In The Matter Of: DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION CHARTER AUTHORIZING PANEL December 17, 2019 Sharon K. Hill, CCR (501) 680-0888 Original File CAP - 12-17-19.prn Min-U-Script® with Word Index 1 ARKANSAS DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION CHARTER AUTHORIZING PANEL DECEMBER 17, 2019 A P P E A R A N C E S PANEL MEMBERS: DR. IVY PFEFFER Chairperson/DESE Deputy Commissioner MR. GREG ROGERS DESE Asst. Commissioner - Fiscal and Admin. Services MR. MIKE WILSON Attorney & Education Advocate MR. PHIL BALDWIN CEO, Citizens Bank DR. ANGELA KREMERS Deputy Director - CTE/Ark. Dept. of Career Ed. ADE LEGAL COUNSEL: MS. MARY CLAIRE HYATT DESE Attorney ALSO APPEARING: MS. TRACY WEBB DESE Coordinator of Monitoring and Systems Support MS. KELLY McLAUGHLIN DESE Public School Program Advisor LOCATION: ARKANSAS DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION - Auditorium #4 Capitol Mall Little Rock, Arkansas TIME: 9:06 a.m. - 2:47 p.m. Sharon K. Hill, CCR (501) 680-0888 2 I N D E X Page Preliminary Matters. 3 Consent Agenda . 3 A-1: Siloam Springs . 4 A-2: Fountain Lake Charter High School . 43 A-3: Mountain Home HS Career Academies . 78 A-4: Osceola STEM Charter . 106 B-1: Southside High School . 150 B-2: Academics Plus Charter Schools . 179 Adjournment . 229 Court Reporter's Certificate . 233 E X H I B I T S A-3: MOUNTAIN HOME HS CAREER ACADEMIES EXHIBIT ONE (1) Mission Statement, ReVisioning, and Career and Life Readiness Definition EXHIBIT TWO (2) MHPS Pathways Crosswalk Handout B-2: ACADEMICS PLUS CHARTER SCHOOLS EXHIBIT ONE (1) Letters of Support Sharon K. Hill, CCR (501) 680-0888 - December 17, 2019 3 1 P R O C E E D I N G S 2 CHAIRMAN PFEFFER: Good morning. We're going to 3 call the December 17, 2019 Charter Authorizing Panel 4 to order. I want to welcome everyone here today. My 5 name is Ivy Pfeffer; I'm the Chair of the Charter 6 Authorizing Panel. And we've got a little bit 7 smaller number today, but we do have four members of 8 our Charter Authorizing Panel here and so we can go 9 ahead and proceed. Mr. Greg Rogers will be joining 10 us later, but we'll just pick him up on the next 11 agenda items after he gets here. 12 I would like for you to check your cell phone 13 devices to make sure they have been silenced. 14 And, Ms. Sharon Hill, we want to welcome you 15 here, our court reporter. She will be providing a 16 transcript of the meeting and it will also be posted 17 on the DESE website. Since she is doing this we ask 18 that anyone who's going to be speaking today speak 19 clearly in the microphone so that we can get it 20 recorded and also so our viewing audience can be 21 watching via live-stream. 22 CONSENT AGENDA 23 CHAIRMAN PFEFFER: So we'll go ahead and begin 24 this morning with our Consent Agenda. And we have 25 our meeting minutes and also the meeting schedule on Sharon K. Hill, CCR (501) 680-0888 - December 17, 2019 4 1 the Consent Agenda. So if you've had time to review 2 that, and if we're ready for a motion, I'll entertain 3 a motion. 4 MR. WILSON: Madam Chair, I move the adoption of 5 the entire Consent Agenda, both items, if that's 6 proper. 7 CHAIRMAN PFEFFER: Okay. We have a motion to 8 approve our Consent Agenda. 9 DR. KREMERS: Second. 10 CHAIRMAN PFEFFER: And a second. 11 All those in favor? 12 (UNANIMOUS CHORUS OF AYES) 13 CHAIRMAN PFEFFER: Okay. And so the Consent 14 Agenda is approved, and we can move on with our 15 Action Agenda. 16 A-1: HEARING FOR DISTRICT CONVERSION PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL 17 RENEWAL APPLICATION - SILOAM SPRINGS 18 CHAIRMAN PFEFFER: So the first item is a 19 hearing for our public charter school renewals, and 20 the first district is Siloam Springs. And, Ms. 21 McLaughlin, will you introduce that for us? 22 MS. McLAUGHLIN: Good morning. Kelly 23 McLaughlin, Charter Office. 24 We have Siloam Springs High School. They are a 25 district conversion charter that was initially Sharon K. Hill, CCR (501) 680-0888 - December 17, 2019 5 1 authorized on November 19, 2014. The charter is 2 approved to serve students in grades 9-12 with a 3 maximum enrollment of 1600. 4 We have representatives from the Siloam Springs 5 School District that are appearing before the Charter 6 Authorizing Panel to request a renewal of the current 7 charter through June 30, 2026. Mr. Jody Wiggins, 8 superintendent, Rob Lindley, high school principal, 9 and Jerrie Price, high school assistant principal are 10 here to make the presentation. And you will want to 11 swear them in. They will have 20 minutes to make 12 their presentation. If there is no opposition, they 13 will have an additional 5 minutes. And then that 14 will be followed up with your questions and answers. 15 CHAIRMAN PFEFFER: Okay. All right. So if all 16 the representatives of the charter and anyone 17 speaking in opposition please stand to receive the 18 oath. You can come on up here because y'all will 19 probably want to stay near the front. All right. If 20 you will raise your right hand -- do you swear or 21 affirm that the testimony you're about to give shall 22 be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the 23 truth? 24 (ALL SPEAKERS ANSWERED AFFIRMATIVELY) 25 CHAIRMAN PFEFFER: Okay. So please state your Sharon K. Hill, CCR (501) 680-0888 - December 17, 2019 6 1 name for the record as you speak, and you're 2 recognized and we'll go ahead and get started. You 3 have 20 minutes. 4 SUPT. WIGGINS: Good morning. I would like to 5 thank the Panel for allowing us to come down and 6 present this morning. Rob Lindley is our high school 7 principal, Jerrie Price is our assistant principal at 8 the high school, and they'll be doing most of the 9 presentation. 10 I would just like to say at the beginning that 11 five years ago we came down and asked for our 12 original charter because of a need in our community. 13 And that need had been presented to us by the 14 Coalition of Industry Leaders and our Chamber of 15 Commerce, and it was centered around CTE, career and 16 technical education specifically, industrial 17 maintenance program of study. And so we started 18 there and have grown that, and I think Jerrie is 19 going to expand upon that quite a bit. But I want to 20 thank you for the original charter and I want to 21 thank you for this opportunity. And I'll turn it 22 over to Jerrie. 23 MS. PRICE: Good morning. I'm Jerrie Price. I 24 am the assistant principal at Siloam Springs and I'll 25 be doing the majority of our presentation this Sharon K. Hill, CCR (501) 680-0888 - December 17, 2019 7 1 morning. I do want to thank you for the opportunity 2 to tell our story, and that is what we feel that this 3 is; it really is an opportunity for us to tell a 4 little bit about who we are and kind of what our 5 goals are and what we hope to do in the future. 6 At any point that you tell your story hopefully 7 most of it is positive but you have some things that 8 you're working on. And so in our presentation today 9 we hope to present to you the things that we've done 10 in the past five years under the charter that we were 11 granted, and then look at the things that we need to 12 do better as we move forward, as well as things that 13 we want to iterate on as in repeat and do even more 14 of the work that we're doing in our community. 15 I'd like to begin just with a review of our 16 charter of the last five years. And the things that 17 we're going to highlight here are the types of 18 program that we are typical for in Siloam Springs, 19 which are just partnerships between us and our 20 community that kind of marry our community needs with 21 the skills of our students to bring together to a 22 place where our kids are getting real-life 23 experiences that are going to lead to careers in our 24 community that are valued and needed. With this, 25 that partnership and that rich history is really how Sharon K. Hill, CCR (501) 680-0888 - December 17, 2019 8 1 we developed all of our programs. 2 And I'm going to start with our Industrial 3 Maintenance program, which is kind of a Keystone 4 program for us at Siloam Springs. Our Industrial 5 Maintenance program, as Mr. Wiggins said, started 6 when our industries came to us and just asked for 7 help. They were really having a difficult time 8 getting skilled labor within the different plants and 9 industries in our region in the areas of maintenance 10 in particular; so we began the process of researching 11 and trying to develop a program that could meet that 12 need.