Amendments to charter school regs

Commissioner: received considerable comment
have made some changes as a result of the comments received
links growth to changes in accountability process
changes include growth, but "nothing specific in the regulations" on calculations (?)

very technical changes
prior regulations had language linked to achievement only
changes to be made linked to accountability system and include growth
question from Board on what the changes will be
response: current waiver weights growth at 20%
revisiting that
"significant interest in increasing the amount of growth"
possibly going from an 80-20 to a 70-30
"not decided today"
"trying to strike that balance"
weighting is under review: waiver presented with 70-30 to fed
Vice chair Chernow points out that stakeholders have already been told that 70-30 has been decided
"but still under discussion" says DESE
"what we're voting on here, is we're going to align ourselves with the system, but we don't even know what that means"
what does that mean for districts?
"whatever we ultimately decide with the accountability system, charter should be aligned with that"
which districts and which communities are going to see more
"not going to lose seats, if seats have been given out"
"I don't feel like the Legislature has given us or we have taken" authority needed
wish to see more on Trustees: nothing about who their Trustees are
"if these are public schools, we don't require the same things" as we do of School Committees
"if I'm a community member and I want to run for School Committee, I can find out how to do that very quickly; you can't for a trustee"
we could require a parent, we could require a community member
"it's a public institution; it's about transparency"
can't find anything on salaries; "we know that about districts"
"we should know those things about charter schools"
addressing the backfill issue: students who leave the charter schools
"encouraging very strongly to the field with any request of expansion" that backfill happens
sizes of senior classes will be much larger
"pressure on this issue"
DESE agrees with "excellent suggestions" on transparency
annual reports have to be on the website
trying to move in the direction of training, as with school committees
Chair calls for a vote; member concerned that calculation of growth is not included
Amendment: board wishes to approve specifics on growth
back and forth here about regulations, accountability discussion
offer to bring accountability back to board next month
Regs change passes