MERCER ENVIRONMENTAL TOURISM CHARTER SCHOOL
The Mercer Environmental Tourism Charter School is a member of the CESA #12 Rural Community School Alliance (RCSA). Our Alliance is a unique innovation. We are five, unique, rural charter schools collaborating across district lines. Though unusual, this innovative cooperation is helping us redefine our public education. The member schools include: Mercer, Mellen, Winter, Butternut, and Glidden. Our efforts are designed to enhance small community schools. We join a broad national movement to transform schools by using emerging 21st century technologies to facilitate the development of “21st Century Skills.”
The METCS vision is a school with a unique curriculum that will provide students with a challenging educational experience exposing them to careers that will allow them to work and live in the areas of Wisconsin that rely on a vital workforce of young people. A trained and/or professional workforce is critical to the health and success of communities like those in northern Wisconsin. Our vision is a school which offers students the ability to achieve academic excellence in the content areas using hands on, project-based learning while exploring work experiences through local partnerships that help them achieve the training and knowledge to successfully enter the world of work or post-secondary education.
The mission of METCS is to provide Wisconsin 11th and 12th grade students with national, state, and local standards-driven curricula, which promote academic excellence along with the vocational, business, and higher order thinking skills needed to prepare them for entry into careers or college majors related to tourism or natural resources. METCS will combine self-directed cross-curricular academic experiences, project-based learning experiences, work-based learning (WBL), along with 21st century technology training that will allow students to make positive contributions in the areas of tourism and natural resources.
The positive challenge is the adventure of creating a school that enhances learning so that students can become prepared for school and work in the 21st Century. The staff is excited about the learning potential for their growth and improvement as teachers.
Charter School Staff
| Erik Torkelson | District Administrator |
| Kay Krans | Implementation Specialist |
| Sandy Gertz | Music |
| Debbie Hohner | History |
| Sheri Kopka | Science |
| Elizabeth Lancelle | Mathematics |
| Grant Nelson | English |
| Michelle Oldham | Specials |
| Lynn Paulson | Business |
| Dee Rice | Specials |
| Beth Wilhelm | Phy Ed |
| Zach Wilson | Charter School |