Chrysalis has a very can-do tradition

When we tried to create Chrysalis in 1994, the charter school movement was brand new. California was one of the first states allowing charter schools. We spent a year seeking a school district to sponsor our museum school. Opposition to charter schools was intense back then and it blocked us at every chance it could. The deadline for the next school year passed and we had to decide: do we pour another year of our lives into this effort or should we give up? We didn’t want to give up the dream; it was so tantalizing but beating our spirits against the same hostile walls felt futile. So we did something different. We just started the school. Technically it wasn’t a school; it was a museum program with an unpaid teacher and 8 students who were registered as home schoolers. Within a half year, there were 15 students, TV news coverage, and a school district negotiating sponsorship.

In 1996, Chrysalis opened as the first chartered public school in Shasta County, co-sponsored by the Enterprise School District and our museum which has since become part of Turtle Bay Exploration Park. In 2006, we were honored by the unanimous vote of the Shasta County Board of Education to sponsor us as the first county-wide charter school in Shasta County.