Board of Ed for February: charter schools

They're going to take items 3, 4, 5 and 9 (back to back to back) on charter schools

Phoenix Academy on Lawrence:
Wulfson: "Phoenix Academy stands out as a shining light as a network of schools that are doing great work"
"reengage those students who have dropped out or are at risk of dropping out"
school has been running under contract with Lawrence Public Schools
"with encouragement and approval" of district to seek a Commonwealth charter, so school may draw from surrounding communities
Sagan: testimony in support included testimony from Riley as receiver of Lawrence
all testimony was in support
Stewart: was largely Lawrence testimony; included current students and alums
"model that is very different from the core model of the district"
Phoenix Academy APPROVED

Veritas Academy
Wulfson: second request for expansion: wanted to get through first renewal, came back with more modest proposal
Warwick notes that it will compete directly with Empowerment Zone in Springfield
we believe "competition and choice are both healthy"
"have certainly seen excellent results in Empowerment Zone" since Veritas was operating
Morton asks to recuse himself as he is a member of the board of Empowerment Zone
Springfield is above 9% but not at 18% (question from Stewart)
Expansion is APPROVED on eight votes in favor, with four abstensions (Morton, Stewart, Doherty, and...?)

Re: Lynn
Wulfson: heard a level of frustration over my decision not to recommend either charters going forward
Lynn will be coming out of bottom ten percent
"I know this is frustrating for the applicant groups...it's frustrating for us! We put a lot of effort into evaluating applications ourselves."
"we have a very complicated system of charter caps in Massachusetts"
"have been personally wrestling with these caps for twenty years in different guises"
"it's tied to Net School Spending...tied to enrollment.,.based on data that we don't even have until the end of the year"
do our best to manage this process
"the reason this is coming to a head right now...we've had communities coming in and out of the bottom ten percent every year"
"right now you're having communities get to their caps, so there's a bigger impact on coming and out"
"doesn't take a big swing in performance to move communities in and out"
based on MCAS results, didn't have them until late fall
wasn't until after the holidays that calculations were done on bottom ten percent
"the charter school community has to understand that caps change based on if you're in or out of that bottom ten percent"
law "could in the future involve taking away seats that had been awarded"
"if I recommend these seats now, you could approve, but a year from now, these seats disappear"
would have to do significant prorating of tuition
"this is not a situation I think anyone anticipated"
"to see if there is something we can do, short of statutory changes, that will make this" more workable for everybody
"can talk about potential for statutory changes... we know the bitter fight we just came through on Question 2...I don't know there's any appetite in the legislature for anything having to do with the cap"
"I do not see that have any leeway under the statute to award seats that will not be available"

Sagan supports not voting seats only to pull them back

Craven: on weight of growth versus achievement
"what if that impacts this decision?"
Wulfson: right now this year's calculation is based on past practice
"absolutely correct in change in performance or change in weighting...Lynn goes back in the ten percent and the seats are available again"
Craven: "I just wonder if there's hope that we can extend on this end"
McKenna: we were in this decision once before "and we said never again will be let this happen"
says on application that it is subject to change
we also said that DESE should say to applicants on the bubble "this may not work"
Wulfson: "it was a little disappointing to hear people say 'we didn't know districts could come out of the bottom ten percent'"
Sagan: "I think that's an unfair comment"
Chuang "the problem is we can't predict the future"
seats available this year will not be available the following year
"this was unavoidable"
McKenna: frequent reminders to charter applicants that the situtations could change
West: I do think the current policy puts the charter proposers in an untenable situation
Wulfson: Families don't always understand the nuances of charter schools or charterizing
"we've asked for these seats, but they haven't been granted yet"
West: potential changes of the formula could impact this list
"not clear to me that you'd want to use the same list for charter growth that you use" for accountability
Wulfson: "I look forward to that conversation again"
"there's strong feelings on both sides of that"

Davis Leadership Academy under probation
Wulfson: "we obviously want our charter schools to succeed..." this school is not where it should be
recommending that we do have a renewal here
"our way of signally the seriousness of the situation"
"make sure that everybody is rolling in the same direction here"
DESE staff: "a reemergence of the governance concerns and need to fulfill duties of the charter school board of trustees"
"did have a decline in academic performance" over term of charter
"not what we expect of a charter school in its fifteenth year"
charter under probation APPROVED