State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia
Minutes
2022 Governance & Policy Retreat | Day 1
Date and Time
Wednesday October 5, 2022 at 10:00 AM
Location
The Graduate Hotel
295 E Dougherty St, Athens, GA 30601
State Charter Schools Commission of Georgia
2022 Governance & Policy Retreat
October 5 – 6, 2022
The Graduate Hotel
295 E Dougherty St, Athens, GA 30601
Directors Present
B. Brockway, F. Johnson, J. Perez, L. Millan, M. Dudgeon, T. Lowden
Directors Absent
None
Directors who arrived after the meeting opened
M. Dudgeon, T. Lowden
I. Opening Items
A.
Record Attendance
B.
Call the Meeting to Order
C.
Welcome and Opening Remarks
II. Developing the Pipeline
A.
Review of the SCSC Strategic Plan and Goals for the Retreat
B.
Developing the Pipeline: Georgia Charter Schools Landscape & the Strategic Charter School Growth Initiative
The SCSC Executive Director reviewed the roles, responsibilities, and authority of the commission. Quality authorizer practices and challenges in the Georgia charter landscape were discussed.
The SCSC Director of Charter Development discussed how the agency planned to use its recently awarded funds from the GEER II and CSP grants. The SCSC will use the funds to support charter growth, professional development of school leaders, and encourage community engagement efforts.
Commissioners discussed the role of local districts in charter authorizing, the impact of charter growth on the state budget, and how to promote high quality authorizers and charter schools across the state.
C.
Developing the Pipeline: Petition Priorities and Parameters
The SCSS General Counsel, Deputy General Counsel, and Director of Research and Evaluation reviewed the outcome of the FY22 petition priorities, presented the FY23 petition priorities, and discussed future research to be conducted for FY24 petition priorities and beyond.
Commissioners discussed how to define high saturation areas, budget impacts of petitions, and new criteria for virtual schools.
D.
Lunch
E.
Developing the Pipeline: Encouraging High Quality Authorizing
The SCSC General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel discussed challenges with local authorizers and the impact these challenges have had on the SCSC. To resolve these challenges, legislative initiatives were proposed.
Commissioners discussed how these proposed initiatives would affect charter school growth in the state and the political implications it would have.
F.
Developing the Pipeline: Recruiting new academically superior state charter schools
The SCSC General Counsel discussed the common barriers to out-of-state charter school operators coming to Georgia.
Commissioners discussed the potential impact of amending SCSC and state requirements for starting a charter school.
The SCSC Chief Operations Officer discussed implementing Request for Petitions (RFPs).
Commissioners discussed how the agency would strategically use RFPs to take over failing schools and incentivize charter school growth in high-priority areas of the state.
G.
Additional Thoughts & Measuring Success - Objective 1 & Objective 2
The SCSC Chief Operations Officer discussed how to measure the success of the strategic plan and reviewed the progress of policy retreat goals.
The SCSC Chief Operations Officer reviewed the mission, vision, and strategic plan of the agency and established goals for the policy retreat.
The commissioners discussed how the SCSC can incorporate constructive criticism in the agency's strategic plan and overcome barriers to charter school growth.