Meeting of the Board of Regents | September 2009

Report of the

REGENTS EMSC COMMITTEE

to

The Board of Regents

September 15, 2009

 

              Your EMSC Committee held its scheduled meeting on September 14, 2009.  All Committee members were present except for Regents Tilles and Rosa, who were excused.

 

ACTION ITEMS

 

Charter Schools

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents issue a charter and provisional charter to the Health Sciences Charter School for a term of five years, up through and including June 30, 2014.     [EMSC (A) 1]

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves the revision to the first renewal charter of the Charter School for Applied Technologies and the provisional charter is amended accordingly.    [EMSC (A) 2]

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents returns the proposed fourth renewal charter of The Ark Community Charter School to the Trustees of the State University of New York for reconsideration, and with the following comments and recommendations: That (a) the proposed fourth renewal charter be resubmitted to the Regents for consideration after information regarding all provisions of the school’s proposed fourth renewal charter (including its educational program) that have been changed, if any, since its second and third renewal charter be provided, and  (b) a curriculum that addresses and is aligned with all 28 New York State Learning Standards and a core curricula at each grade level be provided. In addition, it is also recommended that the proposed bylaw provision purportedly authorizing the school to make loans be removed.   [EMSC (A) 3]

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents returns the proposed first renewal charter of the Oracle Charter School to the Trustees of the State University of New York for reconsideration, and with the following comments and recommendations: that the resubmission provide (a) information regarding all provisions of the School’s first renewal charter (including its educational program) that have been changed, if any, since its initial charter was approved  and (b) a core curricula to address the math standards.   [EMSC (A) 4]

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves and issues the charter of the Metropolitan Lighthouse Charter School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the City of New York and issues a provisional charter to it for a term of five years, up through and including September 14, 2014.  [EMSC (A) 5]

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves the revision to the initial charter of Academic Leadership 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.   [EMSC (A) 6]

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves the revision to the initial charter of the Leadership Preparatory Flatbush Charter School as proposed by the Trustees of the State University of New York, and the provisional charter is amended accordingly.  [EMSC (A) 7]

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents returns the proposed renewal charter of the Leadership Preparatory Charter School as proposed by the Trustees of the State University of New York, with the following comments and recommendations: that the resubmission provides a curriculum, including the fifth grade, which addresses and is aligned with all 28 New York State learning standards.  [EMSC (A) 8]

 

Your Committee recommends that the Board of Regents approves and issues the charter of the New York French-American Charter School as proposed by the Chancellor of the city school district of the City of New York and issues a provisional charter to it for a term of five years, up through and including September 14, 2014.  [EMSC (A) 9]

 

 

MOTION FOR ACTION BY FULL BOARD

             

              Madam Chancellor and Colleagues:  Your EMSC Committee recommends, and we move, that the Board of Regents act affirmatively upon each recommendation in the written report of the Committee's deliberations at its meeting on September 15, 2009, copies of which have been distributed to each Regent.

 

 

MATTERS NOT REQUIRING BOARD ACTION

 

Graduation Rate – Continuing Discussion on Policy Issues - The Regents continued their discussion on policy issues concerning the graduation rate and the phase-out of the local diploma.  The Regents were given additional data that was requested to help inform the discussion about those issues.  The data included information on how the scheduled phase-out of the local diploma for general education students will work; the breakdown of student performance on the Regents examinations; the impact of eliminating the local diploma on the graduation rate; how the current cohort definition works and what the changes will be when we begin using the new federal definition, and the impact of using an extended year graduation rate for accountability purposes.  Members of the Committee suggested additional related issues for future discussions including how many Regents examinations should be required for graduation, the number of required credits and subjects required for graduation, alignment between policy and practice to ensure an opportunity to learn for all students and consequences for not meeting the graduation rate goal and targets.

 

 

That concludes our report.

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                    Anthony Bottar and Merryl Tisch       

                                                                                    Co-Chairs