Chairman Brockway welcomed SCSC's new commissioner, Cayanna Good.

Governor Brian Kemp has issued a proclamation for National School Choice Week, which is January 22-28, 2023.

Lauren Holcomb announced she will be stepping down as SCSC Executive Direction after the conclusion of the 2023 Legislative Session. 

Chairman Brockway dissolved the Early Intervention Sub-Committee.

Commissioners will be visiting Genesis Innovation Academy for Boys & Girls, Atlanta Unbound Academy, Atlanta Smart Academy, Ethos Classical (Atlanta), Delta STEAM Academy, and Georgia Fugees Academy this school year.

The SCSC Executive Director presented the Governor's Budget recommendations for Amended Fiscal Year 23 and Fiscal Year 24.

SCSC hosted its first New Schools Orientation of the year. Upcoming trainings include Governance Training, the second New Schools Orientation, and GEER Roadshow. 

There are seven new schools and two replication schools in the pre-opening pipeline. One of those replication schools, Georgia School of Innovation and the Classics, elected to defer its opening until Fall 2024. As of December 16th, all pre-opening schools still pursuing a Fall 2023 opening were required to submit a copy of their draft lease agreement as a part of the pre-opening checklist. To date, the SCSC has received five executed lease agreements.

The start-up charter school petition application is currently open. These petitions are due by March 17, 2023. In addition, the SCSC had several groups submit enrollment forms to the Early Feedback Program. The SCSC is currently reviewing those forms with the goal of scheduling Early Feedback calls with eligible groups the week of February 13th.

The Research Analyst presented on the Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) and Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) schools. View the presentation here.

Schools received monitoring results on January 6, 2023. Appeals were due by 11:59 pm on January 20, 2023.  Responses to appeals are in progress. Corrective Action Plans are due by 11:59 pm on February 17, 2023, and review is in progress as CAPS are received. Corrective Action Plans must be submitted through the SCSC Administrative Portal. 

The Chief Operations Officer gave an audit update. See the presentation here.

Five schools are currently going through the renewal cycle: Genesis Innovation Academy for Boys, Genesis Innovation Academy for Girls, Resurgence Hall Charter School, SAIL- School for Arts- Infused Learning, and Scintilla Charter Academy. All schools submitted their renewal application by the Jan. 3, 2023, deadline, and renewal interviews are taking place this week. The SCSC plans to share renewal recommendations with schools by Wednesday, Feb. 8th, post them publicly to our website on Wednesday, Feb. 15th, and bring them before the board for a vote at the February 22 SCSC meeting. 

The SCSC has been working with NACSA to conduct a pilot evaluation of the SCSC’s authorizing practices in alignment with the 15 standards and principles of quality charter authorizing in Georgia that were adopted by the SBOE in December 2021. The evaluation process included interviews with SCSC staff and commissioners, school feedback through survey submissions, and documentation collection and review. The SCSC is in the final stages of reviewing the feedback from the evaluation team and plans to share results and next steps, including the SCSC’s first formal evaluation that is planned to take place this summer.

View the presentation here.

Liza Park and Rob Fortson from Yi Hwang Academy for Excellence discussed the school's expansion to middle school. The school expressed it wished it had the opportunity to expand its grade band this year.

SCSC staff and commissioners discussed why the school is not eligible for grade band expansion at this time.