CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW COMMITTEE

200 E. Wells Street City of Milwaukee Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202 Meeting Minutes CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW COMMITTEE KEVIN INGRAM, CHAIR Joyce Mallory, Vice-Chair Ruben Burgos, Samuel L. Coleman, Desiree Pointer-Mace, Raynetta Hill and Aycha Sawa Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, (414) 286-2231 Fax: 286-3456, lelmer@milwaukee.gov Gayle Peay, 288-1540 Wednesday, December 15, 2021 5:00 PM Virtual Please join the meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/597037029 You can also dial in using your phone. United States: +1 (872) 240-3412 Access Code: 597-037-029 New to GoToMeeting? Get the app now and be ready when your first meeting starts: https://global.gotomeeting.com/install/597037029 1. Roll Call. Meeting convened: 5:00 P.M. Members present: Joyce Mallory, Ruben Burgos, Desiree Pointer-Mace, Raynetta Hill, Kevin Ingram, Sam Coleman Member excused: Aycha Sawa 2. Review and approval of the minutes of the Nov. 17th meeting. Mr. Burgos moved, seconded by Ms. Pointer-Mace, for approval of the minutes. There were no objections. 210574 Communication relating to administrative matters of the Charter School Review Committee for the 2021-23 school years. Sponsors: THE CHAIR Mr. Alper Akyurek - Principal of Milwaukee Math and Science Academy - he is excited about this new school initiative, as it is a high school and he is part of this initiative. Dr. Ali Yilmaz - been a school administrator for 22 years, primarily with urban charter schools. He is with Maestro Education. Chris Austria - chief education officer of Maestro Education - first person who contacted Gayle. He has managed a number of chartered schools and founded some as well. He is also affiliated with Milwaukee Math and Science Academy. Miranda Coleman - has been in education for 20 years. She is a Milwaukee native who has lived in the 53206 zip code her entire life. City of Milwaukee Page 1 CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW Meeting Minutes December 15, 2021 COMMITTEE Darian Tate - he co-founded two charter schools and is from Inglewood, Illinois. Former football player. Glenda Otis McMiller - has been involved in school- and community-based services and has been a school administrator. She has worked with a variety of stakeholders. Mr. Yilmaz said the school is named after one of his board members, who plays football. He will personally be donating up to $300,000 for the school. The school will focus on under-privileged, urban students and will be focused on academic and sports equally. They will be targeting the zip codes of 53206 and 53212 as those zip codes have the greatest academic gap from the state-wide standards, as well as higher obesity rates than the state-wide average (6 times higher). Parents and staff are also included as part of the design. They have already reached out to the community to engage them and to parents. Ms. Miller said they have letters of support from various organizations and businesses as well as from 70 parents of potential students. There will be rigorous educational standards using technology and sports will be incorporated into the daily activities of the school. They will be using the Success for All program, which they feels will best meet the needs of their students as it is proven to work. This program has been around for 30 years and meets students where they are at and has been a proven success with improving student performance. There will be an exercise room open to students and their parents and they will also bring healthy food alternatives to the school. The curriculum will highlight social justice. The school will start as grades 6-9 and will add one grade level at the end of each year, with 50-75 students in each grade level. They will have students enter into a program what they are eating each day and they will have targets to reach, with individual plans designed for each student. Ms. Pointer-Mace questioned why this isn't just adding a community center onto MMSA while MMSA works on getting its academic performance up, as that is a concern. Ms. Mallory asked how the school is going to ensure its students are academically successful when MMSA is currently on probation due to academic performance. Mr. Yilmaz pointed out that Maestro Education took over MMSSA only 1.5 years ago, during COVID, so it isn't on academic probation and the staff and students are happy with how the education process is going. Mr. Austria said the goal is to have the opportunity to submit a full application by Jan. 14th. He is at MMSA three times a week on behalf of Maestro Education and they brought Success for All the MMSA. Ms. Pointer-Mace would like to see specific examples of connections between Successful for All and a physical education curriculum. Mr. Coleman would also like to see the science and research and best practices of how to ensure that students are proficient in literacy and skills mastery. He would also like to see the plan for talent recruitment and educator capacity to develop their vision. Ms. Pointer-Mace was concerned how teachers would be recruited to serve both academic and sports. Ms. Hill would like to see what parent participation events will be and is concerned that staff might be burned out of there are also weekend activities. Mr. Burgos questioned how you can incorporate sports while still having time for academic activities? Mr. Ingram didn't see any statistics on what will be expected from students academically? His concern is once sports is over, then there is no concentration to keep students in school. He cannot support this as long as MMSA is on academic probation and these resources need to be injected into that school. He also believes the Common Council also would not support this. He encouraged them to apply for an expansion grant through DPI for MMSA, which means they don't need to start from scratch as they already have a k-8th grade school. Ms. Malloriy agreed as MMSA does have a fairly high student retention rate. City of Milwaukee Page 2 CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW Meeting Minutes December 15, 2021 COMMITTEE Ms. Mallory moved to not invite them to move forward, seconded by Ms. Pointer-Mace. There were no objections (Mr. Coleman and Ms. Sawa excused). Wisconsin Pioneer Academy -- Alexcis Cunningham -- she has been teaching for 12 years and is going to school. She opened up four group homes and currently in school for the doctorate in psychology. She has a master's in special education and social work. Ms. Cunningham has been working with youth. Academics would be the main focus. The school would be K4-8th grade and would focus on STEM, with parent involvement. Angela Stanton would potentially be the head teacher, who has served as Ms. Cunningham's mentor previously. They would help students look at the world differently. Parents would be involved in the school lin a variety of ways. There will be no admissions policy and it will be via random lottery drawing. The school day is 8 a.m. to 3:10 p.m and on Wednesdays students get out at 2:10 p.m. She also provided a budget breakdown. She has a lot of support and people who are willing to donate. Ms. Pointer-Mace would like to see examples, such as how she plans to "use the community as a classroom" and she would like to see the details prior to seeing if she is even able to go to the next step. Ms. Mallory said she is looking for something that no-one is currently doing well, such as special education. She is looking for something different and creative that addresses real needs that families and parents have. She would have birth to 3 and then up to 5th grade to really function as a creative school model. Ms. Pointer-Mace also encouraged her to think through how her school would function and visit Escuela Verde and Penfield to use as models to work from. Ms. Pointer-Mace moved that a revised prospectus be submitted prior to a full proposal be submitted, seconded by Ms. Mallory. There were no objections. Meeting adjourned: 6:50 P.M. Linda M. Elmer Staff Assistant City of Milwaukee Page 3