James joined at 1:05

Tom read the Commission's Mission and Vision Statements.

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Tori reported the School Performance Committee reviewed staff developed reports and discussed the following:

• Maine Arts Academy's Charter Renewal - The Committee recommends renewing with one recommendation.
• ACADIA Academy's Charter Renewal - The Committee recommends renewing with two recommendations.
• Community Regional Charter School's Request to Incur Debt - The Committee does not recommend approval.

Lana reported the Finance Committee discussed the following:

• Maine Arts Academy's Charter Renewal
• ACADIA Academy's Charter Renewal
• Community Regional Charter School's Request to Incur Debt
• The Commission's Public Instrumentality Structure Status
• Moxie Public Charter School Grant Funding 

Leigh reported the Committee discussed the following:

• Maine Arts Academy's Charter Renewal
• ACADIA Academy's Charter Renewal
• Community Regional Charter School's Request to Incur Debt
• The Commission's Public Instrumentality Structure Status
• Moxie Public Charter School Grant Funding 

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Maine Arts Academy - Heather King thanked the Commission members, Lana and Amy for their support during the renewal process.  She thanked the Maine Arts Board members along with the school's families.  She pledged to foster continual improvement by listening to constructive criticism.   Tori and Leigh provided positive feedback.   Jim noted the impressive Community engagement exhibited by the school.  Heather noted that they are delving into the results of Panorama for students.

ACADIA Academy - Heather Bucklin noted the school's strong family connections and small school feel.  She noted the goal to create a more diverse student population.  Meredith Morrison, Board Chair thanked Lana and Amy for their support during the renewal process.  She thanked the ACADIA staff, teachers and families for the commitment to collaboration.  The school has worked to strengthen the financial viability recently and now looks toward improving instructional leadership and fostering an environment of feedback and support where both students and teachers thrive.  There has been a transition in board leadership this year with the last founding board member terming out.  The current board is energized to define the new era of leadership.

Lana provided the following school updates:

Baxter Academy - Flex Friday kicks off this Friday morning. Students will pitch their projects that deepen their STEM discipline and emphasize real world impact.  The projects include an EMT internship, an educational sci-fi book project, algae cultivation experiments, and search & rescue drone development.  

MeANS - Seasonal intensives with activities surrounding a chosen theme are on-going.  This fall the themes are:

• 9th grade - farming. 
• 10th grade - apples.
• 11th grade - rivers.  
• 12th grade - ocean.

MeArts Academy - A youth drug and alcohol awareness night was held on October 6.  The school executed an extended learning grant of $76,000 and partnered with the local business including the Maine Crime Lab, NBC News, Drummond & Woodsum Law Firm, a hair salon and a local restaurant to provide hands-on job experiences. 

MCA - The school held an in person social day with many activities at Fort Williams Park.  

MeVA - The school continues to develop their virtual help desk which offers twice a day on-line tutoring.

Moxie Public Schools has secured $1.25M in funding so far from national and local funders. 

Tom mentioned that Houlton and Bangor are exploring distance learning and suggested the two virtual schools could offer expertise and collaborate with the public schools on their experiences.

Lana will be attending the NACSA conference this month.

Board on Track's Mike Mizzoni held a Professional Development session for school boards.  More opportunities will be available during the year.  The next session will be held on October 28.

Staff activity has focused on the Renewals, Annual Reports and the Change to a Public Instrumentality Structure.

• Lana thanked the schools for meeting renewal deadlines, etc.  
• Annual Reports - drafts are complete and will come before the Commission in November.  
• Implementation of Public Instrumentality - The Commission has received a check for funds including carryover and is working to set up bank accounts.

Amy reviewed the Unenrollment / Enrollment Report for SY24-25

2003 students enrolled during the year which is 113 more students than the previous year.  The report shows that the charter schools enroll students every month throughout the year. 

504 students left schools, a slight increase from last year, but in proportion to the increase in enrollees.

Amy noted that the data shows students enrolling each month of the school year.  She is working on further analysis to compare enrollment / unenrollment trends with traditional public schools to inform the discussion about using 10/1 enrollments for the state subsidy calculation.

Leigh noted that the 10th grade has the highest number of unenrolling students and wondered where they might be going and how does the data aligns with traditional public schools.  She suggested a year over year analysis will be helpful.  

Leigh recognized new Governing Board Members:

• Margaret Micolichek at Ecology Learning Center
• Scott Richardson at Maine Virtual Academy

Leigh noted that Nicole Peluso of Maine Connections Academy has left the Board.

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November

 • To Receive and Place on File SY2024-25 Annual Monitoring Reports

 • To Consider the Approval of the SY2024-25 Annual Report to the Commissioner

 December

 • No meeting 

Upcoming Professional Development

• October 28, 2025 (10:00am-11:30am) for Board Members and School Leaders
  • Finding, Recruiting, Retaining, and Training Board Members to Meeting Your 3-5 Year Goals
• November 12, 2025 (9:30am-12:00pm) for Commission Members
  • Message and Media Training
• November 13, 2025 (9:30am to 12:00pm) for School Leaders
  • Why Communications and Advocacy Matters

Other

• May 2, 2026 (11:00am-1:00pm)
  • Maine Arts Academy 10-Year Anniversary Gala

• November 12 (Room #103, Cross Office Building, Augusta or Zoom)
• December - No Meeting