Mystic Valley Charter renewal

which magically has no ELL students, despite drawing from districts with a significant population of ELL students

looking for expansion of student body
have had concerns around process and governance
refreshes it's process
"confident that the school has sufficiently addressed those concerns at this time"
remaining concern for me
"none of the students for now are English Language Learners"
"very difficult to reconcile if the school is giving access to a representative" student body
wondering if ELLs are enrolling, even in proportion to district, but lacking IDing them
recommending expansion if they address that and other board issues
"before enrollment increase begins," address enrollment
also board needs training, and enrollment process
Roach: rough number of ELLs in sending disricts
Malden and Everett: significantly higher than zero
didn't they know that this would come up?
Mystic Valley has argued that their direct instruction model moves kids along quickly
Roach: what does this suggest about the likelihood about getting this done?
genuine misunderstanding about processes
Willyard: wouldn't want to move forward with expansion without their dealing with their issues
bring up wait lists
will support this request, but these conditions need to be taken seriously
Stewart: received an email from the Vice-Chair of the Melrose SC, raised several points,
details Ms. Driscoll lays out here supports my not supporing this
governance training should be in process from the beginning
Stewart will vote no
Sagan "would remind us that the key is if they're educating their kids and the results are very strong"
McKenna: revising policies and procedures for ELL isn't asking much of them
have been renewed three or four times with the SAME CONCERN
DESE: either representation is an issue or identification is
Peyser: enrollment pattern of school? bulk of students come from kindergarten
overall data suggests that they're doing a good job of bringing students up to level
home language survey being done?
DESE; what they're doing with the information and if they're assessing all the children that they should be
Q: recruitment?
DESE: seem to be reaching a broad demand, as many as half of Malden kiindergartners
see this as an opportunity to make progress: if they do not get this, they do not get these seats
Sagan: if conditions are met, allow expansion after a year
McKenna: if we pass this, they have a year to fix enrollment
could only be done for incoming class of 2016
Peyser: substitute amendment which he has typed up
maintain conditions as currently exists but allow 50 kindergartners for this fall
"must be held accountable for complying with conditions"
"entirely possible to ensure conditions are being met, to allow students to begin career at Mystic Valley in the fall"
Willyard: just kindergartners?
Sagan: clarifies that it's just kindergartners even next year
Peyser: and if they didn't meet it, they'd go back to their cap and no further growth
amending amendment to require kindergartners to reflect ELLs in their communities
Peyser: can't require that
Noyce; don't feel that this doesn't reflect a very robust attempt to recruit a diverse population
if only draw from current waitlist, cannot get as diverse an enrollment
Peyser's motion fails
Original motion: passes 8-1, Stewart opposed