New Charter High School Coming to Duluth

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Duluth Edison Charter Schools started off the year with record breaking enrollment.

After taking two years to look deeper into operational budgets and programming board members voted 8 to 2 to expand and become a K-12 system.

“I already have a couple of dozen emails from parents expressing to me how excited they are that we’ve made this decision,” Head of Schools Bonnie Jorgenson said.

The 109,000 square foot high school will be built about 10 minutes away from the Duluth Edison Charter Schools location on Technology Drive.

Costing about $20 million to build, school officials say it will offer personalized education to a total of 650 students.

The first year classes will be offered only to 8th, 9th and 10th graders.

Each year the high school will add another grade.

“Feel like this is the right time for us to move forward,” said Jorgenson. “That the demand is here in our community for a smaller high school setting. Our parents of students here who are in kindergarten and 8th grade are affirming that this is the right decision for us. I’m really excited about what we’ll be able to offer students in the Duluth community.”

Some of the board members voted against the two story high school saying it wasn’t fiscally responsible citing a $390,000 budget deficit the first year it opens.

Other board members tell FOX 21 they are confident in eliminating or lessening the shortfall.

The bulk of the construction for the facility is expected to start next spring.

The charter high school will open in the fall of 2017.