As a parent, Rachel Burk put her children in just about every school option available to her.

And as an educator, Burk worked at a mix of public, private, charter, religious, and secular schools.

“When it comes to school choice, man, I know how meaningful that is to families,” Burk said.

In her new role as director of the Idaho Public Charter School Commission, Burk hopes to ensure quality options for Idaho families.

Goals for the Charter Commission

Burk takes on the role of leading the commission after years of instability and turnover.

She was hired in August after a months-long statewide recruitment process. Her predecessor, Korey Mereness, only held the job for a few weeks before resigning. Before that, the commission’s director held the job for about a year, following another period of high turnover.

Including the director role, the commission staff has five positions. For months, three were vacant.

“There hasn’t been a lot of stability here,” Burk said.

The commission is interviewing to fill the final two open positions. One is for an academic program manager who will help proposed charter schools with their applications and maintain existing charter’s performance data. The other is a finance program manager who will manage the commission’s internal budget, evaluate proposed charter schools’ budgets and provide school guidance.

Burk hopes the new hires will help on her mission to rebuild trust between commission staff and charter school leaders.

She wants the agency to be customer service oriented and advocate for meeting student and families’ needs.

Burk said she doesn’t want charter schools to just communicate with the commission for authorization, but instead have frequent contact, especially when they run into problems.

“I would like to see an open line of communication between the people running these schools and the authorizer, the commission,” Burk said. “Whenever there are signs of distress in an organization, I would like the authorizer to be…. a collaborative partner.”

Burk already knows many charter leaders after spending two years at the Idaho Department of Education as the parent engagement and school choice coordinator.

“Her experience and vision are invaluable to ensuring Idaho families have access to high-quality public charter schools,” Nanette Merrill director of the Idaho Charter School Association, said when Burk was hired.” The ICSA looks forward to working with her to strengthen and expand quality school choice options across the Gem State.”

Despite her experience, before making any major changes, Burk plans to spend time listening and learning from charter leaders statewide, she said.

She does have some ideas to update the data management systems at the commission. She hopes to eventually create a dashboard that is available to the public with information on the number of charter schools, their histories, academic reports and how many are currently operating under conditions.

Currently finding that data takes a while, and it shouldn’t,” Burk said.

“I would like it to be updated, modern, and streamlined,” she said.

Burk also hopes to simplify and clarify the application process for new charter schools.

Historically, there has been criticism of the commission that its too slow to shutdown struggling schools, often waiving conditions placed on schools even when they don’t meet outlined requirements.

Burk acknowledged that criticism and said she hopes to be more proactive in her intervention, but also that accountability is a part of the commission’s role.

“There is a balance between the authorizing and the support that I haven’t yet quite put my finger on,” she said. “But it’s there and I want to increase the support level.”

Burk’s Background

Originally from Texas, Burk recalls not having many educational choices when she was a student.

So when she and her husband had their two daughters, Burk felt lucky to have options.

She stayed home with them before they were school aged, and loved witnessing and encouraging moments of discovery and learning.

When her children reached pre-K, Burk began substitute teaching at her children’s school and realized her love of teaching wasn’t just connected to her own children but universal.

“It’s a powerful experience and those kids are amazing, even the kids that give the teachers trouble, they’re amazing,” Burk said.

As Burk’s family life shifted so did the educational choices she and her husband made for their children. During a move, Burke homeschooled to create stability during a year of change.

Then her husband took a job as an administrator at a private school, so it made sense for her children to go there. Burk taught physical education at the school.

The family later moved to Idaho and into a house next door to a small public elementary school.

“We were able to walk our kids to school everyday and it was just a beautiful solution to where we were at in life at that time,” Burk said.

After years of working in schools as a substitute and paraprofessional, Burk decided to go back to school to earn a masters in teaching and graduated in 2017.

She began her teaching career at Rimrock Jr. Sr. High School in Bruneau, where she taught English Language Arts. She then moved to Idaho Arts Charter School and brought her own children along with her.

One of her daughters excelled in drama while the other is a musician, Burk said.

Eventually, the family moved to Boise. Her daughters enrolled in Boise High School, where they had friends and could participate in a variety of programs.

“I just see that and I wish I would have had the ability to have school choice when I was their age,” Burk said. “Families need choices and I think charters are a beautiful mix of public education and school choice.”

In 2023, Burk took a job as the parent engagement and school choice coordinator at the IDE, where she worked until August.

While Burk has a network of charter leaders and said she knows what supports are out there from her time at IDE she hopes to continue building trust and connection in the charter community.