A proposal to establish a charter school in Columbia was approved Thursday by the Missouri Charter School Commission, the first step toward submitting a formal application.
Job Point, a long-established career training and employment center in Columbia, got the green light to begin working toward a public charter school focused on workforce-related skills.
A YouthBuild-Workforce Charter School would follow Job Point’s mission of linking people to jobs through career planning and vocational training.
The process to submit and complete an application can typically take six to 18 months, which means the school would likely not open until fall 2027.
Charter schools are independent public educational institutions that are free of some regulations that might apply to traditional public schools. They have been an option in Missouri since 1998, and 81 charter schools are currently operating in St. Louis and Kansas City.
In 2024, the Missouri General Assembly passed a law to allow charter schools to legally operate in Boone County. The YouthBuild-Workforce Charter School would be the first in the county.
Unlike traditional public schools, which are held accountable by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, charter schools must also have a sponsor that monitors academic performance and progress.
The proposed charter school would follow the model of Job Point’s YouthBuild program, which has been established in Columbia for 22 years.
The program is designed to help students get their high school equivalency and workforce training after dropping out of high school, said John Scalise, president and CEO of Job Point in Columbia.
