The Coeur d'Alene Charter Academy leased a former plant nursery and pet store for three years before buying the warehouse-style building, where 557 students in grades 6-12 wear uniforms and adhere to strict discipline codes as part of a rigorous college-prep program, said school business manager Glenn Mabile.

The school spent $1.5 million to expand and renovate.

"We don't think you have to build a big glorious building to give students a quality education," Mabile said. "The programs and the people come first, a building is secondary."

The Compass school found an investor to buy the Meridian church it used to rent from Ten Mile Christian and now has to pay back a $6 million loan. The church now pays the school rent and plans to move into a new facility next year.

In the meantime, the congregation makes sure to cover the communion table after each Sunday service.

"We have another church ready to move in. It will pay for our utilities," said Bridget Barrus, chairwoman of the board that governs Compass and one of the parents who founded it.

The 16 Idaho charter schools that do not own facilities either rent, lease or share while saving to buy a home.

The ANSER Charter School has held classes at a Boise athletic club since 1999. Racquetball courts were converted into classrooms. The gym blanketed with a musty smell takes up the center of the building, and athletes as young as age 5 take classes there from Bronco Elite Arts and Athletics, sometimes while the ANSER school is in session.

The school spent about $450,000 remodeling the facility that holds about 200 students in kindergarten through eighth grades. They could enroll more so they could get more state funding to save toward a new building, but larger class sizes could also work against the mission of the school, said Principal Suzanne Gregg.

Charters are typically created with a specific purpose, and in Idaho, range from an online school aimed at minority students to programs that emphasize music, art, dance and drama. ANSER has small classes designed to give students, who are required to participate in community-based projects, more attention.

The school is saving to buy a century-old building from the Boise School District and move out of the facility where they share an address with Bronco Elite.

"Unfortunately, we're investing money in a building we're only leasing," Gregg said.

The racquetball courts were split into skinny classrooms with tall ceilings, sound panels resembling egg carton prevent noise from leaking room to room. The kindergarten teacher snagged the only classroom with a sink.

In a school with no cafeteria, students picked up pizza in the office on a recent Friday and brought it back to their classrooms. Kids are bused to the local YMCA for PE class. Chalk dust used by athletes during gymnastics classes often covers the lockers and cubby holes that line the gymnasium.

"We've been here so long, this is just how we do school," Gregg said.

On the Net:

Idaho State Department of Education: www.sde.idaho.gov/

Idaho Public Charter School Commission: www.chartercommission.id.gov/