Golden Apple: Pillager Charter School Rebrands to Central Lakes Adventure School

It’s the same school in Pillager with the same learning opportunities for students, but it now has a new name.

Central Lakes Adventure School, formerly the Pillager Area Charter School, serves grades 7-12. It’s not your traditional school, because students take multiple trips to learn about industries and companies within the state and are able to experience hands-on learning.

The charter school attracts kids with its healthy, fun, and welcoming atmosphere and its hands-on experiential project-based opportunities.

“We try to do our best to provide an experience, and that’s how we want kids to gain the knowledge that they need to graduate, so we offer a lot of different opportunities that way, than you would see in a typical, traditional school setting,” said Central Lakes Adventure School executive director Sarah Schlake.

Students at the school say that classes are smaller, so that they’re able to ask more questions and that more attention is focused on each of them. And in addition to learning typical subjects like math and history, they also get to experience things with their hands.

“We got the shop back there, we have projects that we do, so we’re constantly doing things in the schools and building stuff, going on walks,” said 10th grader Mikey Rowell.

Now in her second year, English language arts teacher Susan Kirby doesn’t see this as just some place with kids, but as a place where students can make lifelong memories.

“I love it because everyday is an adventure,” said Kirby. “We go on field trips every Friday, and we try to bring people from the community in. We do project-based learning in the afternoon, we do service learning.”

The school currently has 40 students enrolled and is able to support up to 55 students. More information on the school is available at their website.