Q & A

QUESTIONS ASKED OF ODE Charter School Specialist

(Responses recorded by Mikaila on Dec. 10th during a phone interview. Disclaimer: any inaccuracies in these responses are the responsibility of Mikaila not the ODE specialist)

Does our governance change for our District? How are transitions/departing board members elected?

The first thing to think about is there are two ways for the governance to go. One way is current board – be board of district and charter, this option is allowable by Oregon law. In effect, the board is authorizing with itself to become a charter.

Second option is to have a Board of Directors (charter board) of the charter school as a 501c3 and a separate School District board. With single school district, having two boards gets tricky. There are some single school school districts that have two boards – a charter board and a district board. Their reason for this is there is a federal definition – that doesn’t allow for a charter school board to be the same as the district board. To be competitive for grants at a federal level, for example charter school federal start up grants, they would check there is two boards not one.

Two examples in Oregon of single school school districts that have become public charter schools and established two boards are McKenzie River school district and Triangle Lake School. McKenzie School District just went through a 2 year collaborative community process to set up their charter and intentionally made two boards. This was in part so they would be eligible for federal grants. Triangle Lake School is another charter school and district, which have two boards and have kept it that way.

Oregon law does allow for the same board to run the charter school and district. By legal definition in Oregon, there is always a district and a school. To further clarify, there is no such thing as a “charter district”. There are schools in a district that become charter schools or new schools in a district established as a charter, they are charter schools in a district, not a charter district.

With single school school districts, there is one institutional school – one district, one school, and if that school turns into a public charter school, Oregon law allows the school board to oversee both the district and charter school. Legally on paper there is a difference – the school is now a charter and will follow charter school statutes and rules. Though in function, nothing changed about the district. If a district/school keeps one board for the district and charter, it’s possible that school board might form a committee related to the charter school. A charter school has to have a mission statement. The board could decide to form a committee that specifically oversees and helps with this mission, but the board does not have to have such a committee.

In Corbett’s case, there is the Corbett School District and this is a single school district. If the school becomes a public charter school, it will be a single charter school within a district. Corbett will ALWAYS have a publicly elected school board who oversees the district. The elections and board positions will be as we currently know it. Elections run by Multnomah County and within district boundaries. By legal definition in Oregon, there is always a district and a school. Corbett could choose to establish an additional board – a charter board that could be appointed to oversee the public charter school. There will never be just an appointed board for the Corbett School District if the school becomes a public charter. If Corbett does not plan to apply for federal grant money, then they don’t need two boards.

A charter school that is established as a 501c3 must have written by-laws. A founding board is usually involved with established the 501c3 status, and gets to vote on adding new members in the future. ODE advises charter schools to elect on some level instead of the internal appointments. ODE specialist knows this was a prior issue in Corbett. This issue can be avoided.

As a public charter school then,

• Then the charter school laws apply – open boundaries apply, similar but easier than open enrollment
• Can put a cap on student enrollment as a charter school, and can choose to be restrictive.
• A charter school must first give priority to students who live in the district boundary, once those students have been enrolled then the school can open to out of district student applications and enrollment.
• As a charter school, it becomes a “school of choice”. All students have to apply – even students who live within the district.
• This application can be made very simple. It is in effect an application of intent – “My child intends to enroll here”. Information on the application would include: age, address, name, and prior grade of the student. Then once the school does this and families are sending in applications, if the school has more students applying than spaces, then they have to do a lottery. Students in boundary get first priority in lottery, then out of district.
• What happens when someone/a student in the district doesn’t want to apply? There needs to be a plan for students who don’t want to attend from in-district. Some districts have set up inter district transfer with another district. Corbett would be responsible for transporting that student to edge of their boundary. The District could offer an alternative program placement. This type of situation doesn’t come up very often in these scenarios
• With one school charter district – can have cap on out-of-district students, not necessarily in district
• See Link to the list of laws that apply to charter school,
  • With this list it says these are the laws charter school must follow, and then you infer all the other laws do not apply.
  • School will still have state assessments, and content standards
  • The main flexibilities are – can hire registered teachers, teachers who don’t have teacher corporation background, still have to meet registry standards.
  • All teachers still go through TSPC for fingerprints and background check, but don’t have to have educational background.
  • Have more flexibility in hiring experience –based teacher – such as an artist from the area.
  • Teacher union will likely will have opinion on this
  • Don’t have to follow the adopted material requirement for instructional material. District will still have to go through it’s process with the law for curriculum, can use things that are not on the state approved list – could be good thing or not depending on what community wants – allows for more flexibility.
  • All federal law still apply
• All of a sudden there may be some weird things – Division 22 assurances still have to do, but have some flexibility as charter school. (Recommends talking to other districts about how they have navigated this.)
• These types of public charter school programs in OR have been around for 18 years.

How do charter districts/charter district boards set the size/population limits of the school? Or population targets of the school if Corbett School District were to increase or decrease from its current size of 1,222 students as a charter district?

• A policy
• Look at some other districts to see what they have actually have done
• Look at budget, facility size – what do you anticipate with real estate over the next five years in the area
• Best practice for first charter contract to be 5 years, and every 5 years have to re-evaluate whether to stay a charter school or not
• Document justification for the size set– could be written into a charter contract.
• Look for flexibility piece from other schools
• Corbett is unique in that currently the student population is about 50% out-of-district students, and this is part of why the district and board are looking into the charter options. Most other districts have converted because they were facing declining populations.
• A policy could say – only enroll in at the kindergarten level for out of district enrollment – would have to be transparent – community has to understand this decision and policy if it’s what the school/board want to do. If community can go through the process and understand, then they are more likely to support the policy.
• Talk to McKenzie River School for this process about involving the community, ODE specialist met with them over the two year process they recently completed.

Does the funding change if we go to a Charter District?

• No
• ADM and the money associated with district per student doesn’t change
• What does change is if you have separate boards (a district board and a charter board), the district has to send money to the other board to pay for the charter. By contract, the charter will have its own budget. There will be something that says how much money does the charter board get to operate the charter. Can contract back to the district for services like transportation.
• District gets 100% of funding when claim a student
  • Ex. Portland Public Schools and charter schools –
  • By law the district gets to withhold funds to be district, and school gets money to operate.
  • 95% of the 100% for a 9 – 12 school; and 80% of the 100% for K – 12 : these are the minimum thresholds.

Can enrollment be cut immediately?

No, they are yours until they choose to leave.

Can the District commit to a Charter then back-out?

• If they approve an application for a charter school to start, the next phase is a charter contract. If they cannot execute the charter contract, then they’d have to go back and re-evaluate.
• There would have to some substantive reason to not approve based on charter law
• School board could decide not to keep operating as a charter school anymore – there is criteria for termination or non-renewal. If decision is made, they should tie it to that law.
  • Example: Portland Public Schools cannot close the charter school for random reason. A district must have legal reason to close a charter school.
  • A charter school board can at anytime – stop operating as a charter school at the end of a semester and or end of school year. They have to give notice to the district. This decision does not have to be based on law.

What is the likelihood of charter law changing on the State level in the foreseeable future?

• Highly likely –
• Charter school law changes every single legislative session – sometimes dramatic, sometimes not
• Don’t foresee any dramatic changes in the foreseeable future
• Most charter schools have seen small tweaks, last large changes made to charter district law were in 2013
  • Example of last session – students who are attending a charter school – have access by law to interscholastic activity at their neighborhood. Sports, choir,
    • How does this affect OSAA question about 2A, 3A … (didn’t know – question for OSAA)

Application process –

• Typically other non-profit board would come together to write something – and going through process to become 501c3
• Different option is a community process - Example: Mckenzie River School – collective community process

Charter contract process-

• Board negotiate charter contract with themselves
• Specifics of who is responsible for what – that will be in the charter contract
• Probably working with OSBA