January 17, 2023 Pennsylvania Military Charter School at Valley Forge Application Public Hearing

001I'd like to call this meeting to order and we'll begin with the Pledge of Allegiance for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening everyone and welcome to this special hearing session of the board of school directors for the Radnor Township School District the purpose of tonight's meeting is to conduct a second public hearing on the application of the Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley Forge in accordance with the charter school law board policy 140 and the Sunshine Act the hearing is being transcribed by a disinterested court stenographer at the expense of the school district it is also being broadcast live and recorded for later viewing on the Radnor Township School District's YouTube channel at the prior hearing the Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley Forge made

002and completed its presentation on its application and we accepted public comment as previously stated the board has tasked its Administration and solicitor with the responsibility to formulate a recommendation for board action on the charter school application based on a thorough review of the application information received from the applicant and information received through this public hearing the board is also gathering information so that it can make an informed decision on the recommendation that will be provided by its Administration and solicitor I would like to remind everyone that this hearing is not an adversarial proceeding but rather an opportunity for the board its Administration and solicitor to learn more through inquiry about the application submitted to them by Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley Forge the board is entering the hearing tonight with an open mind toward

003gathering information and no decisions have been made or will be made on the application tonight this hearing will consist of a brief opening statement by our solicitor followed by a period of public comment on the application and then questions by our Administration solicitor and members of the board at this point I would request that our civil board solicitor begin the hearing is that better can you hear me all right thank you Miss Goldman before public comment begins I would like to make certain documents part of the record two additional exhibits one is the notice of this hearing published in the Delaware County Times we'll mark that as exhibit seven and I have a copy of that for the for the applicants and the second document that we'll mark as uh exhibit eight is the December

00414 2022 email from Mr Johnson to miss Goldman myself and Mr bachelor or Dr Batcher sorry with the subject clarification to the public comment from the public hearing on the charter application for the pmcs at Valley Forge so um with those two documents being included as part of the record that ends my part of the statement thank you Mr christophko at this point in the agenda we are now providing an opportunity for the public to comment on the charter school application anyone is there anyone here who is registered to give in-person comment come forward and take a seat in front of one of the microphones one at a time if you would and then kindly state your name and town of residence I want to thank the board for allowing me to speak to you

005tonight please just start sir okay your name in time my name is Harold Wilson I live at 111 Lucas Grove Road in Rosemont it's been my family's home for over 70 years my mother taught just down the street here for 30 years and I'm a graduate of Valley Forge Military Academy I'm an old man and parts of the world I live in are beyond me but I do believe there's a place for military education in our society the values and principles that are taught in such an institution are not only the math and sciences that we so often hear about today there are also those of Duty honor responsibility loyalty and teamwork traits which are not so discussed today but are just as important as as SAT scores they are the essence of leadership that

006our country and communities need to face the future and as all its uncertainty Valley Forge has always been at the center of such an education numerous presidents Governors senators and Generals have visited there to participate and celebrate its unique form of Education my old common end of cadets General medenbach used to call Valley Forge an island an island of rigor an island of purpose an Isle of island island of discipline Beyond The Society at Large we need this form of Education now more than ever I support this Charter School application thank you thank you sir is there any other public comment in the room this evening would you kindly come forward please state your name and your town of residence thank you yes good evening I'm Gala mccleskey I live at 6 Harford Lane I'm

007here as a resident and a taxpayer not representing the League of Women Voters I I personally became aware of this application last week and I understand there's been one meeting in December which I haven't had a chance to review the the video of and I'm just here to request um what the process is I've been to the Department of Education website it's very sparse and and we just like to understand what the process is so that you can get public input like you were just received we're going to continue on with public comment if there's anything that we can respond to at the conclusion of public comment we will or our Administration will be in touch with you after the meeting Mrs McCluskey thank you very much for making your public comment we've it's it's

008noted anyone else thank you green button the microphone is on so you're good to go just please start with your announcement of your name and town of residence thank you my name is Jillian Norris Santo that's Norris n-o-r-r-i-s hyphen Santo s z a n t o I live at 424 Inverrary Road Villanova I've been a resident of Radnor Township since 1981 and I'm a Radnor School District Parent I have several concerns about the proposed Charter School first location on page 53 The Proposal States quote pmcs has selected the proposed location located within the Radnor School District due to the availability and opportunity to lease buildings on the campus of the historic Valley Forge Military Academy and College this will provide pmcs with the opportunity to educate cadets at a celebrated location that holds deep military

009history the intended student population will be drawn from five school districts that pmcs reasonably predicts will enroll Cadets among these districts are those described as less affluent than Radner end quote Cadets from the other districts will have to commute although the proposal includes a plan to handle transportation a different location might have been more convenient for many in the intended student body The Proposal emphasizes that quote the school would be the only option for military instruction in public schools in the area end quote and continues quote a tuition-free public charter school offering a military inspired environment is not currently an option for students in the state of Pennsylvania we seek to change that end of quote in the application the Commonwealth asks what other suitable locations have been considered no other locations are mentioned it

010seems to me that the Radner location was chosen solely for the reason stated above the availability of the Valley Forge Military Academy campus second the curriculum the school will use quote a Time proven traditional classroom approach direct instruction plus a traditional curriculum such as the core knowledge sequence do this will be added military instruction and activities such as drills there will also be Sports and extracurricular activities The Proposal states that there are a few dozen charter schools that have some form of integration of a military program and a handful of full-time military charter schools yet the authors do not provide references to any of these knowing the names and locations of these Charter Schools would have helped the school district and the public assess the likelihood of success as far as the curriculum goes we

011are asked to take a good deal on trust their Community Support Pennsylvania's Charter School law specifies that the proposal must show quote demonstrated sustainable support including comments received at a public hearing on page 55 the application asks the authors of the proposal to quote document Community Support among teachers parents students community members institutional leaders and others through letters of support surveys or other tangible means end of quote however documented support is not included and support was not voiced at the first meeting on December 13th in conclusion given the concerns I have stated I do not consider School District authorization or financial support for the proposed Charter School a justifiable use of Radnor School District resources thank you thank you very much for your public comment and is there any other public comment in the room

012this evening please come forward again state your name in town of residence thank you very much my name is Preston Tyrell and I live here in Radnor um I know this came up once before and I had meant to come to those meetings and voice my concern but life just got in the way and I missed it so then I just saw this two days ago as well the Radner reader and I honestly have not had time to do a great deal of research um and if this was for a charter school I I would be here with a solid no and urge you to go that direction um but my concern is not the charter school my concern is option b and if Valley Forge goes under what type of condos will be there

013what type of expansion to the golf course could be there and I think those adverse effects on our town need to be weighed into this process and I also don't know how far apart the charter school is from the actual school if they're completely separate or you know the same thing underneath um but I think it's a chance to prevent that property from becoming condos and or a golf course and I don't know if anybody on the board is a member of that Golf Course next to it or on the board of directors of even Cabrini or Eastern who would also have a vested interest in the property or if they're involved with any local real estate um investment companies uh and I think if that is a case I think I don't know if

014it's required but if they could disclose that if they're on the directors of any of those organizations because I think condos or a golf course is worse than a charter school so oddly enough I am finding myself here in support of the charter school and thank you Mr Tyrell um is there any other public comment in the room this evening please feel forward again I think you all know the drill at this point thank you Paula de long from Wayne and like my predecessor predecessor preceding speaker um I'm a little bit naive about some of these issues I just have a very curious question of in what way Radner gains by having this school is there any benefit to this community in having it and a question about whether there's been a needs assessment uh

015of some kind to learn if anyone in Ratner has an interest in attending such School that's all thank you very much for your public comment this evening is there anybody else in the room who has a public comment to make seeing none Miss Hanley is there any have we received any recorded public comment okay foreign recorded public comments thank you Sally Saunders 120 Logan's Grove and Bryn Mawr I have three concerns about the proposed charter school before you which touched primarily on curriculum and the learning environment The Proposal seems to reinvent the wheel in many ways doing what Radner has done well for a long time for instance the new school will stress leadership and the implication was that Radnor students have leadership opportunities only in clubs and teams that's not true there's group work

016in many many classes leaders arise for group work labs many leaders work in labs and there are units of study on leadership so this is not simply confined to clubs second the new school will have a focus on Western Civilization bradner does this already at a very high level in grades 6 through 12 there are three years of world cultures including Western Civilization three years of American History government and economics the new school will offer certification in four areas such as cyber security web design games design Public Safety The Vocational Technical program does all of these and 17 more Radner does what it does at a very high level testing in the top one percent 97 of students graduate from the school which indicates a high level of achievement and confidence the new school will

017have the charter school proposal have a graduation rate of 85 about the state average Radner is doing well what is unique of the proposed goal is a military model but the fact that there is no Junior ROTC Atlanta or within 30 minutes would seem to indicate a lack of community interest in that model second The Proposal seems to look backward little mention of diversity in curriculum clearly the new school will be closed-minded about issues of sexual identity the student will be called by the pronoun owners birth certificate and all of this is strange in light of how much the military has to face in the future of fighting in foreign countries integrating women integrating homosexuals Etc lastly this proposed School although it talks about traditional curriculum traditional literature is not traditional in the larger context

018of American Education there are very few taxpayer-funded military schools in the United States it's not a western tradition either they're none in France one in England it is common in Eastern Bloc countries and in Russia but it's really not part of the American tradition so to speak of it as traditional is true only in a very limited sense these three things that may concern about the news proposed school thank you foreign Carroll from the Villanova section of Radnor I'm calling to comment on the charter school application and specifically I want to raise a concern about the lack of financial capacity on the board of the charter applicants the applicant is a newly created entity and the application submitted in November included resumes for five board members they each appear to be accomplished in their fields

019however and this is notable for an applicant proposing to run a school with almost a thousand students and a 17 million dollar annual budget none of the board members has professional experience in the fields of Education or Finance or accounting and the board members of the applicant entity would have the legal fiduciary duty to oversee the management of those millions of dollars in public funds and to know that appropriate accounting controls are in place that fiduciary duty that responsibility for fiscal oversight is not something that a board can contract out or delegate it rests with the board or the nonprofit entity that would be granted the charter among other things that Duty would include overseeing the contractual relationships with the applicant's two primary Partners the first being the three million dollar landlord-tenant relationship and Valley

020Forge Military Academy and the other being the one million dollar annual operating contract relationship with the arizona-based for-profit management company charter one so as it is as the application was submitted it doesn't appear that the board has the professional experience to carry out those responsibilities in addition the Philadelphia Inquirer in an article just published on December 24th reported that the application was initiated by the management company charter one and I'll quote two sentences from that article the fruit says quote the company Charter One initiated the latest application so Joshua Johnson the chair of the board for the proposed Charter end quote a little bit later quote a retired U.S army green beret who now works for leadership development firm Johnson who lives in Carlisle said he was con contacted by Charter One to serve on

021the board end quote that reporting that the board chair was recruited by the management company combined with the fact that there is an educational or financial or accounting expertise on the board makes it feel like the non-profit applicant entity was set up as a proxy or a stand-in entity for the for-profit and I I don't know chartered school law myself so this is a question for our txt lawyers but at what point is that a violation of pH harder law when the applicant is is nominally a non-profit but the real control is held by a for-profit management company um I want to quote one more sentence and this is from a PA Department of Education website quote in the event that a for-profit entity plays a role in the establishment of a charter school a

022charter applicant must further demonstrate that the Charter Schools Board of Trustees will retain real and substantial authority over the operation of the School Educational decisions and staff end quote so again with this application it feels like the management company rather than the non-profit is in a position to have the quote real and substantial Authority um so I will I will stop there thank you for your consideration and thank you to the rtsd board and administration for your due diligence hi my name is Carol sulkowski s-u-l-c-o-s-k-i I live in Wayne Pennsylvania and I've been around a resident for over 20 years I'm calling with regard to the Valley Forge Military Academy charter meeting my public comment is as follows I want to point out that the discrimination policy that they purport to have is narrower than

023the one that the Pennsylvania state and Radnor has with regard to trans students given their history of accusations of sexual abuse and harassment this is troubling number two no discussion has been made about their expenses past reports of sexual abuse hazing physical abuse drug use and violence it is improper to share campus with public school children if that kind of stuff is going on and they have not addressed it there is a uh they have acknowledged in other materials that the site was selected solely because it's the military economy and not because of Any uh reasons specific to Radnor they had made no showing that there is a public needs for this or sufficient interest in um people attending and they made a misstatement in their materials there is one Public Charter School at least

024in Philadelphia that exists now their company that may be doing the management ala has had allegations of financial benefit to its owner that needs to be investigated and they have made no showing that there's anything about their plan that will improve pupil learning but rather this is an attempt to inculcate a certain mindset about um military Behavior thank you very much good morning my name is Robert Staub I'm a resident of Radner Township in the Wayne section of the township and I'm also a parent of a student at Wayne Elementary School I'm calling in reference to the January 17th special meeting regarding the charter school application for the school proposed school at Valley Forge Military Academy and I was calling to urge the board to vote against this proposal for largely the same reasons that

025you rejected the prior proposal back in 2021 um I really don't think that the township uh or the school district should be in the business of subsidizing a private school like Valley Forge Military Academy uh that's had well-documented uh abuse allegations against it over the years um and in general seems to be uh failing and selling off more and more land in an effort to try to balance its budget and this application appears to me with its three million dollar annual rent payment as an attempt to have the school district subsidize a private school that is otherwise not able to meet its own budget additionally I have concerns about the comments made by Joshua Johnson that were published in the Philadelphia Enquirer regarding the gender identity of students and I would encourage the board not

026to approve a school that's going to be funded with public dollars when that school will not be recognizing students gender identities the same way in the same manner that they would be recognized if those students went to any of the six schools excuse me five schools within Rader Township School District so again I would just encourage the board to strongly encourage the board to reject this Charter School proposal again along the same lines as you rejected the May 2021 application as well as because for the issues regarding gender identity um and whether that's going to be acknowledged by the by the school thank you very much bye-bye good evening I'm Roberta Winters a Community member and retired teacher who lives at 326 Williams Road in Rosemont I'd like to thank the board for providing remote

027means to address the potential charter school to be housed at Valley Forge Military Academy has a long tradition shared with a rather and per different townships the institution however is currently experiencing a need for Revenue while the use of the facility May provide necessary income I do not believe that a charter school is in the best interest of our community charter schools in our Commonwealth are generally exempt from the requirements of the school code and other laws that apply to our local school district this creates an uneven playing field and reduces performance expectations as an educator and a taxpayer who will continue to contribute to this operation I believe it will fail to provide the accountability our community expects for both student learning and fiscal practices money often corrupts the best of intentions unfortunately those

028who operate charter schools have been known to get rich at the expense of taxpayers and students one approach has been to attract students with special needs or label those who enroll as requiring special services covered by special education provisions although these added Services increase the financial support that the charter they simultaneously withdraw a significant per pupil expenses from local school districts this has created Financial challenges for traditional Public Schools who are meeting the needs of all students not just those who opt to attend a charter school our community does not want to sacrifice the learning of our own youth in our excellent schools for those who choose to attend a potential charter school with an unknown track record oversight of a charter school within a school district's boundaries creates a burden on already overwhelmed staff

029if this Charter School will authorize in Radnor our administrators and staff would be responsible for ensuring that it's operating in compliance with its Charter the charter school law and other applicable laws our Personnel can only juggle so much now sensitivity to the needs of others is important be they Financial or educational I also know that educational Innovation through a charter school venue can make a difference however the Radnor Township School District needs to continue to build on its Legacy of Excellence we have opportunities for students in ways too numerous to mention that develop leadership both within and Beyond the confines of our classrooms internships and vocational training provide guidance and opportunities for real life service for example the Radner Fire Company even offers junior members students ship for 16 and 17 years old while a

030charter school may bring Financial Revenue to Valley Forge Military Academy I do not believe it is in the best interest of the community because of its lack of accountability the potential for financial mismanagement the additional burden on our professional staff and the possible reduction over time of educational opportunities for Radnor students due to the siphoning off of funds for those enrolled in charter schools again I thank you and appreciate your consideration thank you so that concludes our public comment section of the meeting unless there is any other public comment in the room that has not come forward yes absolutely come on up please and because you came late I'll just remind you what I reminded the others is kindly just press the green button in front of you to turn on the mic and and

031give your name and town of residence there's a four-minute public comment limit thank you thank you and I I don't think I'll take that time my name is Kevin Dow I am a resident of uh Radnor Township I live over at 754 Darby Paoli Road I have two children in the district one at Ratner middle school and another at ithen elementary I really appreciate this opportunity to be here and speak on this matter as I have been engaged in educational um early particularly Early Education in my career professionally I wanted to come here and adamantly oppose the district's consideration of a charter school at Valley Forge Military Academy I would I would convey the same comments that we have just heard on the phone and specifically point to one the um the uh the decision

032that was made last year pointing out to all of those particular reasons I think that is important that we don't lose sight that those things have not yet been addressed in my opinion um I think there are long-standing and unresolved issues around the sexual abuse allegations that occur at the Valley Forge Military Academy it gives me great pause to have someone like that running a school in our community the inconsistency between school policies with that of the Radner other schools particularly around how we work with and identify our gender identities and all of those Dynamics or more than just that those are just one example about the inconsistencies and the policies I also um feel I'm concerned for the administrative burden that will be placed on the District staff and the administrative staff in maintaining

033and operating and making ensuring that the charter school is managing and Performing as expected or as should be lastly um I think that the uh the management concerns that I've been indicated about the proposed operating company for the school is of concern for me I'm not and well informed as many of you all may be but in the time that I have learned about this situation and delved into the details for which I could get as a concerned parent informed professional it gives me great pause and I would ask that you've not approve this application thank you and I appreciate the opportunity to speak before you thank you Mr Dowd and is there any other remaining in-person public comment this evening okay seeing none thank you everyone both recorded and in-person public commenters and at

034this point I will now turn to our District administration and solicitor to ask questions about the Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley forge's application and presentation and I guess Mr Christopher are you going to facilitate introductions in this part of the uh yes sir with the representatives from the Pennsylvania military charter school please come forward and take a seat at the table uh the ones who are going to be responding to questions if you could just briefly introduce yourself and then we'll begin with the questions thank you also due to the limitation of the microphones and and to enhance the ability for everybody to hear your answers if kind if you would kindly pull the microphone towards you and it's your turn to respond we would greatly appreciate that good morning Joshua Johnson board member

035for the Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley Forge a good evening actually but uh I I happen to be Bob mench on the board of directors for the charter school and my name is Michael Way I Am With Charter One good evening we're going to start out with some questions about curriculum on page 23 of your application it says that math instruction at pmcs will utilize a program such as Eureka Math and on page 28 it says that pmcs will use Eureka Math or other similar conceptually based math curriculum can you identify where in the application it states what math curriculum will actually be used what were the pages 23 and 28. please make sure again that you circulate the microphone I apologize we don't have more available the system only holds so many so

036just please make sure that whoever is responding has the mic in front of them thank you I can see where where that shows a little ambiguity but I'll tell you for a fact that we plan on using Eureka Math is algebra 2 the highest sequence math class you're planning to offer microphone on again please in fact you may want to just leave it on so you don't have to remember to go on and off thank you no it'll go it'll go all the way up through the calculus okay can you can you let us know where it says that in the application I one of the two pages you've referenced I don't see it neither hopefully there's a an opportunity to provide an addendum as we go forward to correct any errors we may have

037had in the administrator or the submission on pages 23 and 24 it says that our science curriculum to include programs such as CK PSI grades K5 openside Ed at grade 6 8 and ck-12 at grades 912 can you identify where in the application states which science curriculum will actually be used that is the curriculum open Syed for those specific ones okay so not such as those are the those are the actual Curriculum maps on page 27 it says that pmcs plans to use the core knowledge language arts curriculum for grades K through five since core knowledge is not State specific how will you ensure the curriculum is lined to Pennsylvania core standards and how do you plan to address any misalignment that's a great question we are actually um in the process of pulling the

038curriculum apps of core knowledge and the requirements of the state of Pennsylvania and you're correct we we at Charter when we do operate schools in multiple States and every State's a little bit different with regards to what they require from estate standards and So currently our academic team is pulling back the maps and filling in the gaps if any of where where those would need to be and So currently at Charter One we have an academic team of roughly 12 individuals that work full-time in the academic and curriculum Department that are making sure that no gaps are being missed where in the application does it mention or identify the language arts curriculum which will be used in grades 6 through 12. do you have the answer to that question because if not it is because

039that we are currently looking for curriculum that matches the Pennsylvania state standards on that on page 29 it says that we that quote we plan to utilize core knowledge history and geography for kindergarten through sixth grades or other similar program that focuses on primary source documents can you identify where in the application at stage Which history and geography curriculum will actually be used if we're in the application does it mention or identify the history or geography curriculum which we use in grades 7 through 12. so core knowledge is is built through to K8 and then 9 through 12 I would uh need to get back to you on that with the academic team it the correct answer would be it depends but I can get back to you on that thank you where in the

040application does it mention or identify the economics or Civics and government curriculum which we which will be used in grades K through 12. as far as specific curriculums for the economics and the macro and the micro I'm not I'm not specific I know we have used hmh in the past um and um Pearson where in the application do you identify what core texts and materials will be used in each grade level could you be more specific with regards to Cortex and materials uh the I guess the foundational instructional materials could be textbooks could be novels could be core nodes we didn't catch that because you were drinking some water sorry the core knowledge sequence in the application page 12 item 3 you stated that pmcs quote will emphasize western civilization and promote Cadet engagement with

041traditional literature is this part of your curriculum correct does your application application include any discussion of teaching world history beyond the discussion of Western Civilization yes could you let us know where that is it would be in The Curriculum maps and if if the Curriculum maps are not required or provided for this we can get those to you on page 13 in the second full paragraph it states quote through Reading analyzing and studying classic literature along with other primary source documents end quote when the application does it identify the classic literature PCMS will require students to read again I don't know if it were as specific is this on it is on yes but we can get the specifics free with the curriculum apps our Curriculum maps have every everything within those several hundred Pages

042worth but we can get those two thank you we're in the application do you plan for how PCMS will differentiate instruction across grade levels and subjects how are we differentiated um that's I will try and be brief but through the through the k-6 model and going up through 712 we would utilize a direct instruction model where teachers are leading the class with uh well thought out lesson plan students desk are facing forward listening to the and engaging in with the with the lesson as they go up in grades K through 12 you'll start seeing the implementation of the Socratic method being used more often depending on the class especially once they get into 7th through 12th grade you'll see that we might um angle off from direct instruction depending on the type of class in

043the in the app you'll see that there's entrepreneurship Financial literary and stuff like that those are a little bit more Project based in their um in their foundation and so when it comes to um the overall school day of the student um with the specials that we provide as well um Monday through Friday um along with the um the I believe the seven periods a day seven through twelve once once the students are able to choose their own schedule you'll notice some unique offerings such as entrepreneurship financial literacy and then everything that the military program would offer as well thank you what is a raise raise is something we're extremely proud about it is um Charter one's intellectual um and uh and curriculum it's it's our personal curriculum character curriculum that we implemented every school

044that we manage it stands for raise raise stands for respect accountability Integrity service and excellence and it is honestly it's the Special Sauce that that uh if you were to walk into one of our schools you would definitely feel a difference and it's a good feeling and when you're able to walk into a school and grab a student and ask them how they're doing and what they're thinking and how they're feeling and when that student says I know my teacher loves me that's that's where race comes from and that's that's what we try and Implement every day there's a whole curriculum that is given to every teacher that is hired and they are taught to teach the race curriculum throughout their teachings so a math teacher is able to implement raise the race curriculum throughout

045their math instruction a history teacher is able to implement raise through their um history lessons and on top of that there's a leadership course in the in the upper grades and there's also a leadership special every Wednesday morning as well for the younger grades thank you is PCMS purchasing the raise curriculum from anyone that comes with uh signing on which that comes with the partnership with Charter One and does the application include any contract agreement or mention of this partnership of the partnership between the board and Charter One and inclusion of the raised curriculum that that's a given that comes with Charter One it's not specifically mentioned in the in the actual contract according to the website www teachweightrace.org the raise character education curriculum is owned by and for sale by the foundation of Charter

046education does PCMS have a relationship with the foundation of Charter education what's that website again www.teacherays t-e-a-c-h-r-a-i-s-e dot org and what was the question again uh it uh does uh PCMS have a relationship with the foundation for Charter education not to my knowledge though in the application on page 20 you refer to raise cards what are those say that one more time in the application on page 20 you reference and refer to raise cards what are those typically the raise cards would be um I want to make sure I'm speaking correctly here we've been right here you want to answer that raise cards are are a uh a public recognition of students that have been involved in the race program and have done something remarkable within a in the application on page 16 you state

047that the raise leadership program will lead to decreased behaviors what are decreased behaviors apologize for the no problem with microphones in here organizations that are based off of core values have a tendency to understand what those core values are and it drives the the behaviors within right a core value uh helps establish a culture and a culture drives behaviors and attitudes we feel that that operating under the core values of arrays is going to especially when that Court when those core values are consistently talked about throughout every grade it's going to create a culture of students that that respect those core values and act in those core values and when students respect and act in alignment with those core values what are the decreased behaviors decreased uh I'd be willing to say that it's those

048behaviors that that have a tendency to create uh disciplinary issues with students to elaborate on that as well it's a it's a good day when one of the school directors comes to me and says and I ask them how their day went and they mentioned you know I just can't get these young men to tuck in their shirts it's been a it's been a tough day that's that's kind of what we're going for um the The Vaping the violence the things that are so common in many of the schools across this country that's the decreased behavior that we're talking about and so when it comes to this if you notice the charter application is only 131 pages I believe it didn't specifically ask for every curriculum sequence and if it did this application would be

049for 500 pages so I just wanted to make that clear with regards to some of the questions that you're asking are very sequencing curriculum based that the charter app has asked us to address generally and yet we were still over 100 pages and back to the raised curriculum and decreased disciplinary issues do you have data to support that conclusion from our schools absolutely yes where in the application does it identify your esy program your extended school year program does it do have you read that portion do you know the page number I didn't see it okay so then what what's the esy the extended school year program some students sometimes need schooling Beyond just the okay yeah absolutely so at every one of the campuses that we manage to any students that are academically behind

050are given the option whether through um intensive um assistance before school is out for the school year um with with some type of recovery mechanism or also the implementation of summer school to assist those School those students to to get where they need to be thank you when the application do you describe what AP and dual enrollment courses you plan to offer at pmcs and are those listed anywhere if they're if they're not specifically listed they are listed in the curriculum sequence that we can give to you the first year will be based on demand considering that we may not fill to the to the level that we would like to we're confident that we could when it comes to student enrollment but the first year would be based on student demand and I would

051imagine after years two or three that we would have the full Gambit of what any of our other Charter One managed schools would have you budgeted for teacher training for AP courses yes on slide 12 and also on page 12 of the application pmcs says it will offer four CTE programs law enforcement firefighting emergency medical technician and cyber security the Delaware County Technical school offers a comprehensive program for emergency and protective services as well as a program that covers computer networking digital forensics and I.T security how will pcms's program differ from the Delaware County Technical Schools program we we haven't done an in-depth analysis of that school district's programs what we will tell you is this is the opportunity for you know as we provide a school of choice to have those options as well

052as the the specifics of a military themed so we don't we don't want to pull pull back specifically and say hey look we are only military we want to say hey we are providing many of the same opportunities that other school districts have in addition to the uh the culture and the environment that comes with the military school will pmcs permit students to attend the Delaware County Technical School yes absolutely that's all my questions for now thank you very much for your responses thank you sir thank you good evening I have questions for you along the lines of students and and oh I'm sorry uh Sean the Cabbage I'm the assistant to the superintendent for teaching and learning uh how did you determine enrollment projections uh enrollment projections are based on um the surrounding areas

053of student population with regards to what the local school districts could carry as well as working with um Valley Forge Military Academy the availability of current buildings educational facility usage as well does pmcs plan a solicit current vfma students they would be given the opportunity to it's Choice it's purely base if they choose to do so they would be given that opportunity like any other student in the area oh Valley Forge Military Academy students pmcs no I know that one too there was another academic um types of students I'm sorry just does pmcs plan to solicit current VM vfma students I misunderstood the question here will Charter students share any classes with vfma students you plan to implement a lottery system for admissions what information will you require on the Lottery application for admissions if

054so if more students apply then seats available then yes we would go to a lottery and we would follow all state regulations with regards to what information we would be required to receive from them in order to do the lottery what is the expected class sizes for each grade that's in the application just give me a moment please do you want to break down uh by each year K through 12. or to use what the total numbers I think just generally what is the expected class size for each grade um do you have a range or gener's class per class per class so that it would be roughly um 20 to 25 for kindergarten and and roughly um kindergarten first and roughly um because we would have teach trades in there as well and I

055don't know how you would calculate student to teacher ratio with that with regards to that but as you get into second through six you're looking around 25 to 28 and then in high school it's completely dependent on the class that you're taking so um when you're dealing with a K-12 giving a direct class per size is is a little um doesn't necessarily do it justice where in a weightlifting class you may have as many as 35 or 40 or in band whereas in AP History you may have 14. and so high school is dependent upon the class that they're taking and then the k k and first are typically lower and then second through six are roughly around 25 to 28 approximately on page eight you state you plan to have upwards of 1 000

056Cadets is this information correct based on depending on demand correct on page 15 a reference is tracking for students quote four tracks will provide targeted and focused academic and skill development opportunities setting Cadets up for Success after the graduation end quote can you please explain your tracking system and delineate the four tracks you said page 15. page 15. so yeah the tracks that we're referencing there are First Responders uh and that being police fire medical and Military those are the four tracks what criteria will be used to slot students into those four tracks I'm not sure if that criteria has been has been hammered out yet completely but primarily we're looking at students desires right if if you've got students that say hey I've got an interest in law enforcement I've got an interest in

057fire suppression firefighting or I've got an interest in the military then we're going to accommodate those tracks would students and parents be able to override the criteria if there were some to move up or down or change change to the different track are you asking will students be kept in a track regardless of their desires would they have the opportunity to override or change essentially meaning change tracks yes yeah of course what to me I think you talking about the student he's saying can the parent override yeah is that right well the question actually is listed as students and parents so essentially having the autonomy to make a change to their track So to that answer yes students and or parents would have the autonomy to change tracks what plan does pmcs have to ensure

058compliance with Pennsylvania's chapter 339 Career and Technical education CTE standards we we asked that question one more time please absolutely what plan does pmcs have to ensure compliance with Pennsylvania's chapter 339 Career and Technical education CTE standards we we plan on being compliance with with all state and federal laws does pmcs plan to contract with the vendor to ensure compliance with CTE artifacts for 339 plan compliance can we ask for greater Clarity on what our 339 plan is it's meant to identify artifacts and standards toward um essentially College of career Readiness for students planning for post graduation secondary opportunities for students no not necessarily it could be anything post postgraduate but 339 ensures compliance that districts are working toward that and supporting students we would be would use a vendor for that or would that

059be something proprietary I think we're going to have to do a detailed look at 339 and then make that determination if it if a vendor is required or if a vendor is better suited than then we can make that call then thank you that concludes my questions thanks sir foreign hi I'm Jenny Lesage I'm the director of student services here at Radnor I have a couple questions um where in the application do you include or identify a plan to educate the English language learners I'm not sure I understand your question where does it say that we're going to educate English language learners so the question is if is there a plan to I can you identify a plan that you have in your application to educate English language Learners are you asking specifically about like

060English as a second language that's correct oh okay I mean we will provide those Services we don't detail it out just like we haven't detailed out the curriculum apps for the curriculum but as you see in page 21 we will provide appropriate services to Cadets who are gifted as well as Cadets who are English language learners so you said the gift did as well because that was my next question so your application on page 21 talks about a plan to identify and have a plan for your gifted Learners correct did you know it was it was on page 21. I thought that's what you just said it is okay thank you what is your projected percentage of identified special education students well I'm going to ask is that in that is that in the application

061I don't believe so okay typically Charter One managed schools range between 11 and 12 percent okay okay what personnel would be responsible for meeting the needs of the students with special needs and if you could answer that by stating the title of the individual and like basically what their responsibilities would be that's for addressing the needs of special education students I can address that if so in we have a special education division exceptional student services division at Charter One um a full Department of those individuals that assist with that on top of um being able to provide those services from a unique local perspective as well and so upon the approval of this Charter application this school would receive expertise in that area from from that individual from Charter One assisting that that person again

062on page 21 it'll talk to you a little bit about the um the IEPs and how we would go about um making sure that we address the needs of all students I think that it's pretty apparent in our numbers typically we we do and I and I and I don't want to paint this with a broad brush but we we typically do have more exceptional students um within Charter One Minute schools in the surrounding school districts what certifications will these individuals hold that are working with these students so ma'am if we can uh we can clarify that a little further Charter One has has qualifications first for uh teachers and instructors that can work with that and if it's outside of those qualifications we plan on Contracting with the I believe it's the Delaware intermediary

063unit the the same one that's used uh within the Radner and true deference Township do I have that acronym or at diu dciu thank you what will be their level of compensation competitive with the marketplace how many students would be on a caseload for a teacher that was working with them that purely depends on the level of needs whether it's a push in service or a pull out service it completely depends on the level of needs of that student I would be hesitant to tell you exactly what that is depending on the severity of the needs of the student okay how many students do you believe will be on a caseload for a teacher for special education correct um did you find that in the charter application I do not believe I did okay again

064depending on the caseload depending on the severity of the students um okay I'm not I'm actually I'm not comfortable putting it on the record I'm not going to say that because it depends on the severity of the students I don't know so these teachers that would be in for the special education will they be a full-time and special education or would they have other duties full-time what related service providers will you employ in what sense so related service meaning for example speech and language occupational therapy yep will they be full-time if the need is there yes it just depends on the severity of the needs there's some campuses that we manage where they are full-time there's some where they're part-time okay who will be responsible for students IEPs so what staff will be and if

065you can list by the title that you would give these staff members and their duties that they would be doing uh we would have a we have a sped director we do have specific sped teachers and the the their Paras that are responsible for that ultimately the buck stops with the school director the principal um but but the whole sped Department would be responsible for that and in conjunction with the teacher making sure that any IEPs or 504 plans are being followed as well okay so that was the next question so the special education teachers would be responsible for 504 plans depending on the level of 504 where in the application do you identify a special education curriculum or program I don't again that would be more specified in The Curriculum maps that we will

066I'm assured we will be providing you who will conduct the evaluations and re-evaluations of students with suspected disabilities the sped team and who would make up that sped team that would do that the the uh the sped director um in conjunction with the school principal as well would have oversight on that but the sped director of the school and then depending on the the student in the grade depending on the the cohort of that grade level um the um sped teachers of that grade level okay thank you where in the application do you include how you will conduct functional Behavior assessments of students that have behavioral needs just to go back a couple of questions when you're talking about the sped team or the IEP team that IEP team is going to be it's going

067to be comprised of the student special education teacher a member of the administration and either an advocate of the an advocate for the parent or both so we'll you know we want to make sure that it's on the record that that uh parents or Advocates of that student will be part of that uh IEP plan uh in regard to your the you know we will have a multi-disciplinary evaluation team that works directly with the IEP team uh when it comes to children with multiple disabilities functional Behavior okay so in the application I I had asked a question about a functional Behavior assessment um who would be conducting those for students that would have behavioral needs that would that would fall on either the IEP or the Met where in the application do you provide information

068regarding assistive technology for students who need special education programming if it's not in there it's because it's a very specific question and we can get that to you with regards to the the the specifics of that I don't even I don't believe that I was asked for the application who would be reasonable for monitoring students progress within mtss which stands for multi-tiered systems of support the mte uh let's see the mtss CPA qualified instruction consider that tier one typically what we're talking about there are students that are struggling and need that support tier two will be engaged and then tier three finally and tier four all schools must have an mtss in place as as will the pmcs at Valley Forge Charter One will provide a copy of their standard mtss and then we'll adjust

069it as necessary for the specifics of the child there is also campus campus appointed the campus director appoints mtss leaders depending on different grades and they'll be responsible how will you accommodate students with disabilities using a military training model foreign will be made to include all students at the end of the day there are certain limitations that are going to happen just based upon the individual students we will work closely with that IEP we'll work very closely with the Met team we work very closely with all Educators to find ways that we can be inclusive of all students in all activities I'd like to add too that this may be their only opportunity to do so in this environment where in the application do you discuss how a sap or a student assistance program will

070be implemented for are we still in forgive me sped are we talking about no this is um Student Assistance programs and the the sap team or people that get together and look at students and it's it's all students it's not just students that have already been identified okay and so then your question was how you yeah the question is how would a Student Assistance Program be implemented and is it discussed in the application this is like a corporate EAP program does this does this Provide support programs and for students if they're having emotional issues or family issues so it's it's more of a of a team that gets together um and works together on helping students academically emotionally behaviorally believe this I believe that'll be made up of the uh the IEP the met and

071the mtss but it it extends Beyond just the IEP and 504 plans it's it's something that's available to the entire student body correct is that how your stop teams yes yes okay so those Services would be made available where in the application do you discuss how a student attendance Improvement plan will be implemented hello I don't think we've got that specifically listed in the charter uh that's something that will work uh hand in hand between the student the parent or the representation uh the representative or a uh uh and the faculty and finally where in the application do you discuss a comprehensive student threat assessment guidelines we call it c-stag how will that be implemented within um within your school we'll be in compliance with all state and federal requirements on the c-stag it hasn't

072been fully implemented yet as we don't have you know we number one we don't have a charter number two we don't uh have an exact layout of the infrastructure of the school but once all of that is analyzed that c-stag will be produced thank you good evening my name is Brian Pauling I'm the business administrator for the district how did you arrive at the figure in your application for the cost for administrative personnel based on local historical data and then also data that we have from the other schools that we've managed how did you arrive at the figure in your application for the costs for all special education teachers staff and related service providers same answer who's responsible for making budget determinations regarding teachers and staff sorry could you please enter that with the microphone

073the board of directors what are the qualifications for the person handling budgeting we'll be we'll be utilizing uh you know budgeting expertise coming from Charter One and if there's an additional do they will uh we'll hire on on either higher as a as a FTE or potentially 1099 we do have the full um what's the word I'm looking for here it's the the um not the course description but the um the um title the um individual that we're looking for for that that would run the budgets we had the full course description um that would require that we could send to you you know minimum bachelor's degree a master's in finance stuff like that if you're talking more about the qualifications we have that okay we can send you did you include a teacher salary

074Matrix as part of your application if it was asked for yes if not we can get you one is there documentation to support the fundraising expectations a document supporting the fundraising expectations yes or some justification uh that would be on a local basis with the board and local community members and local family members also depending on the needs and we're very not only are we very Mission driven but we're also very even fundraiser driven what would what we're not just raising money to raise money what is this raising money for is this so um it's very specific very localized so what methodology did you use for what you included in your application um is it there was a dollar amount so I'm getting it to happen what's the dollar amount I don't have that handy

075but it's so those numbers came off of came off of estimations based off of uh other charter schools that Charter One has supported and what we assume may happen here it's an estimation okay what type of medical benefits are you offering to the staff those will will obviously be in compliance with all state and federal laws okay is the charter school participating in the Pennsylvania state educational retirement system and will staff members be eligible for peasers benefits yeah it's an option for the for the individual Cur offering that as an option yes your Staffing costs decrease from year one to two including a reduction in two School leader positions is this accurate I think we have to look at that I would need to take a look at that is that let's mention in the

076budget according to the numbers it is okay how we need to look at that how is inflation and other increases in costs factored into the future budget years specifically just the teachers Brian or there were quite a few line items in the budget that were flat funded over the five years in the expenditure category so I'm wondering if any inflationary factors were considered as part of those numbers I think we want to take a look at those again yeah for clarity's sake that budget is an estimate we know that there's there's going to be certain things that are going to change based upon you know the number of students we get the the you know current economics they're we we fully expect that there will be some minor changes to that to that budget um

077to account for this there was a category listed as other costs for a million dollars what's included in those other costs specifically included in that uh in addition to the things that come up were any of the requirements are gonna that any of the transportation requirements they're going to exceed the 10 mile radius for school districts and was that the only Factor were there others I let us get that list to you yeah thank you where's the calculation showing the number of students at different local tuition rates for both regular and special education students the calculations specifically put input into the budget yes I can get that to you okay how was the idea Revenue calculated and Justified that would be a historical data that we've we've typically see from school to school especially starting

078schools based on our experience at Charter One okay was that based on number of students or roughly percentages but then also you take a look at the local demographics and you take a look at local school districts and what they're doing how are fringe benefits for personnel calculated could you be more specific with fringe benefits I don't Social Security taxes other employer related taxes teasers I believe there are line items already addressed in the uh in the proposed budget or they're not for Social Security and other costs uh they are but they're inconsistent with the calculation that we would normally see and then we'd have to take a look at the end for you okay will your cash flow statements spread all revenues and expenditures out flatly per month trying to think of why it

079wouldn't um there could be some extraordinary well I think you're familiar with how School District cash flows work from you know it's usually there's cyclicals it's usually not flat that's your reference yes okay um I don't know what we have in this budget I think we have to take a look at it and make sure that it's consistent with what you would expect okay how will the 250 000 startup loan be secured and by what methods I believe that that would be through um Charter One what's your anticipated percentage of students that will qualify for free and reduced lunch do you have that number yeah that's based off of uh that's you know historic said that whatever the typical demographic within the school districts that we're looking at will base it off of those what

080is your expected budget for transportation clock costs listen is that in the budget yes yeah I believe there was a 500 000 amount listed um so what is included in that budget if there was a million for transportation costs and the other cost than what would be included in the 500 000 specifically designated for transportation maintenance and that's in addition to the million which you stated was in the other costs for transportation outside of the 10 mile radius just remember that million dollars that that is an example of what can be used with that million dollars that doesn't that's not a million dollars specifically for transportation plus 500 000 that's that's money for over just okay that was the example that you gave when I had asked about that um so your budget includes one

081million fifty thousand dollars per year for Health Services what's included in that line item just a moment please sure foreign for that campus director will be responsible for Staffing the development for the use of medication uh Mr Johnson I'm so sorry just slow down a little bit so we can hear you read that if if you don't mind all right so this is on page the campus director will be responsible for the staff development and the use of medication and Equipment assigned to the responsibility for the the delivery of health services and the school placement of cadets within the medical needs specifically uh the school nurse at pmcs will be able to conduct Vision hearing hearing thresholds dental and scoliosis screenings as well as perform all Cadet height and weight measurements annually as is consistent

082with Pennsylvania regulations thank you also as appropriate this bleeds into sped as well sped services all right I'm going to Pivot to some questions on insurance we're in the application do you state what specific insurance policies or specific coverages will be obtained by a provider any and all insurances that are required for us to have we will have and we will take those to the market with Charter one's buying power and ability to secure low interest rates for the board we're confident that that'll be a um an added benefit of the relationship between us okay and where in the application do you include any commitments by an insurance company to provide the coverage we have not gone out to market yet for that so there would not be any in there I believe unless there

083is I did not see them okay um okay so we'll pivot over to Transportation where in your application do you discuss your plan for afternoon transportation for students who stay for after school activities foreign School transportation policies of the surrounding school districts okay does the school have sufficient transportation for athletic competitions with other schools they will yes how will students who are not within the 10 mile radius zone or have access access to public transportation get back and forth to the school you're saying they don't have access to buses I'm asking how you would transport students beyond the 10 mile radius or have access to public transportation it was noted that there was potential for public transportation utilization in your application so I know that was part of that million dollar um expenditure is is

084any of the requirements are going to be above and beyond that 10 mile radius we're looking at what that what that's going to include until we have an understanding of the number of students out there uh that's a planning factor that that we know exists but we have not specified okay depending on where the students are located to and depending on that 10 mile radius the utilization of cluster stops um beyond that mile radius too okay if some schools do not start until after Labor Day how will those schools provide transportation if this charter school plans on beginning classes on August 5th so to help help clarify we would be operating our own buses not within the schools within the 10 mile radius we forgive me we would not be operating our schools buses outside

085of the 10 mile radius is that what you're no what I'm asking is if the sending districts have to provide transportation within the 10 mile radius and you're planning on starting at the beginning of August and most schools don't go back that's that's going to be a difficulty for your sending school districts to provide additional Staffing to to handle I don't believe that we're expecting the local school district to bus you know so these students so August 5 is an estimated starting time we'll we'll have to take a detailed look at what uh the students that we're getting the student population that we're going to get in from those school districts if we have something that is outside of that we'll we can either find a specific contracted availability or potentially adjust our start date

086again we don't have specific numbers from school districts and their start times yet but as those numbers become more clear that August 5 date can be adjusted okay so the application mentions a public transportation Hub what is the proposed address for this hub that isn't that is entirely dependent upon where those students are going are coming from without having without having clarified numbers without having uh advertised this uh and started to to actually pull in applications that's a a broad statement of we will provide okay so what public transportation are you relying on and in what areas again that that's totally determined on where those students are coming from so the application mentions a need to consolidate transportation to and from campus for efficiency while minimizing the impact of public traffic near the campus could

087you clarify what that means utilizing carpooling and busing opportunities to eliminate um carpool traffic and being mindful a mindful neighbor of those in the surrounding Community as far as not backing up local streets is the campus equipped to have approximately a thousand students coming in in the morning how do you plan to transport students with disabilities that are outside of the 10 mile radius we'll work with them on a case-by-case basis whether a special bus is required or that is the case case-by-case basis okay we're in the application do you identify the amount of parking spots needed for teachers staff and students who drive was that asked for in the application but if you would like the answer to that question we can get it for you I guess the question is is the is

088the facilities able to accommodate it is yes okay thanks for all my questions thank you very much good evening gentlemen I'm Bill Dolan I'm the director of operations my questions center around facilities what is the address of the charter school currently the address is my home it will not be there my wife won't allow it uh if if you need me to I can look up the actual address of the Valley Forge Military Academy I don't have it on hand so Valley Forge Military Academy address correct okay the only specific building mentioned in the application is heart Hall I believe is that correct uh if I recall uh we specifically say that we will be leasing facilities from the Valley Forge Military Academy hard Hall We Believe will be one of those but as we

089get closer to this process uh we'll specify exactly which buildings will be leased okay and that's mentioned on page essential areas gymnasiums field field usage Library Etc okay I have heart haul questions um do you know heart Hall's occupancy limit more than a thousand a thousand let's clarify that we we expect to be able to lease enough facilities to equal that 975 students that we believe that we're going to be able to meet over the over the five years of enrollment uh we will not exceed uh whatever the the you know the local occupancy codes are and if heart Hall can meet our our needs initially or if heart Hall can meet our our needs throughout the duration of the school then we're good there but we do know that we've with the relationship we

090have with uh Valley Forge that will we have the ability to expand as necessary to meet those needs we're basing our our lease off of uh 975 students okay yeah okay okay um how many restroom facilities available at heart Hall do you know I I don't have those numbers specifically we do know that we'll be in compliance with with state and federal requirements okay these more specific to that um in May of 2021 this board was told that heart Hall wasn't ADA Compliant um what work has been done on heart Hall since May 2021 to make it ADA Compliant do we know no work that we are aware of has been done as of yet there's as we have not entered into a lease uh we're making no demands upon Valley Forge Military Academy once

091a lease is secured then that lease will include the requirements to be in compliance with Ada okay on page 72 of the application it says that will offer tours in the facility as soon as we receive a certificate of occupancy after construction is complete can you explain what construction we're referring to yeah that's any construction required to bring the buildings uh within code okay who is playing who is paying for the construction that is a good question we are leasing facilities from Valley Forge Military Academy however they get those facilities up to code is on them um do you know when construction would begin do you know when we're going to get approved fair enough have all necessary approvals for this construction been received have contractors been identified and if so have you entered into

092a contract with the work no no no no no no we may be able to eliminate some of those questions by saying none of that will be done until a charter is approved and at least is secured does the application contain a copy of a lease or a letter of intent from Valley Forge Military Academy or any other landlord committing to lease any space to pmcs I don't believe it it provides a letter of intent but that's something that we could get if necessary will the lease premises be exclusively used by pmcs students yes what is your projected rent ranging from three to three point two million based upon and what is the rent number based upon estimate based off of the total student um total student enrollment not to exceed 20 percent of Revenue

093thank you who is responsible for maintenance costs in the agreement please just make sure thank you thank you landlord who is responsible for the ADA compliance the landlord's name do you plan to seat the entire Charter School population at one lunch seating so forget the demand is there yes if we plan on seeding the entire 975 students at one time the charter school population so yes okay we don't believe that facilities that will be leased will be able to seat that many uh but we're going to have to take a look at it if until we have a necessity to go to a scheduled lunch break then we'll be able to use the existing or the uh what we or what we suspect will be able to lease as far as uh dining facilities okay

094so following up on that how would this work with the existing Valley Forge Military Academy and pmcs students also needing to eat there will have to be deconfliction we don't know what that looks like until we've been approved I'm sorry could you repeat that Affliction thank you thank you thank you just deconfliction not not routinely used in the education system okay yeah foreign it is interesting that uh military language and civilian language can be so close yet so far away good evening Scott hand director of Technology Innovation instructional design for the school district we'll start with some technology questions that I have um can you please share where in your application you describe what technology will be offered to students can you be more specific as to what technology you're asking about student technology like

095what Chromebooks or yes any correct what are you offering to students for technology uh I'm not sure that's specified in the in the application we do know that we'll have a requirement there will be requirements for students to have access to technology and we do have a plan and we will have a plan in place to make sure that those students have that access okay we typically run a one to two ratio of Chromebook to students the goal is to not have students go home with Chromebooks though we don't encourage that okay so one to two has one device for every two students okay thank you does your application contain a line item for technology in the budget it should is there somewhere foreign there is a line item for IT services can you please

096share the page number it is page four of appendix d when you look uh in the first first section IT services and then when you look at supplies and material uh materials too yep yeah student laptops facility laptops so under contracted services and then under uh supplies and material okay thank you will any of the technology infrastructure or services such as Internet be shared with the vfma so will you maintain separate infrastructure in a shared space for the two different schools we shared space is a say heart Hall shared space it will not be co-located yeah are you asking if we're going to have a separate internet service provider then internet service network infrastructure wireless access within a shared space it would all be separate right it's very likely that the the students would even

097be in the same buildings the academy and the charter school that that's a good question I think we're going to have to do some research into that as to as as we're going to be leasing facilities uh if if there's specifics of a structure that's that's uh you know tied to those buildings that's going to have to be on a shared basis but it's not we have no plans to share any of our uh programs or any of that with Valley Forge Military Academy so yeah separate firewalls and and all of that okay and do you know how much that will cost to create and maintain that separate infrastructure we have an estimation it's got to be in the budget good based based off of uh page four that we talked about the IT services

098that's what we're estimating for startup not for ongoing I.T service costs to establish that infrastructure year over year we can get that to you okay but you're saying page four is just the startup costs page for the Dynam has to start a budget year two through five yeah okay shifting Focus to the academic calendar can you please share who developed the academic calendar yeah we worked in conjunction with the board Charter One student services team um the student services division helps us create the calendar along with the academic team the sped team and um the the board as well okay thank you can you please share how many total student days you have and how many total staff days you have I don't have it memorized we can count real quick foreign page 60 or

099forgive me uh page yeah page 60. school calendar must include 990 hours or 180 days of instruction that's what we'll have you will have 180 student days do you know how many staff days 190. thank you uh question on the bell schedule the information concerning the bell schedule appears to be somewhat contradictory in one place on page 32. it states that class periods will be 55 minutes long and another place on page 32 it states periods will be 65 minutes long and on page 33 it states there are two 90-minute periods however the bell schedule on page 32 has periods that are 5 15 75 and 85 minutes long there are no 55 60 or 90 minute periods that exist can you explain what the actual bell schedule will look like I mean can we

100get back to you on that stuff it's going to meet somebody I don't know that we can we need the microphone for the court stenographer thank you I'm sorry um I think we have to get back to you on that rather than trying to um take the three separate set of data and come to one answer right now so on page 33 when it talks about the Scout the bell schedule assistant provides the following average uh instructional minutes uh for the core as we're looking at those averages and we Define you know we clarify what our schedule is going to be those were put in there uh again as an average and as the as the uh as a curriculum is is finalized and and determined will have an exact bell schedule prepared okay thank

101you good evening Dan back told assistant to the superintendent for district management I have I start off with questions related to Personnel could you please identify who has been retained or hired to run the school we intend to contract with Charter One as our ESP we're in the application does it identify the number of teachers by certification area we have not identified teachers by certification area we've just done it by grade we are capable of flexing on that as necessary and the it's also Pages 78 into the 90s also talks about the different um types of employees that will be working at the school and the level of credentials and certifications that they'll need to thank you will all pmcs teachers be certified to teach by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania a quick question does the

102state law require that yes so our teachers are required to be certified by the state of Pennsylvania okay how do you plan to ensure that certifications are valid and current we have systems and processes and procedures in place where the director of the school on uh annual or semi-annual basis reviews where everyone's at with their certifications and their recertification process how many hours a day will teachers at pmcs work you know I'm I'm going to lean on our experience at our other campuses where they are they're contracted to start 30 minutes before school and and and they finish 30 minutes after school ends so roughly eight eight and a half but whatever is required by the state as well yeah we will not exceed any requirements uh will be in compliance with the state and

103federal laws we won't we won't expect teachers to work over uh what is required by the state how many class periods per day will a teacher provide instruction I suppose that depends on on whatever that's that particular teacher is instructing as it's going to be an A and B day I think that's going to change but again we'll be in compliance with with state and federal laws also every teacher every teacher as well has has the prep period so if they're teaching a b day or not a b day if they're teaching six periods a day or seven periods a day then they'll have six periods and uh prep period or five periods in a prep period all right thank you have you hired any individuals for your administrative instructional or non-instructional staff positions yet

104not yet what are the qualifications for the person overseeing human resources for pmcs that person if if the charter gets approved they'll contract with Charter One who has a full HR department and we haven't uh department head within the HR department and we can give you those qualifications and certifications and what that person needs to hold we can get that to you what is your timeline for hiring for pmcs I go ahead we won't be conducting any hiring until the our Charter has been approved once the charter has been approved we will look at the expected number of students that we have and then hire according to that we will be staffed to meet the student demands for the uh for the school year do you plan on hiring your own lunchroom staff it depends

105we will look at it and what's in the best interest for the school's bottom line um some managed journal and schools do so and some we we contract that out who was responsible for day-to-day Personnel issues that occur at pmcs day-to-day issues would be the school director is there a plan to share staff with Valley Forge Military Academy and will there be an opportunity for dual employment I don't believe so but I would let the board speak to that more the answer to that is no we do not have any plans to share staff outside of what would be normal on a tenant landlord agreement all right I'm gonna shift into non-discrimination questions does pmcs have address code differentiates between male and female students we will will pmcs permit transgender students to follow the dress

106code for the gender they identify with our plan is to treat students administratively based upon the gender of their birth certificate does Valley Forge have any gender neutral bathrooms on campus as we have not secured a lease I can't answer that definitively what I will say is part of the the lease agreement will be to have those available how will pmcs accommodate transgender students in regards to bathrooms uh going back to the earlier statement students will will be administratively uh uh handled in accordance with the gender based on their uh on their given birth certificate if sorry pardon me if there are specific needs we will address those on a case-by-case basis and we will provide facilities uh that that will allow for the Privacy that the individual students require will pmcs monitor bathrooms to

107ensure that students only use the bathroom that is on their birth certificate no more or less than any other typical school that's no and no logistically how does pmcs plan to ensure that students use the proper restrooms will staff be provided with students full a list of students full names and genders to ensure they can maintain compliance with restroom restrictions that will be built dealt with on a case-by-case basis in the specific needs of that specific student what consequences would a transgender student face at pmcs for using the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity instead of the one that is on their birth certificate we would need to take a look at the conduct and consequence Matrix and it's laid out in a conduct and consequence Matrix will pmcs require students to change out

108of their uniform for physical education depending on the grade level once you hit High School yes will you have separate locker rooms for male students and female students yes are there any general gender neutral locker rooms available at Valley Forge for transgender students if if there's a if there's a if they're required yes on page 16 of your application under military culture it states communication will always include a standard military salutation or courtesy for example the usage of yes sir or no ma'am in December of 2022 the Marine Corps announced they will discontinue the use of yes sir and no ma'am to ensure that soldiers do not misgender superiors well pmcs follows suit to respect the gender identity of pmcs employees that policy has been reported to the Marine Corps as a potential I don't

109think that I don't believe that that has been fully enacted I do know that the other services continue to use gender-specific titles our plan is to is to follow that uh the example set by DOD does pmcs intend to provide instruction to teachers and students concerning diversity equity and inclusion yes is that referenced in the application I'm not sure I'd have to get back with you on that we we know that we plan on being compliant with with state and federal requirements and if there's specific School District requirements we can be in compliance with those we will be in compliance with those as well how much money has pmcs earmarked for diversity equity and inclusion work in their budget that has not been identified yet all right I'm going to transition to extracurricular activities does

110pmcs plan to participate in the Pennsylvania interscholastic athletic association I I don't know if we've specifically identified that but I can't see why we would not does your application address how you plan to accommodate for lost instructional time for student athletes with such a late School dismissal time that hasn't been specified we'll work with it does your application address how you plan to compete against other schools in the PIAA if no practices competitions Etc happen after 5 20 PM each day as referenced on page 50 of your application your microphone is officer just as a reminder I'd turn it off for a moment just to clarify the question is what about games and activities that would happen after 5 20. does your yeah does your application address how you plan to compete against other schools

111in the PIAA if no practice is competitions Etc happen after 5 20 p.m it doesn't go into the specifics of that in the application what it would do would be sport by sport basis if it's right you know if we end up Fielding a football team obviously football is Friday night at seven o'clock and We're Not Gonna so so we're flexible with regards to the the performances of of what's standard in the area um what what we're trying to do with that 5 20 p.m is is respect to some of the family time and the students time with regards to getting back home and not spending all day at school every day that was the intent thank you does pmcs plan on following PIAA rules and regulations yes will pmcs allow transgender athletes to compete

112in accordance with their gender identity as permitted by the piai in accordance with all state and local requirements yes can you please identify what clubs students at pmcs will be permitted to participate in those are based on interest those are based on um desire and student interest there's not a set slate so it would base student interest parent interest and the ability for the school to to accommodate those would pmcs permit a student who identifies as lgbtq plus to create a sexuality and gender Alliance club for lgbtq plus students and their friends to meet discuss issues of importance to the group do charitable works and other service projects any extracurricular or team club or after school activity that is sponsored by the school needs to have an academic purpose and so that club would have

113to prove the academic purpose behind that and it would be approved foreign ER for the Radner Township School District I have some additional questions some follow-up from some of the answers given and some additional questions first off before I get started um Mr way uh could you please let us know what your position is and and your background yes I am the closest Charter One employee as of right now to uh to this area I am out of North Carolina I'm the South I'm the East Division president um for Charter One and manage all of the schools that are under our purview in states such as North Carolina South Carolina Florida and um potentially Pennsylvania some of my background you want me to go into some of my backgrounds please I attended law school I

114got my law degree in my MBA at the University of Wyoming my undergraduate degree at Arizona State in construction management I've been in the charter school industry I'm a charter school graduate from high school um been in the charter school industry um since since attending undergraduate school and upon graduation several years ago out of law school and uh MBA took this opportunity to assist Charter One in the growth and management of the East Coast I'm going to come back to some questions some more detailed questions about Charter One but before I I forget during one of the answers there was a reference made to a conduct and consequences Matrix yes sir what page is that on that would be provided we can provide that to you I don't know if it's not in here specifically

115it's because it wasn't asked for but we can provide that to you um let me show you a um a document this is going to be another exhibit we're going to mark this as exhibit seven I just have a couple of questions for you about or I'm sorry exhibit nine I have a couple questions for you about this so in in preparing for tonight's hearing I noticed that there was a website set up for the Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley Forge and that's a printout of of the website are you familiar with this website please we know the website um we know the website was in uh in the process of being set up I did not realize it had come out as soon as it did uh who's responsible for putting out the

116content in the website uh we have a consultant we're working with right now is there any kind of an agreement between the Board of Trustees and the consultant as to what his duties are uh it not not specified uh by document no the um the website says Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley Forge is a tuition-free public charter school coming to the Wayne area in the fall of 2024. that's the the very first sentence um why is a website been put out implying that the Charter's already been granted I I think we got a little overzealous in that if you look at the uh it's join our interest list I mean for all intents and purposes as of right now it's we're pushing towards that date as you know there's other avenues to get this

117approved as well and so advertising towards the public and getting the interest list up um the goal for us is to bring this to the families for 2024. which Charter One is involved at all in creating I'm trying to look at this because we we do manage multiple websites and I'm not seeing any of the stock photos or some of the photos from the other schools that we use but and I'm not pulling up the website the website isn't loading for me for some reason but I can confirm with you whether our marketing team and our it team were able to put um kind of the beginnings of a web page together to to determine interest in the area on page two under specialized military training for all interests um a number of items are

118are listed as it says uh Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley Forge will prepare students for the United States Service academies while offering specialized training in the following areas there are two areas here Marksmanship and ethical hacking which were not mentioned in the application are they areas that in fact the Pennsylvania military charter school will be planning to offer if the demand is there we would move forward with that now if this is a significant change to a charter or something that we would need to make known or get approval to change with regards to the curriculum then we would come before this board to do that so with respect to uh to to Marksmanship um will students actually be filing firing weapons on campus the expectation is that students will have the opportunity to

119practice Marksmanship uh training that will include firing of weapons we have not identified the exact caliber of those weapons we do know that there is a facility that is a potential for the lease potential within the lease I'm not sure what uh what caliber that range is certified to uh we will take a look at uh what the exact laws within Pennsylvania and within um within this area are but the expectation is yes students will receive Marksmanship training what grades uh hasn't been specified yet uh I I don't believe that we're going to go below um probably eighth grade but I don't have that exact answer right now and and can you explain exactly what is ethical hacking is a broadly based term that talks about some of the cyber security requirements that are that

120are emerging uh ethical hacking essentially is uh what we would call a red cell activity meaning hey we're looking we're teaching students the to have the potential to look for vulnerabilities within an organization that has hired them to do so so um I have a couple of questions about some statements in the application that I'm looking for some clarification on on page 61 the administrative leadership team is defined as including the director of operations and the director of academics and then on page 62 it says that the Board of Trustees will hire and evaluate the school director and business manager or service providers performing similar functions so which is it are you going to be hiring individuals or are you going to be hiring service providers I believe that depends on what happens once the

121charter is approved I think what Our intention there was to provide us some leeway that if if we enter into a contract with a school provider that meets all of those requirements we can do that if the contracts that we develop don't meet those and we have the potential to hire have you received any proposals from service providers as of yet no have you identified any candidates for director of operations or academics or business manager yet no on page 67 it says pmcs will develop a full business plan once its Charter is is authorized um I I read that as indicating that you have not yet developed the full business plan is that accurate I believe that's an accurate statement yes okay um on page 69 it says the pmcs business manager or contracted educational

122service provider will establish one or more bank accounts with mutually acceptable financial institutions which you reference as operating accounts and then it says the business manager or designated ESP employee will cause all gross revenues to be deposited into the operating accounts and cause all operating expenses to be paid out of the operating accounts for and on behalf of the school so the question I have for you on this is is who's actually going to be handling the money is it going to be an employee of the charter school or is it going to be an educational service provider foreign so when it comes to um Charter One managed organizations the business manager the individuals in the finance department would have that ability to be able to um designated by the school but then also the

123office manager or business manager in this sense would have that ability as well so I'm you had mentioned several times that um no lease has been executed yet with Valley Forge Military Academy the actual application the only the only building by name mentioned is is heart Hall you mentioned some potential facilities but Valley Forge Military Academy is a very large campus with a number of different buildings on it and there's no letter of intent indicating what the material terms of a lease would be um first let me ask you have you negotiated all of the material terms of a lease with Valley Forge Military Academy as of this point okay one of the things that this school board is just want to make sure that again we have not thank you okay one of the

124things that this school board is being tasked with the responsibility to do in evaluating the charter application is determined if the facilities are appropriate for the school how is the school board supposed to determine if the facilities are appropriate when you yourselves don't even know what those facilities will be yet so we've had the opportunity to go and look at the facilities and have a conversation with the staff at Valley Forge Military Academy we've looked at what is potential and what they say they can provide based on the things that they say they provide we feel that that is going to be an appropriate facility for this Charter School okay my specific question was how is the board supposed to evaluate whether the facilities are sufficient and appropriate if they haven't been identified and as

125of right now you can't identify what they are so we have looked at the facilities at Valley Forge says uh have said will become available or can become available based upon those we feel like we can we'll be able to uh specify the exact buildings that we need uh and then as that happens enter into a contract to secure those but that won't happen until after a charter would be approved absolutely we're not going to enter any contracts until a charter has been approved so um if if the charter is approved would Valley Forge Military Academy cease operations I don't I won't work for Valley Forge Military Academy that's not a decision that the Pennsylvania military Charter School will will make well the um plan in the in the application it has set forth is

126to use facilities of Valley Forge Military Academy including things such as the uh cafeteria facilities the library are you planning to use the nurses facilities that they have we plan on entering into a contract to meet the facility requirements that the Pennsylvania military Charter School will need so if if the Valley Forge Military Academy is going to continue to be operate operating there will necessarily be instances where the students are in the same buildings together and maybe even in the same facilities together correct sir I am not at Liberty to talk about what Valley Forge Military Academy plans to do in the future I can tell you that we plan on having facilities that are separate from any other entity and as the Valley Forge Military Academy is our intended landlord we will make all

127appropriate leases necessary to ensure that how many cafeterias are at Valley Forge Military Academy I don't know specifically um there is a Chapel facility located at Valley Forge Military campus will that be leased as part of the lease agreement that the Pennsylvania military charter school is looking at we don't anticipate renting a chapel now with without the actual uh lease in front of us though there's no way for this board to determine whether that will or won't be leased in public charter school microphone please I'm sorry these are as a public charter school we can confirm that they will they will not least Church facilities you now um I have a couple questions about uh Charter one's involvement one of the public comments before this hearing began indicated that based on a newspaper article that

128Charter One actually approached you Mr Johnson about starting uh this this school is that accurate no that's that's uh that's slightly inaccurate a consultant that is interested in in this program approached me and said that there was a joint uh there is a joint interest from Charter One uh to be involved in this uh and then asked if I would be willing to serve uh as a board member okay the there are a couple places in the in the charter application where it implies that no education service provider has yet been selected um for example on page 74 it says pmcs will select an ESP that has a demonstrated history of hitting enrollment targets and filling schools they manage to capacity similarly on page 78 it says pmcs will place a high level of emphasis

129on esps that have proven success with socioeconomically disadvantaged Cadets evidenced by factors including high performance a title one designated campuses Title One designated campuses so is has an ESPN has Charter One actually been selected as the ESP at this point no contracts have been made by the board of directors with any ESP at this time so the level of services that Charter One would provide to Pennsylvania military Charter School have yet to be formally agreed to or fleshed out no contracts have been established um on page 89 of the application it says the omcs governing board the selected educational service provider and the selected School developer will work hand in hand to complete all Nat tasks necessary to guarantee pmcs's pre-opening process is handled competently and that the school opens on schedule what does omcs

130mean that's page 89. I believe that's a typo that's supposed to be the pmcs governing board and then the selected educational service provider will then work uh hand in hand so what the reference there is the pmcs okay that's just a typo okay and who is the selected School developer it is anticipated that that will be Charter One but no no agreements have been entered into as of this time no no agreements have been entered at this time okay and and so so correct me if I'm wrong if the if the board approves this Charter the very next day Charter One could walk away and say they're not interested and and that would not be in breach of any contractual arrangement with the Pennsylvania military charter school we have not entered into any agreements at

131this time um has there been any Financial arrangements or terms uh discussed between Charter One and the Pennsylvania military Charter School there have been discussions so that the board can make an appropriate decision okay and and and how much will uh the Pennsylvania military charter school pay Charter One uh for uh whatever Services ultimately agreed to be provided it is anticipated that we'll pay what's listed in the budget and that's uh is that a million dollars a year I believe but I'm not I'm not sure right off top of him okay is is Charter One a for-profit company yes okay and um you had indicated that you were the closest Charter One employee to uh Pennsylvania and and that you were from North Carolina I believe yes okay uh what in what states does Charter

132One uh manage charter schools um currently North Carolina South Carolina Florida Nevada um Arizona is there any employee of Charter One that holds any Pennsylvania teaching or supervisory certificate through the Pennsylvania Department of Education not yet so if we can go back to one of your previous questions sure uh it's anticipated that six percent of the operating fee will will uh will be provided to the ESP uh so six percent of revenues will be provided and as a management fee if it's anticipated okay um can you explain the corporate structure for Charter One for me please to what degree just the organizational chart uh well you had mentioned the Charter One operates a number of different schools are all of those schools under contract with Charter One are they owned by Charter One Charter One

133doesn't own any schools Charter One is simply the service provider for those schools the boards hold the charter for all of those schools the boards contract with Charter One Two run the day-to-day operations of those schools Charter One is um name a department and you need to run a school and we've got an academics Department Finance legal compliance HR it we have close to 150 employees Across the Nation now on the Charter One website about I know half the schools or most of the schools are listed as American Leadership Academy Schools yes and can you explain what that means that's the name of the schools that's the brand of the schools that is the flagship brand that Charter One operates Charter One grew out of American Leadership Academy explain what you mean by that American

134Leadership Academy started in Arizona and the demand grew such that other individuals in other states were asking for similar K-12 models and in order to promote the American Leadership Academy model Charter One was uh developed created to where um we were able to cross state lines and offer similar services in a K-12 model and since then we have managed schools from the ground up we have acquired acquisition schools boards that we're struggling with schools that were struggling whether it was academically or financially they asked us to step in and assist them and so we go where we're wanted and and it's evident by the different states that we're operating in now with respect to the Board of Trustees for the charter school will will the board be paid the board will not be paid I

135can let them confirm that we will not be paid and and what was the process for identifying board members as the discussion about uh about uh submitting this this application came about we looked at uh several people that uh had an interest we looked for uh those that had had uh experience in a military school we looked at those that had military experience and were looking for those that have experience within the charter schools the intent was to get a diverse board or a board with uh diverse experiences uh enough that enough that we'll be able to answer the questions that come about we'll be able to problem solve the questions that will come about with with running the military Charter School um how many total um board members are there currently five and are

136there any open slots for board members we haven't we haven't determined the exact uh number we the the estimation is as little as three as high as seven how long does each member serve hasn't been specified yet how are new members selected hasn't been specified yet has there been any um effort to identify female candidates to join the board uh yes there have been efforts uh I'm actually currently in conversations uh with a couple of female retirees that that uh I know to see if there's any interest in that there uh there is an expectation that the the perspective that a female board member will bring would be beneficial to the board do any of the members of the uh Board of Trustees have any experience as a professional educator as of now no let

137me just I don't know what you're you determine is professional I had three years assignment uh in a corporate learning environment fully certified by metal States I taught Finance for ATT what was that in was that in a Pennsylvania public school environment it was not and and was that teaching it was a corporate learning environment a corporate learning yeah okay I was the my last Studio assignment in the military was the um the advanced kill Advanced skills companies fire major that's equal to the director of Learning and Development I have been the director of Learning and Development for a corporation and I've been the senior vice president of learning development for a consulting firm so um do any of the board members currently live in in Radner Township or to different township no okay um

138are can you explain what the connection is that each of the board members has to this area I think our connection uh is more along along the lines of finding the appropriate facilities that can house the military charter school that we're looking to uh we're looking to enact of the of the current members of the Board of Trustees can you explain to me where each of them resides I live in Carlisle Pennsylvania I live in Montgomery County we've got we've got Lenny McAllister that lives in uh Pittsburgh I don't know the exact Township out there the Pittsburgh area uh we've got a board member that lives in Gettysburg and then another board member that lives in Utah okay and and how often are board meetings held it hasn't been decided uh currently as we're going

139through this Charter process a lot more than my wife would like me to be to attend but typically we're we're meeting uh one to two times a week via Zoom and and what process has been put in place for board members to be present at the charter when it's operational just to observe uh and supervise what's occurring that'll that'll be clarified as this gets approved the intent is that the the board of directors has a full understanding of the operations uh daily annually and that we're working hard uh to direct uh the you know the trajectory of the school as it grows the um the budget that was presented indicates that in the first year of operation the the school anticipates having 975 students we've amended that uh we think that we can get 975

140students um but we also have a backup budget that we can produce uh if if you're interested in that uh that that has a five-year growth plan to meet that 975 and can you just explain for us the efforts you undertook to determine the need in the area um or I'm sorry the the interest in the area that would support a school of 975 students we we looked at the surrounding school districts we looked at um the availability of a program similar to this we looked at the uh the potential available space uh at Valley Forge Military Academy uh as a as the strong potential for where we will uh enact this Charter and and you're aware that uh that Valley Forge Military Academy has Uh current uh Financial operating issues correct I don't get

141involved in what Valley Forge Military Academy does I talk to them about the potential of leasing facilities uh I'm not asking you if you're involved I'm just asking are you aware that they're currently having Financial operating issues don't I don't track what what their finances are okay are you aware that that military academies across the country are closing due to financial constraints there's there's some information about that yes okay and and given that fact what what study or data do you have that suggests that um there's such demand for military education that 975 children would go to this Charter School it's a different model parents aren't paying private funds anymore it's a public model is that it mainly you don't care I don't have any additional questions thank you Mr christophko are there any board

142members of the board who have any additional questions which have not already been asked Mrs Solomon I just have one in its pertains to your class size comments and it was very vague what your high school curriculum was going to look like to me but um do you have some idea of the minimum number of students you would require to run a course so say you're going to offer these you mentioned the four tracks firefighting and Etc would there maybe be a point in time when there's not enough students in a particular class or track that you would not run it was absolutely a possibility for sure and that's that's being able to be nimble and and and quick to determine what is the what's in the best interest of the school and then also

143if only two students want to do the firefighter track is that really a sustainable idea probably not and so being able to to be nimble and move back and forth um we'll be able to make sure that the overall success and the overall offerings is what the school is is Desiring so do you have a Paul Park idea what a minimum floor would be to offer a course in high schools my exact question when it comes to specific courses like AP World History um or or AP calculus or stuff like that um it's definitely a different number than the actual track that we were talking about those four tracks so those would be different numbers so when it comes to the classroom setting it would be a much lower number we could probably I mean

144we've We've ran some classes at eight or nine or ten students per class any other board members Ms Monahan idea that Charter One would provide this curriculum map that has been referenced before is does that include a military curriculum as well that would include the standard day-to-day curriculum that would not include the specific military aspects but we can we can we can include I I'm we can include those for sure so it if if the if it doesn't I my question was where like who's providing that curriculum the military component of the so you're asking where we're going to specifically get the the military-based curriculum so we're working with uh we're working with interested parties to come up with that we don't we haven't established we we don't have a contract in place to purchase

145a particular one we're looking at that and trying to figure out what's going to best suit our needs because it's my understanding Charter One does not have military a military focused schools in in your portfolio let me comment on on the military um military has many connotations at least several connotations I've graduated from Valley Forge I'm not a soldier they didn't make me a soldier but I gained military discipline I gained military rigor I gained the commitment to team into success so it's not always a written curriculum it will be embodied in the the treatment of the cadets and and the day-to-day respect that they have for each other and for their instructors and so forth and and please don't misinterpret what I'm saying I I was just curious as to knowing that this is

146a military chart or application my understanding of Charter One is that it's not it's more the academics based on the curriculum app that you've been referencing so my question was um with in addition to that information where like who are you working with or who is that aspect of the education coming from so that's great points made and this would be a first for Charter One which is what we're excited about the opportunity to learn and through different um interested individuals throughout the state as well they're looking at curriculum right now um military schools in Colorado other parts of the country as well that are that are using some of that that you know we're somewhat of a young company to where we're able to to adapt and and a little more entrepreneurial minded to

147where we can we're excited about this opportunity honestly to be able to to do this very Innovative Venture with with this board we're thrilled to to even be considered as part of this this this opportunity did you want to say something to Josh you know it'll be the board of director that's ultimately the board of directors that's ultimately responsible for coming up with exactly what that curriculum looks like and we haven't clarified it exactly uh we're in contact with several other military schools to see what what they're doing and what and what looks right so that we can meet the needs of our students as as they come in any Mr Jubilee thank you um I just wanted to go back because maybe it hasn't been done yet the question had been asked about um

148interest um and potential demand have you done any um Research into our local area it seems like you've you've looked into the capacity of of the facilities which would be adequate and this you'd mentioned area student um populations I think something to that effect have you done any um or would you in the future like surveys focus groups um to determine sort of that marketing piece to determine interest as opposed to necessarily just um wherewithal yes 100 and that's one of the areas that we're we're pretty proud about when it comes to our marketing arm we just just five months ago opened the two largest charter schools in North Carolina 2 000 students day one um we've got a pretty strong marketing arm we've got we know that there's a lot of pen up demand

149here that's why we're here when it comes to um info info nights we call them informational nights where parents and students come and they're able to see and tour and and see who their school leaders would be and their teachers would be welcome events uniform nights all of the above upon approval would immediately be scheduled out in the calendar as well Jeff that's a great point because if you if you look at the 10 mile catchment area from Radner there's 20 some school districts represented so the the demographics are going to be different depending upon which school district so that's a very good point Mr Christopher uh thank you I had one follow-up looking at my notes who was the the consultant who approached you Mr Johnson to with this idea it's a gentleman named

150Matt Throckmorton okay thank you board members are there any other questions I had one question Mr Johnson you mentioned this was part of a joint venture and I heard about a consultant but I didn't hear about the other part of the joint could you elaborate on who the other where her party was so we're having conversations with with a lot of different organizations as as we try to determine exactly what this school district or what this charter school is going to look with look like uh we've had conversations with uh obviously with with Charter One we've had conversations with other military schools we've had conversations with uh you know within the members of the of the board itself uh and so as as we don't have any defined contracts as of yet uh we we

151don't necessarily have joint I think that's that's probably a proved your statement in what I said that it was about who who approached you you said it was a joint group that approached you there was a consultant as part of a joint approach and I just didn't hear who was joining with the consultant yeah I'm trying to remember the name of the there's a um there's an annual convention that has to do with Charter Schools uh and based off of that uh convention the the initial conversation came out that uh that referenced I can bring that up for you right quick it was it was listed in the um uh give me just a moment here all right at the National Convention of military academies the conversation grew uh and that's where the introductions were

152made and the vision was crafted uh so that when we're talking joint there's a conversation with um between Valley Forge Military Academy that was obviously you know that they had interest in in creating a charter school they they withdrew their Charter uh but that doesn't mean they don't have interest in a charter school happening obviously they do because they're willing to enter if if this gets approved they're willing to enter into a contract to provide facilities for it so in between uh you know members of the school board of the that that we've developed and the um Charter One and conversations with Valley Forge this is where this uh the idea came about thank you very much is there anybody else on the board who has any additional questions Ms Dunn I'm sorry I I'm

153a corporate attorney so it always throws me when people don't have contracts to do things the the whole proposal your proposal for a charter school talks about using the raise program which Mr way has already told us is IP of of Charter One apparently has all the Curriculum maps in the background you have no contract with them they've sent Mr way here to do all this work with you and there's no contract I mean pretty awesome huh that's how much we believe in it okay and it looks like you have the same web designer that's a little interesting too I need to pull that up if you can show me that website maybe after because it's still not pulling up for me okay it's look I get the people do business without contracts it just

154hey as an attorney too it yeah it's a different world isn't it okay anybody else Mr christophko okay well we've had an opportunity to ask all of our questions so we are going to conclude the hearing on the charter school application submitted by the Pennsylvania military Charter School at Valley Forge with this hearing in accordance with the charter school law and board policy 140 the board will vote at an upcoming public meeting within the time limit set forth in the charter school law and board policy 140 on whether to approve the charter school application and adopt the recommendation of the District administration I want to thank everyone for their time and participation this evening I will also now entertain a motion to adjourn do I have a motion so moved Ms Solomon thank you is

155there a second second Miss Stern thank you all in favor all right thank you that's unanimous the hearing is adjourned