Environmental Charter Schools

Minutes

Academic Excellence Committee Meeting

Date and Time

Thursday January 18, 2018 at 4:30 PM

Location

812 W. 165th Place Gardena, CA 90247
Academic Excellence Committee Members
Danielle Kelsick - Chair 
Kami Cotler - Co-chair 
Ken Deemer 
Jenni Owen 
Cathy Creasia

Academic Excellence Charter 
  • Supports organizational focus on the key ECS school charter petitions’ promises we have made to our community and to our authorizer, and continues to regularly revisit and reinvigorate these promises.
  • Considers student outcomes which are not strictly academic, but may be crucial for achieving our mission and which directly support academic excellence.
  • Work with the school leadership to continue to devise and refine clear and consistent ways to measure progress towards stated goals, such as those within the ECS mission, ECS school charters, Local Control Accountability Plans, WASC Action Plans, etc.
  • Work with school leadership to share with the board annual successes, barriers to reaching academic excellence, and strategies to overcome these barriers.
  • Arrange for Board training on issues related to academic oversight and academic achievement, as needed.
  • Provide insight to the board during the strategic planning process.
  • Annually evaluate its work as a committee and the objectives it has committed itself to and report on same to the Board of Directors.
Proposed Goals for 2016-2017
  1. Participate in the development of the LCAPs by reviewing data, identified needs, actions and resource allocation and provide feedback to site leaders.
  2. Improve the flow of meaningful information about academic priorities and progress from the school sites to the board.
  3. Generate a list of goals for 2017-18.
THE ORDER OF BUSINESS MAY BE CHANGED WITHOUT NOTICE
Notice is hereby given that the order of consideration of matters on this agenda may be changed without prior notice.
REASONABLE LIMITATIONS MAY BE PLACED ON PUBLIC TESTIMONY
The Governing Board’s presiding officer reserves the right to impose reasonable time limits on public testimony to ensure that the agenda is completed.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS MAY BE MADE
Notice is hereby given that consistent with the requirements of the Bagley-Keene Open Meeting Act, special presentations not mentioned in the agenda may be made at this meeting.  However, any such presentation will be for information only.
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION WILL BE PROVIDED FOR ANY INDIVIDUAL WITH A DISABILITY
Pursuant to the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, any individual with a disability who requires reasonable accommodation to attend or participate in this meeting of the Governing Board may request assistance by contacting ECS at 812 West 165th Place, Gardena, CA 90247; telephone (310) 214-3400; fax (310) 214-3410.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information concerning this agenda or for materials relating to this meeting, please contact ECS at 812 West 165th Place, Gardena, CA 90247; telephone (310) 214-3400; fax (310) 214-3410.

Committee Members Present

Danielle Kelsick, Jenni Owen (remote), Kami Cotler, Ken Deemer

Committee Members Absent

Cathy Creasia

Guests Present

Paola Reyes, Robert Maxwell, Zena Fong

I. Opening Items

A.

Record Attendance and Guests

B.

Call the Meeting to Order

Danielle Kelsick called a meeting of the Academic Excellence Committee of Environmental Charter Schools to order on Thursday Jan 18, 2018 at 4:38 PM.

II. Review and Approval of Agenda

A.

Motion to Approve the Agenda

Kami Cotler made a motion to approve the agenda.
Ken Deemer seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
Jenni Owen
Aye
Cathy Creasia
Absent
Danielle Kelsick
Aye
Kami Cotler
Aye
Ken Deemer
Aye

B.

Approve previous Academic Excellence Committee Meeting Minutes

Ken Deemer made a motion to approve minutes from the Academic Excellence Committee Meeting on 07-27-17 Academic Excellence Committee Meeting on 07-27-17.
Kami Cotler seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
Kami Cotler
Aye
Ken Deemer
Aye
Danielle Kelsick
Aye
Cathy Creasia
Absent
Jenni Owen
Aye

III. Discussion Items / Updates

A.

CA Dashboard Context

  • The California Dashboard, the state's new accountability and reporting tool, reports schools' performance in color-coded pies.
  • The Dashboard places an emphasis on improvement, which can affect different stakeholders' impression of a school's performance.  
  • There is a shift away from penalizing schools and identifying them as failing and more towards how to redirect resources to help schools.
  • For ECS, this is an additional tool that will help with accountability focused on equity.

B.

CA Dashboard Training

  • CA Dashboard report has not released data for College Readiness indicator for high schools. Given ECHS's A-G approved curriculum and CAASPP scores, the committee anticipates doing well in this category. This indicator signals state emphasis on AP performance, dual-enrollment, and Career Technical Education.
  • The Dashboard reports for all ECS schools confirmed the need for the ECS Math Initiative. It showed how increasing math scores will increase the scores of all student subgroups.
  • Some remaining questions include:
    • How often will the Dashboard be updated?
      • Currently, publishing the new data takes too long for this to be an effective tool for mid-year improvement.
    • What kind of conversations does the Dashboard generate? In other words, how can it best serve ECS?
  • Ken Deemer inquired about ECS's progress on the goals it set at the beginning of the school year regarding math.
    • According to preliminary data, we see some accelerated growth among certain cohorts at all three sites as well as growth that matches last year's pace among other cohorts. In a few cases, we see decreased growth data compared to last year. Our next step is to dig into this data to understand the trends and patterns better. 

C.

Planning for sharing out

  • Danielle Kelsick will present this to the Board by sharing the LA Times Article to highlight the political climate surrounding the Dashboard and reporting on mid-year NWEA results of the Math Initiative. 
  • The Board needs to know the state may take this tool away, and this tool can be useful when new data is released, which means understanding it is key. 
  • Recommendation for electing new Board Committee Member Zena Fong. 

D.

Future meetings

  • Future meetings will be scheduled at a later time, via email or poll.
  • Next will be in March, when new NWEA data is released.

IV. Closing Items

A.

Adjourn Meeting

There being no further business to be transacted, and upon motion duly made, seconded and approved, the meeting was adjourned at 6:00 PM.

Respectfully Submitted,
Paola Reyes
Ken Deemer made a motion to adjourn the meeting.
Kami Cotler seconded the motion.
The committee VOTED unanimously to approve the motion.
Roll Call
Jenni Owen
Aye
Kami Cotler
Aye
Cathy Creasia
Absent
Ken Deemer
Aye
Danielle Kelsick
Aye