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.

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.

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.

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.

If in Doubt: Litigate

When long-time public education leaders don't like something, their best course of action is often to litigate. In Georgia, the Gwinnett County School District is suing the Georgia Charter School Commission saying it's unconstitutional.

This is the exact same strategy used in Colorado by the Boulder Valley School District who has brought litigation, lost, appealed, lost and now is appealing to the Colorado Supreme Court. Colorado's Charter School Institute is a "virtual" school district in less than nine school districts that do not have exclusive chartering authority. BVSD contends the legislature didn't have the authority to establish CSI because it violates the "local control" provision of the Colorado Constitution.

The Poudre and Westminster 50 school districts were originally part of the suit, but dropped out after receiving exclusive chartering authority from the State Board of Education. BVSD also subsequently gained exclusive chartering authority, but their legal counsel stated they'd take the second appeal on a pro bono basis.

North Star Academy Celebrates New Facility Expansion

North Star Academy in Parker celebrated their new facility expansion with a program this morning. Recognizing the anniversary of the 9/11 attach first, Civil Air Patrol cadets raised a Patriot flag given to the school by one of the families.

The Mistress of Ceremonies was a sixth grade student. She was joined by fellow students who gave out their own awards, like the Oscars, to people who were thanked for their efforts to make the new facility expansion happen.

The school's two mascots, terriers belonging to school principal Cynthia Haws, were given their own red fire hydrant just outside the school library where the ceremony was staged. In addition, Ms. Haws received a bench with an inscription recognizing her commitment to the charter school.

Student ambassadors were on hand to distribute programs, give tours of the school, and answer questions. In the cafeteria for the reception, more students were handing our snacks and soda.

North Star is beginnings its fourth year of operation and has students through seventh grade this year. Next year the school will also serve eighth grade. The school located in the building formerly occupied by Rennaisance Charter Academy, which became a district option school. The new expansion holds six new classrooms, an outdoor play area and a cafeteria.

Inching Toward Autonomy

Two charter school boards associated with the Cesar Chavez Academy School Network met yesterday. The Cesar Chavez Academy-North Colorado Springs (CCA-N) board met but tabled most of its agenda as it wasn't clear on its current legal status. CCA-N held board elections under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Charter School Institute board as a transition to operate autonomously. The authority of the charter school board is still undecided.

Currently CSI is in a contract with the Network to operate CCA-N and GOAL Academy. GOAL is an online school operated in Pueblo. After issues arose at CCA-N last spring, CSI reconsidered its decision to contract with the Network, which they defined as a management company, instead of the board of a charter school. While Colorado law doesn't dictate what type of entity can be party to a charter contract, an authorizer can make policy to only enter into contracts with charter school boards.

Stakeholders from CCA-N asked to establish their own board and operate independently from the Network. Dr. and Mrs. Lawrence Hernandez (COO and Operations Director, respectively) and Jason Guerrero, CFO of the Network contend that the charter school doesn't have the authority to operate independently.

The second CSI charter school to venture out on its own is GOAL Academy and their board met yesterday along with state officials Tony Dyl, Asst. Attorney General and Lee Barratt, Interim Executive Director of CSI. Both CSI and the Network have appointed board members for GOAL and more are slated to join.

Both charter schools are considering filing for nonprofit incorporation as many charter schools do in Colorado. However, it's still unclear when, and if, the governing boards will gain the authority to file with the Secretary of State's office for that status.

Ridgeview Clasical Schools Prevails for a Second Time in Court

The State Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the Poudre School District (PSD) in their case against Ridgeview Classical Schools (RCS). The case began when RCS brought an appeal to the State Board of Education asserting the requirement of PSD to have the charter school pay the district for students who left the charter school after the statewide Oct. 1 count. The charter school said they shouldn't be subjected to funding in a manner different than all the other public schools in the state, and indeed, their authorizing district.

Back in December, the Court of Appeals stated the district was wrong in applying a different funding mechanism to the charter school. Not agreeing with this decision, PSD took an appeal to a higher court.

One might think that since this case has now gone to the highest court in the state, it'd be settled. Wrong. PSD, earlier this year when negotiating another charter school contract, stated that due to a sentence added into the 2009 School Finance Act, they have the right to charge their charter schools for a percentage of the per student funding alloted via the Oct. 1 count. It's unlikely that the outcome of this appeal will have any bearing on future contract negotiations for the charter schools in PSD.

President Obama to Address Public School Students on Tuesday

The media is buzzing with varied reactions to President Obama's plan to address public school students via the Internet next Tuesday at noon, D.C. time. The question I'm hearing is, "How should charter schools respond to this?"

Since charter schools operate autonomously, the school leaders can decide if, or how, the President's address is provided. Some charter school governing boards may decide that academics will take precedence and not stop learning for the President's address. Others will use it as a learning opportunity and have discussions with students both before and after the address.

This is another situation where the uniqueness of charter schools can best address the local needs of the students and their families. There is no right or wrong way to handle the President's address. Charter schools are not compelled to follow decisions set forth by their authorizer. They're free to be make their own decisions.

Update: Check out what Ben is saying here.

What's the Difference Between Pueblo and Denver?

For the Cesar Chavez Academy of Denver there are many differences with the rest of the schools operated by the Cesar Chavez School Network. According to Jeremy Meyer at the Denver Post, Denver Pulic Schools (DPS) has welcomed the new charter school and its being very well received by the community.

One thing about DPS -- they're quick to learn from others and employ those best practices. There are some fundamental differences between the Denver and Pueblo charter schools that will increase the likelihood of success for the Denver school.

DPS required CCA-Denver to form its own governing board, without any overlap with the Network board. The Denver school operates with autonomy, not just from DPS, but also from the rest of the schools within the CCA Network. Network charter schools all share business services, which is more cost effective, but CCA-Denver operates with significantly more autonomy than the other Network schools.

DPS will only execute charter contracts with a governing board and not a management company. The state Charter School Institute (CSI) executed a contract with the Network (a management company) and not the individual school boards. In fact, the individual schools don't have their own boards at all. CSI had to backtrack and they're now in the process of negotiating a charter contract with governing boards. Just last week the CSI board approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the CCA-North/Colorado Springs school, which is a segue to being able to execute a charter contract with a newly formed board. Currently the CCA-North school is not its own legal entity and couldn't enter into a traditional charter contract. The school is in the process of formulating its own governing board.

DPS is also ahead of the curve on having clear and precise charter contracts when it comes to academic achievement. They use a district-wide system of measuring academic performance and it applies to all schools, not just public charter schools. The School Performance Framework (SPF) is a one page "dashboard" of key performance indicators. DPS charter contracts detail specific actions should a charter school fail to make progress.

Finally, DPS won't tolerate a charter school with problems, as evidenced by the recent closure of Challenges, Choices and Images. When that charter school had financial and governance problems, the school closed.

So what's the difference between Pueblo and Denver? There's a vast difference between the experience level and philosophy of the charter authorizers. DPS has embraced its role as a charter authorizer by defining its philosophy of monitoring and oversight while at the same time establishing the district as the manager of a portfolio of choice options. The district details its academic and choice needs within the district in a Request for Proposals and then allows the community to create those choice options. DPS has charter schools, contract (district-operated autonomous) schools, private schools contracted for specific grade levels, innovation schools and an array of choice programs within its traditional school system.

When is a School a School?

Students at an alternative school in Aurora are attending classes, but have recently been told they won't be getting any credit fot attending the school. When a school looks like a school and purports to be a school, isn't it a school?

There needs to be some authorization for classes to earn credits or a diploma to be meaningful. This means if the school isn't a district school, parents should ask how the school is accredited.

In the case of New Directions Prep in Aurora, school leaders believed they had a contract to operate under the auspices of Vilas Online. Vilas Online is the online program out of the Vilas School District on the southeast border of the state and the district that previously authorized Hope Online. Hope had established contracts with "learning centers" throughout the state.

In order for New Directions to operate through the Aurora School District the school would need to go through an online certification process at the Colorado Department of Education. This online certification was required in new legislation a couple of years ago as a method to regulate online schools such as Hope Online, which was highlighted in a state auditor's report.

CSI Board Votes to Approve Cesar Chavez Academy Contract Changes--with a Catch

This afternoon the Charter School Institute (CSI) board met for its regular monthly meeting at the CSI offices downtown Denver. The board considered the proposed Memorandum of Understanding, which is designed to modify the Cesar Chavez Academy-North (Colorado Springs) contract. The MOU outlines a transition by Sept. 15th for the CCA-North parent community to elect parent representatives to the governing board. Currently the charter school is governed by the Cesar Chavez School Network, out of Pueblo.

The board voted unanimously to approve the MOU with the condition that information that had been requested by staff in order to conduct a financial audit be provided before the MOU is executed. CSI staff noted a list of items that had been requested, but not yet received.

In other business, the board created three subcommittees: two standing committees and the other an ad hoc committee. Standing committees are Finance and Policies and Priorities. In addition, an Executive Director Search committee was established.

The board discussed a possible timeline for screening and then interviewing potential Exec. Director candidates. They will narrow the search down to about three candidates by paper screening and phone interviews. The entire board will conduct public interviews of the finalists. Board members noted the Council of Schools (representatives of each of the schools authorized by CSI) should be included in the process and their input should be received prior to a final decision.

Who Has Sovereignty Over Charter School's Location?

There are a few issues inherent to charter schools that have differing legal opinions. Sovereignty over school district boundaries is one of them.

Global Village Academy, unable to get a charter approved by Denver Public Schools this year, wants to open a second campus in the old Challenges, Choices and Images/Amandla building at I-70 and Peoria. The building is just inside the Denver borders. The Colorado Constitution and state law give a school district jurisdiction over K-12 education within their geographical borders.


But what happens when a charter school cannot find a facility within the boundaries of the district that authorized them? Historically in Colorado, this has been handled in a myriad of ways. Some charter schools have obtained a waiver from state charter school law saying the school should be within its authorizing district or a contiguous district, some have just located in the other district without anything being said by anyone, and others are told by their district, or the district they intend to locate in, that they must have Board of Education approval.

There is no right or wrong answer on how school districts should handle this since it's a gray area of the law. Each district receives its own legal counsel and is not bound by what other districts do.

However, it's interesting when a district wants to have it both ways and when convenient, locate one of their charter schools in a different district and then later say that same district cannot locate a charter school within their boundaries. This is what Denver Public Schools has done by chartering New America Schools-Lowry and Ridge View Academy which are in the Aurora Public School District. Now that Global Village Academy-2nd Campus wants to locate in DPS, there is a "different" legal opinion. DPS didn't ask permission of APS to establish two of their charter schools within APS boundaries. But now DPS says GVA must get the permission of DPS' board--and acknowledges that permission won't be granted.

Unfortunately, questions and issues such as these are not easily resolved. In the past when issues have been interpreted differently the issue has been driven to ligitation. Let's hope in this situation that isn't at the cost of the hundreds of students purportedly on the waiting list at Global Village Academy.

Kentucky Coming Out of the Dark Ages?

Kentucky is one of ten states without a charter school law, but that may change because a state representative has filed a bill request. A recent survey found that more than 80% of Kentucky's voters would choose a type of choice education, if they could. Choice was defined as private, charter, virtual or home schools.

Rep. Stan Lee of Kentucky said:

“In this time of ‘economic crisis’ and ‘great fiscal pain’, it seems to me the General Assembly might want to explore this avenue for additional funding for education,” said Lee. “It’s actually very simple: Are we really all for education, or are we only for education as long as it satisfies some political agenda? We need to stop using our school children as pawns in political games."

Representative Lee added, “Kentucky is one of only ten states without a charter school law and our students’ test scores and graduation percentages consistently rank towards the bottom in national ratings. Is there a possible correlation?”

States must have charter school laws in order to compete for federal stimulus Race to the Top funds. Rep. Lee has introduced education reform-type bills in the past only to have them dismissed without discussion. Maybe the incentive of possible federal money will permit Kentucky to come out of the Dark Ages.

Cesar Chavez Academy: The Story Continues

Lawrence Hernandez has certainly been in the news lately. He's been a controversial figure since he first opened Cesar Chavez Academy in Pueblo back in 2001. Most recently his salary, his wife's salary and the salary of the Chief Financial Officer have made news. EdNews has a couple of articles with more details here and here.

Is it a Language School or a Religious School?

Schools officials at a Hebrew language charter school in south Florida are going to try and open three more charter schools using the same model. The Ben Gamla charter school serves 600 elementary school-aged students and has another ~135 on its waiting list. The school came under scrutiny by their authorizing school district initially and had an independent district-hired expert to examine all of the school's lessons.

One of the commenters on the Miami Herald article about the Ben Gamla charter school wondered what would happen if this were an islamic charter school? Minnesotans know. They have Tarek ibn Ziyad Charter Academy (TIZA), a K-8 charter school in Inver Grove Heights. TIZA is an Islamic charter school.

While most public school officials draw the line on teaching religion, there can be a very fine (gray?) line when the school's culture is also rooted in religion. District officials in Florida were wise to have an independent expert monitor the school's curriculum. It appears district officials in Minnesota have struggled with how to provide proper oversight to this unique charter school. Earlier this year the Minnesota Americans Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed suit against the charter school stating they were teaching religion. A federal judge later dismissed most of the case.

Last week it was revealed that a nonprofit organization associated with TIZA paid for a state legislator's trip to Mecca in 2008. Further, the Minnesota Dept of Education notified TIZA school officials that they would not pay the school any more money until all of the school's teachers were properly licensed only to say it was "an error" two days later and fund the charter school.

TIZA reports higher-than-average test scores and has been recognized for outstanding academic growth by the Northwest Evaluation Association.

Charter school authorizers and policy makers have a unique challenge with atypical charter schools that operate at the threshold of acceptable practices. A key to averting problems is effective performance contracting and transparency. Moreover, authorizers learn from each other and the challenges they face, many of which could rarely be anticipated.

Is the New Mantra: "Open good charter schools; close bad ones"?

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the new mantra is "Open good charter schools; close bad ones." Citing support from the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and the Missouri Charter Public School Association, authorizers of two underperforming charter schools have stated they won't renew the two schools' charters.

These two charter schools have failed to perform on a variety of measures including governance, finance and enrollment, not to mention failing miserably at academic achievement. The percentage of students passing state exams were in the single digits or low teens. Just reading the facts cited in the newspaper article, it appears there is ample evidence to close the two charter schools. Further, it appears that everyone gave them multiple opportunities to recitfy problems. It's time to pull the plug!

Aother four charter schools closed at the end of the 2008-09 school year in Colorado. These are Denver Arts and Technology Academy (Denver); Challenges, Choices and Images (Denver); Shivers Academy (Harrison); and Cesar Chavez Academy-Central (CSI). This brings the total number of charter schools that have closed to 20 since the first one closed in 1998. Although most of the charter schools closed due to financial reasons, a handful have closed strictly for academic reasons.

Who determines when a charter school needs to be closed? It's authorizer. Charter school laws were established to offer greater freedom in exchange for greater accountability. If a charter school isn't performing, it should be closed.

The League of Charter Schools has developed much of their programming to support underperforming charter schools and hold a high standard for all charter schools. Across the state, leaders have discussed what warrants a charter school closure (revocation or nonrenewal). While some may debate a few middle-of-the-road schools, there are crystal clear situations where a charter school should close.

So the new mantra, cited by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is accurate: Open new charter schools; close bad ones.

Hernandez Welcomes Audit, but Calls it a "Waste of Money"

Dr. Lawrence Hernandez, Chief Executive Officer of the Cesar Chavez Academy Network, says he welcomes the state's audit of the Network's finances and CSAP administration practices, but also called it, "a waste of money." Commissioner of Education, Dwight Jones, responded to the letter from Dr. John Covington, out-going Superintendent of the Pueblo 60 School District and Network authorizer, by stating the state would conduct a third-party investigation of the Network schools' CSAP administration and conduct a forensic financial audit. The cost of these audits has been authorized for up to $80,000 and will be borne by Pueblo 60, the Charter School Institute and CDE.

In Covington's letter, he cited reports that students were permitted to change their answers on the CSAP test and other testing irregularities. Further, Covington raised concerns about a teacher licensure company operated by Hernandez. The state's review will examine the Network and any subsidiaries.

The Network operates Cesar Chavez Academy-Pueblo, Dolores Huerta High School and GOAL Academy in Pueblo and Cesar Chavez Academy-North in Colorado Springs. The Network surrendered their charter for a second school in Colorado Springs to the Charter School Institute after facility and enrollment concerns. A new school in Denver will open next month.