Meeting of the Board of Regents | July 2008

SUMMARY

Issue for Decision

Should the Regents approve the staff’s recommendation concerning the proposed revisions to the charter of the Future Leaders Institute Charter School (New York City)?

Reason(s) for Consideration

              Required by State statute, Education Law §2852.

Proposed Handling

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

Procedural History

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

Background Information

We received a request from the Chancellor of the city school district of the city of New York to revise the charter for the Future Leaders Institute Charter School (FLI or “the School”).  The School seeks to increase the annual enrollment target from 300 students to 325 students.  The School also seeks to change the administration model from two co-directors to one Head of School and three Directors of Instruction.  With the departure of the current co-directors, FLI has determined that this model will best serve the School in the future.  The School also seeks to change the configuration of grade five from a middle school model to self-contained classrooms.  FLI believes that this structure will improve academic performance in the middle grades.   Additionally, FLI seeks to temporarily eliminate French language as a required LOTE class in grades six and seven, and allow students to choose it as an optional enrichment course.  The French program would be eliminated in 2007-08 and reinstituted in September of 2010.  This temporary modification will allow FLI to add greater focus to core courses in grades six and seven.  

The School also seeks a revision to hire a middle school assistant principal for the 2007-08 school year only.  The assistant principal would work more closely with middle school teachers for the purpose of improving student academic outcomes.  Finally, the School seeks a revision to the middle school schedule for the 2007-08 school year only, to allow for longer blocks of instructional time and weekly small group interventions in each of the core content areas.  This would be accomplished by reducing the number of daily instructional one-hour blocks from five to four, and adding fifteen minutes to each of the remaining four blocks.  The length of the instructional day would remain the same.

              The School is located in Community School District (CSD) 3.  The New York City Department of Education (“NYCDOE”) held a public hearing on April 8, 2008 regarding the proposed revisions.  There were no comments from the public.

Staff recommends that the Board of Regents approves the proposed revisions.

Recommendation

VOTED: That the Board of Regents approves the revisions to the initial charter of the Future Leaders Institute Charter School, as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the city of New York, and the provisional charter is amended accordingly.

Reasons for Recommendations

              The proposed revisions to the School’s charter, along with the other terms of the charter: (1) meet the requirements set out in Article 56 of the Education Law, and all other applicable laws, rules and regulations; (2) will permit the charter school to operate in an educationally and fiscally sound manner and (3) are likely to improve student learning and achievement and materially further the purposes set out in subdivision two of section twenty-eight hundred fifty of Article 56 of the Education Law.

Timetable for Implementation

The Regents action for the Future Leaders Institute Charter School is effective immediately.