Academy of Dover board minutes: Last board minutes post August 2010
Campus Community School: March 28, 2012. Thank you board but can we see minutes archived?
East Side Charter School: Last meeting minutes posted 01/25/2012
Family Foundations Academy: I see no minutes but agenda in which last agenda posted was June 20, 2010
Kuumba Academy : Click dates open and you tell me what you see
MOT Charter: Last minutes posted January 2012
The New Maurice J Moyer Academy : Looks like the new charter taking over from K12.Inc is getting setup. I see no board minutes but it’s my understand the new charter organization takes over July 1, 2012. But where are the minutes under K12.Inc “apparently” they were exempt by DE DOE.
Newark Charter see previous post
Pencader Charter School: Last minutes posted February 23, 2012
Positive Outcomes Charter School: On the ball, last meeting minutes March 9, 2012
Prestige Academy: Nothing posted since December 2010
Providence Creek : Last minutes March 2012 but where is the board agenda?
Reach Academy : Last minutes March 15, 2012. Mentions board meeting dates on upcoming events but don’t see agendas.
Sussex Academy : Last minutes March 28, 2012. Don’t see agendas.
Thomas Edison : No minutes or agendas but board dates are noted on school calendar.
*Charter School of Wilmington noted on previous post.
*Delaware Military Academy : I don’t see minutes or agenda. See if you can find them.
*Delaware College Prep. : Last meeting December 2011. No agenda but does provides dates of mettings
Odyssey Charter I see no board minutes or agendas. I do see financial reports
* Red Clay is oversight authority
As you can see there is a communication mess here! Schooley needs to answer-up as why no uniformity and consistency is charter school board meeting minutes and agendas. The Delaware Department of Education lacks capacity in the oversight responsibility of Delaware charter schools and Governor Markell apparently doesn’t care ! Jack has been at it again selling his transparency but has his head in the sand when it comes to the truth.
I wonder what would happen if the traditional school districts behaved like this?
Filed under: Uncategorized
Delaware Charter schools are private, non-profit corporations, governed by Delaware corporate law. Until the State & DOE impose the same conditions tied to monies, that screwed up the non-charter districts, how they conduct their meetings and format minutes are individual decisions.
§ 504. Corporate status.
(a) A charter school shall be organized and managed under the Delaware General Corporation Law.
(b) The board of directors of a charter school shall be deemed public agents authorized by a public school district or the Department with the approval of the State Board to control the charter school. No person shall serve as a member of a charter school board of directors who is an elected member of a local school board of education.
(c) A charter school shall be considered a public school for all purposes.
(d) A charter school may sue or be sued to the same extent and on the same conditions as a public school district, and its employees, directors and officers shall enjoy the same immunities as employees, directors and officers of public school districts and other public schools. The approving authority of a charter school shall have no liability for the actions or inaction of a charter school.
See (c) ???? What does that mean?
Purposes — Are in the business of education providing the same types of services w/o religious education …
@ Kilroy – I gotta be honest, the minutes thing smacks of a witch hunt. Not saying it’s not a legitimate issue, just not something to point at in isolation as indicative of a major issue with charter school oversight. The renewal of charters for failing charter schools is something worth exploring/discussing IMO. I know you think the kids are the ones harmed when a failing charter school is shut down, but how are they being well served if the school is not preparing them to pass the DCAS? A school like Kuumba has demonstrated that success is achievable with a predominately low-income and minority student population (at least K-5), so the idea/theory that the DCAS is an unfair measure of student academic progression becomes less impactful and the idea that the public school model is in need of changes becomes more impactful. If nothing else, well operated charter schools are forcing public schools to make some of those changes or risk losing students to charter schools.
@ Patriot said “I know you think the kids are the ones harmed when a failing charter school is shut down, but how are they being well served if the school is not preparing them to pass the DCAS?
The better question is how are they being well served if the school IS preparing them to pass the DCAS? Seriously, the correlations and causative aspects are at best under-researched, at worst don’t exist for may children.
@ John Young – I’m not going to debate the merits of the DCAS because I don’t know the research in support of or against it. What I do know is you have to have a way to measure academic progression towards an agreed upon standard. That standard ought to be tied to the respective curriculum for each grade. There should be a baseline test, supplemented with course work, parent/teacher discussion) given at the beginning of the year to establish that each kid is where they ought to be grade-wise and changes made accordingly if they are not. Once that happens, you should be able to fairly measure academic progression using some standard evaluative tool, DCAS or otherwise.
Just to play devils advocate here- you are comparing individual schools to that of a district. Can you really compare apples to oranges? Do individual “public” schools have boards and minutes (I don’t remember that at WP or Brader). Are they violating Charter Law? I guess my point is that you can’t really compare the two. I think the issues lie more within the law than they do of the individual schools. Once the laws are revamped to address things like this a better comparison can be made. I do agree that board meeting minutes should be public if you are using public funds (regardless of who or what you are). You should not be permitted to “hide” them. We all know that, in most cases, if you have nothing to hide you don’t go out of your way to hide it!
The problem isn’t necessarily DCAS either, the real devil is in your phrase “Agreed upon”.
By whom? The parents? Bureaucrats inside the DOE? Teachers? Legislators? The Governor at his national NGA group? Principals? Students? Arne Duncan? The PTA? School Boards?
In short, who the F*CK is we?
@ JY – fair question, but it doesn’t change the fact that there needs to be a standard measure. Many people cite issues with the S.A.T. yet there it remains as the most widely used standard for college admission. Even if I agree the test may be flawed in some respects, I cannot disagree that you need some way to measure scholastic aptitude. The DCAS is no different. We can debate the measuring stick, but we cannot debate the need for a measuring stick. But back to my original point: why quibble over lack of timely BOD minutes for charter schools when there are much bigger fish to fry like failing charter schools and failing traditional schools?
Friends,
Yes, (my observations) this represents a communications mess…of grave proportions…there is little wonder public engagement strategies don’t flourish.
In 2000, we were engaged not only to provide Quality Education resources, tools, and support to schools state-wide, but also, Communications as well. Delaware, simply does not take advantage
of the national and regional associations that direct and provide insight, policy assistance, and research for school communications.
Participating in national conferences: National School Public Relations Assn, Sterling (FL) Performance Excellence, National Quality Education Conference, Baldrige Quest Conference are worthwhile in
helping Delaware keep current with the critical trends shaping Education.
Remember, for every leadership transition, we loose organizational
memory and momentum and provide confusion that takes an organization from reaching its’ aims.
Wow- a little hostility this morning? The fact is Mr. young- I don’t know of any school that doesn’t prepare the kids for the DCAS in some way. I do understand that you are a board member and maybe this is something schools aren’t supposed to do? I’ve talked to some parents whose schools work for 2 weeks before the DCAS to prepare kids. I know that NCS has the kids do the practice test so they can be familiar with the computer and feel comfortable with it before actually administering the test.
There should be some kind of standard that the schools can use as a measure of success. Some board members say you can’t use DCAS scores and others say you can. There should be something that is agreed upon by the DOE, board (and whoever else needs to be a part of it). Why can’t we as parents use some type of measure that is agreed upon by all parties involved? I don’t think that should be too much to ask. I’m still alittle miffed by the statement Elizabeth made about the rating system (I think it was AYP?). She said the DOE uses a secret formula. That may be something some may be comfortable with but certainly not me. Secrets are typically secrets for a reason.
@Patriot said why quibble over lack of timely BOD minutes for charter schools when there are much bigger fish to fry like failing charter schools and failing traditional schools?
What if the lack of minutes is actually a symptom of the appalling lack of oversight and accountability in DE schools around how they operate with our public monies being spent to do so? Should we quibble then? CSD was fleeced for $13Million in 2005 by not being transparent on how it spend its money compared to the laws governing those expenditures. Now we have A Financial oversight committee (enshrined in state law now) and we have a board policy o issue its reports at a digitally recorded meeting.
We are letting the sun shine in so we can be held accountable. All DE schools should follow suit, ALL.
Mr. Young- none of your posts commented on that. Like I said- obviously the charter laws need some work. That is where accountability can be addressed. Obviously, there are holes in the system that need to be plugged. Unfortunately, CSD was “fleeced” for 13 mill because of it. I still find it hard to beleive that that kind of money can be unaccounted for in an organization that is run by public funds. It’s a shame that it took somethig like that for it to happen.
Hopefully, your last statement is correct. Hopefully all schools and school system will be held accountable not only for where their funds are spent but how their children are performing. It looks like the best place to start is at home. I wish you luck and continued success in your position with the board. You definately have your work cut out for you!
@JY – if you re-read my original post, you’ll note that I also said, “Not saying it’s not a legitimate issue, just not something to point at in isolation as indicative of a major issue with charter school oversight.” I also suggested a better issue to attack would be charter renewal for struggling charter schools. The odds of lack of BOD minutes being a smoking gun for financial impropriety at by and large underfunded charter schools is somewhere between slim and none. If we really want to talk about oversight, what about the over $1B in annual spending for public education in Delaware? Where are the checks and balances and accountability for that spending? How much of that spending goes to administrators versus actual teachers? What is that $1B buying us besides poorer performance relative to neighboring states? How do we measure the return on that annual $1B investment? Why chase after rabbits and squirrels when there’s an elephant right in front of you to hunt?
@Patriot Couldn’t agree more. But I think all aspects of transparency are legitimate and even critical parts of a highly functional system. Agree with the not in isolation aspect, but no school should duck the scrutiny, it is warranted and a matter of public trust. Not so sure about the underfunded aspect of any one group of schools. All schools in DE are underfunded in critical areas.
@Patriot—You hit the nail on the head–no oversight on how and where over $2 billion is used every year. I find it very troubling that DOE has not updated spending reports since 2009-2010.
I support sending all the state and federal funds earned by our children directly to our schools, “prohibiting” the use of local funds above the school level and funding district level employees 100% from state funds.
I believe we would get more effective use of funding if determined by the principals, teachers, other school employees and the parents. I think this would get the parents more involved with the school employees because they would have some input into allocation of funding.
Charter schools have the same task to perform as our regular schools yet they have no district level employees.
Keep the 19 school boards, keep the 19 districts and have the district/DOE determine the appropriate staffing in each district, this would provide some check and balance.
@jack- great point! I think you are 100% right about funding being determined by the principals, teachers, etc.. I think the actual school having some type of say in where there money is spent is a great idea! Of course, there needs to be some type of check and balance happening.
@Proud NCS Mon of Twe–I believe with teachers/parents/principals making the decisions together we would have a far better check and balance system than under the present system. When you have input into the decisions you have more responsibility. Question: Why don’t the school boards require the money go to the schools and require the schools/parents provide them recommendations?