I just installed WordPress for iOS, so I can update the site from my iPhone and iPAD 🙂
Learn MoreI talked to the Garlitz’s this weekend. They would like to help out with the charter school. Tammy mentioned that she worked with a group that attempted to start a Chinese Immersion charter school in Eugene. It will be a big help to have someone who has already been through the process working with us.
I’ve finished going through ORS Chapter 338. I added some additional information to the Proposal, Starting a Charter School, and State Requirements pages.
I’m going to install Jetpack on this site. It provides additional features such as liking posts, email subscriptions, and visitor stats.
Learn MoreOnce the proposal has been approved, the sponsor and the applicant develop a written charter that contains the provisions of the proposal that have been duly approved by the sponsor and the charter schools governing body. When developing the written charter the sponsor and the applicant may agree to change elements of the proposal prior to incorporating them into the charter. The charter will act as the legal authorization for the establishment of the public charter school.
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The State has set specific criteria that a school district must use when evaluating a proposal. The criteria is:
- The demonstrated, sustainable support for the public charter school by teachers, parents, students and other community members, including comments received at the public hearing.
- The demonstrated financial stability of the public charter school, including the demonstrated ability of the school to have a sound financial management system that is in place at the time the school begins operating and that meets the following requirements:
- Is compatible with the budget and accounting system of the sponsor.
- Complies with the requirements of the uniform budget and accounting system adopted by rule of the State Board of Education unders ORS 327.511.
- The capability of the applicant, in terms of support and planning, to provide comprehensive instructional programs to students pursuant to an approved proposal;
- The capability of the applicant, in terms of support and planning, to specifically provide, pursuant to an approved proposal, comprehensive instructional programs to students identified by the applicant as academically low achieving;
- The extent to which the proposal addresses the information required in ORS 338.045;
- Whether the value of the public charter school is outweighed by any directly identifiable, significant and adverse impact on the quality of the public education of students residing in the school district in which the public charter school will be located;
- Whether there are arrangements for any necessary special education and related services for children with disabilities pursuant to ORS 338.165;
- Whether there are alternative arrangements for students and for teachers and other school employees who choose not to attend or who choose not to be employed by the public charter school.
Progress – 338.055
Learn MoreORS 338.035 states that the proposal must be submitted to the school district within which the public charter school will be located. This puts a damper on our plans to approach the Lowell School District for sponsorship. If receiving sponsorship from Lowell forces our school to physically operate within their boundaries we might want to think of a different district. Real estate within their boundaries is very scarce and I would prefer to operate in an area with more options. This puts our strategy for ensuring all of the kids within our community get enrolled at risk. I don’t believe their will be a way to ensure admittance if we partner with another district.
The proposal must be submitted to the sponsoring school district at least 120 days prior to the date upon which the charter school would begin operating. If we wanted to open on 9/3/2013 we would need to submit our proposal on 5/6/2013.
We don’t have to have our federal nonprofit determination letter when we open. We just have to have submitted our application.
One or more, but not all, schools in a school district may be become a public charter school. A school in a school district that is composed of only one school may become a public charter school.
An approval cannot be given to a charter school proposal that authorizes the conversion of any private school that is tuition based to a public charter school.
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