Explore Pinnacles Prep at Upcoming Apple Cider Party
Wenatchee's Pinnacles Prep, a tuition-free public charter school serving grades 6-10, will soon be hosting an apple cider pressing party. Yum!
Prospective students are invited to tour the school, make some cider and complete the onsite application for the 2025-26 academic year, which will be here before you know it. (By then the school will have expanded to accommodate 11th graders.)
There will also be a detailed workshop on the customs and mechanisms of charter schools, says Pinnacles cofounder Sara Rolfs.
"Our community partner is a statewide charter school advocacy organization," Rolfs says. "Two of their experts will be coming over to do a charters 101 workshop. It just kind of covers, like, 'Why charter schools? Why introduce this as a public school opinion? What are the unique characteristics of the charters sector for Washington state?'"
Pinnacles is nothing if not unique. According to Rolfs, the school prides itself on a place-based, self-directed, dogmatically real-world curriculum that emphasizes critical thinking.
"We believe that the community is our classroom; we take the kids out on a weekly basis to engage in the resources of the community and build social capital - that will really help when they're done with their schooling and back here trying to find a job."
"We also do a lot of project-based learning and subject integration. The content we cover in different academic areas - it's woven together. Because in real life, subjects aren't set in different silos [laughs]."
And why apple cider?
"It's a means of community building amongst our Pinnacles community," Rolfs says. "It's also a tradition for a lot for a lot people here in the Wenatchee Valley, kind of like a harvest celebration."
"And the kids - we had no idea! The kids totally got into doing the prep because it's not mechanical. It's your own blood, sweat and tears, which really they loved. We just decided this was a good way to kick off the application and invite people in to see some joy."
The party is slated for Oct. 17.
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Gallery Credit: Ed Nice