MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – The Lake County International Charter School (LCICS) in Middletown is proud to announce the reinstatement of the eighth grade for the upcoming 2013-14 school year, their ninth year of operations, as well as the continuation of small class sizes and a free and reduced lunch program.

“Three years ago we made the decision to reduce from a K-8 to a K-6 to consolidate our classes on one site,” said LCICS Director Gwendolyn Maupin-Ahern stated. “We did this because of the state budget cuts and the need to keep our school fiscally strong, and it worked. Last year we added back in the seventh grade, and this year several of our students who started kindergarten in LCICS's very first year expressed a desire to remaining at LCICS through their eighth grade year. It was important to us to find a way to make that happen, and fiscally it makes our school even stronger.”

LCICS has always had multi-age classrooms, much like St. Helena Unified’s excellent Multi-Age Program (MAP), allowing for increased flexibility for grade configurations as well as for the students within each class.

“We can shift our grade combinations each year based on the classroom populations, and within each classroom we can group students by abilities rather than just by age,” Maupin-Ahern said. “This creates a learning environment based on the individual strengths and weaknesses of each student rather than just on their age and grade.”

She added, "This coming year we will have four classrooms – a kindergarten/first, a second/third, a fourth/fifth/sixth and a sixth/seventh/eighth. We will continue to have our small classroom environment with a maximum of 24 students for the K/first and 25 for the older classes."

To add the 4th classroom, LCICS will move the sixth/seventh/eighth class to a property across the street from the main campus.

The building, formerly used as a Judo dojo, is being renovated to create one large classroom and the outdoor area will provide additional room for exercise and the gardening program.

“We have also hired an additional teacher, Karlene Barnes, who will join our three current, long-time teachers, Pamela Kirkpatrick, Sheamus Kennedy and Andrew Vance,” Maupin-Ahern said.

LCICS will continue to provide a daily lunch program in cooperation with the Middletown Unified School District (MUSD), supplementing with vegetables from the student-grown garden whenever possible Based on family income, students are able to receive a hot lunch for free or a very small fee.

“We started the program in the spring of 2012, and it has been well received by the kids and their families,” Maupin-Ahern said. “We’re so pleased to be able to offer this to our students, and thank MUSD for helping us make it happen.”

For more information about the school or enrollment you can email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. , call 707-987-3063, or go online to LCICS’ Facebook page or Web site at www.lcics.org .