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| | 1. | | Roll call.
Minutes note: Excused: Desiree Pointer-Mace
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| | 2. | | Review and approval of the minutes of the February 24th meeting.
Minutes note: Ms. Mallory moved, seconded by Ms. Peay, for approval of the minutes. There were no objections. | | | |
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| 0 | 3. | Communication | Communication relating to the Next Door Foundation application for a new charter school.
Minutes note: Tracy Sparrow - President of Next Door Foundation
Sue Doyle - Board member and Program Committee Chair
Their niche is early childhood education
They work with children pre-natally up to K5 and have two main sites as well as some satellite sites across the city.
They have done "Books for Kids" for 25 years and have given away over 2 million books as well as basic adult education classes. They also have a fatherhood program to connect the fathers with their childrens' education and also resources for them.
They are proposing to add K5 classrooms at their Capitol site. They are currently an MPS charter school on 29th Street and want to have their options open. One advantage is that the city is known as a really good authorizer and supports its charter schools in terms of what data needs to be collected and some advantages in terms of the special education in more freedom to do some things. About 12% of the students have been identified as special education, but more kids than that are supported.
Mr. Steinbrecher would like to get the 2015/16 budget. They get Head Start funding for K4 students, but not for K5. With the additional $1.4 million, they would use those funds for staffing and cover special education classes. Roughly 200 students at the Capitol site aren't covered by charter school funds.
Ms. Sparrow said that they are constantly recruiting to fill spots and do have K4 kids that will move into K5. A waiting list does fluctuate, but they have been able to retain their enrollment of 1,075 for the past 5 months. All of the K5 students have come from their current program. Their staff retention, last year, was at 24% and was 32% the prior year. Teacher retention is an issue and she is reviewing if salaries and benefits are commensurate with other schools and they are also beefing up professional development. They have started recruiting teachers for the proposed K5 class. All their teachers have their DPI licenses, except for one teacher, who is teaching at K4 or K5. They have a library at Capitol and volunteers who come in and read to the students.
The Capitol site, at 53rd and Capitol, used to be Northwest Hospital, so it's a large site. They have a kitchen for the school meals, a library, a gross motor area for when the weather is inclement, classrooms, office and conference space. Currently between the K4 and K5, they have 166 students at 29th Street and the goal is to go to 485 at both sites, the bulk of which will be adding a lot of K5 students. Those students, will hopefully, be existing K4 students. Mr. Steinbrecher would like to see a more detailed analysis of the salaries - the type of teacher and the salary and who is paying what (Head Start or charter school). Most of the students (92%) who leave their program attend MPS.
Ms. Doyle said that the board, which consists of 25 people, is very active and has a number of committees. Many of the board members are child experts in some manner and there is one voting parent member on the board. There are 3 minority members on the Board, which they are trying to increase through recruitment.
There are no suspensions for K4 and K5 students and they provide extra support to the teachers to deal with students. They have psychologists to work with both the students and the families.
The flow chart needs to show that the principal reports to the board and another box will be added for the Capitol school. The Capitol site was opened after the contract had already been in effect for a number of years and MPS wasn't willing to add those children in. They put in an application with MPS as well. The charter with MPS ends the end of June (they're in their 5th year).
Ms. Sparrow said they would like to improve teacher practice and implement practice-based coaching with their teachers. They'd also like to focus more on social and emotional health, although they are currently doing that. They have a committee that is studying African American boys. They are focusing on children whose reading skills are below where they should be, as well as math. Ms. Sparrow has only been at Next Door for six months, but she is impressed with the staff commitment to both the students and the families. Ms. Doyle said Next Door is committed to helping central city children succeed through direct support and partnering with community members. They work on shaping a culture of support and respect. They do provide limited transportation based on financial criteria. Formerly, Ms. Sparrow was at the Milwaukee Center for Independence with children's programming. Most of the children are at their developmental benchmarks when they leave their school.
They had a clean audit with Head Start, which they are very proud of, as it occurred during a time of a lot of growth.
Larry Hoffman - Schools and Communities United had some questions.
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