Mike Fedewa

JoAnne Woodard

John Geil

John Crowder

Nancy Farmer

Sandy Carmany

Ben Currin

Kate Alice Dunaway

Richard Clontz

Tannis Nelson

Tony Cozart

Kathy Taft, SBE

Zoe Locklear, Associate Superintendent, LDSS

Jackie W. Jenkins, Consultant, Office of Charter Schools

Carl F. Pridgen, Consultant, Office of Charter Schools

Paul LeSeiur, Director, School Business

Jim Knight, Asst. Director, School Business

A motion was made and seconded to approve the draft minutes of the December 11, 2004 Charter School Advisory Committee Meeting. The motion passed.

Remarks

Dr. Zoe Locklear, Associate Superintendent, Leadership Development, and Special Services updated the Committee on the status of the process for filling the Director of Charter Schools. She reported that the interview process is moving along nicely. Dr. Locklear reported that the interview team has conducted four interviews as of March 11^th and has four additional interviews to complete. The interview team consists of Mr. Paul LeSieur, DPI, Ms. Kate Alice Dunaway, Mr. Mike Fedewa, Dr. Tony Cozart, all CSAC members, and Dr. Locklear.

Dr. Locklear acknowledged the presence of former director, Dr. Otho Tucker and invited him to make remarks. Dr. Tucker expressed his admiration for the Office of Charter Schools staff members who preceded him. He also expressed his pleasure with having served as a member of the NC CSAC as the Committee always sought to do what was best for charter schools and the education of children in charter schools.

Dr. Jackie W. Jenkins, Consultant, Office of Charter Schools along with Ms. Kathy Taft, SBE, Dr. Zoe W. Locklear, and Chairman Fedewa presented initial Charters to the following four schools:

Carolina International School – Cabarrus County

Kinston Charter Academy – Lenoir County

Children’s Community School – Mecklenburg/Charlotte

PACE Academy – Orange/Chapel-Hill-Carrboro.

SBE

New Test for Prospective Teachers

Ms. Kathy Taft, SBE shared the update regarding charter school items that were presented to the State Board of Education in March. Her report included the following:

The SBE approved item EEO-1, Alternative Charter School Policy Changes. She complimented the Committee on its work in turning the alternative school policy into one that was simplified and easy to understand.

Item EEO-6, Charter School Federal Dissemination Grant Award was approved with action on first reading. These funds were awarded to eligible charter schools that have demonstrated the ability to conduct a successful charter school program and have been in operation for three consecutive years.

Item EEO-7, Recommendation for Charter Schools to Become Alternative Charter Schools.

Ms. Taft stated that this item received a lot of discussion during the March SBE meeting and is on the agenda for more discussion and action during the April meeting. Ms. Taft noted that the SBE is concerned about the newness of this item and wants to proceed with caution before taking action.

In closing, Ms. Taft extended thanks to the Committee on behalf of the SBE for the excellent work it does in sending forth recommendations that have been thoroughly examined and discussed. She noted that the Committee is listened to and its work is appreciated.

Dr. Zoe Locklear provided an update regarding the development of a new test for prospective elementary teachers. The SBE has authorized Dr. Kathy Sullivan, Director, Division of Human Resource Management to begin discussion with ETS (Educational Testing Service) and NES (National Evaluation Systems) to look at the current test North Carolina is using for licensure and to begin discussion of the development of a new test for teachers that is based specifically on NC teacher preparation standards.

In response to the question raised regarding the timeline for addressing this item, Dr. Locklear reported that the tentative timeline includes conversation with the companies and development to begin immediately. The Agency would like to see a pilot next school year, which may not happen depending on the status of the conversations and test development.

Dr. Locklear presented the 2004 SBE Legislative Policy Agenda with emphasis on the agenda item that addresses raising the cap on charter schools. This item was presented last year. Dr. Locklear shared with the Committee Dr. Mike Ward’s point that if the Legislature raises the cap the agency will need additional resources to meet the demands of the proposed increase.

Ms. Gail Scott Taylor, Consultant, Office of Charter Schools acknowledged the invitation from Bethel Hill Charter School in Person County to attend the April 4, 2004 dedication ceremony. The school has made many improvements since taking over the property where the school is located and will conduct an open house and dedication ceremony to celebrate the growth.

By-Laws Review

Allowable Growth

Mr. Paul LeSieur, Director, School Business presented an overview of concerns regarding allowable charter school growth as it relates to G.S.115C-238.29D(d) focusing specifically on planned growth as authorized in the charter. According to Mr. LeSieur the intent of the law has been misinterpreted. The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, Office of Financial and Business Services seeks to work with the General Assembly to construct the language that states the intent of the law. The intent of the law is to utilize the school’s actual enrollment to determine changes for the upcoming year.

Mr. LeSieur feels that the Agency now has sufficient charter school data to be able to make ADM projections based on the best one of two months Average Daily Membership (ADM) to see patterns. This data helps in developing budgets and meeting the needs of charter schools if additional funds are needed to meet the growth demands after the first month.

Mr. Le Sieur stated that the problem is that funding the school as per the planned growth authorized in the charter makes it difficult from a budgeting standpoint to allot funds to schools initially and have to take back the funds when the schools do not reach the projected enrollment.

Chairman Fedewa recommended that the Committee address this concern at the April 8, 2004 meeting once members have had a chance to review the law. Members will be asked to make recommendations for changes at the April 8^th CSAC meeting.

Financial Update

Rowan Academy

Mr. Paul LeSieur, Director School Business presented the financial update. As of March 9, 2004, the LGC has received 92 of the 94 audits that are due. East Winston Primary School and Imani Institute have not submitted audits to the LGC. The LGC has not recorded any extensions at this time. The audits are due October 31 but the LGC allows a 30-day grace period.

Mr. LeSieur’s report notes that eleven (11) schools have deficits and twelve (12) schools have not met Teacher Certification Requirements.

Mr. LeSieur presented a more detailed discussion of the status of Rowan Academy in Rowan County and Laurinburg Charter School in Scotland County.

In regards to Rowan Academy, the school ended the fiscal year with a deficit in excess of $120,000. The school has a judgment against it as a result of breaking a contract in 2002 for $66,337.00. As noted by the auditor, the school only has automobile insurance and not facility insurance. Therefore, the mortgage holder has begun foreclosure proceedings for lack of insurance. The school has used its state funds until the March allotment and did not have funds to meet the January and February payroll.

Representatives from Rowan Academy were present to address the concerns. Mr. T. Anthony Spearman, Board Chair and Mr. Achie Jarrell, Board Member responded to the concerns. Mr. Spearman said that benefactors have been identified who will pay the teachers the two (2) months of back salaries owed to them and donate funds to the school to payoff the mortgage. Mr. Spearman also stated that the school has an insurance policy, which is scheduled to be activated on Friday, March 12, 2004.

The Committee asked Rowan Academy representatives to provide substantive documentation that would support their efforts and ability to address the financial problems the school must currently resolve. The requested items are:

The Committee wanted immediate confirmation of the insurance on the facility and requested that the additional information be forwarded to the Office of Charter Schools by Thursday, April 1, 2004.

Ms. Tannis Nelson requested that the record show her recommendation that the Office of Charter Schools staff mail individual letters to each recipient named in the correspondence to ensure receipt.

Mr. Paul LeSieur presented the following issues concerning Laurinburg Charter School:

1. Enrollment of Students – SIMS shows that 2 students who were over 21 when school started were enrolled in the school,

2. Record keeping – Records are inadequate to determine which school the students are enrolled in, therefore verification of the ADM cannot be confirmed. In addition to attendance records, there is concerning regarding the lack of documentation to confirm student participation in off campus events (i.e. field trips, basketball games),

3. Teacher Contracts – School business staff has been unable to confirm whether teachers are employed with the charter school or the private school as teacher contracts do not exist. Without such records, Agency staff is unable to determine if charter school funds are being used to pay Institute staff.

Mr. Le Sieur noted that NC DPI School Business staff has visited the school on three separate occasions and based on the results of those visits staff will revisit the school. Per the financial report presented by Mr. LeSieur, the school has been issued a letter instructing them to correct student headcount for questioned cost of $352,480.00 by March 26, 2004. The school has not been issued a noncompliance warning letter at this time.

Dr. Paul Bidding, Laurinburg Charter School Board Chair acknowledged three issues the board and the school need to resolve:

1. Governance with specific attention devoted to record keeping. The school needs to develop a process for addressing the issues noted by Mr. LeSieur.

2. Finance – Dr .Bidding noted that the financial concerns is the overarching concern that impacts the other concerns,

3. Curriculum – The board and the charter school staff need to recognize that a problem exists and develop strategies to address and correct the problems.

 

Grade Expansion Request – Alpha Academy

Ms. Gail Scott Taylor, Consultant, Office of Charter Schools reviewed the request of Alpha Academy Charter School to expand its grade structure from 6-10 to 4-10. When the original request was presented during the December 11, 2003 CSAC Meeting the Committee did not approve or deny the request. Instead, the Committee asked the school to submit additional information that included the following:

(i) Long-range plans for the high school component; and

(ii) Plans for the elementary school model and the curriculum that will be used to implement the design.

Ms. Taylor also reminded the Committee that the school is currently working on its corrective action plan as required by the Charter Renewal process, to address the enrollment noncompliance issue at the time of renewal. The school was placed on a one-year delay to address this issue and is scheduled to present the status of the Corrective Action plan in September 2004. At that time, the Committee will make a recommendation regarding the school’s renewal status.

Mr. Eugene Slocumb, Executive Director of Alpha Academy explained that during the process of marketing the school as per the corrective action plan, he found that people from the community were expressing interest in attending the school if lower grades were offered. To address the interest expressed by community members, Mr. Slocumb sought to make those grades available to students.

He noted that at this time, he would like to place the high school component on hold and build the enrollment with students in grades 4-8. Mr. Slocumb said that he is aware of the school’s enrollment of 57 students, but prefers offering a high quality program to interested students rather than thereby potentially attracting students without a strong work ethic. According to Mr. Slocumb, if he had maintained the high school component, he would have more than the 65 students needed to meet the charter renewal criteria. However, he questioned whether the school would have performed as well on the end-of-grade tests.

Dr. Nancy Farmer asked for details regarding the school’s plans for the high school component as well as plans to address other areas of the curriculum as only the core subject areas were presented for consideration. Mr. Slocumb reiterated the desire to build quality high school program over time, but at this point, as noted in his report, it would not be in the best interest of students to offer a program without the proper resources and services available. The school does plan to teach the non core subjects.

Ms. Tannis Nelson stated that she felt that once the school has met the requirements of its corrective action plan representatives could come back to the Committee to present the grade change request.

Chairman Fedewa noted that adding additional grades is a substantive change in the charter and expressed his concern about approving such a request while a school is working on a corrective action plan to address a charter renewal concern.

He acknowledged as pointed out by Dr. JoAnne Woodard that the school has demonstrated success as indicated by the End-of-Grade test scores, and acknowledged that adding grades could be a reasonable strategy for recruiting additional students. However, at this time, Alpha Academy needs to focus on addressing the concern of enrollment noncompliance that caused the school to be placed on a one year renewal delay.

Mr. Simon Johnson suggested that Mr. Slocumb provide documentation from the community that supports the request for the grades 4-5.

Chairman Fedewa noted that the Committee had two options, to approve the grade expansion request for 2004-05 or not approve the request. A motion was made and seconded to approve the grade expansion request. After further discussion, Mr. Slocumb was reminded that he could not recruit for grades for the 2003-04 school year, as the SBE has not approved the grade expansion.

The motion to recommend to the SBE approval of the request to expand the grades to from 6-10 to 4-10 passed with a vote of 8 for the motion and 4 against the motion. The motion carried.

New Century Charter

New Century Charter School submitted a request to relocate to Alamance County from Orange County. The school is currently located at 1315A New Hope Trace in Orange County and requests to move to the site formerly occupied by River Mill Academy in Saxapahaw located in Alamance County.

New Century Charter School representatives have met with Dr. James Merrill, Superintendent, Alamance County and noted that he was supportive of the school’s desire to move to Alamance County. New Century representatives asked him to submit an impact statement to the Office of Charter Schools.

Representatives also noted supported from several local Saxapahaw community groups.

A motion was made and seconded to recommend the relocation of New Century Charter School from Orange County to Alamance County pending a favorable response from Dr. James Merrill, Superintendent.

Application Process Review

Dr. Jackie W. Jenkins presented an overview of the process for application review and selection. Committee members were encouraged to read the application thoroughly with attention given to curriculum and the by-laws. If selected, applicants would have time to fine tune policies.

Chairman Fedewa cited attorney-client privilege as a need motion to go into closed session to consult with Attorney Laura Crumpler. A motion was made and seconded to hold a closed session to discuss matters with the attorney. The motion passed.