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THE STATE
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY
OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234 |
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TO: |
EMSC-VESID Committee |
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FROM: |
James A. Kadamus |
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SUBJECT: |
Charter School Applications and Proposed Charters |
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DATE: |
December 5, 2005 |
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STRATEGIC
GOAL: |
Goals 1 and 2 |
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AUTHORIZATION(S): |
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SUMMARY
Issues for
Decision
Should the
Regents approve staff recommendations on the applications submitted to the Board
of Regents as the direct charter entity to establish the Elmwood Village Charter
School in Buffalo and the Harlem Success Charter School, New York City, and the
proposed charters for four schools which have been submitted by the Chancellor
of the New York City Public Schools?
Reason(s) for
Consideration
Required by State statute, Education Law 2852.
Proposed
Handling
These questions will come before the
EMSC-VESID Committee on December 8, 2005 for action. They will then come before the full
Board for final action on December 9, 2005.
Procedural
History
Under the
New York Charter Schools Act of 1998, the Board of Regents is authorized to make
recommendations regarding the renewal of existing charters, on applications
submitted directly to it as a charter entity, and on proposed charters submitted
by another charter entity.
Upon receipt of an application for renewal or for the establishment of a
new charter school, or receipt of a proposed charter from another charter
entity, the Board of Regents shall review such applications and proposed
charters in accordance with the standards set forth in the Charter Schools Act.
Background
Information
We have received two applications to
establish a new charter school as a direct applicant to the Board of
Regents. The applications are
for:
§
Harlem Success
Charter School, New York City
§
Elmwood
Village Charter School, Buffalo
The Elmwood Village Charter School would be
located in the Elmwood Village section of Buffalo. It will serve 125 students in grades K-4
during its first year, and expand to serve 175 students in grades K-6 by the
third year of its charter.
It will integrate the arts and humanities and technology. Its
instructional program will be modeled upon that of the Tapestry Charter School,
also in Buffalo. Multi-age
classroom groupings, based upon identified student learning needs, will be a
part of the program. There will be
no management partner.
The Harlem Success Charter School (HSCS)
would be located in the Harlem section of
Manhattan in New York City. Success
for All Foundation, Inc. will serve as the School’s institutional partner. It
will serve 155 students in kindergarten and first grade during its first year,
and expand to serve 475 students in grades K-5 by the fifth year of its
charter. HSCS intends to implement
New York State curriculum using the Success for All school educational
program. The program at the School
is to feature cross-curricular, theme-based instruction; reading and writing
across the curriculum; technology integration; a focus on community resources;
and character growth and teamwork.
We also have four proposed charters from the Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools. The Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education (“the Chancellor”) approved these applications for the following schools and submitted a proposed charter to the Board of Regents in October 2005. Under the provisions of Education Law §2852, the Board of Regents must either approve the proposed charter or return it to the Chancellor for reconsideration with their written comments and recommendations. The proposed charters are for:
§
Community
Roots Charter School
§
Democracy
Preparatory Charter School
§
East New York
Preparatory Charter School
§
South Bronx
Classical Charter School
The Community Roots Charter School would be
located in the Fort Greene section of Brooklyn. It will serve 100 students in grades K-1
during its first year and expand to serve 300 students in grades K-5 by the
fifth year of its charter. The
instructional program provides an integrated studies curriculum linking reading,
writing, social studies, geography, the arts, math, technology and science. The School will incorporate elements of
backward design and multiple intelligences research for purposes of improving
teaching and assessment. The
Brooklyn Academy of Music will be the institutional
partner.
The Democracy Preparatory Charter School
would be located in the Harlem section of Manhattan in New York City. The School will maintain a partnership
with Democracy Builders and Building Excellent Schools. It will serve 135 students in
grade 6 during its first year, and expand to serve 518 students in grades 6-10
by the fifth year of its charter.
The School intends to “provide a
rigorous academic program focused on the knowledge, skills and character
necessary to master core academic subjects in preparation for success in college
and in citizenship.” It will have
an extended day. The School intends
to implement an inclusive, heterogeneous educational model to serve all
students.
The East New York Preparatory Charter School
would be located in the East New York section of Brooklyn. It will serve 100 students in grades K-1
during its first year and expand to serve 381 students in grades K-5 by the
fifth year of its charter. The
School’s founder is a fellow of the Building Excellent Schools organization
based in Boston. The instructional
program emphasizes literacy and numeracy, high expectations for all students,
recruiting and retaining master teachers and using research-based
curricula. There will be no
management partner.
The South Bronx Classical Charter School would be located in New York City CSD 7/Region 9 or CSD 9/Region 1. It would serve 120 students in grades K-1, and it has no institutional partner or management company. By its fifth year, the School would serve 360 students in grades K-5. The applicant, who is also the proposed school leader, was a fellow with Building Excellent Schools, a national non-profit organization that trains and supports individuals and groups in designing and leading urban charter schools.
The Chancellor of the New York City
Department of Education had submitted applications in October 2005 for six
additional proposed charters for action by the Regents at their December
meeting. On December 5, we received
letters requesting that action for the following schools be postponed until the
January Regents meeting:
·
Achievement
First Endeavor Charter School, New York City
·
Hyde
Leadership Charter School, New York City
·
International
Leadership Charter School, New York City
·
Lower East
Side Charter School for Leadership Excellence, New York
City
·
Riverview
Lighthouse Charter School, New York City
·
Ross Global
Academy Charter School, New York City
The following table summarizes the number of
new charters that may still be issued by charter entities in New
York:
Charter
Entity |
SUNY Trustees |
All Other Charter
Entities |
|
|
Remaining against statutory
ceiling |
7 |
10 |
|
Recommendation
Staff recommend that the Board of Regents take the following actions:
VOTED: That the Board of Regents approve the following applications:
§ Harlem Success Charter School, New York City
VOTED: That the Board of Regents deny the following applications:
§ Elmwood Village Charter School, Buffalo
VOTED: That the Board of Regents approve the following proposed charters:
§ Community Roots Charter School, New York City
§ Democracy Preparatory Charter School, New York City
§ East New York Preparatory Charter School, New York City
§ South Bronx Classical Charter School, New York City
Timetable for
Implementation
The Regents action will become effective on
December 9, 2005.
Summary of Proposed
Charter
Summary of Applicant
Information
Name of Proposed Charter School: Harlem Success
Charter School (HSCS)
Address: To be
determined
Applicant(s): John Petry
Anticipated Opening Date: September 5, 2006
District of Location: New York City – CSD 5/Region
10
Charter Entity:
Board of Regents
Institutional Partner(s): Success for All Foundation, Inc.
(SFA)
Management Partner(s): None
Grades Served: K – 1 (K – 5)
Projected Enrollment: 155
(475)
Proposed Charter
Highlights
Applicant(s)
Institutional
Partner(s)
The institutional partner, Success for All
Foundation, Inc., will assist HSCS in fulfilling its overarching goal to improve
student learning and achievement.
SFA is a not-for-profit organization that provides professional
development services and materials for comprehensive school reform and
instructional programs. SFA
“embraces the philosophy that all children can learn and that schools can ensure
that virtually all children, especially those at risk, will learn to read and
write.” The partner’s role will be strictly supportive. SFA will not play any
role in the management of HSCS. SFA
intends to provide HSCS with research-based curriculum materials, professional
development in instructional strategies and in the use of assessment data to
guide instruction, on-going coaching and technical support, Leadership Academy
training for administrative staff, assessment and data-monitoring tools,
classroom management techniques, a tutoring component which is to include
materials, training, and support, as well as on-going family involvement and
community support components. The
Chairman for SFA, Dr. Robert Slavin, will be on the Board of Trustees at the
HSCS.
Management
Partner(s)
None.
Curriculum/Assessment/Instruction
§ The Harlem Success
Charter School states its mission is, “To provide New York City elementary
students with the knowledge, skills, character, and disposition to meet and
exceed New York State standards and give them the resources to lead and succeed
in the school and community at large.”
§ HSCS intends to
implement New York State curriculum using the Success for All school educational
program.
§ The SFA program at
HSCS is to feature cross-curricular, theme-based instruction; reading and
writing across the curriculum; technology integration; a focus on community
resources; and character growth and teamwork.
§ The SFA program at
HSCS will include KinderCorner, Stepping Stones and Kinder Roots (the literacy
components of the kindergarten program), Reading Roots, Reading Wings, and Math
Wings.
§ Social skills and
conflict resolution will be taught through Getting Along Together and parental
and community involvement will be addressed through Solution
Teams.
§ HSCS will use a
longer school year of 185 days and a longer daily schedule from 8:00 a.m. – 3:30
p.m.
§ With the
anticipation of allowing additional time on core subjects, the academic program
at HSCS will include 100 minutes per day for English Language Arts (ELA), and 70
minutes per day for mathematics.
§ All core subjects at
HSCS will total more than 20 hours per week, including a foreign language
(Spanish).
§ HSCS will measure
active pedagogy by teaching reading and writing across the curriculum, using
regular and frequent assessment data from multiple measures, grouping students
for reading class according to instructional levels, offering cooperative
learning classrooms embedded throughout the program with focus on individual
accountability, equal opportunity for success, and team
recognition.
§ HSCS states, “Art
and music will meet weekly for all grades and follow the state standards and
performance indicators for instruction.
Physical Education will meet three times weekly for all
grades.”
§ Technology
instruction will be integrated into each of the core subject
areas.
§ Family and Consumer
Sciences (FCS) and Career Development and Occupational Studies (CDOS) will be
integrated into the Social Studies, Science and Physical Education
programs.
§ HSCS will mandate
targeted tutoring every morning for students who they deem to need the extra
tutoring, based on their performance on Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI)
assessments.
§ HSCS will educate
students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, with their
non-disabled peers to the extent appropriate and allowed by each student’s
individualized education plan (IEP) prepared by the Committee on Special
Education (CSE) of the student’s school district of residence and all applicable
federal laws, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA).
§ HSCS shall serve any
and all students with limited English proficiency using structured English
language immersion through the use of the School’s services and teaching
methods.
Governance
§ HSCS shall be
governed by a Board of Trustees with final authority for policy and operational
decisions of the School pursuant to Education Law
§2853(1)(f).
§ The Board
shall appoint a principal and delegate day-to-day administration and
decision-making to that individual.
The Principal shall oversee the overall operations of the School and
report directly to the Board.
§ Subject to
approval by the Board of Trustees, the Principal shall appoint a Business
Manager, who shall be responsible for the financial operations of the School and
will also appoint an Assistant Principal (by the third year of operation) who
shall assist the Principal in day-to-day academic concerns of the
School.
§ The number of
Trustees shall not be fewer than five (5) and shall not exceed eleven (11); in
addition, an ex officio seat is reserved for a parent of an enrolled student in
HSCS.
§ Trustees will
be elected to serve terms of three (3) years. All Trustees shall be eligible for
re-election.
§ The Board of
Trustees shall meet at least bi-monthly.
§ Robert Slavin,
Chairman of the SFA Foundation, which is partnering with HSCS, will recuse
himself during Board voting concerning the School’s relationship with
SFA.
§ HSCS plans for
and expects an active role for parents in the governance of the School; the
School will establish a Parent Association.
Students
§ HSCS will
serve 155 kindergarten and first grade students in the first year and 475
kindergarten through fifth graders in year five; each year the School will add
80 kindergarten students.
§ Kindergarten
students must turn 5 by December 1st of their kindergarten
year.
§ Each
kindergarten class will have 20 students; other grades will have a maximum of 25
students per class.
§ HSCS will not
provide an enrollment preference for students “at-risk” of academic failure
since the majority of students in Harlem fall into this category (based on
poverty, defined as qualifying for the federal free- and reduced-priced lunch
programs).
§ HSCS intends
to serve students with similar demographic profile as CSD 5; students attending
traditional public schools are predominantly African American (~69%) and Latino
(~29%).
§ The students
will be selected by a blind, random lottery. Preference will be given to students
living in the New York City School District. Students with siblings enrolled in the
School receive preference over waiting list candidates who do not have siblings
enrolled.
Budget/Facilities
§ HSCS plans to
lease space from an existing New York City Department of Education (DOE) school
facility with rent costs of $1 annually.
§ HSCS states,
“If HSCS needs to lease private space at any point during the terms of our
charter, the Board will aggressively conduct fund raising activities to cover
any potential costs, while it continues to look for suitable permanent space in
a District facility.”
Personnel
§ Iris Nelson,
the former principal of PS 65Q, will assume the role of founding principal at
HSCS.
§ HSCS intends
to hire school leaders and faculty who are willing to act not only as curricular
and subject-area specialists but also as “caring adult mentors and facilitators
of students’ understanding.”
§ In addition to
administrative staff, HSCS will employ the following staff: 7 general education
teachers (11, 16, 20 and 24 in years two through five, respectively), 1
assistant teacher (2 each in years three and four, and 3 in year five), 4 full
time specialty teachers (P.E., arts, music, Spanish; 6 and 7 in years four and
five, respectively), 1 special education teacher (2 year two and three, 3 each,
in years four and five).
Fiscal
Impact
§
When fully
enrolled with 475 students, HSCS will take .027% of the District’s budget (see
Potential Fiscal Impact Chart below).
§
Programmatic
and fiscal audits will comply with all requirements of public schools. The School will employ a New York State
licensed public accountant or certified public accountant to perform the fiscal
audit. In addition, the School will
ensure that the audit is conducted in accordance with Generally Accepted
Accounting Principles (GAAP) issued by the U.S. Comptroller
General.
Potential Fiscal Impact
of
Harlem Success Charter
School
(New York City CSD 5/Region 10-Central
Harlem/Manhattan)
|
School
Year |
Number of
Students |
Projected
Payment* |
Projected
Impact |
|
2005-06 |
155 |
$1537,593 |
.0085% |
|
2006-07 |
235 |
$2,436,093 |
.0131% |
|
2007-08 |
315 |
$3,412,344 |
.0178% |
|
2008-09 |
395 |
$4,471,525 |
.0227% |
|
2009-10 |
475 |
$5,619,122 |
.0277% |
*Assumes a
3 percent annual increase in the district’s budget from a 2004-2005 base of $17
billion and a 4.5 percent annual increase in the average expense per pupil, per
year from the 2004-2005 final average expense per pupil of
$9,084.
Community Support
§ HSCS has
collected 291 parent signatures from interested parents whose children will be
entering kindergarten and first grade in September 2006.
§ Letters of
support have been submitted from the following persons: David A. Paterson,
Senate Majority Leader; John M. Palmer, Harlem Hospital Center; Ruben Gonzales,
CEO, The Valley, Inc.
Recommendation
Approve the
application.
Reasons for Recommendation
1) The charter school described in the
application meets the requirements set out in Article 56 of the Education Law,
and all other applicable laws, rules, and regulations; (2) the applicants can
demonstrate the ability to operate the school in an educationally and fiscally
sound manner; and (3) granting the application is likely to improve student
learning and achievement and materially further the purposes set out in
subdivision two of section twenty-eight hundred fifty of Article 56 of the
Education Law.
New York State Education
Department
Summary of Proposed
Charter
Summary
of Applicant Information
Name of Proposed Charter
School: Elmwood Village Charter
School
Address:
To be determined
Applicant(s):
Mary Joan Barnes-Copolla, Marguerite Battaglia-Evans, Kerry Buell,
Elizabeth Evans, Greta Massetti, and Anne Wechsler.
Anticipated Opening Date:
September 2006
District of Location: Buffalo City School District
Charter Entity: Board of Regents
Institutional Partner(s):
None
Management Partner(s): None
Grades Served: K-4
(K-6)
Projected Enrollment: 125 (175)
Proposed
Charter Highlights
Applicants
Ms. Barnes-Copolla is the coordinator of the Special Education Training
and Resource Center for the Buffalo Public Schools. She is also an adjunct professor in the
Graduate Education Department of Canisius College.
Ms. Battaglia-Evans was until July 2004 the Special Education and Reading
Coordinator at the Enterprise Charter School in Buffalo.
Ms. Buell is a teacher at the Enterprise Charter School in
Buffalo.
Ms. Evans is the Technical Services Librarian at the Albright-Knox Art
Gallery Library in Buffalo.
Dr. Massetti is an Assistant Professor of
Psychology at the State University of New York at Buffalo.
Ms. Wechsler is a teacher at the Enterprise
Charter School in Buffalo.
Institutional/Management
Partner
None
Curriculum/Assessment/Instruction
§
The proposed
charter school will offer small class sizes (maximum of 25) in a multi-age
setting.
§
Multi-age
programs will be developed based upon identified needs rather than by
grade.
§
The multi-age
grouping presumes that students learn best through a process of social
interaction that allows them to alternate between the roles of mentor and
student in relation to their different-aged peers.
§
The proposed
charter school will implement the Responsive Classroom model as well as the
Cooperative Discipline model.
§
The proposed
charter school will use a combination of constructivist and systematic
approaches.
§
The proposed
charter school will draw upon the rich cultural, historic and educational
resources available in Buffalo and the region to enhance the School’s
educational program.
§
A focus of the
School will be social responsibility and community.
§
Each day will
start with a Morning Meeting on the classrooms. This is a daily routine that builds
community, creates a positive climate for learning, and reinforces academic and
social skills.
§
The school day
will run from 8:30AM – 3:30 PM.
Optional before- and after-school care is yet to be
determined.
§
Longer daily
periods are provided for in the core subjects of ELA and math, with tutoring and
enrichment opportunities.
§
Periods for
art, music, foreign languages, physical education, and technology are provided
on alternate days.
§
Project-based
learning, an interdisciplinary curriculum, and the integration of the arts are
hallmarks of the proposed educational program.
§
As a goal, the
proposed charter school projects that it will have a greater percentage of its
students score at Level 3 and Level 4 that its district of location for every
applicable New York State assessment, by its fourth operational year.
§
All New York
State assessments will be given.
§
The TerraNova
exams and the SAT-10 will also be given.
Governance
§
The Board of
Trustees will consist of seven persons who represent the areas of education,
finances, a founder, two parents, a community leader, and a local business
representative.
§
Trustees will
serve staggered three-year terms.
§
A PTA and
Board advisory committees will be established.
§
The School
will hire a director as its lead administrator.
Students
§
The proposed
charter school will open with 125 students in grades K-4, and expand to 175
students in grades K-6 by the third year of its charter, and remain at that
level for the duration.
§
The School
will have open enrollment.