TAGOS Mission

TAGOS Leadership Academy provides innovative educational programming to meet the needs of students.

TAGOS Vision

TAGOS Leadership Academy will provide students the opportunities to learn and grow in a project-based, supportive, and safe environment where individuality and community are instilled for lifelong success. TAGOS Leadership Academy aims at educating the “whole child” so that they may meet their fullest potential and become successful thinkers, learners, and leaders.

A New Generation of Creating Sustainability

Questions frequently asked regarding charters schools: “Who is paying for a charter school serving a small population.” “Are we paying large local dollars for a small and unique learning population?” “How do charter schools benefit a school district?”

Charter schools are public, nonsectarian schools created through a contract or "charter" between the operators and the sponsoring school board or other chartering authority. Wisconsin charter school law gives charter schools freedom from most state rules and regulations in exchange for greater accountability for results; autonomy for accountability.

Charter schools are created with the best elements of regular public schools in mind. Charter school leaders are given autonomy to experiment with different instructional theories and site-based management techniques. They learn, sometimes by trial and error as they tailor academics to guide students toward success. Regular schools can often observe and learn from what happens in the charter school and sometimes make similar improvements. Through this process, the entire public school system is continually challenged to improve itself.

Recent developments in charter school laws at the federal level demand greater autonomy and governance. One such challenge is to provide optimal and effecting programming in a fiscally challenging environment. When our local school district has to cut millions each year from its operating budget, why do charter schools make sense?

The School District of Janesville, with its forward thinking leadership and school board support, should be commended for providing educational opportunities that meet the needs of all students. Traditional educational offerings have been around for years offering an excellent and efficient education for most students, however not all students. For the 10% or so of the student body who are not engaged in learning, expulsion, truancy, and drop out rates increase. Many students elect to work full time, attend GED or HSED programs, or participate in educational opportunities not offered in their home school district. This equals a huge loss of revenue. A school district is allocated dollars according to the number of students it serves. A charter school serving 50 students can recapture around $500,000 dollars of potentially lost revenue.

Charter schools aim to close the achievement gap by addressing the needs of students not engaged in traditional education.

Currently charter schools are allocated $60,000 in planning grants, $150,000 in implementation for years one and two, and an optional $150,000 dissemination grant in year four. So how can a charter school sustain when the money runs out?

With the recent reformation of charter school rules and regulations a new notion has presented itself, that notion is charter school sustainability. Janesville’s newest charter schools embrace the idea that they can create systems that will allow a charter school to serve the community, provide quality and excellence in educational outcomes, teach leadership skills along with content, and manage itself fiscally through fund raising, grant and foundation awards, and the creation of an endowment fund for long-range operation and growth. Hard work, dedication, and strong community partnerships will be integral in providing charter school sustainability.

The TAGOS Leadership Academy is a good example of such a school. The school leadership and staff have implemented ongoing fundraising opportunities that include recycling ink cartridges and cell phones, Goodsearch.com and Goodshop.com, where a percentage of purchases or simply browsing the web creates revenue for the school, production of a musical, You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown, to be presented at JPAC in early March, and the list goes on. TAGOS is located in Arrow Park, the old Parker Pen factory. The facility is owned by Hendricks Development Group through whose generosity in renovation and affordable lease has allowed us this fantastic building for our project-based charter school.

We are now entering a new era of charter school growth that has the potential to address students who are not engaged in learning. Many students experience a disconnect with the time they spend in a seat in a classroom with the expectations of what the “real world” might demand. Smaller learning communities offered through charter schools allow for individualized educational practices that meet the needs of students experiencing this disconnect and reconnect them to life-long goal setting through individualized educational approach..

Win – Win is the goal here!

Providing charter school opportunities in addition to traditional educational opportunities serves to meet the needs of all learners, closes the achievement gap, and creates successful thinkers, learners, and leaders.

It was once said that “It takes a village to raise a child.” Charter schools hold true that it takes many individuals to impact the spirit, talents, and drive that creates life-long success. Be a part of that village by supporting the needs of all students and providing resources, times, and talents necessary to bring charter school sustainability to reality.

TAGOS Leadership Academy Staff - "Welcome the Journey" (Written By Al Lindau)