Jeffco Approves Two New Charter Schools

This week the Jeffco Board of Education voted to approve two new charter schools: Twin Roads High School and the Rocky Mountain Deaf High School.

Twin Roads is the high school to an existing home-based option the district has operated for many years. Many of the same families in the home school program will enroll full-time to attend the high school.

Rocky Mountain Deaf School opened as a K-8 and teaches American Sign Language. The newly approved high school portion will continue the existing program.

Who Holds the Charter?

States across America have different laws regarding who can hold the charter: a network board or the individual charter school board. In California, the authorizer contracts with a network for numerous boards. If a charter applicant is deemed a charter school with statewide impact the board can have ten separate schools via a streamlined process.

Other states, such as Florida and Michigan, don't allow an authorizer to contract for multiple charter schools. Every contract is with an individual charter school board.

This is a very big issue in Colorado now where the Charter School Institute recently changed from contracting with the Cesar Chavez Network board for individual contracts with GOAL Academy and Cesar Chavez Academy-North Colo. Springs (now called Scholars to Leaders Academy). Both of the CSI charter schools created their own governing boards under a Memorandum of Understanding between the CSI board and the Network. The two schools are now operating independent of the Network.

Now that the Network only has two charter schools -- Cesar Chavez Academy-Pueblo and Dolores Huerta Academy - the Network is little more than a defunct structure. The Network CFO, Jason Guerrero, is wrapping up business affairs in consultation with the Network's legal counsel. In negotiation is which entity will assume debts and where the assets will reside. Resolving these issues could take years.

NACSA Conference in Salt Lake City

I'm in Salt Lake City for the National Association of Charter School Authorizers conference. Today I'll be attending sessions on replication, closure and accountability. The hot topic in the charter authorizer community is hot to close unperforming charter schools. Another hot topic follows the trend in the past few years of replicating successful charter schools. Many of these replications use the same nonprofit charter management organization to oversee multiple schools.

I'll be twittering today @cocharters about the conference.

What's Going on in Denver?

Denver Public Schools has authorized more charter schools than any of the other 177 school districts in Colorado. Presently, 21 are operating and many more have been approved to open over the next few years.

Scoring #1 and #2 in the district according to the DPS School Performance Framework is Denver School of Science and Technology (DSST) and W Denver Prep. Both of these existing charter schools have been approved to replicate their existing programs in other parts of the district. Clearly, everyone in Denver sees the benefit of having independently-operated, successful charter schools. Right?

Not according to at-large Board of Education candidate, Christopher Scott, who seems to liken public charter schools to the plague. Forget that parents are flocking to these schools across the state with more than an estimated 35,000 on waiting lists for the more than 160 charter schools operating this school year.

One could think that Mr. Scott doesn't like public charter schools because he's aligned with the teacher's union, but in Denver the teacher's union has started an innovation school called Math and Science Leadership Academy.

Instead it seems that Mr. Scott is a part of the old education bureaucracy whose philosophies drove us to needing charter schools in the first place. When educrats aren't responsive to parents, parents find a way to go around them. They certainly don't elect them to the school board and trust that they know better than the parents who are raising these children.

When Schools Compete

North of the metro Denver area there is a competition for elementary school students brewing and it could end up being a free-for-all.

The St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) has announced its plans to open a new elementary school in Erie and the school will offer the Core Knowledge curriculum, popular with many parents. There are presently two charter school applications in the process and all are targeting the same group of students.

To put this into context, a little history is important to note. Twin Peaks Academy opened in Longmont in 1997 after an extensive battle of appeal hearings to the State Board of Education and numerous application attempts. Then Peak to Peak opened in Lafayette after yet more struggles, which included delaying a year due to the lack of a facility. Peak to Peak was in such high demand about five years ago that only siblings of current students could get into the Kindergarten class. Disillusioned, parents who couldn't get their children into Peak to Peak formed to start Flagstaff Academy, which was originally intended to open in Erie, but had to locate in Longmont due to facility issues. In the meantime, Imagine Classical at Firestone was approved, again after appeals and delays, with the SVVSD.

With all of these charter schools offering the Core Knowledge curriculum, you'd think it would have reached a saturation point, but quite the opposite is true. Prospect Ridge and Foundations Academy have both applied to the Adams 12 School District and are attempting to locate in the Erie area. Again, both applicants are proposing schools that will use the Core Knowledge curriculum. Further, most of the charter schools already open have extensive waiting lists, some into the thousands.

The Erie area is close to borders of the Boulder Valley School District, the St. Vrain district, and the Adams 12 district. Therefore, it's likely that any school that opens could compete for students and draw them across district boundaries.

Now the St. Vrain district Superintendent, Don Haddad, announces a new elementary school in Erie. Not taking into consideration the controversy about the district's plans to open the new school in modules, when a few years ago they criticized Imagine Classical at Firestone for opening in modules that weren't "safe," the district has apparently heard loud and clear the call from parents for more Core Knowledge schools. The district is now in the game!

Developing Charter Schools

It's that time of year again when numerous developing charter schools have applications in and are undergoing public hearings. It's also the time for tier one of the Colorado Charter School Grant Program.

Some of the new charter applicants include:
1. Manny Martinez, an Edison Learning school in Denver Public Schools
2. W Denver Prep #3 and #4, both will be in northwest Denver
3. Colorado Springs Vocational Academy has applied in Colorado Springs 11
4. Provost Academy is an online Edison Learning School authorized by the Charter School Institute
5. Rocky Mountain Deaf High School, Jeffco, an extension to the already operating K-8 ASL charter
6. Foundations Academy, a National Heritage Academies school applying in Adams 12 Five Star
7. North Star Academy-West, a replication in Highlands Ranch of the existing school in Parker
8. Mountain Middle School, applying to CSI and located in Durango
9. Denver Language School, DPS, a Mandarin Chinese and Spanish language school
10. Prospect Ridge, Adams 12, Core Knowledge K-8 in Erie
11. Mountain Career Online, applying to CSI from Pagosa Springs
12. Global Village Academy #2, applying in Denver and already operating a K-8 in Aurora

Jeffco's Board of Education votes on their four charter school applications next Thursday, the 22nd. Douglas County is going to wait until after the Nov. election results. Within the next two months numerous new charter school applications will be approved. It's that time of year again!

Teaching from Where?

A North Dakota State University economics professor is teaching from her post in Iraq. The professor is with the Minnesota Army National Guard and was deployed to Iraq last August. Cheryl Wachenheim, continues to teach using her personal laptop after having chipped in on a satellite dish to make Internet connection possible.

Personally being a native of North Dakota, I find Cheryl Wachenheim's work ethic understandable. But her mentioning it was a really big deal when she found out the base had Diet Mountain Dew shows she's a typical Nodak. Mountain Dew is very popular in North Dakota!

Cheryl's legacy will be that she served her country admirably and for that I give her a huge "thank you!" It's this kind of person every parent would be proud to have teach their child. Knowing Cheryl is so passionate about teaching and interacting with students puts her on another pedestool as far as I'm concerned. Thank you, Cheryl Wachenheim!

The John Adams HBO Series

I own the John Adams HBO series on DVD and so enjoyed reading Greg Forster's summary of the movie here.

News Release from the Charter School Institute

Charter School Institute Statement on Cesar Chavez Network

Lee Barratt, interim executive director of the Charter School Institute, today issued the following statement regarding the Cesar Chavez Network:

“The Charter School Institute welcomes the recent actions by the Cesar Chavez School Network (CCSN) to transfer the charters for Cesar Chavez North and Goal Online Academy to new independent boards, a direction set in motion with an agreement signed in August by both the institute and the CCSN boards.

“This agreement was designed to create strong, independent governance of the two schools operated by the network and authorized by the institute. The goal of the institute is to ensure quality education and continuity in the education of the students served at all CSI schools.

“The institute has no role in the decisions about individual staff and managers of the Cesar Chavez School Network. Our concerns with CCSN have centered on governance, management, finances and operations.

“The activities by the CCSN at these schools—such as repeated firings of school principals, mass firings of teachers and closing down online education services to students—raised questions about the ability of the network to continue to provide quality education to its students.

“As the CCSN leadership and board repeatedly failed to comply with our agreement, the institute prepared to initiate the process to revoke the charters from CCSN and to issue new charters for each school to the new boards, created in accordance with the August agreement.

“The goal of the CSI will be the continued operation of the schools under the oversight of newly-constituted boards at each school. Each school will have a new charter to operate that is separate from the original charter with the network.

“It remains the position of the institute that these new boards will determine whether a continuing relationship between each school and the CCSN is in the best interests of students.

“The specifics of those agreements, if they are negotiated between the schools' boards and the CCSN, will be subject to approval by the CSI.”

For more information about the Charter School Institute, contact interim director Lee Barratt at 303-866-3275 or CSI Board of Directors president Alex Medler at 720-635-8329.

CSI Wins Again!

The Colorado Supreme Court refused to hear the appeal from the Boulder Valley School District (BVSD) against the Charter School Institute (CSI). A lower court had already ruled in favor of CSI, but the law firm of Caplan and Ernest told BVSD they'd do the appeal to the state pro bono and so BVSD took them up on the offer.

The lawsuit alleged CSI was unconstitional as it impeded on the local district's "local control" provision of the state constitution. Because the CSI law, part 5 of the Charter Schools Act, allows a district to retain exclusive chartering authority if they meet certain criteria, the lower court determined it was up to the local district if they retained exclusive chartering authority and it wasn't a condition imposed by the state.

This final decision is huge for the 17 CSI charter schools who want to finance their facilities and have been in limbo until now. Financial institutions were hesitant to enter into an obligation if the CSI law were determined unconstitional. It was never clear what would have happened with the existing charter schools authorized by CSI if the lawsuit would have gone the other way.

Update: Here is a press release from CSI.

Writing in Stone

The vision and mission of a charter school rest with the founders and first governing board. Charter school leaders in Colorado have had an ongoing discussion for years about how to make sure that key features of the charter school remain consistent over time and are not changed by future boards.

In the first draft of a common charter contract there is a section for "unique featuers," which should be written by the charter school's founders. This essentially "writes in stone" what matters most to the charter school's design. Examples include the use of uniforms, a longer school day and school year, a college prep curriculum, or project-based learning. Because these features are listed in the contract, changing them would constitute a "material change" and require approval by the authorizer's board.

Charter school leaders like knowing there is a way to identify unique characteristics of the school that founders advocated for when they were applying for the new charter school. In the past, some boards have written these features into their bylaws, board policies, or charter application in the hopes that they would have staying power. No one, however, had confidence in trusting the adherence to the original vision and mission to future board members without some level of accuntability to ensure the vision would remain as established.

It should be noted that some charter school applicants have difficulty in identifying what the school's key features are. In situations like this, the authorizer may need to help guide the thoughts of the founders into something that's clearly communicated and consistent with the vision and mission.

What's the Solution for Underperforming Charter Schools?

This morning about 80 people were at the Carriage House adjacent to the Governor's Mansion to discuss underperforming charter schools. The event, hosted by the Donnell-Kay Foundation, featured two speakers from the California Charter School Association, Greg Richmond from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and a host of other local presenters.

Converting to a charter school is one of the turnaround options available to failing public schools. But what happens when the school that isn't performing is a charter school already? Many agreed that a charter school should be closed, but Teresa Pena, the chair of the Denver Public Schools board noted that it's harder to close a charter school than a regular district school. She pointed out that parents are more invested in a charter school and thus attend school board meetings and are more vocal. Ms. Pena also noted, "We should focus on high performing options: period."

Numerous legislators and State Board of Education members attended this morning's seminar. They voiced questions about how charter schools impact other public schools and other state policies. A concern was raised about the appeal process and the belief that the State Board often supports the charter school. Randy DeHoff, CD 7 State Board member, stated there were 13 appeals in 2007, only one in 2008 and none this year. He noted that various changes in technical assistance and policy has changed the environment so that charter applicants are not appealing anymore.

GOAL Academy Board Meets and Moves Forward

Yesterday the new GOAL Academy charter school board met and took steps forward with their own independence from the Cesar Chavez School Network (CCSN). The new board adopted bylaws and re-hired two administrators who had been fired earlier in the week by Lawrence Hernandez for refusing to turn over school records. Ken Crowell and Kris Enright lead the Pueblo and Colorado Springs branches of GOAL Academy, respectively.

GOAL Academy and CCA-North Colo. Springs are both operating under a transition MOU with the Charter School Institute. The current charter contract for both charter schools is with the Cesar Chavez School Network, however CSI has stated they want to contract with individual charter school governing boards instead of a network.

The legal structure for the network is unclear and it appears the nonprofit established for CCA-Pueblo may actually be the legal entity holding multiple charters. Legal experts are trying to determine if the network has its own independent legal status.

The Latest on Cesar Chavez School Network

It's hard to hear or read media reports in Pueblo or Colorado Springs without hearing about the latest in the Cesar Chavez School Network (CCSN) saga. It's been a tumultuous week for people associated with any of the five operating CCSN schools.

The week began with a CCSN takeover of GOAL Academy, located at the Pueblo mall. Individuals reported school records being shredded, teachers locked out of the technology needed to work with their online students, and the top two administrators were fired. GOAL Academy, operating under a transition Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Charter School Institute, their authorizer, seated nine charter school board members. Dr. Lawrence Hernandez, CEO of CCSN claimed the GOAL board had no authority and told the 26 GOAL employees they either had to sign a loyalty oath or they wouldn't have a job. About half signed under duress and then all 26 employees wrote a letter to the GOAL board asking for help.

Lawrence Hernandez, and his wife Annette who is the CCSN COO, have come under fire in the past few months due to their extremely high salaries. The Colo. Department of Education is investigating the CSAP scores and the network's financials after allegations brought by the Pueblo 60 school district superintendent. Two of the charter schools in the network are authorized by Pueblo 60: Dolores Huerta Prep HS and Cesar Chavez Academy-Pueblo. CSI authorized GOAL Academy and Cesar Chavez Academy-North Colo. Springs. The fifth school is chartered by Denver Public Schools. CCA-North recently organized a governing board and gained independence through a transition MOU with CSI.

Yesterday, for the second time this week, the CSI board met via the telephone to get an update on the GOAL Academy situation and hear from their legal counsel, Tony Dyl, with the Attorney General's office. Seven CSI board members gave up a portion of their Saturday to hear a synopsis of the Friday afternoon meeting at Dolores Huerta HS with network leaders, the network board and Tony Dyl.

Tony reported the following motions were unanimously adopted by the network board:
1. Terminate the legal services of Dolores Atencio.
2. CCSN will cooperate with CSI on revocation of GOAL Academy.
3. Accept the resignation of Lawrence Hernandez and Annette Hernandez from the CCSN; however, Lawrence will remain as Executive Director of CCA-Pueblo and DHPH and Annette Hernandez will have some administrative position with the schools.
4. Accept the resignation of Jason Guerrero, CFO of CCSN, with an understanding that Jason will continue to assist CDE in the financial audit. Additionally, Jason Guerrero will now report to the board instead of Dr. Hernandez.
5. All salaries will be reviewed.

CSI board members also learned the GOAL Academy student count dropped this week by about 140 students. Next week is the official, annual Oct. 1 count to determine funding. CSI board member Joyce Shuck noted she'd visited CCA-North on Friday and the principal, Mona Contreas, was sending a letter home to parents explaining that CCA-North would probably be changing its name, but that the school would stay essentially the same with different governance.

The CSI board then moved into Executive Session to hear from their legal counsel and discuss contracts. In media reports, CSI board chair Alex Medler stated the CSI board is prepared to revoke the charters granted to CCSN, if necessary, and grant new charters to GOAL Academy's board and CCA-North's board, respectively and independently. Currently, the two CSI charters operated under a contract with the CCSN board.

The situation has been contentious for many months. This week things changed when many of Lawrence's long-time friends and supporters withdrew their support. It can be assumed the change came about from either Lawrence's highly irregular actions such as threatening staff, lacking emotional decorum in public meetings and demonstrating the need to completing control people or else the supporters have learned new evidence that has raised questions in their minds. Either way, there appears to be consensus amongst school and state leaders that Lawrence and Annette Hernandez should not remain a part of school operations.

Twin Peaks Academy Enjoys New Facility

Today I attended a meeting held at Twin Peaks Academy in Longmont. The charter school is in its 14th year of operation and just this year moved into a newly renovated facility on Sunset in Longmont. The new facility is in an industrial area. The building is brightly colored, has spacious classrooms and wide hallways. There's a wood-floor gym, cafeteria, and library for the K-8 students.

The Twin Peaks Academy board is considering expanding into high school in the future. They have unused space in the back of their facility for future expansion. Principal BJ Buchmann says the school currently has three classes per grade level and has expanded in the past few years.

Charter Schools DO Make a Difference!

Stanford University's Caroline Hoxby just released, "How New York City's Charter Schools Affect Achievement," a project funded by the national Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the U.S. Dept. of Education.

A few highlights of the report:
* A charter school student who attends grades K-8 will close 86% of the achievement gap in math and 66% of the achievement gap in English.
* Compared to lotteried-out students, a student who attends a charter high school has Regents examination scores that are about 3 pts higher for each year he spends in the charter school before taking the test.
* A student who attends a charter high school is about 7% more likely to earn a Regents diploma by age 20 for each year he spends in that school.

Unlike the CREDO study released earlier this summer, this Hoxby study uses the 'gold standard' of research, comparing students who made it into a charter school via a lottery and those who did not.

Of course just being in a charter school isn't a guarantee for increased student achievement. However, being in a charter school plus key features such as a longer school day, college prep mission, higher expectations and school culture do make a difference.

In the public discourse on 'turnaround' schools, converting the underperforming public school to charter status is one of the four options. Becoming a charter school is not a panacea. But charter schools have the freedom to design their own educational program and school culture. Under the pressure to perform or lose students, charter schools have often honed their curriculum to align with state standards and place an emphasis on student achievement--for every student. In urban areas, a longer school day and longer school year ensure students without a strong family background to support a quality education has the opportunity to increase learning.

Pundits are quick to rush to judgment about charter schools with each bit of research that comes out. It's important to remember the type of study that's being used when forming opinions. Data can be used to say anything. Quality studies use well-respected methodologies to ensure the outcome isn't biased. Further, research funded by the Institute for Education Sciences, for example, carries more credibility than individual institution research.

American Academy Opens New School Building

American Academy showed off its new facility on Friday with an all-day carnival and afternoon grand opening celebration. Board members Adil Khan, Erin Kane, Jackie Santos, Denese Gardner, Chad King and David Romero and principal Roberta Harrell all put many hours into the creation of this new facility, designed to serve more than 800 students. American Academy is entering its fourth year of operation.

The project began last December when the first dirt was turned. The school will open for students on Monday. It's located in Castle Pines North, just off I-25 and Castle Pines Parkway.

The three-story structure was built for $135 per square foot; considerably less than the average $220 per square foot for other Douglas County Schools. The new charter school faciltiy has wide hallways, large classrooms, a contemporary design, and gymnasium/cafeteria/stage area. The school will increase its enrollment this year with about one-third of the student population new to the charter school.

At Friday's celebration, hundreds of families were on hand to celebrate the ribbon cutting and release balloons. Uniform-clad students sang a medley of patriotic songs. Many students brought their new school supplies to leave in their new classroom or locker. The excitement was palpable as both parents and students marveled at the new building.

Jeffco Board Hears Two Charter Applications

Jeffco received four charter school applications this year. Last Thursday night the school board heard two of the applications: Global Outreach Charter Academy (GOCA) and Twin Roads High School.

The Russian language school, GOCA, was denied last year in Jeffco and then applied last spring in Denver. They're back in Jeffco now since that's where the majority of their students live. The school plans to model after the Spanish language full immersion program already operating in the districgt. They plan to open K-6, but would begin full immersion in grades K-3 and then grow until all students are in the full immersion program. Voicing the same concern expressed last year, Jeffco school board president Sue Marinelli, stated she had concerns about the proposed school being predominantly of one ethnic minority population with little diversity.

The school would be located in the Arvada-Lakewood area and serve about 344 students. Founders said their school would be the second in the nation because the only other Russian language school is operating in Anchorage, Alaska.

The second charter school proposal heard was Twin Roads HS. Founders are associated with the Home Options Program in Jeffco. Currently there are 450 students in the Home Option Program: 150 HS and 100 MS. Terry Johns and Ronda Norma noted that most of the growth in the homeschool program is in the high school. They project managed growth and presented a conservative budget proposal. There were very few questions for the applicants as board members noted that it was a very solid application and answered many of the questions they would have otherwise had. Both charter schools will get a decision on October 22nd.

Nelson Smith on Charter Schools, Part 3

The District Administration article interviewing Nelson Smith goes on to talk about U.S. Secretary of Education's Arne Duncan's address at the June 2009 National Charter Schools Conference in Washington, DC. At the conference, Arne Duncan encouraged charter school leaders to help in turning around the bottom 5,000 public schools in the nation.

Duncan said that charter schools can help by:

1) taking away the ability of noncharter public school leaders to make excuses that "their" kids can't learn the same as "other" kids.
2) competing for students through offering high quality public charter schools in urban areas where the district-operated schools are not performing.


Across American school leaders are gearing up to Duncan's challenge to "turnaround" underperforming schools. At this time, the role of the charter school community in this endeavor isn't clear at the national or state level.


According to Nelson Smith:

The question is whether you can take a successful charter model and open it in an existing school with the conditions that will foster success. Simply taking the educational program of a successful charter and plopping it down in a school where the rules stay the same, and nothing changes in terms of the dynamics of the school is not going to work. We have to make sure that the charter folks who take on this challenge can start their programs at the new site with integrity, that they will have control over staffing, that they will have control over how money is spent and how long the day is and what the calendar looks like and all these other factors that have led to the success of their own models.

So I think the bottom line is a lot depends on what local administrators and district administrators do and whether they’re willing to provide the space and the conditions for this terrific charter schools to succeed in these school buildings that have not seen success before.

Smith goes on to talk about the problem in finding enough qualified leaders for these new schools and the professional development and support to sustain new leaders. Smith projects an additional 14,000 to 16,000 new teachers will be needed in the next decade.


With Race to the Top funds tied to states with a robust charter school system, many states are wondering how the charter school model can apply to noncharter, district-operated school systems. In other words, how to look like a charter without actually being a charter. Therein lies Nelson Smith's fundamental point about whether school districts will be willing to provide the essentials for school success.

Many charter schools have defined their mission-critical, key essentials as: 1) control over staff; 2) control over the budget; and 3) unique features such as uniforms, instructional hours and curriculum. Compromising on even one of the key essentials will adversely affect a school's performance.

Nelson Smith on Charter Schools, Part 2

In the Nelson Smith interview in District Administration, Nelson talks about funding inequities charter schools face. He quantifies it by saying that charter schools get 22% less funding than non-charter public schools. He goes on to explain the challenges charter schools face in financing their facilities.

The largest single component of that is facilities financing. Charter schools, in almost all cases, are incorporated as nonprofits, and are not part of the government, if you will. So they don’t typically have access to state capital budgets for facilities needs. That means that they have to depend either on dedicated facilities financing from the state, or private lenders, or as is most typical, simply going into their operating budgets and taking money that should go into the classroom or other uses and dedicating it to bricks and mortar.

Through Amendment 23 funds, Colorado designates a minimum of $5 million in charter school capital construction money. As the number of eligible charter school students has risen exponentially, the per pupil amount has decreased. In addition, the legislature has cut the funding back to the base amount in recent years. Charter school leaders know that this is not a stable fund to include in their budgets as it's at the whim of the legislature each year.

In Colorado, charter schools receive 100% of the per pupil funding, less up to 5% retained for administrative costs, given to all public school students. However, many school districts have access to additional grants, gifts, mill levies and bonds that the charter schools do not receive. Last year's election revealed a discrepancy with several school districts refusing to include their charter schools in ballot mill levy and bond questions. The 2009 General Assembly addressed this problem, but the bill was soon watered down and nothing of significance was accomplished.