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Charter School Showdown – Part I

Posted on July 22, 2015 by Stan Jester | Comments Off

Charter School Showdown Between DeKalb Schools and the State DOE
Charter School Showdown Part II
It seems that the established bureaucracy in DeKalb does not appreciate, or respect, the new rules and guidance from the State Department of Education (DOE), regarding charter school autonomy. A showdown may be brewing between the State DOE and DeKalb unless the new Superintendent makes a course correction. The new Superintendent has inherited a central office staff that is refusing to give up control of conversion charters despite the law and pleas from the state and local communities.
Several issues are at risk if the DeKalb bureaucracy doesn’t modify its position regarding control and resource allocation of schools. DeKalb’s petition to become a “Charter System” is at risk of denial because the district is failing to demonstrate how it will guarantee autonomy for all its charter schools. If DeKalb’s petition is denied, the system will be labeled a “Status Quo” system. While granting autonomy appears to give the central office heartburn, becoming a “Status Quo” system creates another set of problems the bureaucracy may find equally unpalatable. Under that scenario, the district loses its waivers. This means that DeKalb must comply with classroom size mandates which are much lower than the current class sizes in DeKalb. The budget must show that 65% is spent in the classroom; a mark that DeKalb has never met since the law was passed. There are other mandates that won’t get waived but class size and budget requirements will have the biggest impact on operations.
The choice for the bureaucrats seems to mean giving up control over high functioning conversion charters and demonstrating how they will respect and protect real autonomy for them; or lose waivers that will result in the need to make massive changes and budget allocations that will drastically shrink classroom size in every classroom and adjust the budget to spend a minimum of 65% on the classroom.
Stay tuned for Part II – Chronicling the law, policies, memos and emails between DeKalb Schools and the Ga Department of Education.

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Posted in Board Policy, Charter Schools

Rewriting DeKalb Charter School Policies – Part II

Posted on July 9, 2015 by Stan Jester | 20 comments

DeKalb Schools administration has taken another stab at rewriting the charter school board policies and it is on the agenda for the July 13 board meeting. They have provided answers to many financial and HR autonomy questions. Let me know your thoughts.
Highlights
• Autonomy – Because the recommended amount of autonomy for charters has changed several times in recent years, the new policies do not address it.
• The district can review the amount of autonomy requested by each petitioner and gauge the charter petitioner’s capacity to operate with that autonomy.
• Substantial Autonomy – The state acknowledges each district will need to define what substantial autonomy looks like.
• The state’s current conversion charter contract template includes a provision that allows district to define the autonomy received by conversion charter schools.
• Funding – DCSD will fund its charter schools in accordance with state laws and rules.
Supporting Documents

[This section added on 7/10] Charter school petitioners are given this document to give them guidance in the roles and responsibilities of the charter governance board. The autonomy described in this document effectively gives conversion charter governance boards the same autonomy as traditional school councils.

Local & System Governance Decision Making Matrix

Autonomy	Personnel Decisions	Financial Decisions
Conversion Charter Governing Board or Local School Governance Team Roles and Responsibility	1. Participates in the process to hire the principal, submitting two to three candidates for District consideration.2. Conducts stakeholder surveys regarding school and principal performance3. Provides input … [for this and that]	1. Provides input into the school budget2. Utilizes undesignated funds
System Level GovernanceRoles & Responsibility	1. Establishes types of positions2. Manages all hiring decisions	1. Manages number of positions budgeted2. Manages fiscal affairs3. Establishes the compensation model including salary schedules, bonuses or performance-based increases

Conversion Charter School Funding & Autonomy in Proposed Board Policy IBB & IBB-R
Stan Jester – Question: “We discussed that the state gives guidance on funding independent charters and little guidance in funding conversion charters. How to fund conversion charters, financial and HR autonomy are some of the biggest pain points for conversion charters right now. Many conversion charters are looking to renew their charter in August and need guidance from the district congruent with the state memo. The charter policy updates do not address conversion charter funding and finance/hr autonomy. What is the status of updating the charter policy changes to reflect hr and finance? I don’t see any reason we can’t fund conversion charters like independent charters if they are high performing charters requesting that autonomy. ”

Answer: District staff, upon prior conference with the District’s legal counsel, provides the following explanations and information to the inquiry regarding conversion charter schools, in relation to Proposed Board Policy IBB and IBB-R, currently pending Board of Education approval. In addition to the response below, the District has provided a “Board Policy lBB Revisions Chart” upon Board request on June 1, 2015.State Law & Regulation: The proposed IBB and IBB-R incorporate by reference the most recent state law, State Board Rules, and Guidelines, thus the district does not need to repeat the state’s requirements for autonomy within its own rules. This prevents the district from having to revise its policies every time the state changes its policies, which happens often with charters.a. The State Memo referred to is not the most current State Board Rule or Guidance on the autonomy granted to charter schools, both start-up and conversions, and thus is not controlling law, rule, or guidance. The Georgia Department of Education’s Charter Division captured their final policy recommendations in the new charter school rules and guidelines passed by the State Board of Education in November of2014. The proposed IBB policy reflects the most recent state law, State Board Rules, and State Board Guidelines on charters.
1. Substantial Autonomy: The new rule regarding the autonomy to be given to charter schools, both conversions and start-ups, is not final autonomy but substantial autonomy.
a. “Substantial autonomy” is defined as “the nonprofit governing board of a charter school shall have authority to make, but is not limited to, personnel decisions, including selection of the principal or school leader; financial decisions and resource allocation decisions, including establishing the number and type of personnel, curriculum costs, supply costs, equipment costs and maintenance and operations costs; selection of a curriculum and accompanying instructional materials; establishment and monitoring of the achievement of school improvement goals, including approval of the school improvement plan and oversight of its implementation; and operations that are consistent with school improvement goals. The local board shall only override decisions of a conversion charter school’s governing board in those areas where the local board has constitutional authority and has a reasonable belief that a decision will be substantially detrimental to students and is not in the public interest.”
b. The State Board recognizes that districts can define how the autonomy above is operationalized for conversion charters within the district’s current operational framework, a point which is included in the conversion charter contract that is signed between the state, the district, and the charter school.
3. There is nothing in the proposed IBB or IBB-R that prevents a charter school, conversion or start-up, from requesting whatever level of autonomy they desire. Some governing boards may be high quality and request a high level of autonomy–if the Board feels that the level of autonomy requested is appropriate, the Board can approve the charter school. If the Governing Board is not believed capable of wielding the autonomy requested, the Board can vote to deny that charter. By addressing autonomy requests through the approval process, this allows the DeKalb Board to take into consideration specific schools and whether a particular governing board has the capacity to handle the level of autonomy requested. Ultimately, the state cannot take away the District and the Board’s constitutional obligation to control and manage its schools, and so all of these requirements must be read in the context of that obligation.
4. Funding: Both the current and proposed IBB state the district will fund its charters, conversion and start-up, according to law, State Board Rules, and Guidelines. The only legal requirement for conversion charter school funding is that they are funded no less favorably than traditional charter schools. Of course, districts can always choose to provide funding in excess of what is required by law, but this would require the district’s financial office to vet the impacts such a policy change would incur. As it stands, the proposed IBB and IBB-R were drafted to be cost-neutral changes to improve the district’s charter policies and practices and increase transparency. Changing how the district funds its conversion charter schools would have impacts that have not been considered or vetted by the district and would make the policy change cost-incurring for an undetermined amount.

Georgia Department of Education Rules
Charter School Rule and Guidance which was approved by the SBOE at their November, 2014