Meeting of the Board of Regents | May 2007

THE STATE EDUCATION DEPARTMENT / THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK / ALBANY, NY 12234

 

TO:
FROM:	Johanna Duncan-Poitier
SUBJECT:	Charter School Revisions
DATE:	May 11, 2007
STRATEGIC GOAL:	Goals 1 and 2
AUTHORIZATION(S):

 

SUMMARY

 

Issue for Decision

 

Should the Board of Regents approve a request from the Urban Choice Charter School (Rochester) to revise its existing charter and a request from the Board of Trustees of the State University of New York to revise the existing charter for the Grand Concourse Academy Charter School (NYC)?

 

Reason(s) for Consideration

 

              Required by New York State Education Law §2852.

 

Proposed Handling

 

This question will come before the Regents EMSC-VESID Committee for action at its May meeting.

 

Procedural History

 

New York Education Law §2852(7) provides that revisions of charter school charters shall be made only upon the approval of the charter entity and the Board of Regents in accordance with the provisions of the law applicable to the issuance of  charters themselves.   With respect to charter schools directly chartered by the Board of Regents (“Board”), the Board may either approve a proposed revision or deny it.  With respect to charter schools chartered by other charter entities, the Board may either approve and issue the revisions as proposed by the charter entity, or return the proposed revision to the charter entity for reconsideration with written comments and recommendations. 

 

Background Information

 

We received a request from the Urban Choice Charter School (Rochester), a Regents-authorized charter school, to amend its charter.  We have also received a request from the Trustees of the State University of New York to amend the charter for the Grand Concourse Academy Charter School (NYC).

 

UrbanChoice Charter School:  The School is located in the city of Rochester.   The Board of Regents issued the School its initial charter on January 11, 2005, and the School commenced instruction in September 2005 with 200 students in grades K through 5.  The School seeks to modify its current K through 2 remedial-based summer program to include grades three, four, and five. Attendance will remain voluntary.  Three or more hours of direct, small group instruction in reading and writing will occur five days per week over a four-week period.  The School will invite students in grade 4 and 5 who failed last year’s New York State ELA examination to attend.  The School also plans to invite grade 3 students based on the following three criteria: 1) this year’s Stanford 10 results; 2) the spring Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA2) assessments; and 3) the informal reading assessments given throughout the year.  Eighteen to twenty students from each grade level (3-5) are expected to attend. Staff recommend the Regents approve this proposed revision. 

 

GrandConcourse Academy Charter School: The School is located in NYC Community School District 9. The Trustees of the State University of New York (“SUNY”) authorized the School, and the Board of Regents approved and issued the School its initial charter in July 2004. The School opened in September 2004 for instruction serving 175 students in grades K through 2.  Currently the School serves 275 students in grades K through 4. In March 2007, SUNY approved a charter revision to allow the School to expand its maximum enrollment from 275 to 335 students and to add grade 5 for the remainder of its charter. SUNY submitted the approved proposed revision to the Regents for consideration and approval.  Staff recommend the Regents approve this proposed revision. 

 

Complete copies of the current charters and materials pertaining to the requested revisions to the charters are available from James C. Viola at (518) 474-4817 or Shelia Evans-Tranumn at (718) 722-2796.

 

Recommendation

 

Staff recommend that the Board of Regents take the following action:

 

VOTED:  That the Board of Regents approve the revision to the initial charter of the Urban Choice Charter School, and the provisional charter is amended accordingly.

 

VOTED: That the Board of Regents approve the revision to the initial charter of the Grand Concourse Academy Charter School as proposed by the Trustees of the State University of New York, and the provisional charter is amended accordingly.

 

Reasons for Recommendation

 

The revisions to the charters of the above schools chartered by the Board of Regents, (together with the other terms of its charter):  (1) will 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 schools 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

 

Upon approval by the Board of Regents, the above actions will become effective immediately.

 

 

Attachment 1

 

Grand
Concourse Academy Charter School

Enrollment Plan

Current Approved Enrollment Plan
	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
K	75	50	50	50	50
1	50	75	50	50	50
2	50	50	75	50	50
3		50	50	75	50
4			50	50	75
	175	225	275	275	275
Revised Enrollment Plan
	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5
K	75	50	50	54	50
1	50	75	50	54	50
2	50	50	75	78	50
3		50	50	78	75
4			50	40	75
5				26	35
	175	225	275	330	335

 

 

 

Grand
Concourse Charter School

Performance on State Assessments

		Percent of Students
Assessment	Year	% Level 1	% Level 2	% Level 3	% Level 4	Performance Index
Grade 3-8 ELA	2006	2	45	53	0	151
Grade 3-8 Math	2006	2	18	73	7	178

 

 

 

Potential Fiscal Impact of the Amendment to the Charter

Of the Grand Concourse Academy Charter School

School Year	Number of Students	Projected Payment*	Projected Impact
2007-08	330	$3,094,122	0.0207
2008-09	335	$3,282,348	0.0213

* Assumes a 3 percent annual increase in the District’s budget from the base of $17 billion in 2004-2005 and a 4.5 percent annual increase in the average expense per pupil per year from the 2004-2005 rate of $8,586.