Washington State Charter School Updates

More news rolls in for updating charter schools in Washington State.

First, three Charter Commissioners have expiring terms and are up for re-appointment (apparently all three want to stay). 

Commissioners Chris Martin, Margit McGuire and Kevin Jacka have expiring terms.  It's early to say who should stay and who should go but so far these three seem capable.  Margit McGuire is the most thoughtful of the these three and definitely should stay.


The Commission welcomes public comments and asks that all comments be delivered to the Executive Director, Joshua Halsey, by January 11, 2014. Comments can be emailed or mailed to Director Halsey.

Email: Joshua.halsey@charterschool.wa.gov 
Mail: Joshua Halsey 
Re: Commissioner Re-nomination 
PO Box 40996
Olympia, WA 985004-0996 
 
As well, public forums for each charter application are starting to be scheduled.  The first one I know of is next Wednesday, January 8th in Yakima for the Sunnyside Charter Academy.   According to the Daily Sun News, Charter Schools of Sunnyside is seeking as many charter supporters to come to the forum to show the Charter Commission (who will have a couple of members in attendance at each charter forum) that there is community support (or conversely, you can show up to protest).  

Each forum will have a presentation - probably about 10 minutes -  by the applicant with time for public comment (about 30 minutes).   Public comment is limited to two minutes and the speakers will be randomly selected by lottery prior to the meeting.  (I would assume that if there are just 10 speakers, all would be allowed to speak.)  The charter applicants are not required to answer questions but you could certainly work those questions into any comment that you may want to make. 

The Yakima forum will be Perry Technical Institute at 6:30 p.m.

Written comments, limited to one page of 12-point font, can be sent to:
Washington State Charter School Commission
PO Box 40996
Olympia, WA  98504-0996

The next meeting for the Charter Commission will be in Seattle on Thursday, January 30, 2014.  The time is TBD but it will be held at Bethaday Community Learning Space, 605 SW 108th Street.  Meeting minutes from December.

Comments

Catherine said…
So.. they want comments by January 11... but they don't have all the public meetings done until January 23rd?
1/2/14, 5:57 PM
Trish Millines Dziko said…
Catherine, we wanted to make sure folks who could not make any of the public meetings had an opportunity to give their feedback. We also had to give ourselves time to read all the written comments, that's why we needed them in by an earlier date. We're trying our best to get everything done properly within the very tight timeline.
1/3/14, 9:03 PM
Catherine said…
Thanks Trish. It just seems like I'm about to ask questions or make comments that I could have had addressed in the public meeting... and saved you the paperwork and me the writing - but when you're up against deadlines... I guess this is the tradeoff.
1/3/14, 9:48 PM
Trish Millines Dziko said…
Yea Catherine the schedule is the driver this time. Subsequent rounds will be much better schedule-wise, plus we will have lists of lessons learned.
1/4/14, 3:59 PM
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