001So yeah, so this is we're going to open the committee meeting for the charter school um charter school board committee and we're going to hear go over the staff memo. I think she's trying to turn. Is that better? Yay. I think it's better. Okay. Yeah, it sounds better. Okay. So, anyway, thank you for being here. Happy summer. Um, yeah. So, we're here to hear the um annual uh performance framework and report uh for the charter schools. And that's uh Emerson uh Portland Arthur Academy, Lemon um Portland Village School, Chyros. Mhm. Yeah. Thank you. Not POIC. That's a alternative school. Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Well, um, and I don't know if we need to do introductions. Could we could we quickly do introductions starting with Cara? Cara Bradshaw, executive assistant. Michelle Depass,
002board member. Julia Brim Edwards, board committee member. Uh, Patty Sullivan, board committee member. Eddie Wong, board member. Thank you. Uh, Karina Wolf, senior director of schools for multiple pathways to graduation. Sunni to Sandos, the director of charter schools for PPS. And I recognize some of you because I was um the lead administrator at the Emerson School, one of our PPS charter schools um for eight years prior to to taking on this role. And this is my first I just completed my first year in this this role at PPS. Excellent. And were you one of the people that they were like there was some administrative changes that that is some of the administrative changes that are mentioned in the memo and in the slides. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Um so we are thank you
003uh board members for having us. We are fulfilling our statutory obligation as a district to report out on each charter school annually. And so what we are going to do today um is share about the charter a little bit about charter schools in Portland public schools, our mission and our role as authorizer. We'll give an overview of each of the charter schools, share some of the charter school demographics, answer questions, and have time for public comment. Um, and there are more um, materials that were in your packet that are the performance frameworks on each of the five charter schools that PPS authorizes. And Sunnita Sandos and myself will go back and forth in the presentation. Excellent. Thank you. Sunni, do you want to take this one? Uh, sure. Would you like me to just read
004through it or Okay. Um the charter school's mission, the mission of the PPS charter schools office is to support and monitor a high performing and innovative PPS charter school portfolio to promote equity and learning for all students to advocate and act as a liaison for the district in its role as a charter school authorizer with PPS charter schools and then also to educate the charter schools, parents, stakeholders, community partners, and the district about Oregon charter school statutes and best practices. Um so the role of the authorizer um is to review and approve uh approval cons make an either an approval or denial on the annual applications for the establishment of new PPS charter schools to conduct ongoing oversight and annual evaluation to determine whether charter schools meet expected outcomes to recommend charter renewal to implement
005interventions for underperforming schools. We ha serve as the fiscal pass through agent for all of the state school funding. We create conditions that improve student outcomes while protecting school statutory uh autonomy. Um maintain a respectful and mutually beneficial relationship with each of the schools or school leaders and boards of directors. We provide resources, professional development and costneutral assistance. And we pro providing access and information um systems and data and we serve as a conduit between the district and schools through communication advocacy and partnership. And lastly we serve in the role of developing knowledge of schools through frequent frequent and formal visits throughout the year. Uh the charter school's office located within multiple pathways to graduation provides support to I should say the approximately it's just under 8 1,800 PPS students attending five PPS sponsored uh
006and two state sponsored charter schools. So we're just under 1300 for the five PPS sponsored and approximately 475 at the two state sponsored uh charter schools that are within the PPS boundaries. Um, compliance with OS 338, Oregon public charter school statutes. Oversight and support includes a weekly charter director's meeting. Um, and then subsequent meetings beyond that. Completion of initial application review, uh, contract renewals and annual reporting, support and accountability of annual fiscal, operational, and academic reports. That looks like the frameworks that were um, sent to you all in the materials and school site visits. Um we do those on a monthly basis and then there's a formal site visit at the uh end of each school year with uh each of the schools as director to pass uh mentioned. So we have um there are
007K5s are the Emerson school, Kyros PDX learning academy and Portland Arthur Academy. We have two K8 schools which are Lemon French Immersion and Portland Village School. And then the two state sponsored charter schools are also both K8s and that is the Ivy School and the Cottonwood School for Civics and Science. Uh this is just a general charter school overview that our office put together to give you all a sense of where we are right now in this moment in time. Uh because there's no formal um board committee work. Uh, I just wanted to let you all know when everybody um when the schools all started and where they are in the process of looking toward a renewal. The next renewal for uh a PPS charter school will be in 2029 and that will be the
008Emerson school. And that is because um all of the schools um in the this past most recent renewal period uh received 10-year charter renewals. So again, 2029 will be the next one. That's not to say that we're not looking at the schools on an annual basis and those frameworks of um taking a look uh the deep dive into the academic and financial and organizational health of each of the schools happens on an annual basis, but the renewal with the district for a charter. The next one will happen in 2029 for the Emerson school. And this is just current enrollment. And um we've got some interesting facility updates that I just wanted to make sure everybody knows that that's been a I think a hot topic in the charter world and um with the PPS board
009um for years now since charters need to find u their own facility and pay for their own facility. Um we have a couple of schools that have moved into new facilities and then stable leases for all of our other charter schools. So it's feeling um like a moment in time where there is stability in terms of facilities for charter schools and that feels good. Okay. So just a little bit about each of the schools. So uh the Emerson school is uh K5 as we said and its focus is project-based learning. So the enrollment at Emerson school is 130. Um they are one of the schools that Sunnita was just referencing. They moved to a new downtown Portland location um not far off of NATO Parkway um that was successfully uh renovated um January of 2024
010and they have a 15-year lease with a 5-year lease option. Um so this is their first school year in that building which is very exciting. Um, in 2023 24 OSAS scores, which are the last scores of course that we have, um, it shows that 62% of Emerson students meet or exceed ELA, which exceeds district ELA scores by 5% for students in grades 35. 56% of Emerson students meet or exceed in math, which exceeds district scores by 3% for students in grades three uh, through five. additional assessments. As charter schools, they have some autonomy in in the assessments that they use. So, at Emerson School, they're using the assessments include guiding reading, running records, Lucy Caukins in writing, bridges, math, end of unit assessments, and project rubric rubrics. Okay. Cyros PDX um their focus is eliminating
011racial opportunity and achievement gaps. Um their enrollment is currently at the end of this school year at 205. Um uh they have a new school leader uh in the principal role. Uh Timothy Rogers started in this past December of 2024. Um and we have put a note in there that there have been over the last two years there's been transition in their administration and we've seen some turnover there. um uh 2023 24 OSAS data shows that while Chyros underperforms the district in ELA and I put in the percentages just so you have a frame of reference 35.4% meter exceed math 23.2% 2% meter exceed. You'll notice in the performance framework if if you take a look at that that we also take um into consideration um sort of apples to apples and um look at
012um the fact that Chyros students um the majority of whom are um from underserved historically underserved races uh align with district scores um and that Black students at Chyros outperform the district in ELA by 3% which is uh 20% at Chyros meeting or exceed exceeding and black students align with the district in math in grades three through five 12% meet or exceed. Uh this year Chyros qualified for title one intervention um and uh some additional assessment material. They do use map font to panel. Um, and they are the uh one charter school that is located in uh a Portland public schools building that they lease the humble old humbult elementary school. May I interrupt and ask um when I read this it you know the OSAS data shows that students at Chyros are underperforming by
013quite a bit. And is there no requirement? Even though we're comparing apples to apples, it's still like very disturbing. Like it's okay because that's how all the black kids are doing. Um, but in a charter school that has, you know, I think smaller class sizes, is there any reason why we wouldn't have an expectation that there's that we we want more rigorous? We want to have a higher expectation. Absolutely. Yes. And uh I can say yes. And and you can also speak. I mean I I know you probably agree with that but I was like that just seems really like so one of the things that I'll just say with Chyros and um they would say I believe they would also say if they were here but one of the things that we observe and
014will say that I will observe and say is that in the last two to three years not unlike some schools postcoid um but they have had um multiple turnovers in leadership and we put a note with with um int tension around Principal Rogers. So, Principal Rogers was also when SEI had their middle school, Principal Wa Rogers worked with uh Principal Linda Harris. Um and principal Rogers SEI at that point at that point in time became a model school and the district year overyear as a model school and we feel very positive as does Kyros leadership and board of course who hired him um in in current lead in principal Rogers and the um as a new school leader who came in midyear. So I think the last couple years they've had a principal turn uh
015change in the middle of the year which I think is hard on any school. Um and so yeah I we it it yes and I think we are very hopeful and excited with uh stability uh for Chyros in the future. The other thing I I wanted to add is when Karina and I went and did the annual um year-end site visit, obviously these types of questions were on our brain and um meeting with the administration and learning about their three-year strategic plan, their internal plan to impact not just these scores, but impact um enrollment and their internal assessment data, etc., etc. Um I feel like some of those questions were addressed um in terms of this strategic plan that they have put in place and that felt um like a good conversation about acknowledging where
016they are in time and also setting sights on on the future with some very specific instructional coaching and and um professional learning communities. So, some of the structures that they have in place, not unlike some of the other schools, but some of the structures that um they shared and showed us um and that they have in place um are very um are are very reassuring. Okay. Thank you. I I appreciate that. How How are they trying to do the same in all of our schools? So, how are they different than what our you know, not charter schools are trying to do. So, Sunnita could say much more, but I'll just say a couple things. One of the things about charter schools is by statute, they have autonomy over their curriculum. And so, that's one way
017that they are different and how they organize themselves as a school. There's more autonomy um because they're not they each charter school has its own board of directors. Each charter school hires all their own staff with the exception of special education staff that are Portland public school staff that go to all of our contracted schools as well as our um in district schools. So, I would say curriculum and how they organize themselves are are two re are two things that stick out. And I don't know what you would Well, I'm just thinking about um being in the school and visiting the school and seeing a racially affirming and culturally affirming school in action. Um they have a program built in that each this just I mean I'm just kind of it makes me feel good
018to talk about but um where every classroom um is um aligned with an H.B.CU and they create an identity for the children within that classroom community based on the H.B.CU see you and they have um just a really rich culturally affirming um I I won't say curriculum cuz but program I guess that looks different and feels different when you're in the school um for black children and children of color and um what we see and what I can say anecdotally is it makes a big difference of course we want to see data follow that and and we'll watch this, you know, the strategic plan. We'll watch um leadership as hopefully we've got a solid uh leader that will stay at the school for a number of years that we can follow. But um but when
019when I visit and speak to families and children and staff members um it it it feels different um for I believe for those students and families of color. Do they also have smaller classes or limit size? You know, I don't I actually don't know if they cap their classroom size. They do have smaller classroom size. Um, but I don't know if if they've got a cap on their enrollment in each class. Okay. I have a quick um hopefully quick clarifying question. This doesn't just apply to Kyus. This is for all the all the charter schools listed here because listing percentages of, you know, ELA school scores if they exceed or not meet. Um, looks like some of them are, but not I don't I'm not sure if all of them are, but are all of
020them controlled for demographics? Controlled for demographics in terms of Yes. Save more. Like, like for example, um whether historically underserved, uh high income, low-inccome parent education status, because one of one of the things I'm I want to just make sure that we compare apples apples, right? We're looking at ELA scores. We already know that kids who enroll in charter schools, there's a higher percentage of them that have parents that are more involved than typical, not always, but there's a self- selecting uh you know issue there, right? And and condition. Thank you. Um that's the word I was looking for. Uh and so you know the a lot of times not all of course this there's many exceptions but a lot of times in charter schools you tend to have like for example higher SCEs being
021represented and things like that. So I'm just curious like when we look at these scores like 5% you know like Emerson is exceeding district for 5% but is that controlled for you can look at which shows the all the demographics I've seen which I was just going to say that. So, if we could just continue at there's a slide in the in in just a few slides where we talk about the demographics against each school and then against the district the PPS district average. Would that answer your question? No. I I you're maybe referring to the lottery process. No. So, okay. Okay. Um, yes. I I know I know about the the chart on 16 and it has some like for example direct certification historically underserved right but doesn't necessarily control for like SCS level
022like parent educational level and I know this is probably not data that we have but I just want to throw that out there um are we comparing apples to apples and and one of those things is actually looking at you know parent income parent SCEs in terms of you know what percentage of school falls in what what category so it has some of them but not all of them and that That's I'm a little bit concerned about that. Yeah. We don't have that information for any of any of our schools like how how much parents make or what education level. I mean that's not standard reporting data. Correct. Exactly. And I want to highlight but yes I think it's important. It's interesting. It's kind of like um banks don't report the race of uh mortgages
023that they hand out and that's a problem. So I would just say that two of the five in district uh district authorized charter schools are title schools. So Portland Arthur Academy and Chyros are both t qualified for title. Um so we can share I mean that is some information but director Brim Edwards is correct. We don't we don't collect parent income data on it's limited across the board. Yes. And that that's what I thought and I just bring that question up to highlight that we don't have this data. And so when we look at for example like ELA data is 3% higher than you know we don't know if that their education level of their parents on average are 3% higher than the district average. And the reason I point that out is to highlight
024that it's not apples to apples. Um because we have charter schools are self- selected a self- selected population. It could that may or may not be a bad thing. I'm not it's not a judgment on that, but I just want to make sure that when we compare our data that we're clear that it is not perfect data and and I I just want to highlight that. So, thank you. Yeah, I appreciate that. I think that, you know, we don't know what the mean is because the mean varies by building and and we couldn't even get that through census data because of the dispersal of people like driving. So, I don't know. I'm a researcher. I like to look at um data apples to apples as ideal, but I I hear what you're saying is that
025we're comparing schools to the overall uh outcomes in the district. Sure. Not to itself, right? Thank you for letting us interrupt. No, absolutely. Totally. Because I had that question too. Can you isolate the reasons for the success of some of the schools where they're outperforming? Um, that's question number one that I had. Um, could wait for later. Yeah, that's a great question. You know, I'm like, what can we learn from Lemon Le? Um, what are they doing right? And is it is the is the outperformance due to the socioeconomic status or is it due to having two languages? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Great question. So if it's okay, we'll just finish the last few slides and then I I love the questions. So speaking of So Laymon French Immersion is next. It's a K8 French immersion.
026It's an IB school, world school and it's an IB in the primary years program. Its enrollment is um has 376 students currently and the 2324 OSAS data shows Laymont students in grades 35 outperforming the district by 22%. 79% of their students meet or exceed in ELA and outperform the district by 22% 75% of their students meet or exceed in math. In grades 68, Lemon students outperformed the district 34% 89 with 89% of their students meeting or exceeding in ELA and outperform the district by 31% with 75% of students meeting or exceeding in math. Um, also of note, 100% of of their graduates, their eighth grade uh graduates uh meet high school language credit uh requirements prior to starting nth grade. The additional assessments used include MAP, Dibbles, and Adapple and they are located in inner
027southeast. Okay. Portland Arthur Academy K5 direct instruction is their um program. Uh their enrollments at 162. Uh state assessment data shows 70% of Portland Arthur Academy students meet or exceed ELA. exceeds the district by 13% for students in grade three three through five. 50% of PAA students meet or exceed in math which trails the district by 3% for students in grades 3 through five. Math is a target area of improvement for PAA in 2526. Um, of note, o over 20% of PA students are English language learners and their data shows that their e English language learners exceeded district English language learners by 42.9% in ELA and by 16.8% in math in grades three through five. Uh, this year PAAA qualified uh for title one targeted intervention program. Um there are additional assessments, easyc mastery learning
028uh DI direct instruction program assessments. Their assessment is incredibly regular uh and and constant and they are located in southeast Portland. They are just of note they are a consortium of port of Arthurmies. They are one of five in um in the sort of metro area of Oregon. Um yeah. And then the last um PPS sponsored school is Portland Village School. Portland Village School is a K8 Waldorf inspired standardsbased education school. They have an enrollment of 421 students. They are the other school that purchased a new facility this last year on the South Waterfront with the assistance of the Oregon Facilities Authority. They received occupancy and opened their new school last September of 2024. The 2324 state assessment data released shows progress towards improvement. The school shows a 7% increase in ELA scores from 49
029to 56% of students meeting or exceeding and a 5% increase in math scores from 42 to 47 um over their 2223 assessment data. Additional assessments that Portland Village uses includes easy CBM bridges math and end of unit midschool math assessments. So, they are one of the charter schools that is using um some of our district uh they're choosing to use the district adopted curriculum um in part um and are seeing positive results with it. Uh this is just a note about our state sponsored charter schools. We've mentioned there are two um within uh PPS boundaries in Portland district. The district does provide special education services and pass through of state funds um state school fund and SIA dollars while OD provides oversight for these schools. General education students are not included in PPS synergy. Uh
030so they're not counted in PPS numbers. Special education students are included in PPS special education numbers. Can you explain exactly what that means? That go back. Can you go back to the slide? Okay. Sure. I mean, I think this is just this uh slide highlights uh sort of where our PPS charter school office interfaces with these schools um in terms of passing through dollars and um that special education services um are provided by PPS at these schools. Um but there's not an oversight which is why you won't see a framework. I'm not doing site visits to those two schools. We do invite those schools um to our weekly charter uh director's meetings and they do attend um because we're all speaking the same language and in in the same Yeah, it really is a community
031of practice and that that um I've really appreciated that as well because um there each year there seems to be a little bit more and a little bit more um that is asked of the district in regard to working with these two schools by OD by OD um that and Karina was mentioning earlier that there are or at this point in time in Oregon there are four state sponsored charter schools and two of them are in Portland. Um and we have an office and some infrastructure and also just the way grant reporting is um evolving. we seem to have more and more overlap with these schools in terms of um their reporting being embedded in district reporting when it comes to um SIA and the integrated programs grants mostly involved with the special ed special
032ed yes special ed and fiscal yeah how does that impact our um cost because I I know it's state sponsored but I also know that the state also caps special ed funding at 11 11%. Right? And so having the state sper school and yet PPS is on the hook for which is fine not judgment. Um on the hook for servicing special ed services um how does that affect in terms of like cost? Well I think that uh I think that's a great point. the special education. I mean all students when they are in our district at charter schools they are PPS students and so um for for as far as special even with our state sponsored schools that is true as far as special education goes. So, so that is when you're asking when we
033have uh information about the entirety of the number of special education students and the entirety of funding that that is including our charter schools and all of the places all of the buildings and all of the schools they provide services to. So, that includes our charter schools. Great. Thank you. Because I I know that PPS is reporting at something like 17% and this includes all the includes these schools as well, the state sponsored schools as well. All right. Thank you. Um, and then just a little bit about those. So, Cottonwood has an enrollment of about approximately 200 and the Ivy School has an enrollment of approximately 275. And this was what I was getting to which I think we were referencing earlier which is just looking at the number of with regard to income. The
034closest that we have around that as as has been mentioned is our direct certification numbers um and our information around title um which Portland Arthur Academy and Chyros have qualified for title. So this is just a reference point for everyone and that's really what we had and then we would love to answer any questions if there are any. Do we have any questions? Um, I can't remember the name of the school where they had a lot of um, English learners, but they were scoring higher than most other English learner schools. Arthur Academy. The Arthur Academy. Yeah. Um, are they looking at what's happening there? I I noticed it was direct instruction. Mhm. Are they learning from that what we might apply to our So I think uh director to pass and yourself are bringing up
035very good points which is outlined in the statute. It talks about charter schools being hubs of innovation and part of the responsibility of the sponsoring districts or of the community both on the district sponsored side and on the charter school side is how are we sharing learnings and I think um that's an area of ongoing um that's a area of ongoing growth for us. So in years past we've had schools that have um like Opal School or other schools that have put on conferences to talk about their model where we had as an example uh we would say Portland public schools teachers would you like to attend this training or this training um locally um Kyros has done that in years past where they have had series of trainings where they have opened it to
036Portland public schools teachers but I don't know honestly about Arthur with PPS PS in recent years there has not uh been but I think we're all looking at that data. It's pretty significant. Um I I it's an area of um pride for the school. They do um and I've asked anecdotally questions when I'm visiting and I've seen in action their small groupoup instruction. Um direct instruction is really prescribed. It's highly structured. it um it demands sort of immediate feedback. It's teacher driven, demands feedback from a student. Certain learners learn really well in that environment. It wouldn't be ideal for every learner. Um and I think families um they've the school has worked hard to um I think each charter school has been working hard I would say in the last decade and five years uh
037you know since the pandemic to really um tasked at looking at demographics and saying how can we impact our demographics? How can we change um not only the narrative around charter schools but but also the the who's who's attracted to these schools, who's coming to these schools, who can access these schools. And they've done an incredible job of really um leaning into their community um where their building is and have grown their population of um students um from underserved communities and um they are having that success. They're proud of it. We're looking at it. Um, but there's room there's opportunity for these schools to be seen as lab schools and like what what what are they doing and how do we how do we learn more from that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, they traditionally
038when when they were we gave them the charter, it was kind of it was somewhat controversial because direct instruction had sort of a bad um Yes. reputation. Um it was kind of drill and kill um is what they what they called it. Yeah. Um I think we gave them the charter in 2003 or four. Um but they're located in Ascension Church on 76th in Yamill. Um which has a traditional um congre parish, but they also have a very active um lots of like uh Spanish masses and everything else. So it's a very community centered facility. And I mean they they're probably one of the of all these Emerson has been around a long time too, but I think uh Arthur Academy is the second longest. Yeah, they have a very much a niche, but it
039it was controversial when they and at the time districts could not refuse refuse to give a charter. Um so if they had a charter application that was like met the most basic um you had had to give it. So PBS gave a lot of charters in those those years. Um but it turned out it was a pretty good um bet and has filled a niche. It has filled a niche. Yeah. I love um I know I have a brother that could have really used that direct instruction that you know this is what is expected. There's no creativity around it. Um, I know that's worked for me too in some some circumstances and my kids went to Emerson and that was, you know, just happened to work out for where I was working at the time.
040You know, I could pick them up and walk them across Burnside and it could be at my work for a little bit. Yeah, it was really nice. Um, I don't really have any questions. I asked my main question is isolate, you know, the reasons for the success at some of those schools. Um, and also I'm always curious, you know, you always hear, you know, we we'd like to get more diverse and we just can't and transportation is an issue. So, you know, especially for the schools where it's they're successful, I would love to see, you know, more more of our kids that are struggling be able to attend. Um, because I think the diversity is really important too, economic and racial, gender. So um I I al I do have a couple questions. Um this
041actually this is not the question but there there have been national studies that do control for example parent income parent education level and performance at charter schools but it's a national study and overall just in general not very favorable for charter schools. Um it would be interesting to look at one specifically for PPS for important because I know we're in different scenario than than most of the country. So it would be very So one thing I would I don't know if there is any avenue or maybe it has already been done but maybe even partnering with a university to look into uh for example researching data on when you actually do control for parent education, parent income level and demographics and how they compare to um our kids that are going to comprehensive elementary and
042middle schools. Um I think that'd be very valuable. Uh and I would would push for some kind of look into that. Um my other co two questions. I have two questions. One is um am I correct in understanding all our charter schools are a lottery and it's it's purely lottery, right? There's no denying of applications and and things like that going on, right? Yep. Go ahead. Enrollment is dictated by statute. the there's lots of things as director Brim Edwards just said that are outlined by statute around the around the authorization, the application process, the enrollment and the lottery process. Uh so the the lotteryies uh are intended are blind lotteryies. I I only say intended because there are a number of our schools that um use a weighted lottery. Um and um other than that
043there's no controlling for you know who's applying and and who's um except for like siblings and stuff except for siblings. Um you there you can apply to OD for a waiver. Um the only schools I have seen apply for a waiver outside of a weighted lottery um uh is Chyros and they applied for a waiver this year to have um uh children of staff members be able to attend the school. So other than that um uh you would have to apply for a waiver for any of those special circumstances. And like I said, the only there Emerson and Portland Village School and Chyros have been using a weighted lottery um to try and impact the demographics at the end of the day. Emerson and Portland Village School were using a triple weight for race and
044socioeconomic uh status. It's helpful to hear. Oh, go ahead. Go ahead. So Arthur Academy, it sounds like does it take a higher percentage of No, it doesn't. That's a a that's a I'm gonna stand up just my apologies for my legs. Um uh so a number of years ago um as a part of our racial equity work um one of the things we did was really look at the demographics of charter schools and think about as a community as a community of practice with charter school directors and charter school boards. what are the opportunities to have charter schools look like this more match the demographics of our district um and in a good world actually serve more historically underserved students than our district. And um and so one of the things that all of the
045schools did uh was to get all their brochures translated and all their information translated into the five major languages and to go out and do recruitment and share in a variety of cultural communities their information. And Arthur did that I think with great passion and and the others did as well. But Arthur um is a success story in that way where they were very thoughtful and deliberate around how they could reach communities of color and communities of multilingual language learners. Um and so that's where that has been really successful. But in part it it was um our shared work in uh with Portland public schools in getting materials translated and having and and and really partnering with them in our shared effort and intention. So reaching out of still having a straight library. Yeah. Yeah.
046Absolutely. Fantastic. Yeah. So um I wanted to offer um a friend of mine just accepted the dean of education at Louiswis and Clark position um and he'll be starting in August. and he kind of volunteered. I had lunch with him. He volunteered um his graduate students. He doesn't know them yet, but he volunteered them if we needed them for any policy um research or um anything education related. So that he's looking for projects. That's good to know that. Thank you for um sharing. I think I think that's what sets PPS apart from a lot of lot of places. Um and it's great to know. Uh my other last hopefully last question is uh is there any um dropout and discipline data as well like in terms of looking at kids that have dropped out, kicked
047out, suspended discipline data and the demographics of those students as well. I don't have that uh we don't have that prepared today but we can certainly um get that and share that. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. It would be it'd be great to have a little bit of oversight on that as well. Okay. I had um I don't know if you're done. No, I'm done. Yeah. Okay. I I was curious um we have in the past met regularly with the charter committee and I think we took a look at the a hard look at the committees last year and we're trying to not have a meeting for meeting sake. So, I was going to ask you as the experts um what a cadence would a regular cadence would look like that was fulfilling our you know baseline
048obligation and also allow us an opportunity to um hear from you know because your work is important. We don't want to just you know put it off to the last meeting of the year. that um is there a but we did but we did is there a regularity that you would recommend in terms of how often we should do this and where I would yeah I would defer to Karina um in regard to the sort of statutory requirement of annually presenting um and then working backward from there there are moments in time that will also dictate um what what work is to be done from a a charter uh committee this particular school year. Um, for example, there's an annual opportunity for people to apply, uh, you know, to become a PPS charter school. Uh,
049letters of intent are due in May and then an an application would be due in July. We did get a letter of intent and then they they we were in con communication and ready to um have sort of a Q&A meeting with them and they said, "Nope, we're actually not going to reply this year." So had they moved forward with the application process that would then require work from a committee that would look different than when we don't have an application. And then the other moments that I can think of besides this these renewals that will start up again in 2029 is if a school wants to change anything in their charter. Um, for example, one school was kind of asking about the possibility of changing their enrollment cap so that they could enroll more
050students. That would have to be the work of of the with the committee as well. But in terms of a cadence, I would I defer to you. And I would just say just a note is that the letter of intent is preferred but not required is my understanding. But the applications there is a hard date for applications. So, while it is unlikely because we haven't heard of it yet, somebody could apply by the July date. Um um but we do they ask um for the courtesy of a letter in May if that's going to happen. So I I would say I mean at a minimum right is meeting the statutory um is being compliant with statute and um if not maybe you know more more frequently than that to hear from the schools or hear
051about practices. Um I know that in the past when we've had when we have had a charter committee it has been nice at board members request to go see the schools or to hear more information. So I think um it is nice to have some kind of cadence and I you know we would defer uh to you all. Um I just wonder we stand ready to support and to share information um and to take folks to schools as you would like and that yeah we want to be supportive also. I I guess I was thinking I mean if we met three times a year it would be regular. if it wasn't needed, it could be, you know, okay, everybody gets the night off, but it might be nice to schedule it. Looking at Cara um
052ahead of time, you know, so we have an opportunity and a place holder for those conversations. It's just an idea looking at Eddie. So, one thing in the past, um instead of just having a charter committee, there's been like a charter and alternative ed. So, it gave a lot of schools that didn't have ever get really any airtime or much consideration um an opportunity to engage with the board um and district central district um staff and raise issues. Um, and I know like when um, Director Green and then Director Constam um, they did some I think really important work that helped provide more support for those schools like changing the the pass through amounts. Um, and you go way back um, you had an ed options which had basically kind of all the non- neighborhood
053school programs. So they were the ones that approved say like the language immersion programs, Sunnyside environmental, um, creative science school. Um, so it was a a place where you could get that you didn't have to have at the board level be doing that work. I mean, but you could go in deep. And I will just say when I was on the board, we had to um take the charters away or deny a charter two charters that had been operations. And it was really important that we'd had a committee and we had engagement so it didn't just seem like the board was coming in randomly and making a decision. Um, but that they had the courtesy and like they were like on a not on a corrective action plan, but we they had been told, you
054know, you're not financially going concern or your outcomes are, you know, not at all what we'd expect. And we I forget what's it called when you we had to do a closures like Victory and what was the other uh leap and trillium. Oh, I was involved in all of those. Um, so it's just it's good because it I think it respects the school community and people who have really like poured their hearts into building a school. Um, and sometimes it just doesn't work out and um, you know, the board is ultimately the one that has to do it and seems more respectful that you know and you've worked with them. Um, so I would say like more often. One thing I I wanted to comment about just the um the data and something that this
055came up when we um the last time Leund um received um a I don't know if it was a renewal or the first time around um but they clearly their demographics um are very skewed um to have very few direct certification um fewer special ed, you know, fewer students of color, the fewest historically underserved students. And we had had discussions with them. I think that's when they started translating all their um but really like what are they doing to diversify their school um to be more representative of the PPS school community. And I know they're not up for renewal now, but I think it's worth asking what they're doing. So isn't they don't just get asked in the year that they have a renewal because it looks like the the pattern hasn't significantly changed. So
056thank you for that. Um just to reiterate what Sunnita said earlier is that we when we have Sunnita um go we both go and see schools Sunnita more often than myself all throughout the year and then we have an annual whole process of an annual review and site review and we have various lists of questions all throughout it and particularly this is what's really nice about the weekly meetings is this topic is an ongoing topic. um with all of our schools. Um and so that question is not an um it's a it's a common you bring up a very relevant issue and um what what I have heard most recently and you can certainly add to it and I um is from Shuka their um head of school is um some targeted outreach to um
057uh pastors and specific churches and she actually has had some done some connecting with Director Green around um some opportunities um and then I think with um some other community some other specific community outreach to specific communities of color. Absolutely. and and leaning in on those weekly meetings because other you you've hit on something that other schools have impacted the bottom line in terms of their demographics and so Shuka being a leader saying well I'm trying this this and this what are you all doing in this small community um which is how she got the idea to to look at churches and speak with pastors and because there has is another school that has had success in that way so Um, I won't say I I I will say it's not for a lack of
058trying. It is ongoing work. They recognize it. They are looking at it. And I think when you look at the demographics, if you look at 10 years ago and today for these schools, you will see a number of schools have shifted the demographics for all the reasons Karina mentioned and Lemon's still struggling to do so. That Yeah, they haven't really switched. So you can say that a board member asked inquired um absolutely about their progress on that because I we had a pretty lengthy discussion. They were looking at um immigrants who came from French-sp speakaking countries um yeah not not Fr not France um but French-speaking countries. So I don't know if that they have had success um in regard to their staffing um in in terms of attracting and and employing um native French
059speakers from African countries and other countries outside of France which um I think is a move in the right direction because we all know that that visibility within the building is important as well. So, um, yeah, there are there are shifts that are happening there. I'm realizing I'm going to have to keep your number for a few more years. Yeah. Um, because of your institutional knowledge. You've got so much history and I just can in this moment just want to appreciate you um for what you're bringing um just the history of knowing which schools have done a better job than others. So, thank you. You're gonna carry on that legacy. I have a question about um how many high schools have French programs that the Leone people go to? That's a great question. I let
060you speak to that. Okay. So, McDaniel, Lincoln. I feel like Cleveland, but I should I know McDaniel and Lincoln for sure, and I know that there's multiple. If there's more than two, I can happily get back. I apologize. My not just curious. It's in the back of my head and I'm not pulling it forward right now, but I can get back. There are multiple high schools that have French. Yeah. I I hosted a French exchange student from a small town in the south of France. He was like, "No one speaks French like around the world." He was studying Chinese. He just said nobody speaks French. And I will just say to director Brim Edwards, so the ed options is changed its name to multiple pathways to graduation. So when we that that was the change
061years ago um after I um came to the district. So we that's kind of the department. So there was a lot of um that's where I think it was the charter schools and alternative programs. It was meant to be broader than multiple pathways to graduation but a lot of it was about the MPG schools. I mean it really gave the board a lot of visibility to what it was virtual scholars. I mean the whole range of programming that's not weren't traditional neighborhood schools which tends to be the central focus. Reconnection center services. Yep. Well, thank you very much. I know it's probably been a really long day. We appreciate your um this was a great presentation um and learning opportunity. Um and I appreciate your input to how much we should meet going forward. And
062again looking at director Wong, we we're trying to, you know, right size it in terms of, you know, the time commitment for board members and also thinking about staff too, like sitting we sit out here and look in the audience and people are just, you know, 10 o'clock at night not wanting to be here and so we're trying to, you know, rightsize the number of meetings and the types so we can just be as effective as possible. Makes sense. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you all. I think we're done. Thank you. Thanks. Thank you, Director Brim Edwards. Your last board