Meeting of the Board of Regents | January 2008

THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234

 

TO:
FROM:	Johanna Duncan-Poitier
SUBJECT:	Albany Preparatory Charter School Proposed Revision
DATE:	January 7, 2008
STRATEGIC GOAL:	Goals 1 and 2
AUTHORIZATION(S):

 

SUMMARY

 

Issue for Decision

 

Should the Regents approve the staff’s recommendations concerning the proposed charter revision submitted by the Trustees of the State University of New York for the Albany Preparatory Charter School (Albany)?

 

Reason(s) for Consideration

 

              Required by State statute, Education Law §2852.

 

Proposed Handling

 

This question will come before the EMSC Committee in January 2008 for action.  It will then come before the full Board for final action in January 2008.

 

Procedural History

 

The New York Charter Schools Act of 1998 requires the Board of Regents to review, in accordance with the standards set forth in Education Law §2852(2), proposed charters, renewal charters and revisions to charters and renewal charters that have been approved and submitted by other charter entities.  The Board of Regents may either approve and issue a charter, renewal charter and/or revision as proposed by the charter entity, or return the same to the charter entity for reconsideration with written comments and recommendations. 

 

Background Information

 

We received a request from the Trustees of the State University of New York to revise the charter of the Albany Preparatory Charter School (the “School”).  The School seeks to decrease its student enrollment from 200 to 150 students for the 2007-08 school year, from 350 to 300 students for the 2008-09 school year, and from 350 to 300 students for the 2009-10 school year until it obtains a new or additional facility (see Table 1 below).  In addition, it seeks to increase its dissolution reserve fund minimum to $75,000. 

 

Upon obtaining new or additional facilities, the proposed revision would allow the School to increase its enrollment back up to the levels currently authorized by its charter, as shown in Table 2 below, without seeking the approval of its charter entity or the Board.  The School would only be required to notify the Charter Schools Institute and the Albany City School District of such enrollment increases by April 1st of the school year immediately preceding the school year in which any enrollment increase from the minimum projected enrollment will be implemented.

 

Table 1: Proposed Revised Enrollment Targets

Fiscal Year	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
5th grade	50	100	100
6th grade	50	50	100
7th grade	50	50	50
8th grade		50	50
Total Enrollment	150	250	300

             

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the School is able to obtain new or additional facilities, the School’s enrollment would revert back to its current approved enrollment levels, as shown in Table 2 below.  

 

Table 2: Current Maximum Student Enrollment

Fiscal Year	2007-08	2008-09	2009-10
5th grade	100	100	100
6th grade	100	100	100
7th grade	100	100	100
8th grade		100	100
Total Enrollment	300	400	400

 

             

 

 

 

 

 

The Albany City School District (“the District”) held a public hearing on November 20, 2007 regarding this proposed.  In addition to providing a transcript, Dr. Eva Joseph submitted comments on behalf of the District in a subsequent letter dated December 17, 2007.  This letter is available for your inspection in the Regents Office. The District makes the following points and allegations in opposition:

 

• Two of the three charter schools have sought a revision to reduce their projected student enrollments for the second time in a year.  “The reality is that these redundant exercises of first reducing programs and facilities space to accommodate an over saturation of charter schools and, then, having to re-create programs and space severely inhibit and negatively impact the stability and effectiveness of Albany School District’s improvement efforts.”

 

• “The requests to reduce the enrollments…suggest that there is a lack of adequate space in the charter school buildings to accommodate existing charter enrollments.  However, evidence exists based on total enrollments for eight charter schools established in Albany that there is ample available space for the currently-approved charter enrollments both now and in the future.”

 

• “Albany Preparatory Academy, like New Covenant Charter School, had a charter revision to reduce its enrollment just last spring for reasons of space availability.  Now, even with that, its current enrollment falls far below the spring 2007 reduction level.  Presently, Albany Preparatory Charter School has only 138 students enrolled for the 207-08 school year, falling far short of its revised approved enrollment for 2007-08 of 200 students; merely half of its original charter.”

 

Staff does not object to the decrease in enrollment while the School resolves its facility issues.  However, staff does object to permitting the School to unilaterally increase its class size/total enrollment at an unknown future date without requiring the School to seek the approval of SUNY and the Board of Regents.   Therefore, staff recommend that the Board of Regents return the proposed revision with comments to SUNY for reconsideration.

 

Recommendation

 

VOTED: That the Board of Regents return the proposed revisions to the initial charter of the Albany Preparatory Charter School to the Trustees of the State University of New York (SUNY) for reconsideration, and with the following comment and recommendation: that the proposed revision be modified to eliminate the authorization for the charter school to unilaterally increase class sizes and/or total enrollment without further approval by the charter entity and the Board of Regents.

 

Timetable for Implementation

 

The Regents action for the Albany Preparatory Charter School is effective immediately.