CHEYENNE -Two charter high schools on the Wind River Indian Reservation can continue to operate as they do now as the result of action by the state Board of Education.

The board on Wednesday approved petitions for renewal of waivers for the Arapaho Charter High School and the Fort Washakie Charter High School.

The board also rejected without discussion the Fort Washakie petition to continue the operation of its online distance learning high school, the Wyoming eAcademy of Virtual Education.

Board spokesman Mary Kay Hill explained later that the district didn't need the waiver and can continue to operate the online school with the single waiver granted earlier to the Fort Washakie and the Arapaho schools.

The Fort Washakie district, she said, will need to comply with the new distance education law passed by the Legislature in 2008.

Both schools are K-8, operating 9-12 charter high schools under the state board waiver.

The big thing the board did, Fort Washakie school superintendent Gregory Cox said Thursday, was to approve the waiver to allow continuation of the 9-12 charter school.

That school was started in the early 2000s as a result of a high dropout rate among American Indian students.

"What we were having was an excess of 50 percent dropout rate," Cox said.

The students would leave the K-8 school, which is 90 percent American Indian, and go to the larger high school in Lander, which is about 95 percent Caucasian, he said.

The students with outgoing personalities did all right, he said, but the shy, quiet youngsters often got left behind and dropped out.

"We'd like to become a K-12 district," Cox said.

The district earlier petitioned the state board for unification but was rejected on grounds the school did not have the required 500 students.

"We'll have over 400 kids in our K-8 school this year," Cox said.

As soon as the high school student numbers increase, he added, the district will try again for K-12 status.

"We want to help the kids struggling in the other environment," he said.

The district's online high school was the first in Wyoming, Cox said, and now has about 120 students statewide.

The state board also rejected Fort Washakie Charter High School's request for a waiver dealing with teacher employment on grounds it lacked authority.

Cox said the district wants to hire teachers for the charter school year to year to avoid problems if the charter school is ever required to close.

He said the district found the teacher employment issue can be handled through contracts.

The third charter school in Wyoming, the Snowy Range Academy in Laramie, did not seek any waivers from the state board.

The Legislature last winter passed House Bill 62 to clarify the application process for new charter schools.

Contact capital bureau reporter Joan Barron at 307-632-1244 or joan.barron@trib.com