A new charter school dedicated to environmental and outdoor education may be coming to Frederick County.

Proponents of the Frederick Outdoor Discovery Charter School have submitted a proposal to the Frederick County Public Schools and hope to get permission to open their school for students in the fall of 2012.

Modeled after Seneca Creek Charter School, which was rejected by the Montgomery County Board of Education earlier this month, the new school would educate about 120 in grades kindergarten through five, with the possibility of expanding to grade eight, said Krisna Becker of Clarksburg, one of the school founders.

The Frederick Outdoor Discovery Charter School would focus on natural sciences, community-based studies, and outdoor education.

“We do want to get kids outside. … We are trying to use the environment as an integrated context,” Becker said.

“We just felt that this was a more favorable climate,” said Becker, who was also involved in the Seneca Creek application. “Montgomery County is just starting to learn about charter schools.”

While Frederick County opened the state’s first charter school — the Monocacy Montessori Public Charter School in 2001 — Montgomery County approved its first charter school this month.

The new school proposal is a revised version of the Montgomery County proposal, and is also a Frederick County effort. The Frederick County founding group is different from the one in Montgomery, said Becker, who plans to move her family to Frederick County if the application is approved.

Becker is the only non-Frederick County resident among the 15 founding families for the charter school. “We want to make sure that this is known as a different school from the one in Montgomery,” Becker said.

The Frederick Outdoor Discovery Charter School aims to use the environment as an integrating context model — a unique approach that incorporates the environment on all levels of curriculum. The model was developed by the California-based State Education and Environment Roundtable in collaboration with 12 state education departments, including Maryland, according to the website for the Seneca Creek Charter School.

The goal is to encourage discovery-based learning, break down barriers between disciplines, offer small class sizes, and structure the school day with plenty of time outdoors, so that students can incorporate their lessons in hands-on projects.

Schools that use a similar model of instruction and that influenced the Outdoor Discovery Charter School application include the Seven Generations Charter School in Pennsylvania, the Chesapeake Public Charter School in Lexington Park, and the Green School of Baltimore.

That model is different from any of the charter school applications that have come up before Frederick County School officials.

For several years, the Frederick County Board of Education rejected other charter applications. However, in the past 18 months, Frederick’s school board has approved two on the condition that they find appropriately zoned buildings and that the school board finds the money to run them.

Both the Carroll Creek Montessori Charter School, which will feature Spanish immersion, and the Frederick Classical Charter School, which will use a more traditional, teacher-led approach to instruction, are set to open in 2012 if both conditions are met.

Becker, however, said she believes the Frederick Outdoor Discovery Charter School will be prepared to meet these challenges. The school is already looking for a building around the county and it may have more luck than previous charter schools because it is much smaller in size, Becker said.

Becker is also counting on support from the community, and said founders have already identified more than 170 families in Frederick and Montgomery counties who would be interested in the school.

Amy Brockey, an Adamstown resident and a founding member for the new school, said she believes it would benefit residents in Frederick County.

While Brockey said she does not have any issues with the public school system, she has noticed that some children, like her 14-year-old stepson, tend to struggle in a traditional public school environment.

If the new school is approved it would offer a solution for children like him and for families who are partial to environmental education.

“I am particularly very interested in the environmental program,” she said.

For more information about the school, visit www.frederickoutdoordiscovery.org.

mraycheva@gazette.net