Together)
and Leader in Me throughout the school year.

We are in the process of applying to the WIAA and have every reason to believe we will be approved
for the fall season. Specific sports will be determined depending on scholar interest.

Yes, scholars will have lockers where they will be expected to place their winter gear (jackets, boots,
gloves, hats) each day.

Our high school scholars will absolutely be able to work a job–in fact, we encourage them to do so
and look forward to partnering with their employer to ensure the scholar is meeting expectations both
at work and at school.

Every scholar will have both a stand-alone math course as well as opportunities for math application
built into their multidisciplinary seminars. Each scholar will be working at their own individual math
level.

Scholars will mix depending on their course selections.

We will infuse arts into our interdisciplinary units, our workshops, and our club and activity offerings.
Specific offerings (e.g., Jazz Band, Show Choir, etc.) will be determined by scholar interest.