Charter School Oversight Committee - UNAPPROVED

Call to Order 2:07 pm

Committee Members:

Lynn Hohl, Chair - Present

Dan Castimore - Absent

Mike Illg - Present

Dave Jones - Present

Todd Hindman - Present

John DeVolld - Present

Cody McCanna - Present

Eric Waltenbaugh - Absent

Austin Stevenson - Absent

Dawn Grimm - Absent

Liz Hayes - Absent

Lynn send information to Ms. Tressler, the rest of the committee does not have the committee document to discuss. Lynn would like to add to approval of agenda to the agenda. Lynn would like the name of the committee to Charter School Oversight Committee. Discussion on making name of committee match was the State Statute says. If policy is to change, needs to go to Policy Committee. Lynn didn't have time to review feedback from committee - she has her own ideas. Lynn wants Charter Committee to review changes from Charter Schools. E6187 f Charter School Application - 5 to 10 year. Not to exceed 5 years for initial application and up to 10 for renewal. Bring back to Policy Committee.

Fireweed - wants to review the pricipal prior to KPBSD's review of principal. APC would like some consistency. The Assistant Superintendent reached out to APC chairs for their input prior to his evaluation. It is important for APC to have input. Per Statute, principal needs to be evaluated by someone with a Type B Certification. The APCs can do their evaluation whenever they want to. Fireweed trying to set up a timeline for meeting agendas to give feedback to KPBSD evaluator. Discrepancy when evaluation done and when contracts sent for the next year. Needs to be formalized at the Fireweed charter school level.

Charter Schools would like to see this policy move forward. The Superintendent works very closely with APCs input regarding the principal. AR 6187.1 Section 6 - to be considered for the evaluation process. Chairman of Kaleidoscope Charter School feels it is very important to have staff members of the APC be able to give feedback. Teachers do not feel they are given more weight than the confidential sheet that they submit. Superintendent - Number 5 is very appropriate and should stay and written. Mike Illg concurs. The other charter schools agree that paragraph should stay in the proposed policy. The Charter School principals agreed we should move the policy forward as is.

For committee review, attached is the proposed AR 6187.1 Charter School Administrator Evaluation.

Soldotna Montessori had the following comments regarding AR 6187.1 - Our APC members did not have any feedback regarding the proposed changes. We will be using the new policy AR6187.1, if adopted, to modify our bylaws this year to match the policy. That policy seemed to reflect well the current practice, and we will look specifically at ensuring teacher participation on our APC match the guidelines of the policy. Specifically we will be looking to allow teacher participation in APC matters, but restrict their participation in the principal evaluation process, as an APC member.

Aurora Borealis had the following comments regarding AR 6187.1 - The APC discussed AR 6187.1 Charter School Administrator Evaluations during their August 27, 2019 APC meeting. There was a unanimous motion to approve the AR with no reservations.

Fireweed Academy had the following comments regarding AR 6187.1 -

A central issue - and a change from current policy (if not practice) - is: who conducts the performance review for the Principal? In a traditional human resources context, the authority to hire also includes the right to fire and evaluate, though the policy and the statute currently are silent here. While the APC recognizes the unique dynamic created by charter schools (see, e.g., AS 14.14.130), we believe the APC should have a meaningful, substantive role in the evaluation of the principal before any evaluation by the District, with the intent to provide a more-informed evaluation that includes the local perspectives of the APC. Accordingly, the APC recommends the following revision to the proposed policy:

[Proposed revision highlighted]

The District shall designate a qualified evaluator to conduct an evaluation of the charter school administrator. The individual conducting the evaluation will meet the requirements of AS
14.20.149 and shall utilize the District's administrator evaluation procedures. Prior to any evaluation under this section, the evaluator shall obtain from the APC feedback on the principal’s performance, and any other information that may assist the evaluation process.

Kaleidoscope had the following comments regarding AR 6187.1 –

Our APC actually discussed this again last night at our APC meeting. The concern they have is that our process seems to work to provide the perspective from the staff and from the outside members of the board. KSAS APC wants to understand what type of involvement the staff will be limited too. They feel that the staff members are able to provide insight that parent and community reps many not have access to, such as communicating effectively with staff in meetings, evaluations, support with students and families, classroom interactions, etc… The founding members said it seems that it helped to create a checks and balance of sorts.

Adjourn 2:47 PM