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| | 1. | | Roll call.
Minutes note: Meeting convened: 5:02 P.M.
Members present: Bill Christianson, Desiree Pointer-Mace, Kevin Ingram, Catina Harwell-Young and Raynetta Hill (5:40 PM)
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| | 2. | | Review and approval of the minutes of the February 19th meeting.
Minutes note: Dr. Pointer-Mace moved, seconded by Ms. Harwell-Young, for approval of the minutes. There were no objections. | | | |
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| | 3. | | Election of a Vice Chair.
Minutes note: Hold to the call of the chair until new members begin service. | | | |
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230156
| 0 | 4. | Communication | Communication relating to administrative matters of the Charter School Review Committee for the 2023-25 school years.
Minutes note: Mr. Rupesh Gupta, ML Tharps, said they have had the contract for 10 years and are requesting a two-year extension. The firm examines the financials provided by individual schools and devises a monitor plan for each school. He reviewed what other duties are performed in terms of school visits and other duties covered by the contract. He has a staff of one person. The Comptroller member also reviewed the annual reports prior to presenting them to the entire Committee. Dr. Pointer-Mace stated the ML Tharps does a good job and she was thinking of that this week. Mr. Ingram also likes the present system with Comptroller review and would like an suggestions from Mr. Christianson to improve the process. Mr. Gupta noted the contract ends in October, but the school year ends in June.
Dr. Pointer-Mace moved, seconded by Mr. Christianson, for extension of the contract with ML Tharps. There were no objections.
Dr. Aza Baylor said Evident Change is recommending creation of a middle-school scorecard and to merge two measures so progress can be reported (as last year 3 schools had fewer than 10 students in each of the categories that are currently separate). One measure was specific for reading and one for math (see memo 1 attached to file 230156). Dr. Pointer-Mace supported this change. Each academy would have a separate score and a weighted score for the entire school. Dr. Pointer-Mace wants to make sure this would be easy to explain this measurement change to Steering and Rules Committee. Dr. Pointer-Mace would like Dr. Baylor to calculate what last year's scorecards for three schools would be with this new metric so the difference between the two scorecards could be compared. Dr. Pointer-Mace would like to know if this will improve or worsen the scores.
Dr. Pointer-Mace moved that Dr. Baylor look at the three schools that didn't have enough data to report and share that with the Committee and meet in early August or the fall to see if the new scorecard would be used and vote at that time, seconded by Ms. Harwell-Young . The middle school scorecard was approved. There were no objections.
Dr. Aza Baylor said currently all K5-2nd grade students are administered the STAR test. New assessment guidelines, passed as part of Act 20, were approved by the state, one which required that students that score below 25% be defined as "at risk" and creates standards for working with parents and tracking progress that schools must follow. Dr. Pointer-Mace pointed out a free course that fits within the standards of Act 20. Act 20 is basically encouraging teaching students to read by phonics.
Recommendation contained in memo 2 attachment in file 230156.
Dr. Pointer-Mace moved to accept the recommendation, seconded by Ms. Harwell-Young. There were no objections.
Dr. Aza Baylor said the final recommendation is around Act 95, which guarantees university admission to all students who graduate in the top 5% or top 10% of their class. Evident Change is recommending looking at the graduation plan for each school for its students and add a requirement that all juniors in the top 5% or 10% shall be notified by letter of their class ranking. The school would notify Evident Change that these students had been notified.
Ms. Hill moved, seconded by Dr. Pointer-Mace, to accept this recommendation. There were no objections.
Ms. Gayle Peay said this is a re-visit of the application timeline and she submitted specific suggestions and the roles of staff and the Committee as a whole (ITML memo in file 230156). CSRC has never approved a new charter school so the question of if a new school would adversely impact MPS adversely was never really delineated in terms of how that would be calculated. Dr. Pointer-Mace liked that the bulk of the work is when the CSRC and Steering and Rules are not overwhelmed with other work.
Dr. Pointer-Mace moved, seconded by Mr. Christianson, for approval of the timeline. There were no objections.
Ms. Peay said the second recommendation is to have CSRC adopt priority educational models for what they are looking for in potential new charter schools. She is proposing that the model be a high school that focuses on the trades and vocational programs; the CSRC could look at other applications, but those would not be a priority. Ms. Peay has not received inquiries from someone wanting to start a school, but current employees in the trades are aging out and young people aren't coming in to replace them. This would be something that would fit Milwaukee's needs. Mr. Christianson said that his impression is that the CSRC is giving few applications, so are we even filtering a very small pool anyway? Ms. Peay said she gets 3-5 calls per year in people interested in starting a school, but then they realize it's a lot of work and don't proceed. Zaynab Baalbaki, who is in the process of becoming a member, thinks there are people out there interested in being chartered by the city, one of which is aimed at being a technical school. Mr. Ingram suggested making the recommendation a little broader in terms of meeting an inclusive priority model.
Dr. Pointer-Mace liked giving people a little more guidance on what the CSRC is looking for and possibly poll Council members in terms of what their technical needs are, which would make chartering more appealing to the Council. Ms. Hill also sees the need and she appreciates the focus. Ms. Peay will add the language to a sample application and can possibly incorporate invitational (encourage) or competitive (a point or 2 added to the score) priorities. This will be discussed at the next meeting.
Members introduced themselves and their backgrounds for Mr. Christianson's edification. He introduced himself.
Meeting adjourned: 6:53 PM
Linda M. Elmer
Staff Assistant
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