Seattle Schools Community Forum

With the Growth Boundaries, 20-Minutes added to the school day, changes to the Student Assignment Plan, Cedar Park, etc, I have found nary the time to write about charter schools in Washington State.  But finally, here it is.

I'm off to the Washington State Charter Commission meeting this morning.  I'm most interested in the discussion about the latest lawsuit against the latest law.  I'm also interested to learn more about how Green Dot is going to provide free management services to Excel Charter School. I'm unlikely to stay for the entire meeting but I do want to learn about the Commission's funding and appropriations so I'll be there until just after lunch.

The Associated Press is reporting that a lawsuit has been filed in King County Superior court over the new charter school law passed by the Legislature in the spring. Teachers unions, parents and other groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday over Washington’s new charter school law, a measure that was enacted last spring after the state Supreme Court struck down the old law.  The group includes the Washington Education Association, League of Women Voters, El Centro de la Raza and several labor unions.

Update 2:  So there is more to flesh out here on Jones.  Here's what she said: I didn't use those exact words. What I did say is that often the parents of those students who are most impacted by lack of funding - poor, brown, recently immigrated - often don't have the same ability to advocate for their children, because they either don't speak the language or don't know their voices matter.

Update: as was noted by one commenter, the Times has an article in its Gates-funded Education Lab called, "You asked, we answered: What can charters do that other public schools can't." The article says charters have more flexibility and names these three items; 1. They have more control over whom they hire - and fire. 2. They answer to an appointed rather than an elected school board. 3. They are accountable to a charter authorizer rather than a school district, which allows them to define their own goals and metrics. On that last goal, they left out "define their own goals and metrics within the charter school law."  They don't get to just set whatever goals and metrics they want without guidance from the law and their authorizer.

The Washington State Charter Commission will not be waiting for their next regularly-scheduled meeting on September 17th to talk about the Supreme Court ruling on the charter school law. Special Commission Meeting (Agenda) Wednesday, September 9, 2015 │ 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

At last Thursday's Charter Commission meeting, the Commission approved two new charters.  (Between Spokane School District and the Commission, there were a total of two approved this year.  The law allows eight a year and any spots not used in a year will then roll over into following years.

First, after review by hired reviewers, the Washington State Charter Commission staff are recommending approval of two new charter schools in our state.  These are the recommendations that the Commission members themselves will be considering at their next meeting on August 13th. The schools the applicants have put forth: Operator: Innovation Schools School Name: Willow Public School Grades Served: 6-8 School Location: Walla Walla Operator: Summit Public Schools Washington School Name: Summit Public School: Seattle #2  Grades Served: 6-12 School Location: South Seattle Both schools received "Meets" standard in four categories (out of four measures with "Exceeds" being the best, followed by "Meets," "Partially Meets," and "Does Not Meet.") I note that Summit has this named at their website at "Summit Public School:Sierra" and both appear on the application but under the Proposal Overview, it's "Summit...

The Charter Commission meeting tomorrow morning will let us know if First Place Scholars charter school has met the requirements laid out for them.  I do not believe there will be any more chances for this scrappy little charter if the requirements are not met.

Update : the process is the Charter Commission really bending over backwards to help First Place Scholars stay afloat.  This is NOT the process for revocation of their charter.  If these items are not completed to the satisfaction of the Commission, then the revocation process would probably start.  (Both the Commissioners and the Director of the Commission have given FPS repeated chances to get their ducks in a row and apparently, the Commission has not seen enough progress on those stated issues.) end of update I'm listening into a special phone meeting of the Washington State Charter Commission.  The top agenda item is  First Place Scholars charter school. The Commission is giving First Place until June 15, 2015 to finish corrections that the Commission needed to see to keep First Place as a charter school.  It is quite a lengthy list of items.  (This comes from a 5-2 vote of the Charter Commission whether to give FPS these corrections condi...

 Update: the Times has more reporting on the situation with First Place Scholars.  According to their article, two Commissioners wanted to revoke their charter. It was pointed out that FPS will probably owe money back to the state because they did not enroll as many students as they said they would.   FPS has another deadline of June 17th - less than a month - to meet the Commission's requests.  It appears most of the Commissioners agree that if these requests are not met by June 17th, they won't "kick the can" down the road again.  Head of FPS, Dawn Mason, continues to claim it's not FPS' fault because they opened too quickly.  end of updates From the PI , news about charter schools in Washington State: First Place Scholars is still under scrutiny. According to written reports to the commission, the school has made some progress in its work with students who do not speak English at home and in setting academic plans for children with spec...

From the Washington State Charter Commission: The Charter School Commission (the Commission) announced today that four (4) non-profit organizations have submitted proposals in the second round of applications to open high-quality public charter schools in the state of Washington. Each applicant was asked to put forth a comprehensive and rigorous plan to meet the needs of the student population they wish to serve. Proposals were due by 5:00 PM on July 15 th .  The Commission has received proposals from the following organizations (organization, school name, location): Bilingual Charter Academy, Bilingual Charter Academy, Clark County Charter Schools of Sunnyside, Sunnyside Charter Academy, Sunnyside The Ducere Group, The Village Academy, Pierce County Green Dot Public Schools Washington State, Seattle Charter School, South Seattle

There are three letters of intent for new charter authorizers districts- Tacoma, Highline and West Valley in Yakima.  In 2013, there had been 13 school districts from around the state that submitted a notice of intent to become authorizers.  Only Spokane followed thru.  Tacoma was in that first group but not Highline or West Valley. Spokane School district has three letters of intent. Moose Project (Magic of Oral and Signing Education for near-deaf/deaf students but all students may enroll) is one of them but I am working on finding out who the others are. Update:  the other two applicants for authorization by Spokane are iLEAD (K-8),opening in 2015, and Spokane International Academy, also a K-8.  Their letter of intent does not say when they want to open. iLead has two other charter schools in California. End of update (There is some irony about these charters starting up in Washington state because I'll outline in another thread how charters are fal...