Nov 20, 2019

November 19, 2019

Chairman Mickalson, Members of the Board and Dr. Trani,

Good evening,

Thank you for hosting the Public Charter Hearing in October. It was informative to hear testimonies of community members in support of and showing some reservation over moving forward with the charter application. As you prepare for the vote tonight on the completion of the charter application, I’d like to share a few thoughts for you to consider.

During the Public Hearing, an excerpt from Rob Saxton’s report was quoted directly for the Board and I’d like to bring the rest of that section into the conversation. On page 44 and 45 under the “Charter School Decision” section, he stated his opinion that “it would be much better for the District to sponsor a single school charter school beginning in the 2020-21 school year. [as opposed to facing the declining enrollment consequences of inaction]. He went onto say, “ This is a huge decision that should not be entered lightly.” He suggested it be a process informed by the work and recommendations made by the Vision and Values committee, and the Strategic Planning committee. Subsequently, he made recommendations about very specific conditions be in place if the District moves forward with charter decision:

“If the decision is made to move to a charter school, I recommend it only be with certain conditions. These conditions extend and offer detail to the agreements that create the covenant between the District and community in relationship to the charter school. The committee will need to create the exact agreements and detail in the charter, but true to my charge, I will make my recommendations here:

• The elected Corbett School Board contracts with itself as the Charter Board, effectively making them one in the same. In other words, Board members would live within Corbett district boundaries and would stand for election just as they do now. [We understand this is your plan to do so.]
• Precise student enrollment targets are set into the Charter for the next 13 years. some small variance might occur due to student decisions, but they would not be material (i.e. Plus or minus 25 students).
• A target percent of out-of-district students is set for each year with negligible variance.
• Little or no tangible separation exists between the current Corbett District and the charter (i.e. the school would not need or require a second or separate superintendent).
• The capacity for community involvement and opportunity for participation in the decision making process remains virtually unchanged as a result of Charter status.
• Values statements concerning the breadth and variety of school programming. “

While the Saxton report is certainly not the “constitution” of CSD, it is a document that many of us are familiar with and understand the core elements of the report. Additionally, the report has provided some common ground for parents, staff, students, teachers and community residents to talk about and come to areas of agreement.

As the Board moves forward with the charter application tonight and the subsequent step of writing the charter contract in coming months, please carry forward the elements of the recommendations from Rob Saxton in its completeness with an emphasis on forming a covenant between the community and school. Please keep pace and pull all these components together collectively. In doing this, we believe continued community support and a healthy collective compromise will result.

Specifically, it would inspire confidence and show proof of accountability if Resolutions were implemented in the December Board Meeting and written into the charter contract that affirm:

1. School population cap – this year’s beginning enrollment number of 1175 students.
2. Target population, target composition - a forecasted, desirable enrollment range which the Board can agree upon that is smaller than the population cap, constituting a composition that is 55% or more in-district students. Understandably, the target population and declining enrollment targets will require continued re-evaluation and thoughtful planning. We look to the Board, the Budget Committee and Administration to do this work through an open and transparent process.
3. Reduction of AP requirements for graduation - 3 or 4 required AP class rather than 8 for graduation.
4. Increase in CTE course/track offerings - create a trajectory and layout a plan of the programs for next year, while pursuing the employment of a qualified CTE program manager/teacher as soon as possible.

There is excitement and energy in the community about supporting the school in the further development of excellent CTE programming at the school, while maintaining academic excellence. We believe these offerings can be synergistic. We also believe in the skillful creativity of the teaching staff and administration to design and implement these possibilities for our student body, while also balancing the financial components of these programmatic changes. We encourage the District and Board to reach out to the community for their expertise and the resource opportunities present to begin creating strong, credible, industry standard CTE courses and partnerships as we move forward with this plan.

Thank you for your thoughtful consideration.

Mikaila Way, Brad Garrett & Jeff Aho