Sigourney school model gets officials' attention
Sigourney, Ia. - Michael McLaughlin of Sigourney preferred tractors to textbooks when he started high school.
The teenager found a way to blend the farm and the classroom at eSigourney Entrepreneurial Academy for Leadership, a charter school that grooms students into business owners.
McLaughlin turned an idea to simplify farm chores into a moneymaker.
The folding truck tailgate he designed has a temporary patent and the attention of Des Moines businessmen who might buy his idea.
"I was more excited to go to school," said McLaughlin, 18, who finished his senior year last month. "I didn't have to go through the motions. If you give a student an opportunity to do something they want to do, they're going to come to school and like it."
The charter school stands out as one that broke the mold in Iowa.
Its business incubator, which takes up a storefront on the Sigourney town square, has drawn lawmakers, state education officials and school administrators from other states.
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