Seattle Schools Community Forum

Here are the documents that school districts will use regarding charter school applications.  One is a letter of instructions . Another is an application (I-V). Still another is a s tatement of assurances.   This one had one thing that I hadn't really seen before -  that districts not only have to solicit applications for new charter schools but for conversion ones as well.  To me, any district that says "hey we have this school that we've tried everything with.  Come take it over, send the students in all directions and take our building."   That would be one interesting solicitation. That was not my reading of the initiative (but, as the AG's rep says, she finds something new every time she reads the law so I'm not alone).  This document - Charter School Authorizer and Approval Process - is lengthy but chockful of good information. This Wednesday, May 8th, a couple of members of the Charter Commission will go to the State Board of Educa...

I ended Part One explaining that there had been two large issues that arose during the meeting.  One is the rabbit hole I mentioned and the other is the funding of the Commission's work. Here's the rabbit hole explained. To get a charter from the state two things have to happen.  A charter applicant has to apply to just one authorizer and, after getting the authorizer's approval, then that approved application has to get to the State Board of Education for certification.  However, as you may recall, 1240 is quite vague on the timing of turning in approved charters to the State Board of Education.  Many of us who opposed this measure called this section out, asking "what does this mean?"  It's actually much worse than I thought.  Here's the original text: 3) Upon the receipt of notice from an authorizer that a charter school has been approved, the state board of education shall certify whether the approval is in compliance with the limits on th...