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| | 1. | | Roll call.
Minutes note: Meeting convened: 5:33 P.M.
Members present: Desiree Pointer-Mace, Glenn Steinbrecher, Kevin Ingram, Joyce Mallory and Melinda Scott Krei
Members excused: Ruben Burgos and Gayle Peay | | | |
Roll call
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| | 2. | | Review and approval of the minutes from the June 9th meeting.
Minutes note: Ms. Scott Krei moved, seconded by Ms. Pointer-Mace, for approval of the minutes. There were no objections. | | | |
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| 0 | 3. | Communication | Communication relating to administrative matters of the Charter School Review Committee.
Minutes note: Susan Gramling - employee of the Children's Research Center (CRC) and she's presenting the proposed contract extension for one year. Ms. Gramling reviewed the contract, which is included in the file. The consumer price index (0.4%) was added to last year's costs for per-school costs and is based upon the number of analyses needed. Staff also goes to one board meeting at each school, for a total cost of $8,400 for all schools. The total cost is approximately $185,000, which is less than last year's as the in-depth survey of parents and students won't be done this coming year. As of May 31, they have billed for $4,600.
Ms. Pointer-Mace appreciates the level of detail that the CRC provides and she says that these reports are much more detailed than reports she's seen from other cities. Ms. Scott Krei feels that these extensive reports are a benefit to the schools. Mr. Steinbrecher said the figures in the reports are consistent, as they had been in the past. For the additional $5,600 the CRC did online and paper surveys of the parents and tried to get many parents as possible to complete the survey. If needed, the surveys are also provided in Spanish. The older students also completed the surveys online and they interviewed as many board members as they could locate and did direct teacher interviews at the school. These additonal services that aren't included in the base contract are billed on an hourly rate.
Ms. Pointer-Mace asked if there is a way to compare teacher/parent/student surveys if Milwaukee Public Schools does them. Howard Fuller, Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University, said that if this comparison were done it would be a new way of the committee to do its work. When the CSRC was created an approach was made not to compare the schools to MPS, but to see how they stand on their own. If the CSRC wants this information, that would be an additional cost to CRC. Ms. Pointer-Mace wasn't able to find this information, but thought it might be out there. She will research this a little and report back in the future on what she finds. Ms. Mallory thinks the CSRC doesn't do a good job on educating the public on what charter schools are and what services they offer and how well they are or are not doing. She would like to broadcast that information more to the public. Ms. Mallory said, that across the district, surveys are not being done; some individual schools may be doing them. Ms. Mallory would also like to look at how discipline is being applied and school suspension rates.
Members of the public
Gail Hicks - Schools and Communities United - had questions about what the National Council on Crime and Delinquency is and does.
Ms. Mallory moved, seconded by Ms. Scott Krei, for approval of the CSRC contract. There were no objections.
Mr. Fuller said there are talks to extend the M.L. Tharps & Associates contract out to January as the data isn't available to do the report until November. Talks are going on about that with the city.
The Institute has hired Gayle Peay to do the staffing for CSRC. Ms. Mallory participated in the interviewing process. Ms. Peay will begin September 1st.
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