Allison Slade MPP 2002

Tugged in two directions by the interest in education policy that brought her to the Harris School and an "itch" to be in the classroom, Allison Slade says she has found professional centeredness as cofounder and Principal of the Namaste Charter School, a year-old Chicago public school that emphasizes nutrition, health, and fitness.

Named after a yoga pose in which one's hands are pressed together to achieve balance and renew energy, the school offers an hour of physical education daily, a salad bar and fresh fruit at lunch, and yoga instruction throughout. "Movement and physical education permeate the whole school curriculum," says Slade, a yoga aficionado.

Prior to cofounding Namaste, Slade taught for five years in Houston and Highwood, Illinois, and worked as a literacy specialist for two years at the Center for School Improvement (now the Center for Urban School Improvement). She drew upon best practices at all of the above and gathered with friends-including fellow Harris grads Allison Jack (AM'96) and Jay Young (AM'96) to write the school's charter in 2003.

They faced the same odds as any would-be charter school, with an additional twist: "One of the main concerns was that we were all really young and relatively inexperienced," Slade says. But the accomplishments and caliber of the group impressed CPS, "and our idea was pretty well developed, and the need [for greater nutrition and fitness] was pretty well documented."

Upon their selection-as one of two successful proposals out of twenty-five-Slade and her team had eight months to find a suitable building, hire staff, recruit families, and raise money. "It's amazing," she says. "Sometimes you've just got to take a step back and take a walk around the school, and realize everything that you've been able to put into place."

Namaste has had two classrooms each of kindergarten and first grade during its first year and will add second grade in the fall. Then, it will need to find another building as it builds toward a K-8 school. "The small business side of the school is the most difficult," Slade says. In addition to operating a building, doing its own purchasing, and negotiating its own contracts, Namaste must raise about 40 percent of its budget.

But she refuses to become completely immersed in the business side. "I do have a sacred time in my day when I'm in the classroom every day, from 10 to 11 a.m.," Slade says. "And that's just kind of how it is."

While filling the student slots proved a challenge the first year, positive media attention and word-of-mouth have built a waiting list for next year, she says. She hopes-and expects-that the "leap of faith" by first-year families who could not actually see the school in action will pay off for their kids.

"It'll be interesting to see, for these kids-once they've had so much movement, and health education, and nutrition education and character education-where they end up in relationship to [students attending] other neighborhood schools," Slade says, adding that half of this year's kindergarteners were reading by mid-March. "It's definitely really exciting to see where the kids are."

For more information about Namaste Charter School, visit www.namastecharterschool.org.