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This email is created by Ken Ducote and Rose Drill-Peterson on behalf of the Eastbank Collaborative of Charter Schools and is not an official correspondence from the RSD, BESE, nor any other state agency
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Greetings!
On November 14, 2012, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) held a meeting of its Committee of the Whole to discuss RSD Matters Only. The meeting was held at the Sophie B. Wright Learning Academy, 1426 Napoleon Avenue. Please click here to access the packet of meeting materials, Committee of the Whole (RSD Matters Only). The Committee usually receives and reviews matters relating to the Recovery School District, either to discuss items which BESE will consider at a later Board meeting, to review the RSD's progress, and/or to receive local public comments on RSD issues.
***This email is created by Ken Ducote and Rose Drill-Peterson on behalf of the Eastbank Collaborative of Charter Schools and is not an official correspondence from the RSD, BESE, nor any other state agency***
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BESE COMMITTEE OF THE WHOLE (RSD MATTERS ONLY)
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The following matters were brought before the Committee at the meeting. To review available detailed backup information, click on the item of interest.
RSD contracts and leases over $50,000
- Approved five new contracts/leases totaling $1,191,671.00
- Approved eight amendments to existing contracts totaling $545,958.46
Update on Lycee Francais de la Nouvelle-Orleans
- Received a verbal report from the Education Department about actions to resolve complaints previously made by parents and others on the school's enrollment practices, tutoring programs, pre-school programs, financial situation, etc., all problems that the officials believed to be solvable
- BESE members reiterated their belief that students who attend tuition-based pre-k programs at a charter school should not receive later preference to enroll in that school's kindergarten program
- Several parents testified in support of the school
Status of schools transferred to RSD
- Received the status report
- Thirteen RSD schools are eligible to request transfer back to OPSB
- OPSB is in dialogue with the eligible schools
- Approved a request from OPSB Deputy Superintendent Kathleen Padian that the deadline for eligible schools to decide to return should be extended to January 7 because of State's late release of SPS scores, which were needed to determine which schools were eligible
- Several student delegations from RSD direct-run high schools being phased out complained about miscellaneous issues related to the transition, many of which related to RSD co-locating multiple programs in the same building under separate rules
School Performance Scores for RSD direct-run and charter schools
- Deleted this item as a standing item for the meetings due to being duplicative of other reports
Update on capital projects
- Received the report as a Consent Item without discussion
RSD Early Head Start items
- Received the RSD Early Head Start 4th Quarterly Report for 2012
- Received the Head Start Review Reports from the Administration for Children and Families based on monitoring visits conducted April and May 2012
- Received the Refunding Application for the 2012-2013 Program Year and the 2012 Quality Improvement Plan
Process for eligible schools to return to local districts
- Approved the changes to Chapter 5 (Failed Schools) of Bulletin 129 (The Recovery School District) to accomplish the following:
- Clarifies "return eligibility"
- Requires returning schools to continue participating in the unified enrollment and expulsion systems
- OPSB Deputy Superintendent Kathleen Padian reported that several schools eligible to return to OPSB are concerned that current law makes RSD Type 5 schools their own Local Educational Agencies (LEAs), a designation that the schools would lose if they returned to local control unless the regulations and/or laws were changed
- Language is expected to be added later requiring the approval of the local school board
Unified student enrollment and expulsion processes
- Approved a new provision in Bulletin 126 (Charter Schools) requiring that Types 1B, 2, 4 and 5 charter schools in Orleans Parish use the RSD's unified enrollment and expulsion systems
- Added a requirement that the Education Department must resolve by April the concerns about implementing OneApp for Type 2 charter schools or risk BESE rescinding the policy change
- Heard a delegation from the New Orleans Military and Marine Academy, a Type 2 charter, that issues relating to multi-parish enrollment and unique mission requirements, characteristics typical of Type 2 charters, have not yet been accommodated by the staff working on the OneApp process
- Heard similar concerns from LAPCS about accommodating non-Type 5 charter schools in OneApp
- Heard complaints from two community and parental activists that there are several problems in the OneApp process that have not been resolved and that children who reside within walking distance from a school should get preference to attend that school
- Heard support of the change from OPEN, the Urban League, and two RSD charter operators
- There was general recognition that the exercise was one in trying to balance the equity of the processes with the autonomy of the operators
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This service is made possible by a Community IMPACT 2011 Grant from the Greater New Orleans Foundation.
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