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Meeting of the Board of Regents | December 2008

Monday, December 1, 2008 - 9:20am

                                                                         NYSED Seal                                                                                                                                                                                        

 

THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234

TO:

FROM:

Johanna Duncan-Poitier

SUBJECT:

Charter Schools: Proposed Charter of The Academy Charter School

DATE:

December 11, 2008

STRATEGIC GOAL:

Goals 1 and 2

AUTHORIZATION(S):

 

SUMMARY

 

Issue for Decision

Should the Regents approve the staff’s recommendations concerning the proposed charter to establish The Academy Charter School (Hempstead)?

Reason(s) for Consideration

 

            Required by the State statute Education Law §2852.

Proposed Handling

This question will come before the EMSC Committee in December 2008 for action.  It will then come before the full Board for final action in December 2008.

Procedural History

            The New York Charter Schools Act of 1998 requires the Board of Regents to review, in accordance with the standards set forth in Education Law §2852(2), proposed charters, renewal charters and revisions to charters and renewal charters that have been approved and submitted by other charter entities.  The Board of Regents may either approve and issue a charter, renewal charter and/or revision as proposed by the charter entity, or return the same to the charter entity for reconsideration with written comments and recommendations.

Background Information

We received a proposed charter from the Trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY) for the establishment of the following charter school:

  • The Academy Charter School

 

The Academy Charter School (“the School”), with Victory Schools, Inc. as its management partner, would be located within the Hempstead Union Free School District. The School will open in September 2009.  Initially, the School will serve 168 students in kindergarten through second grade and grow to serve 336 students in grades K-5 by its fifth year of operation.

            The mission of The Academy Charter School is to offer an interdisciplinary curriculum in a technology rich environment that challenges students to explore connections across subjects and use experiential learning to bridge the gaps between theory and practice. In addition to core subjects, students will benefit from high expectations in physical education, health, and the arts. The School will focus on character development and community service will cultivate a student body poised to be active, engaged and responsible members of the community. The School will employ a committed staff whose teaching and high academic and behavioral expectations will promote the excellence the community’s children can achieve.  Students will leave from The Academy with the content mastery and life skills needed to move into the top five percent of their middle and high school classes.

 

Recommendation

VOTED:  That the Board of Regents approves and issues the charter of The Academy Charter School as proposed by the Trustees of the State University of New York, and issues a provisional charter to it for a term of 5 years, up through and including December 16, 2013.

Reasons for Recommendation

            (1) The charter school described in the proposed charter meets the requirements set out in Article 56 of the Education Law, and all other applicable laws, rules, and regulations; (2) the applicant can demonstrate the ability to operate the school in an educationally and fiscally sound manner; (3) approving and issuing the proposed charter 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; and (4) approving and issuing the proposed charter will have a significant educational benefit to the students expected to attend the proposed charter school. 

Timetable for Implementation

The Regents action for The Academy Charter School is effective immediately.


New York State Education Department

Summary of Proposed Charter

Name of Proposed Charter School: The Academy Charter School

Address: TBD

 

Lead Applicant(s):  Donna M. Douglas

Anticipated Opening Date: September, 2009

District of Location: Hempstead UFSD

Charter Entity: Trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY)

Institutional Partner(s):  N/A

Management Partner(s): Victory Schools, Inc.

Grades Served:                   2009-2010: K-2

2010-2011: K-3

2011-2012: K-4

2012-2013: K-5

2013-2014: K-5

Projected Enrollment:       2009-2010: 168

2010-2011: 240

2011-2012: 288

2012-2013: 336

2013-2014: 336

 

Proposed Charter Highlights

Applicants

                  The lead applicant is Ms. Donna Douglas.  The application describes Ms. Douglas as an experienced Executive with a comprehensive background in business, including banking and investments, and social services. She is currently the Founder/Director/Pastor of Calvary Tabernacle, Inc. in which she administers an annual budget of $1.2 million and manages church assets valued at $4.5 million.  Ms. Douglas is also the Founder/Chairperson of the Tri-State Music Association, Inc., which she established to empower youth and churches through music.  She has a BA in Economics and a BA in Christian Education and Biblical Studies.  

 

Institutional Partner

N/A

Management Partner

  • Victory Schools, Inc. (“Victory”) is a not-for-profit organization that has provided start-up and ongoing services to 20 charter schools in New York State, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, Illinois since 1999.  Victory has agreed to provide The Academy Charter School with a full range of management services which include day-to-day management and operation of the School, financial and accounting services, education and instructional support, and professional development. Victory provides services to 9 charter schools in the New York City area and to one charter school located in Albany, New York.  (See Attachment I related to the academic performance of Victory managed charter schools operating in New York State).

 

  • The applicants met with an existing charter school that is managed by Victory Schools, Inc., and  were impressed with Merrick Academy Charter School’s school climate, visually rich design, interaction between students and teachers, and student behavior—observations that mirror the applicant’s vision for The Academy Charter School.  

Curriculum/Assessment/Instruction

  • The School plans to enroll kindergarten through 5th grade students during the first five years of the charter and continue to grade 8 during the first three years of its charter renewal.
  • The School Principal will focus on creating a professional and collaborative learning community where all members are held accountable for their performance, and where students will respect themselves and respect others.
  • The School will focus on three areas of student growth that will enable them to be empower adults:  mastery of academic subjects, character development, and lifelong behavior of giving back to their community. 
  • The School will encourage and develop student creativity and resourcefulness to suggest and implement solutions.  Civic engagement will be a part of student consciousness from the primary grades.
  • The School will employ standards-based and research-proven curriculum with an emphasis on the core subject areas of English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. 
  • For ELA, the School will use a balanced literacy approach and focus on the fundamentals of reading, writing, listening, and speaking for 120 minutes of instruction for all students. The School will use the Scott Foresman Reading Street program, Great Source Writing Program, and grade level trade books and classroom libraries with authentic literature.
  • The School will implement instructional best practices including differentiated inquiry-based learning using a variety of assessments to measure on-going student progress. 
  • Technology and the Arts will be integrated and used across the Core Knowledge curriculum.
  • The applicant has provided an assurance that the School will provide instruction in each subject in the 7 general curriculum areas and 28 Learning Standards.
  • There are 183 days of instruction and the school day starts at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 4:00 p.m.

 

Governance

  • The number of Trustees shall not be fewer than nine (9) and shall not exceed thirteen (13).
  • Trustees will be elected to serve terms of five years dating from the day of their election and extending to the date of the annual meeting of the Trustees five years thereafter.  The President of the Parent-Teacher Organization (“PTO”) will be a voting Trustee for the length of his or her term as president of the PTO.
  • No more than 40 percent of trustees will be affiliated with any single entity.  No person affiliated with Victory Schools, Inc. will serve on the Board of Trustees.
  • Regular meetings of the Board of Trustees shall be monthly throughout the year and as appropriate over the summer as the Board determines.
  • The initial committees of the Board of Trustees shall be Executive Committee, Academic and Personnel Committee, Grievance Committee, and the Fundraising and Finance.
  • The officers of the Board of Trustees are Chairperson, Secretary, and Treasurer.

 

Students

  • Some concerns were raised regarding §2852(2)(d) of the Education Law, as amended by Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2007, which states that an application shall not be approved unless “in a school district where the total enrollment of resident students attending charter schools in the base year is greater than five percent of the total public school enrollment of the school district in the base year (i) granting the application would have a significant educational benefit to the students expected to attend the proposed charter school or (ii) the school district in which the charter school will be located consents to such application”.  

 

  • Based on data from the Hempstead UFSD, a total of 207 resident students attended a charter school in the base year (2007-2008), which represents 3.3 percent of the total district public school enrollment of 6,188 in the base year (2007-2008). 
  • The School expects the student body to reflect the student population of the Hempstead UFSD in which 52 percent of students are African-American; 46 percent are Hispanic or Latino; and 2 percent Asian or Other.  A total of 71 percent of the district’s public school children are eligible for the federal free/reduced lunch program.
  • The School will begin with two classes each of kindergarten and 1st grade and three classes of 2nd grade for a total of 168 students. 
  • In each subsequent year, The Academy Charter School will alternate between adding two and three classes of kindergarten (48 and 78 students respectively).
  • Class size will average 25 students.
  • The School will provide one lead teacher at each grade level, and one assistant teacher per class in grades K-1.
  • The School’s recruitment plan includes strategies to advertise widely to families from the community school district, including English Language Learners (ELL) and Students with Disabilities (SWD).
  • The School seeks to offer school choice in a community with substantial resources but where the school system is plagued by poor academic results, violence and low expectations.

 

Budget/Facilities

  • The School is currently seeking a facility to house the proposed charter school, and The Trustees of the State University of New York have directed staff at the Charter Schools Institute to work with the applicant to find a suitable location.
  • The School has developed comprehensive contingency plans in the event fund-raising targets are not met.  Targets have been set based on conservative estimates of previous campaigns operated by the management partner.
  • The School’s Year One (its opening year) anticipated revenue is $3,409,612 and will grow to $7,643,127 in Year Five.
  • The Year One budget anticipates total expenses of $3,120,063 in Year One and $6,790,993 by Year Five.
  • The School anticipates an ending fund balance of $289,549 at the end of Year One and $1,302,236 at the end of Year Five.
  • The School will place $75,000 in escrow to provide for dissolution fund.
  • The School will seek State Stimulus Grant (SSG) and the Charter Schools Program (CSP) Planning and Implementation grant.  The School conservatively assumes no funding from these sources.
  • The School ensures that it will perform all programmatic and fiscal audits annually as required by the New York State Charter Schools Act, in accordance with auditing standards and Government Auditing Standards issued by the Comptroller General of the United States.
  • The potential fiscal impact upon the District is represented below.  Please note that these projections are based upon several assumptions, which may or may not occur: that all existing or proposed charter schools will also exist in the next five years and serve the same grade levels as they do now; that the charter schools will be able to meet their projected maximum enrollment; that all students will come from Hempstead UFSD and no other districts; that all students will attend everyday for a 1.0 FTE; that the District’s budget will increase at the projected rate; that the per pupil payment will increase (and not decrease); and that the per pupil payment will increase at the projected rate.

 


Projected Fiscal Impact of

The Academy Charter School (Hempstead UFSD)

2009-10 through 2013-14

School

Year

Number of Students

Projected Impact

2009-2010

168

2.12%

2010-2011

240

3.08%

2011-2012

288

3.75%

2012-2013

336

4.43%

2013-2014

336

4.50%

 

Projected Fiscal Impact of

Evergreen Charter School (Hempstead UFSD)

2009-10 through 2013-14

School

Year

Number of Students

Projected Impact

2009-2010

100

1.26%

2010-2011

150

1.92%

2011-2012

200

2.60%

2012-2013

250

3.30%

2013-2014

300

4.00%

 

*Assumes a 3 percent annual increase in the District’s budget from the base of $150,616,862 in 2008-2009 and a 4.5 percent annual increase in the average expense per pupil per year.

 

 Personnel

  • During its first year, the School will employ one principal, a business manager, and an administrative assistant and one director of operations.  The School will employ an assistant principal and a second administrative assistant in its second year.
  • The School will employ the following staff in its first year of instruction: seven classroom teachers (20 in Year Five); one special educator (2.5 in Year Five); two special area teachers (3 in Year 5); and four teacher assistants (5 in Year Five)
  • In addition, in its first year of instruction, the School will employ a social worker/counselor part-time initially and 2 full-time by Year Five.
  • Staff will receive two weeks of intensive professional development in the summer prior to school opening and constant on-going professional development throughout the year. 
  • The School will dismiss students at 2:00 p.m. twice a month so that teachers may participate in additional professional development.
  • Victory Schools, Inc. will provide professional development through its agreement with the School; however, if Victory is unable to deliver a particular kind of professional development identified as necessary and appropriate for some or all teachers, the Trustees will set aside $26,450 in the first year for outside professional development and tuition reimbursement, (with an eight percent annual growth rate budgeted in subsequent years.

 

Community Support

  • The School provided signatures of parent support and evidence of student age, and/or grade level eligibility for enrollment to the School.
  • The School included letters of support in its application from the:  Honorable Roger H. Corbin, Nassau County Legislature, District 2 and Honorable Kevan M. Abrahams, Deputy Presiding Officer, Nassau County Legislature, District 1.
  • The Charter Schools Institute and the State Education Department sent notification letters to, and posted the notice on its website to inform, public and private schools in the county, including those in the Hempstead school district, of the proposed application to establish The Academy Charter School and inviting comments for the public hearing. 
  • The Hempstead UFSD held two public hearings: one on August 21, 2008 and another on September 18, 2008.  Both hearings were well attended by no less than 60 individuals combined as shown in the DVD recording submitted by the district.  Comments were evenly divided between those who support charter schools and those who do not support charter schools.  Some believe the district has made great strides in academic performance and some believe the district has not made great strides at all. 
  • Three letters written in opposition of charter schools were received from the Hempstead Hispanic Civic Association, the Hempstead School Administrator Association, and a representative of the Hempstead Classroom Teacher Association.

 


Attachment I:  Performance on ELA and Math State Assessments by all Charter Schools

In New York State Managed by Victory Schools, Inc.

 

Percent of Students Scoring At or Above Level 3 on State Exams

Charter School

2004-2005

2005-2006

2006-2007

2007-2008

 

Gr. 4

ELA

Gr. 4

MATH

3-8

ELA

3-8

MATH

3-8

ELA

3-8

MATH

3-8

ELA

3-8

MATH

 

Charter School of Education Excellence

 

 

32

34

46

53

56

77

Grand Concourse

 

 

53

80

87

93

78

95

Merrick Children’s Academy

 

 

 

 

56

85

66

82

New Covenant

39

75

27

38

35

56

47

71

Peninsula Preparatory

 

 

 

 

56

85

66

82

Roosevelt Children’s Academy

87

93

82

75

77

80

90

96

South Bronx Charter School for International Culture and the Arts

 

 

 

 

 

 

63

95

Sisulu-Walker Charter School

62

89

78

74

69

100

82

98