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Lowell Board Meeting

Posted by on Sep 25, 2013 in Blog

Kelly and I attended the Lowell School Board Meeting on Monday. The meeting went very well. I was amazed at the professionalism displayed by Walt Hanline (their superintendent), Kay Graham (high school and Lundy principal) and their board members. It was a direct contrast to meetings I have attended under their previous administration. Kelly was also impressed with the meeting and the new direction they are taking. I’m going to do my best to convince other parents that they should start attending this meetings, so they can witness the change that is occurring.

During the meeting it was mentioned that their insurance company has notified them that they have to do something with the back wing at Lundy. It appears that this could be a win/win for both of us. Our occupancy can justify their expenses to fix the building, and it will enable us to be at a location that already has a gym, cafeteria, and outdoor play area.

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Continued work on LSD Policy and Requirements

Posted by on Sep 25, 2013 in Blog

I’ve continued my work on satisfying the Lowell specific requirements for our proposal. I’ve completed all of the sections except for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment and State and Federal Mandates/Special Education.

We took a second tour of Lundy on Monday with Laurie, Kirsten, Kelly, and Dave. Everyone agreed that if the building is not toxic and the roof doesn’t leak then it is a suitable location for us next year.

Lowell has a requirement for charter proposals that states “A description of the philosophy and mission of the public charter school [and how it differs from the district’s current program and philosophy]”. We have our philosophy and mission, but I can’t find Lowell’s on their web site. I emailed Walt and got the following response:
—–
We apparently do not have a strategic plan in place. Thus, the best I can do is to send to you the attached. FYI…In January, we will be developing a strategic plan for the District….we hope you will be part of the process.
—–

He also sent me two documents. One is the “Lowell School District #71 Superintendent Action Plan”. This document lists out the districts action plan and doesn’t necessarily address their program and philosophy.  The other document is the “Lowell School District 71 Goals 2012-2013”. This lists out their curriculum, facilities, and communication goals, but doesn’t specifically state their philosophy and mission. I’m going to note this in our proposal and we can always make an update if Lowell would like more specific details on how our differs from theirs.

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Lowell School District Policy and Requirements

Posted by on Sep 23, 2013 in Blog

I received a response from Walt about Lowell’s charter school policy.

My email to Walt and Dennis:

———-

Thanks for meeting with us last week and giving us a tour of Lundy. One of the steps for creating a charter school is to:

Obtain a copy of the sponsoring districts policy for accepting and processing charter school proposals

I’ve checked your web site and found the following documents.

Can you confirm that these docs represent your policy for accepting and processing charter school proposals?

Thanks,

———-

Here is his response:

———-

Jake

I am assuming that you have accessed the District Web Site and found the policies you noted.  With this in mind, I would also assume that policies represent the policies of the District and will, by necessity, be the policies that have to be applied in this process.

Walt

———-

All of his assumptions are correct, so we will go forward with the two policies listed in my email being the districts policy for accepting and processing charter school proposals. I’ve cross referenced our proposal and Lowell’s policy. There are two sections that we haven’t already satisfied in our proposal. #3 requires us to explain how our philosophy and mission differ from the district’s current program and philosophy. I looked on Lowell’s web site, but couldn’t find their philosophy and mission. I’ve emailed Walt asking him for their philosophy and mission. The other section is #27. I’m going to start working on adding the requirements listed in #27 to our proposal.

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Reviewing the list

Posted by on Sep 22, 2013 in Blog

I’m reviewing the Starting a Charter School list. For #9 “Contact your local school district representatives to discuss requirements, formats and timelines for your proposal.” this was completed with our meeting with Walt, Dennis, and Mike last week, but we haven’t “Obtained a copy of the their policy for accepting and processing charter school proposals”. I’m going to email Dennis and Walt to make sure the docs I found on their web site: http://www2.lowell.k12.or.us/district/policies/Policy%20LBE%20082806.pdf and http://www2.lowell.k12.or.us/district/policies/PolicyLBE-AR112210.pdf are the only policies they have regarding charter schools.

I’m proceeding with the assumption that those 2 docs are the policy docs until I hear otherwise from Dennis and Walt. I’ve added all of the requirements from LBE-AR to the Proposal page under the “Information Required by the Lowell School District” section. I’m now auditing the list to ensure all of the items are covered in our Proposal.

 

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Our Tour of Lundy Comments Off on Our Tour of Lundy

Our Tour of Lundy

Posted by on Sep 19, 2013 in Blog

Yesterday Dennis, Walt, Dave, and I toured the unused space in the back wing of Lundy. It’s a lot of space and it doesn’t look that bad. Lowell is currently using it for storage, so almost all of the classrooms are full of school equipment.

Here is a description of the space:

Description Dimensions Square Feet
Classroom #12 31′ X 21′ 651
Classroom #14 31′ X 21′ 651
Classroom #15 31′ X 21′ 651
Classroom #16 31′ X 21′ 651
Classroom #17 31′ X 21′ 651
Classroom #18 31′ X 21′ 651
Girls Bathroom 21′ X 10′ 210
Boys Bathroom 21′ X 10′ 210
Room A 15′ X 8′ 120
Room B (no windows) 21′ X 10′ 210
Bonus 1 21′ X 13′ 273
Bonus 2 21′ X 13′ 273
Bonus 3 21′ X 13′ 273
Hallway 1 46′ X 8.5′ NA
Hallway 2 112′ X 8.5′ NA
Total: 5,475

 

  • The girls bathroom has 7 stalls and 4 sinks.
  • The boys bathroom has 5 urinals, 3 stalls, and 2 sinks.
  • There is a 12′ wide hallway that runs the length of the building.

Proposed Plan

  • Lowell School District will be responsible for all exterior and grounds related improvements.
    • Building inspection.
    • Air quality inspection.
    • Heating and ventilation inspection.
    • Put a new roof on the building.
    • Reside the west wing of Lundy with Select Cedarmill 5.250″ HardiPlank.
    • Replace all windows.
    • Paint the west wing of Lundy. Paint color will be picked out by Mountain View Academy.
    • Remove all items that are currently being stored in the west wing.
    • Build a 16′ wide driveway and 50′ X 30′ gravel parking lot in the field north of the Lundy west wing.
    • This driveway needs to have street entrance from E. Main Street.
  • Mountain View Academy will be responsible for all interior improvements.
    • Replace missing ceiling tile (I counted less than 10).
    • Repair damage done by roof leaks. I’m not sure if there is any, but I want to make sure this is investigated and addressed.
    • Split the 6 classrooms into 12 – 15′ X 21′ classrooms.
    • Convert bonus spaces into 3 – 21′ X 13′ classrooms.

Building Configuration After MV Academy Changes

Description Dimensions Square Feet
Classroom 1 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 2 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 3 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 4 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 5 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 6 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 7 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 8 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 9 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 10 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 11 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 12 21′ X 15′ 315
Classroom 13 21′ X 13′ 273
Classroom 14 21′ X 13′ 273
Classroom 15 21′ X 13′ 273
Storage 21′ X 10′ 210
Computer Lab 15′ X 8′ 120
Boys Bathroom 21′ X 10′ 210
Girls Bathroom 21′ X 10′ 210
Total: 5,349

After these changes are completed, we would have a capacity of 15 teachers and 225 students. This will make it possible for us to offer our services to all of the K-8th grade children who are considered a resident of the Lowell School District. I’m really excited about this opportunity. I was a little worried that we would have to cap our enrollment and possibly have a lottery if we received more applications than our space could accommodate.

lundy-usage-smaller

  • Yellow – shared outdoor area
  • Green – shared library, cafeteria, and gym
  • Orange – Academy exclusive use
  • Blue – Academy exclusive driveway and parking
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Our Meeting With the Lowell School District

Posted by on Sep 19, 2013 in Blog

On Monday Laurie, Dionne, Dave, and I met with representatives from the Lowell School District about our charter school. The following people attended the meeting:

  • Walt Hanline – superintendent
  • Dennis McCallum – chairman of the board
  • Mike Galvin – board member
  • Kay Graham – high school principal

The meeting went very well. We all introduced ourselves discussed our past experiences and then he started talking about having us chartering with them. He and Dennis both believe that the board will approve our charter and they were both very interested in partnering with our group. We agreed that a partnership is the best approach for our students and the community as a whole. I handed out information about our charter, discussed our ideas, and the process of submitting and getting a charter proposal approved. They were very impressed with all of the work that we have done and our ideas on education.

Our plan is to submit the proposal on October 1st. This will be followed up by a community forum and a decision by the Lowell School Board. It was said more than once last night that the vote would be 5-0 in favor of our charter. This is very good news and I’m very confident that we will be up and running next September 🙂

We discussed in detail our location next year. The two options we talked about were using empty classrooms at Lundy or bringing in modular classrooms. Walt is not in favor of using empty classrooms at Lundy. He doesn’t want to pour money into a building that is very old and needs replaced. The modular classrooms would be placed in the empty corner field by the softball field. Dave and I are going to tour the empty classrooms at Lundy on Wednesday to see what it would take to make them useable.

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