State Board of Education Topic Summary s18

STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION – TOPIC SUMMARY Topic: Coburg Community Charter School Waiver Request Date: March 8, 2012 Staff/Office: Susan Inman & Margaret Bates/Educational Improvement and Innovation Action Requested: Informational Only Adoption Later Adoption Adoption/Consent Agenda

ISSUE BEFORE THE BOARD: Whether the State Board of Education should approve a request for enrollment priority to be given to children living within the former attendance boundaries of the Coburg Elementary School.

BACKGROUND: The city of Coburg is approximately 8 miles from downtown Eugene. The Coburg School has been in the city of Coburg since 1865. During the 1960s Eugene School District annexed the Coburg School District. Eugene School District elected to close the Coburg Elementary School at the end of the 2010-11 school year. Coburg Community Charter School was approved to operate as a charter school starting in the 2011-12 school year. The school successfully opened in 2010 with a three year charter.

The Coburg Community Charter School initial charter began on July 1, 2011 with the Eugene School District. In the first year of operation the school enrolled 151 students. Going forward, they want to allow priority admission to be given for students who live within the previous Coburg Elementary attendance boundary for up to 50% of total enrollment. If, at the time of the lottery, the total percent of students enrolled from the previous year and siblings enrolling for the year is less than 50% of the school’s total enrollment, priority will be given to those students within the previous Coburg Elementary School attendance boundary up to 50%. Then priority would be for in-district students, then out-of-district students.

OAR 581-020-0341 Procedure to Waive Certain Provisions of the Charter School Law (1) A public charter school may petition the State Board of Education for a waiver of any provision of ORS 338. The written petition must specify the reason(s) the charter school is seeking the waiver and any other relevant information. (2) The public charter school must notify the sponsor if a waiver under this section is being considered. Waivers granted by the State Board to a charter school may require amending the charter under the provisions of OAR 581-020-0311(5). (3) The State Board of Education, upon receipt of a waiver petition, will review the petition and may grant the waiver upon a showing that approving the waiver would: (a) Promote the development of programs by providers; (b) Enhance the equitable access by underserved families to the public education of their choice; (c) Extend the equitable access to public support by all students; or (d) Permit the development of high quality programs of unusual cost.

This request is consistent with waiver criteria as stated in OAR 581-020-0341, however a charter school is sponsored by district and the intent is for all district students to be equally eligible for enrollment, thereby providing school choice to all students within the district. This waiver would possibly restrict access to the school for students that live in the district, but do not live within the city limits of Coburg.

This request was before the State Board of Education on January 19, 2012 for a first read and is now before the board for a decision.

POLICY QUESTIONS: Would this waiver set a precedent allowing charter schools to be more restrictive on enrollment?

STAFF RECOMMENDATION: The Superintendent and ODE staff recommend denial of the Coburg Community Charter School waiver request. ATTACHMENT – Waiver Request Letter

Attachment 2 Attachment 3 December 12, 2011 Coburg Elementary School, Library CCCS Meeting Minutes Called to order at 7:04

Board Members Present: Janel Mcpherson, Mindy Hayner, Leah Claypool, Will Lewis, Mary Bauer, Paul Randall

Staff Present: Molly Lajoie & Terry Hoagland

Public Comment: No Comments

Motion made by Mary Bauer to approve the agenda as revised. Seconded by Janel Mcpherson Approved Unanimously

Motion made by Paul Randall to approve board minutes as printed. Seconded by Mindy Hayner Approved Unanimously

New Business: Presentations to the board regarding traffic, transportation, and city infrastructure issues.

Petra Sheets, City Administrator & Planning Director, presented information on the Coburg Loop Project consisting of accessible walking/biking routes connecting areas of Coburg, the willingness of the city to assist with future planning for parking at the school, increase cost of water/sewer utilities.

The city engineer offered some possible future plans for dealing with parking and congestion. Any changes planned would need to include changes to current parking area due to regulations regarding backing out onto a county road. If there were to be an accident as a result of congestion then the county would apply pressure on the city to apply pressure on CCCS to make changes.

LTD point-to-point solutions representative presented information regarding the point to point program and possible uses for the program by CCCS families.

Robert Sutton, construction manager of the wastewater treatment plant, provided information regarding the timeline for the completion of the wastewater treatment plant.

Board Reports: Finance committee- Met last Wednesday. Committee explored the by-laws with attention to checks and balances. Committee will work to create a one page summary regarding the overall health of our finances.

Executive Director- Budget- profit and loss statement

Curriculum- Staff felt there were gaps in the reading program that needed to be filled. Staff chose to add “Storytown” for reading groups and leveled readers. This curriculum also provides teacher materials and resources. The cost was about $18,000. The funds were provided from the sub-grant funds with some funds left for intervention costs. This curriculum also aligns with the new state Core Standards. Attachment 4 ADM projections for district- projected at 95 percent Computer Lab- up and running. Currently being used. SPED- We currently have a permanent SPED teacher and a permanent IA is being sought (district employee)

Parent Club- Parent club meets on the 13th. Leadership committee will meet with Exec. Director in the morning before the meeting.

Vision & Mission meeting- Meeting focused on communication and connecting to community, establishing lines of communication.

Staff development- Staff handbook update (Fire Drill and Lockdown procedures)

Committees- We need to form some committees to handle ongoing issues.

Transportation committee, Parking committee, policy/by-law review committee (Mary Bauer), Lunch Program committee

Principal’s Report:  Student directories went out today.  Grandparents day was a big success.  Talk about trees presentation was very good and will hopefully be back next year.  Gingerbread house project went great and enjoyed by students.  CCCS had a float in the annual light parade with many students participating  Staff attended a 4j sponsored training targeted at TAG students on deep and complex icons  Staff members have developed several new committees: Social, Positive Behavior Support, TAG, Tech, Data Team, Reps for board and parent club meetings.  Staff Party – January 13th at 5:30 at the Coburg Grange. The board is invited.  Attendance Report: 94.9% attendance overall

Work Session December 5th:

Board worked on board goals both long term and short term -Student achievement at 95% -Community immersion -Character -Middle School worked on timeline, progress measures

Motion made by Mary Bauer to amend the previous motion to create a board committee on mission and vision to creating a non-board committee on mission and vision. Seconded by Janel Mcpherson Approved Unanimously

ODE Waiver Request: Our waiver request to give priority to students residing within the attendance boundary of the former Coburg Elementary has met with some confusion at ODE. The percentage of total enrollment that was included in the draft request has been interpreted as percentage of spaces available which is not what was intended. It is possible that a set number of slots would be preferable to a percentage

Attachment 5 based system. We will continue to confer with ODE regarding the best way to modify the request to meet our needs.

Motion made by Leah Claypool to submit a waiver request to set aside a portion of our available openings for students residing with the attendance boundary of the former Coburg Elementary. Seconded by Mindy Hayner Unanimously Approved.

Lottery Process: Discussion of sibling priority. In-district siblings will be given priority over out of district siblings. Schedule Changes:

Due to work conflicts of a board member and a staff member the meeting calendar will be adjusted as follows—January 10th, February 13th, March 13th.

Admission Process: Re-enrollment & sibling apps due by Feb. 3rd New apps accepted beginning Feb. 3rd. Informational meetings will be held on Feb. 6th at 9:00 a.m. & Feb. 8th at 6:30 p.m. New apps due by Feb. 17th. Lottery on Feb. 24th. Acceptance deadline March 9th. Student supply fee –Tabled 2012 Kinder enrichment – Tabled Community forum at United Methodist Church TBA Motion made by Paul Randall to adjourn. Seconded by Janel Mcpherson Approved unanimously

Meeting adjourned at 11:07. Submitted by Leah Claypool Approved by Board President ______Janel Mcpherson

Attachment 6 What the lottery would look like if we held it today:

Total possible enrollment for 2012-2013: 175

Re-enrolling students: 140

Siblings of Re-enrolling students: 15

Total number of students and siblings from within the former Coburg Elementary Boundary: 75

Percentage of students and siblings from within the former Coburg Elementary Boundary: 43%

Number of students from the lottery that would be given priority: 12

All “in-boundary” students would be flagged and drawn as part of the “in-district” lottery. The first 12 flagged students would be given priority placement. The rest of the students would remain in the order they were drawn and placed based upon space available.

Attachment 7