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THE
STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT /
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234 |
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TO: |
EMSC–VESID Committee |
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FROM: |
James A. Kadamus |
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SUBJECT: |
Charter School Application |
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DATE: |
June 16, 2005 |
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STRATEGIC
GOAL: |
Goals 1 and 2 |
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AUTHORIZATION(S): |
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Summary
Issue for Decision
Should the Regents approve the application to establish the Niagara
Charter School?
Reason for
Consideration
Required by State statute, Education Law 2852.
Proposed Handling
This question will come before the EMSC-VESID Committee on June 20, 2005
for action. It will then come
before the full Board for final action on June 21, 2005.
Procedural History
The application for the Niagara Charter School (NCS) was first discussed
by the Board of Regents in December 2004. At that time, the application was
denied “without prejudice” and the applicants were encouraged to resubmit the
application once certain community support issues could be addressed. The applicants subsequently entered into
an agreement with the Superintendent of the Niagara Falls City School District
to locate the school within those boundaries, but the District’s Board of
Education failed to approve the charter school. The application was subsequently
re-submitted to the Department for review and
approval.
Background
Information
The proposed charter school would be located in the Niagara-Wheatfield
Central School District. The School
would use 2005-06 as a start-up year and commence instruction in the 2006-07
school year. It would serve 240
students in grades K-4, and it has no management company. By its fifth year, NCS will serve 384
students in grades K-8. It will use
the Expeditionary Learning-Outward Bound instructional model.
The following
table summarizes the number of new charters that may still be issued by
charter entities in New York:
|
Charter
Entity |
SUNY
Trustees |
All Other
Charter Entities |
|
|
Remaining
against statutory ceiling |
9 |
11 |
|
The New York
City Chancellor has also approved eight conversion charter schools and the
Buffalo City School District has approved one conversion school, all of which do
not count against the statutory ceiling.
Recommendation
VOTED:
That the Board of Regents approve the application to establish the
Niagara Charter School because:
1) the charter school
described in the application meets the requirements set out in Article 56 of the
Education Law, and all other applicable laws, rules, and regulations; (2) the
applicants can demonstrate the ability to operate the school in an educationally
and fiscally sound manner; and (3) granting the application is likely to improve
student learning and achievement and materially further the purposes set out in
subdivision two of section twenty-eight hundred fifty of Article 56 of the
Education Law.
Timetable for Implementation
The Regents action will become effective on June 21, 2005. The 2005-06 school year will serve
as a start-up planning year for the Niagara Charter School and it will commence
instruction in the 2006-07 school year.
Attachment
New York
State Education Department
Summary of Charter School
Review
Summary
of Applicant Information
Name of Proposed Charter
School: Niagara Charter
School
Address: 6929 Williams Road, Wheatfield, New York
14304
Applicant(s): Richard D. Hague, Jr.
Anticipated Opening
Date: September
2006
District of Location:
Niagara-Wheatfield Central School District
Charter Entity: Board of Regents
Institutional
Partner(s): Expeditionary
Learning-Outward Bound
Boys and Girls
Clubs of Buffalo
Learning
Disabilities Association of Western New York
Management
Partner(s):
None
Grades Served:
K-4 (K-8)
Projected Enrollment: 240 (384)
Application
Highlights
Applicant
Rev. Hague is the pastor of the Mt. Erie Baptist Church in Niagara Falls,
New York.
Institutional/Management
Partner
Expeditionary Learning-Outward Bound (ELOB) is a comprehensive school
reform model that stresses project-based learning, the application of theory in
practical situations, character development, community, and stewardship. ELOB will provide on-site and on-going
professional development, technical assistance, and materials and texts for the
professional development.
The Boys and Girls Clubs of Buffalo is interested in expanding its
geographic reach by working with the Niagara Charter School (NCS) to offer
services to children such as alcohol and drug prevention programs, the arts,
health, the environment, and athletics.
The Learning Disabilities
Association is a parent-sponsored, non-profit agency that will provide services
such as recreation, latchkey programs, Family Support and Parent Training,
Information and Referral Services, and Crisis Intervention.
Curriculum/Assessment/Instruction
- Students will be offered academic, social,
and life skills instruction through project-based learning using both
traditional and non-traditional methodologies and technological
enhancements.
- Multi-age classrooms (other than
kindergarten) will be offered as follows: Level 1, grades 1 and 2; Level 2,
grades 3 and 4; Level 3, grades 5 and 6; and Level 4, grades 7 and
8.
- The school will use the ELOB school
design.
- ELOB has five “core practices” -- learning
expeditions, active pedagogy, school culture and character, leadership and
school improvement, and structures -- and ten design principles. It employs cross-curricular,
theme-based instruction, arts and technology integration, and also emphasizes
reading and writing across the curriculum.
- The key features of this proposed charter
school include:
- a nationally-recognized, successful
school design;
- a small, K-8
community;
- a longer school day and
year;
- more student time on task with expanded
daily instruction in English language arts and
mathematics;
- character education;
- the creation of a dynamic and supportive
community of learners;
- parent and faculty participation in
school governance;
- the establishment of community
partnerships; and
- experienced, responsible
governance.
- a nationally-recognized, successful
school design;
- The school will also provide a mandatory
end-of-day period for tutoring or enrichment. The school building will also be kept
open later to give students the option of remaining for additional tutoring
and progress on homework assignments.
- The school will teach both reading and
writing K-8 across the disciplines, and will teach inquiry-based math,
science, and social studies.
- The model of arts integration to be used
will help to increase student achievement, allowing students to learn
difficult concepts through arts-based activities and express their
understanding in non-traditional ways.
- Assessments will be of multiple types and
will include holistic assessments, reflection and critique, portfolios, and
standardized tests.
- All State assessments will be
given.
- The TerraNovas will be administered to all
students in grades 2–8.
- The student achievement goal for the
school is that a minimum of 75% of the student cohort K-4 and 5-8 will attain
Level 3 or higher on the State’s grades 4 and 8 ELA and math exams,
respectively.
- The school also proposes that, by the
fourth year of the charter, the school’s percentage of students achieving at
Level 3 or above on the State’s grades 4 and 8 ELA and math exams will exceed
the respective percentages in the Niagara Falls City School District, the
district from which the school expects to draw most of its student
population.
- Relevant district assessment results are
provided in the attachment.
Governance
- The initial Board of Trustees will be
comprised of five persons with expertise in finances and accounting,
facilities, and education.
- The Board will expand to include two
parent representatives and two faculty representatives.
- The number of Trustees will never be fewer
than 5 nor more than 15.
- The term of each Trustee shall be for
three years, except that the term of any Trustee who is a parent of a child
enrolled in the charter school or a faculty representative shall have a term
of one year.
- Trustees will be selected by a majority
vote of the Trustees then in office.
- The Board will appoint a director, an
assistant director, and a business manager.
- The school will establish a Parent
Association, which will be involved in a variety of activities such as
fundraising, and will also interact regularly with the Director and the
Trustees on matters relating to policies and practices.
Students
- The
school will open with 240 students in grades K-4 and expand to 384 students in
grades K-8 in year five. That
represents an increase of 48 students per year.
- The
school will provide an enrollment preference for students who are considered
to be at-risk of academic failure based upon poverty, which is defined as
eligibility for federal free- and reduced-price lunch programs.
- It
is expected that most of the students will come from the neighboring Niagara
Falls City School District, since it has the highest percentage (62%) of
students qualifying for the free- or reduced-price lunch program of the
districts in the surrounding area.
- Students
will wear uniforms.
- The
school anticipates hiring one teacher in each K-8 multi-age
classroom.
- In
the first year of instruction (2006-07), there will be a total of 15 teachers
and 5 teacher aides, expanding to 28 teachers and 7 teacher aides in Year 5 of
the charter (2009-10).
- Full-time
substitute teachers will also be employed on a daily basis.
- Staff
will be appropriately certified or be eligible for exemption pursuant to
§2854(3)(a-1) of the Education Law.
- All
special education staff will be appropriately certified.
Community Support
- The
application contains the signatures of parents representing 126 students who
have expressed an interest in sending their children to this proposed charter
school. This represents 52.5% of
the targeted enrollment for the first year of operation. The proposed charter school has
thus fulfilled the requirements of §2851(2)(q) of the Education Law (“Evidence
of adequate community support for and interest in the charter school
sufficient to allow the school to reach its anticipated enrollment…”).
- Another
petition in support of the charter school was received on June 15, 2005. It contains the signatures of 363
residents of the Niagara Falls City School District.
- The
district where the charter schools would expect to be located,
Niagara-Wheatfield, sent a letter on February 14, 2005, expressing no
philosophical objection to the charter school but contending that student
achievement in Niagara-Wheatfield does not justify the need for a charter
school and noting that establishment of the charter school would create the
expense of additional busing of students for the Niagara-Wheatfield school
district.
- Staff
contact with the Superintendent of the Niagara-Wheatfield school district on
June 7 corroborated that the district’s perspective on the charter school
remains the same as it was, as indicated in its letter of February 14,
2005.
- In
Niagara Falls, community residents and the school board have expressed
opposition to the charter school.
This opposition resulted in the Board’s defeat of a proposal, supported
by the superintendent of schools, to approve the charter school
application.
- Staff
contact with the Deputy Superintendent of the Niagara Falls school district on
June 7 and 8 confirmed both the board’s and the community’s continued
opposition to the charter school.
- A
public forum was held on February 23, 2005, per a letter received by the
Department from the superintendents of the Lewiston-Porter Central School
District, the North Tonawanda City School District, the Star Point Central
School District, the Niagara Falls City School District, the
Niagara-Wheatfield Central School District, and the Sweet Home Central School
District. Subsequently, the
Department received a letter from the President of the Board of Education of
the Niagara Falls City School District (which is not the district of location)
in opposition to the proposed charter school.
- The
Department also received a petition in opposition to the charter school. The petition contained 552 signatures,
536 of which could be reasonably determined to be from residents of the
Niagara Falls City School District.
Only six signatures could be reasonably determined to be from residents
of the Niagara-Wheatfield Central School District, the intended district of
location. Other signatures
appeared to be from residents of the North Tonawanda City School District
(two), the Lewiston-Porter Central School District (seven), and one signature
whose school district of residence could not be determined (not either Niagara
Falls or Niagara-Wheatfield).
Recommendation
Approve the application.
Reason for
Recommendation
1) The charter school
described in the application meets the requirements set out in Article 56 of the
Education Law, and all other applicable laws, rules, and regulations; (2) the
applicants can demonstrate the ability to operate the school in an educationally
and fiscally sound manner; and (3) granting the application is likely to improve
student learning and achievement and materially further the purposes set out in
subdivision two of section twenty-eight hundred fifty of Article 56 of the
Education Law.