Argent Preparatory Academy replaces Silver State Charter School

Silver State Charter School in Carson City became known over summer break as Argent Preparatory Academy, Principal Krystal Hoefling said, a move that represents more than just a name change.

"Over the course of a year, there's been a change in leadership and the vision of the school," Hoefling said.

The name Argent is short for argentium, a sterling silver alloy.

"Our name change to Argent is derived from argentium, which is latin for silver," she said. "So we've still kept some of who we were."

Special Services Teacher William Truce said the school had been actively identifying its strengths and weaknesses over the past two years. The name change, he said, was meant to emphasize the school's strengths as well as its transformation from practices that needed improvement.

"We've been around for over 10 years and we've learned what works really well for our students and what doesn't work so well," he said. "Giving ourselves a new name has really helped us celebrate all of the new and wonderful things we are doing."

A chief part of the school's new vision is transitioning students from high school into college or careers upon their graduation, Hoefling said.

"One of our largest areas of focus is the adult credit programs that are available," she said. "We work closely with Western Nevada College. We have the traditional associate pathways dual credit programs, but we also have been working closely with them for their CTE (career and technical education) programs."

A mentorship program, assigning an adult mentor to each student, is designed to facilitate the process by helping students identify their career interests and keep them on track to achieve their goals, Hoefling said.

"We are working with our students to see where their interests are and how those can be beneficial for them post high school," she said, "while attaching the dual credit at the same time."

Career preparation, though, is just one of several main cogs in the school's new wheel.

Truce said the change was inspired after establishing primary values consistent with Argent Preparatory Academy's new vision and direction.

"We felt preparatory academy really emphasized one of the four things we are most excited about in our new direction by preparing and transitioning students into their colleges and careers before they graduate," he said. "The emphasis is not only on the associate's degree, but also CTE programs, which really prepare students for a lot of the high demand industries that are starting to sprout up everywhere across Northern Nevada."

The first value established by Argent is transition, Truce said, ensuring students make a successful promotion out of high school into post-secondary higher education, or the beginning of a career.

Second is increased individualized attention for each student, he said, achieved through the adult mentorship program, as well as small class sizes of between five to 15 students for every teacher.

"Every student has a mentor here who is tracking their progress day in and day out, week in and week out," Truce said, "to be sure they are passing their classes and are having a successful high school experience."

Students begin and end each school day checking in with their mentors, who know the academic standings of their students very well. The model forms a partnership between student and staff designed to keep learning goals on track.

Students at Argent Preparatory School are also able to focus on fewer classes at one time, because the program runs on a four-term quarter system throughout the school year rather than two semesters.

"The pace is much quicker," Hoefling said. "But it allows them to add a class, accelerate and graduate early. They can take extra classes and earn more credits throughout the year."

Hoefling said Argent is appropriate for students on an accelerated track to graduate ahead of schedule, as well as for students who are trying to get caught up and graduate.

Many conventional high schools don't allow early graduation, she said, while fifth-year seniors may not be able to return and finish their education.

"We have credit recovery options for them," she said.

A third value is flexibility.

Featuring both online distance education and on-site classroom formats, Argent Preparatory School offers a more versatile learning environment than conventional brick-and-mortar institutions.

"Unlike other traditional schools, we can be more flexible with our students' academic schedules, which a lot of our students need that," Truce said. "Being licensed as a distance education academy, we're able to provide more flexibility with how they are able to engage in their education."

Argent Preparatory Academy has a current enrollment of around 150 students. Of those, only a few are learning completely through distance education.

Many students, though, spend more time learning from home than they do on campus, Truce said.

"We've realized that flexibility is really important for us, and it's what a lot of students need from us," he said. "We're a district of one. We're a much smaller school. We can change on a dime to help our students grow."

Although the school's general attendance policy requires a minimum of three days per week on site at the school, located at 788 Fairview Drive in Carson City, plans can also be personalized on a case-by-case basis depending on each student's individual needs.

"We realize some families still aren't going to be able to do that," Truce said. "So we can create a personalized attendance policy for each one of our students that gives them not only flexibility, but also puts things in place that makes sure they are going to be successful with that."

The fourth value is accessibility.

Not only can the distance education component be accessed from the comfort of a student's home, but the school also provides bus service throughout Carson City as well as from Reno and surrounding rural communities, including Fernley.

Because of the general attendance policy, Truce said fulfilling transportation needs to students is a crucial element of Argent's new vision and direction.

"Putting all those four pieces together is rare to find at any charter school," he said.

Despite Argent's focus on the four key values, Truce and Hoefling said they don't want students to lose out on traditional memories of high school, either.

"We certainly see ourselves as more as just preparing students for colleges and careers," Truce said. "We see ourselves as being able to give students a really unique, fulfilling and enriching high school experience altogether."

Argent ends each school day with an enrichment period, he said, where students can take part in clubs or activities that give students opportunities to grow outside of the classroom.

These include gardening, yoga, meditation and a variety of outdoor activities.

"When people think of a distance ed academy, they think students are going to be missing out on a lot of those classical high school experiences," Truce said. "We really try to provide an enriching campus, as well as one that is constantly growing and evolving."

Visit Argent Preparatory School online here for more information, or find it here on Facebook.