Blog

The proposal

Posted by on Apr 13, 2013 in Blog

We’ve completed all of the pre proposal steps on the Starting a Charter School page. I’ve created a new page named “Our Proposal”. This page will contain our proposal. I’m going to try to keep the actual proposal on the web site instead of creating a separate document.

Progress:

  • Started work on the school founders section, but I kept getting stuck. I’m going to wait till our next meeting and discuss this section with the group.
  • I put our name as Lorem Ipsum Academy until we make a decision on the name.
  • I copied the Governance Structure section from the 501(c)3 bylaws template on the IRS web site.
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Our School Name

Posted by on Apr 10, 2013 in Blog

During our last meeting we discussed the name of our school. We decided to change the name from “Fall Creek Charter” to something that isn’t tied to a city. The list of names from our email thread are:

Top 6

  • Mountain View Charter
    • mountainviewcharter.org – available
    • mountainviewschool.org – available
    • mountainviewacademy.org – taken
  • Heritage Charter
    • heritagecharter.org – taken
    • heritageschool.org – taken
    • heritageacademy.org – taken
  • River View Academy
    • riverviewcharter.org – available
    • riverviewschool.org – taken
    • riverviewacademy.org – taken
  • Lakeside Charter
    • lakesidecharter.org – available
    • lakesideschool.org – taken
    • lakesideacademy.org – taken
  • Provenance Charter
    • provenancecharter.org – available
    • provenanceschool.org – available
    • provenanceacademy.org – available
  • Three Rivers Charter
    • threeriverscharter.org – available
    • threeriversschool.org – taken
    • threeriversacademy.org – taken

The Rest

  • Lake View Charter
  • Lincoln Charter
  • Sapientia Charter
  • Prudentia Charter
  • Carpe Diem Charter
  • East Lane Charter
  • Timber Hills Charter
  • Fountain Charter
  • Riverside Academy
  • Oak (Oregon Academy for Kids) Academy
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Meeting with Paul Randall

Posted by on Apr 10, 2013 in Blog

Last Friday night Dionne, Laurie, and I met with Paul Randall. He is the former administrator at Ridgeline and has served on the board of the Coburg Charter. Here is what we learned.

  • We don’t have to bus the kids.
  • We might be able to provide guaranteed admittance to children of employees.
  • Most schools don’t fill up in year 1, so we shouldn’t be worried about our children having to participate in a lottery.
  • Start a new charter school instead of converting an existing public school. Conversion was used when their was seed money to start a charter.
  • Ask for and review the proposal handbook from the district we want to sponsor us.
  • It is ok to say “we follow our sponsoring districts policy” in our proposal.
  • Directors of existing charter schools will be more than happy to talk to us about our proposal and give us advice.
  • The Kings Valley Charter is a similar size to what we are thinking of. We should contact them.
  • All that we need is a sound proposal. The district will have a tough time disapproving a solid proposal. If they do the state will sponsor it.
  • The Coburg charter spends $50k on each teacher. That includes all costs associated with their employment.
  • The ADM/w funding we receive can be used for leasing building space.
  • He doesn’t think we will be able to afford to cap our class sizes at 15. 25 students per class is the norm for charter schools.
  • The state funding funnels through the sponsoring school district. If the state sponsors us the money will funnel through our local school district.
  • We will want to track all volunteer hours. The number of volunteers and their hours are required for most grants.
  • The number one reason that charter schools fail is finances.
  • We will want to sponsor community service activities for our school.
  • We should meet with the ODE charter school contact and develop a relationship with her.
  • We should give input into the superintendent hire.
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Preparing for our first meeting

Posted by on Apr 4, 2013 in Blog

Here are some questions I need to answer before our meeting tomorrow:

  • What is a virtual public charter school?
    • a public charter school that provides online courses
    • does not include a public charter school that primarily serves students in a physical location
  • How do you convert a portion of an existing public school?
    • I’m not sure. ORS 338.035 gives options on how a charter school may be established. Item (c) is From an existing public school or a portion of the school. It doesn’t provide any additional details.
  • Can “Starting a Charter School” #3 and #4 be merged?
    • I don’t think so. They are a little confusing, but #3 is your establishment option and #4 is the type of charter school being created. For example you could choose “a new public school” as your establishment option and “brick and mortar” or “virtual” as your type.
  • Can “Starting a Charter School” #11 subitems be removed since they also exist on the “Proposal” page.
    • Yes – I have removed them
  • Is the Starting a Charter School list complete?
    • No – it is not complete
  • Is the “State Requirements” page complete?
    • No – it still needs some work
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Charter School Stats

Posted by on Mar 27, 2013 in Blog

  • 123 charter schools in Oregon
  • Types:
    • 102 Brick & Mortar
    • 12 Virtual
    • 9 Hybrid
  • Sponsor Types:
    • 102 Multi-School School District
    • 16 Single School School District
    • 4 State

Hybrid: A brick and mortar charter school that also offers multiple online courses.

Multi-School District: A school district that has more than one school.

Single School District: A district where the only school in the district is a charter school.

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