As part of its oversight responsibility set forth in California Education Code § 47604.3, the LAUSD, through the Charter Schools Division (CSD), monitors each charter public school’s compliance with applicable legal, charter, and policy requirements.  Similar to last year, the CSD’s compliance oversight process encompasses two important actions by each charter school:

(1)    Certification of Board Compliance Review: As part of the Governing Board’s fulfillment of its fiduciary governance responsibility to ensure that the charter school complies with all applicable laws and other requirements, it is critical that the school’s Governing Board periodically review, discuss, monitor, and modify, if necessary, the school’s policies and systems for compliance with such requirements.  Please complete and sign the certification at the end of the attached document, Compliance Monitoring and Certification of Board Compliance Review 2015-2016, and return the entire document, including the relevant Board agenda(s) and minutes that document the Governing Board’s review of these compliance items as attachments, to your assigned CSD administrator immediately after your next Board meeting (i.e., in the fall) and no later than March 14, 2016.

Wellness Policy item notes: A local school wellness policy (wellness policy) is a written document that guides a local educational agency or school district’s efforts to create supportive school nutrition and physical activity environments. Each local education agency participating in federal Child Nutrition Programs, including the National School Lunch Program or the School Breakfast Program, is required to develop and implement a wellness policy as established by the Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act of 2004, and recently enhanced by the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (HHFKA)[PDF - 325.4 KB]. Wellness policies can be integrated into the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child (WSCC) model for school health, and can help put into action several provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act, including Title I and Title IV.  As part of the YPICS annual calendar the YPICS Board Reviews and approves the most recent Wellness Policy developed in collaboration with school staff, parents, and community members.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is a competitive grant program of the U.S. Department of Education that increases the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education by providing States and local community-education partnerships six-to-seven year grants to offer support services to high-poverty, middle and high schools.
The program serves at least one grade level of students, beginning no later than the 7th grade, following them through high school graduation and their first year in college.  GEAR UP provides critical early college awareness and support activities like tutoring, mentoring, academic preparation, financial education and college scholarships to improve access to higher education for low income, minority and disadvantaged first-generation students and their families.  GEAR UP funds are also used to provide college scholarships to low-income students.
The program mandates cooperation among K-12 schools, institutions of higher education, local and state education entities, businesses and community-based organizations.  These dynamic partnerships are required to leverage local resources to match the federal investment dollar for dollar, creating a common agenda that more effectively facilitates the educational aspirations and attainment of students from low-income communities.
YPICS GEAR UP Grant is in the 4th year of implementation.  

The Board reviewed the Gear UP budget and right now it is on track to spending well within the budget timeline and guidelines.

The School Climate Transformation Grant provides funding to local educational agencies (LEAs) to develop, enhance, or expand systems of support for, and technical assistance to, schools implementing an evidence-based multi-tiered behavioral framework for improving behavioral outcomes and learning conditions for all students. 

Each school in the grant has an assigned counselor who holds a Masters in social work. The grant uses a database called SWIS to track how many times students are sent to the office, who is sent to the office and who sends; suspensions and expulsions are also looked at.  The grant also uses a tiered system where tier II and tier III students are the focus. 

Each month council and committee meeting minutes will be provided for the board to review.  Board members will direct senior staff regarding any minutes or committee concerns that may arise.

The MORCS construction project continues to be on schedule with August 15, 2018, as the move in date. There was one incident earlier in December where the main water pipe broke near campus and flooded the underground parking with eight inches of water.

BCCS had the LAUSD oversight review on December 1, 2017.  The CSD debrief went well, albeit we will not receive a final report until later this year.  A few positive observations by the team included, “First-year teachers used classroom practices that are more aligned to third and 4th-year teachers.  This year the debrief included evidence of more positive instructional practices are consistently in place school-wide than in the past.  The CSD Team also noted that students were well behaved and an engaged in lessons throughout the school.  One member of the team highly regarded the SFA practices that were evident during both the SFA Reading period and during all content area courses throughout the day.  The CSD TEam highly complimented the school's implementation of the SFA reading and SFA math programs.  Blanca Alves-Castillo interviewed parents at random.  All fourteen parents gave the school a five.  One parent declared, “The Bert Corona Charter School is saving my child’s life.”  Blanca also randomly selected students this time for her focus groups.  She was looking for students that were open and unafraid to speak.  Students complained about the meal program and articulated some concerns about the bathrooms, which have been addressed.

Mr. Myers presented the MORCS School Success Plan to the Board.  It outlines goals and plans to increase academic achievement and improve the overall school climate.  The MORCS Leadership Team used the data from the Youth Truth Survey to create actions plans, which include the creation of new clubs for students such as anime, chess, and Yugioh. Last month MORCS held a community engineering night. Students and their families had the opportunity to participate in mini-maker teams where they learned about conductive electricity by making controllers.  Teachers have engaged in building better relationships with students through extra-curricular activities and sports programs such as Girls on the Run. MORCS continues to remain focused on increasing the academic outcomes of all students.  Teachers have selected two students each to more intently monitor above and beyond the current strategies that are in place to grow outcomes.   Seventy-two students school-wide are under a more watchful eye of the instructional team as a result of implementing this practice.  Additionally, The school continues to celebrate the growth of students who met their goals on the MWEA Maps and teacher formative assessments.

Mr. Simonsen reintroduced Ms. Palafax, BCCHS Counselor, and Ms. Fuentes, BCCHS Director of Operations and former Chief of Staff for Felipe Fuentes LA City Council Member.  Mr. Simonsen reported that the high school is still experiencing staffing challenges as the English teacher who replaced the English teacher who worked for the high school since the inception of the school quit at in August to take a job closer to home in Redondo Beach, also resigned last Friday. In spite of the English staffing challenges, he told the board that he was confident that school will be entirely staffed by 2nd semester.  Students are excited that basketball is starting.  The Atheletic Departement held a successful fundraiser at the La Sirinita Restaurant in Van Nuys.  The Gonzalez family, owners of the restaurant, donated the food for a fundraiser. Many of the BCCHS staff and families enjoyed a meal together, and La Sirinita gave the funds raised at the event to school for sports uniforms.    

The next set of LA Mission college classes will begin in January 2018.  Many students in the Junior class will have completed five college courses by the end of this school year.  He articulated, "This is the first time we are facing behavioral challenges with students new to BCCHS.  Students who have multiple concerns are being referred to our school, and it’s getting harder. We will continue to do our best to serve all students, and we are fortunate to have the families trust us.  Finally, the high school is not part of the PBIS grant, but the school is receiving information from the middle schools."

LAUSD
LAUSD Board Approves Updates to District Required Language, 11/7/2017: Yesterday’s LAUSD Board meeting began with LAUSD Acting Superintendent Vivian Ekchian’s announcement that charter leaders and district staff had reached an agreement to update critical parts of the boilerplate language that LAUSD mandates its schools include in their charter petitions, called the “District Required Language” (DRL). This agreement was the outcome of years of joint efforts between the charter community and CCSA to analyze the policy requirements in the DRL, assess their impact on charter operators’ ability to serve students, and prioritize areas for pushback.

National Alliance
Washington, D.C.—A Growing Movement: America’s Largest Public Charter School Communities is the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ (National Alliance) twelfth annual report on charter school enrollment. Since the report’s first release in 2006, national charter school enrollment has tripled, growing from one million to more than three million students.

“Public charter schools are growing because communities are demanding them,” said Nina Rees, president and CEO of the National Alliance. “The results are in, and they’re clear: charter schools are leading to increased student achievement. It makes sense then that families are increasingly selecting charter schools when they have public school choice. The National Alliance is excited to join the millions of families seeking these game-changing schools.”

California
From School  Services of California -

Top Legislative Issues for 2017—Final Actions

Meeting his October 15, 2017. deadline, Governor Jerry Brown completed action on nearly 1,000 bills for the 2017 legislative year, signing 859 and vetoing 118. or nearly 12% of those that made it to his desk.

We have sorted the bills we have been following this year into those that were signed by Governor Brown and those that were vetoed. All bills vetoed by Governor Brown include a veto message, providing his rationale behind returning the bill to the Legislature without his signature. They are often an interesting read—and provide direction on how a bill can be more successful in a future legislative attempt.

Subsequent articles will be posted that delve into implementing some of these important bills. This installment of Top Legislative Issues will be the last for the year and will return to production in January 2018.

LAO Sees Revenue Forecast Capable of Fully Funding LCFF in 2018-19

In its annual Fiscal Outlook publication. the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) estimates significant increased Proposition 98 minimum guarantees in both the current year and upcoming fiscal year. These increases, combined with Proposition 98 funds freed up from prior year one-time spending. could give Governor Jerry Brown the resources needed to fully fund the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) in 2018-19. and then some.

YPICS:
On December 1st, Bert Corona Charter School received an Oversight visit by LAUSD.  Both Directors, Blanca Castillo-Elves and Jose Rodriquez, were pleased the see the many strong instructional strategies that were implemented by the BCCS Teaching Team.  Jose Rodriquez noted that he was quite impressed to see first and second year teachers checking for comprehension, pushing critical thinking, leading small groups, and managing cooperative group learning in classrooms.   The DOJ and Teacher assignments matched and all teachers are teaching in their correct assignments.  A full report will be provided to the board as soon as it is available.

No vote was taken.  The Communications Policy will be brought back to the Board at the next regular meeting. 

The HS enrollment increasing, 210 as of now. It has increased by 10 students this year.  However, it is still lower than what was budgeted.  The school is still on track to end the year with a $1000 positive forecast.  The MORCS – budget was based on 356 students, however, there are 334 students currently enrolled.  YPICS budgeted two busses for the year but the school has only used one bus, which created a $70k in savings.  BCCS is currently operating close to what was budgeted.   Cash wise the schools are doing well and we finally have a resolution, by the end of the year the HS will be independent and not have to borrow money any longer. Currently YPICS still has access to a line of credit, but currently there is no need to access it.

The audit is 100% clean! And there are no findings. Irina reported, "The auditors are tough this year.  Meal compliance is a hard one. However, the YPICS meal compliance is on target, and the team keeps tight records.  I would like to celebrate  Diana Gamez, Susie Castrellon, Karina. Gamez, and Diana Orozco.  The members as mentioned earlier of the Meal Program Compliance Team did a great job!" The only item that will be added to the audit is the board member terms.  Board President Straub wanted to know if the auditors had access to the OIG report.  Irina responded, " We gave them the full report."