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 Desiree Pointer-Mace, Raynetta Hill, Aycha Sawa and Cynthia Gonzalez Staff Assistant: Linda Elmer, (414) 286-2231 Fax: 286-3456, lelmer@milwaukee.gov Gayle Peay, 288-1540 Monday, October 17, 2022 5:00 PM Virtual This is also a virtual meeting. Those wishing to view the proceedings are able to do so via the City Channel - Channel 25 on Spectrum Cable or on the Internet at https://city.milwaukee.gov/cityclerk/CityChannel Please join this meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone. https://meet.goto.com/918644605 You can also dial in using your phone. United States: +1 (571) 317-3112 Access Code: 918-644-605 1. Roll call. Meeting convened: 5:00 P.M. Members present: Aycha Sawa, Ranyetta Hill, Desiree Pointer-Mace, Kevin Ingram and Joyce Mallory (arrived 5:15 P.M.) 2. Review and approval of the minutes of May 25th. Moved by Ms. Pointer-Mace, seconded by Ms. Hill, for approval of the minutes. There were no objections. 3. Introduction of the new team member at Evident Change. Ms. Janice Ereth is retiring as of January 1, 2023 so Evident Change hired a full-time employee to replace Ms. Ereth and Sue Gramling. Aza Baylor is the new employee. Ms. Hill thanked Ms. Ereth for all her hard work, as well as Sue's. 4. 210569 Communication relating to the 2021-23 activities of Milwaukee Academy of Science. Sponsors: THE CHAIR City of Milwaukee Page 1 CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW Meeting Minutes October 17, 2022 COMMITTEE Ms. Ereth said this is the 14th year as a city charter and it's located at 20th and Kilbourn and serves K4-12th grades. They had 1,181 students enrolled, the majority being at the elementary level. The student population is 98.4% African American and 9.1% with special education needs. All students are eligible for free lunch, which is true for all the city-chartered schools. The school met or partially met all of its contract requirements; at the end of the year they were still 5 unlicensed teachers. Parent interviews were completed this year and included in the annual reports. 45.6% of parents responded. 85.7% said they would recommend the school to other parents and 95.0% of the Board members were available for interviews and they all rated the school as "excellent" or "good". A refrain from the board was the need for increased funding so they could retain quality staff and also to increase knowledge of the Academy's services in the community. There were recommendations for improvement in the report for each of the three academies within this school. There were 60 graduates who were offered over $10 million in scholarships. The overall score is 77.3%. Evident Change recommends annual monitoring and be rewarded another 5-year contract. Ms. Pointer-Mace noted that teacher shortages are higher this year at every school. Ms. Mallory said that she would like to have the schools report on how they are going to recruit and retain staff and encourage their students to go into the education field. Mr. Ingram encouraged schools to work with the Dept. of Public Instruction (DPI). Ms. Pointer-Mace noted its the mid-career teachers who are leaving the profession. Mr. Ingram noted that Juniors at 4-year colleges are considered as having Associate's degrees and can be short-term teachers. Anthony McHenry - he appreciates the guidance of the CSRC and Evident Change and the conversation about the teacher shortage. They are working hard to make sure all of their teachers are licensed. Ms. Pointer-Mace moved to accept this report and renew their 5-year contract, seconded by Ms. Hill. There were no objections. 5. 210567 Communication relating to the 2021-23 activities of Dr. Howard Fuller Collegiate Academy. Sponsors: THE CHAIR Ms. Ereth said this school is in its 11th year and serves 9th-12th grade and had 309 students enrolled. 19.5% have special education needs and the school has a return rate of 90.9%. They failed to have graduation plans for every student and had two unlicensed teachers. They had a parent response rate of 49.6% and parents are overwhelmingly supportive of the school. 13 of their 17 board members responded to the survey and all rated the school as "excellent" or "good" with the primary response that the school hire a CEO, in addition to the existing principal. They are taking steps to move into a new building for the 2023-2024 school year. Recommendations for improvement are included in the report. Their students were offered over $7 million in scholarships. The recommendation is continued annual monitoring and reporting, with special attention paid to the scores for the regularly required local measures. Philip Smith - The graduation rate decreased this year from 100% (2 students fell short to earn the full graduation). He thinks that may be due to covid. Ms. Mallory moved, seconded by Ms. Pointer-Mace, to accept the report. There were no objections. 6. 210568 Communication relating to the 2021-23 activities of Escuela Verde. Sponsors: THE CHAIR City of Milwaukee Page 2 CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW Meeting Minutes October 17, 2022 COMMITTEE Ms. Ereth said this school is in its 10th year and is on the near south side, serving 9th-12th grade and his the smallest stand-alone high school with 118 students enrolled. 81.4% of the students are Latinix and 21.2% have special education needs. The school met all of its contract requirements. Their parental rate was 72.4%, which is very high and 100% of their parents would recommend the school to other parents. The Transcenter Board had a survey response rate of 78.6%, with 11 of the 14 board members responding and they all rated the school as "excellent" or "good" and the common recommendation was the school should strengthen its fundraising ability and more effort should be made to make the community aware of the school's uniqueness. The recommendations for improvement are in the report. The school had 22 graduates with scholarships totaling $212,000 and they had a score card of 70.5%. Evident Change recommends annual academic monitoring and reporting and the school needs to focus on students' competencies in reading and math. Ms. Pointer-Mace noted that the community is often involved in the students' education so covid was very impactful for this school. Escuela Verde did open a functioning cafe for its students to run. Nicki noted that the school doesn't give grades - students earn credits by the work done. Joey Zocher - she knows the students have been struggling the past couple of years due to the inability to have community involvement and the need for virtual learning. They are starting to bring back their community events, which they think will help. Ms. Pointer-Mace moved, seconded by Ms. Mallory, to accept the report and continue annual monitoring. There were no objections. 7. 210572 Communication relating to the 2021-23 activities of Downtown Montessori Academy. Sponsors: THE CHAIR Dr. Baylor said the school serves 243 students in K4-8th grade, with a majority being Caucasian and 15.2% were eligible for free lunch and 7.8% were special needs. The school met all of its contract requirements. The parental response rate was 63.1% and 89.4% would recommend the school to others. All 5 board members were interviewed and they scored the school as "excellent" or "good" and they wished to expand the school and delineate more clearly the job duties of the administration. The overall score was 81.7%. Evident Change recommends annual academic monitoring and rewarding another 5-year contract. Ian Spanic - the school has engaged Denise Patton to work with the board and staff to more fully involve the teachers in the administration and with the board. Ms. Mallory encouraged the school to encourage diverse voices of the parents and give them an opportunity to participate in an equal manner. Amy Goodenough - parents and participants are coming back in person, which does make a difference to strengthen bonds across the school and the community. Mr. Ingram noted that more parents still need to be added to the board and the school should look at the prior CSRC recommendations. Ms. Mallory moved, seconded by Ms. Pointer-Mace, for annual academic monitoring and renewal of a 5-year contract. There were no objections. 8. 210571 Communication relating to the 2021-23 activities of Darrel Lynn Hines College Preperatory Academy of Excellence. Sponsors: THE CHAIR City of Milwaukee Page 3 CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW Meeting Minutes October 17, 2022 COMMITTEE Dr. Baylor said this school has been operating for 20 years, serves K4-8th grades and is predominantly African American and 15% are special needs. The school met all of the contract requirements. 54.7% of parents responded and they were overwhelmingly positive about the school. Parents did have some concerns, which are noted in the report. 5 of the 8 board members participated and they suggested obtaining more funding and making mental-health services more available. The school met all of its contract requirements and their score card rating was 74.1%. Evident Change recommend annual monitoring and reporting. Dr. Washington - thanked the CSRC for its report and thanked the Board for its feedback relating to teacher retention. She has been expending a large amount of time researching stressors experienced by teachers, particularly over the past two years to attempt to retain their teachers. Ms. Pointer-Mace moved, seconded by Ms. Mallory, for annual academic monitoring. Ms. Pointer-Mace encouraged Dr. Baylor to connect with Dr. Washington to obtain her research on teacher retention in urban areas. Ms. Mallory noted that violence and safety is a concern and that should be brought up at Steering and Rules. 9. 210570 Communication relating to the 2021-23 activities of Central City Cyberschool. Sponsors: THE CHAIR Dr. Baylor said this school has been operating for 23 years serving K4-12th grade with primarily African American students and 11.5% have special needs. The school met or partially met all of the contract requirements; only 85% of students had a graduation plan. 50.2% of parents responded and 84% would recommend the school to others. 4 board members participated in the survey. The score card was 66.4% and the recommendations for improvement are included in the report. It is important that the high school improve its competencies in reading, math and writing. Ms. Mallory was concerned that if they approved a 5-year contract there is no incentive on the school to improve. Jessica Whitaker - once the school had to go virtual they switched the local measures to MAP (Measures of Academic Progress) testing so they couldn't compare the data as two different testing methods. They aren't achieving in the local measures as they had previously. This year they are also "win time" to work on math with specific students. They are also testing new instructional strategies. She believes they have a strong teacher team, who are all very committed. Mr.Ingram believes that, based upon the school's history, it will bounce back. He has a strong feeling that the school is resilient. The school began its first year of serving high school students and then the pandemic began. Ms. Mallory moved, seconded by Ms. Pointer-Mace, for annual academic monitoring and renewing for a 5-year contract. There were no objections. 10. 210573 Communication relating to the 2021-23 activities of Milwaukee Math and Science Academy. Sponsors: THE CHAIR Dr. Baylor said the school has been operating 11 years and serves K4-8th grade and has 179 students, with the majority being African American and 12.9% having special needs. The school did meet all the contract requirements. 68.9% of parents responded and were overwhelming supportive of the school. Only one of the four board members responded to the survey, so those results were not included. Evident Change recommends annual academic monitoring. City of Milwaukee Page 4 CHARTER SCHOOL REVIEW Meeting Minutes October 17, 2022 COMMITTEE Ms. Pointer-Mace thinks the trends are moving in the right direction and she commends the leadership for staying in place and seeing some of their work starting to pay off. Ms. Mallory believes the school made every effort to implement pro-active changes. Crystal Bielmeier - their enrollment hasn't increased, but the word is starting to spread that their academic progress is improving and students are seeking to enroll, which hadn't been happening earlier. Mr. Ingram noted the school had to find a new building during the pandemic and he feels the school should be commended for its accomplishments. Ms. Mallory moved, seconded by Ms. Pointer-Mace, for annual academic monitoring. There were no objections. 11. 210574 Communication relating to administrative matters of the Charter School Review Committee for the 2021-23 school years. Sponsors: THE CHAIR Ms. Ereth said the memo in the file details what the expectations are based upon changing DPI requirements for high school students (9th and 10th grades). DPI made a change which effects Evident Change's ability to perform year-to-year assessments for this year as two different tests were used between two years. Evident Change is recommending that no year-to-year progress for 9th to 10th grade is not done for the current year reports (they will use point-of-time assessments for the spring data). Year-to-year analysis will resume in the next year. Ms. Sawa moved, seconded by Ms. Hill, to approve the recommendation as laid out in the last paragraph of the recommendations. There were no objections. Mr. Ingram noted that pandemic affected private schools, but they had more resources to get through this. The annual reports will be presented on Nov. 7th to the Steering and Rules Committee. Meeting adjourned: 7:10 P.M. Linda M. Elmer Staff Assistant This meeting can be viewed in its entirety through the City's Legislative Research Center at http://milwaukee.legistar.com/calendar. City of Milwaukee Page 5