• Chair Higgins welcomed Rachel Spell as the Commission's new Administrative Assistant.

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Tori Kornfield - Chair, School Performance Committee - reported on the work being done by the Committee.

Leigh Weisenburger Albert - Chair, Finance Committee - reported on the work being done by the Committee and a copy of the FY24 Budget vs. Actual/Spending Dashboard was distributed for review.

Norm Higgins - Chair, Executive Committee - reported on the work being done by the Committee.

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Walter Wallace, Maine Connections Academy's Head of School, shared the following:

• Students who enroll at MCA fit into seven different buckets:
  • Elite/specialty athletes/performers who need a flexible schedule
  • Students who live in areas that can't provide things like an advanced science class
  • Parents who have homeschooled their children, but have "aged out" on knowledge, but still want to keep their student(s) at home
  • Students with physical disabilities
  • Students who are working during the day to help support their families (often in a family business)
  • Students who have had a difficult time in their resident district school (i.e., bullying)
  • Students with extreme anxiety
• MCA sets annual goals which are driven by the Performance Framework. These goals are displayed throughout the school building as a reminder to staff.
• Despite being a virtual school, MCA offers both in-person and virtual field trips and has many clubs available to students.

• Maine Arts Academy began the school year in their new building and reports that the transition has been "smooth". The school will host a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony on October 11th.
• MeANS is fully staffed with no open positions.
• Harpswell Coastal Academy has officially closed and board members are working with their auditor to finalize the FY23 audit. They will end with a cash balance of approximately $160,000 and Lana is working with the MDOE to determine how those funds will be disbursed.
• Maine Connections Academy submitted their Renewal Application and staff met with members of the school's governing board and administrative team to finalize year-end data. Focus group visits were held on September 11th and the public hearing for renewal is scheduled for September 26th. The Commission will vote on the renewal at its October 10th business meeting.  

• Staff is interested in releasing a new school application for schools opening in the fall of 2025. The proposed timeline would be as follows:
  • Release the new school application in mid-November
  • Applications would be due in mid-March 2024
  • Commission would make decisions on applications in June 2024 (current statute requires action within 90 days from receipt of the application. 
• Lana will be attending the NACSA (National Association for Charter School Authorizers) Annual Leadership Conference in late October. This years conference will be held in Oakland and she will be presenting at a session on Values Based Authorizing. 
• A copy of the 2023-2024 Annual Work Calendar was shared. There are 5 key priorities for the school year - 1)searching for a new charter school, updating the strategic plan, refine the performance framework, conduct an internal Commission policy review, and consider whether or not there are any legislative changes that the Commission will pursue. 
• Strong drafts of the 2022-23 Annual Monitoring Reports are complete using school-reported data. The drafts will be finalized in early October (awaiting results from the Maine Through-Year Assessment), sent to schools for review, and then presented to the full Commission for consideration in November.

A copy of the report was distributed for review and the following was noted:

• The spreadsheet shows the months that students are both entering and exiting the charter schools.  
• Exited students are broken down by grade, gender, race/ethnicity, whether or not they have a 504 plan or an IEP, economically disadvantaged, returning or first year student, the reason for leaving, language, and English learner.
• The report is currently in draft form as two schools did not exit students before the August 15th MDOE deadline. Another school exited students as required, but do not graduate students until the end of the July. The state reporting system will not show those graduates until the beginning of the 2023-24 school year.
• Data should be finalized by November and will be shared with the Commission at that time.

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Fiddlehead School of Arts & Sciences - Marie Reimensnyder

None

None

October

• To Consider the Approval of Maine Connections Academy's Renewal Application

November

• To Receive and Place on File the 2022-23 Annual Monitoring Reports

• 9/26/23 Public Hearing for Renewal - Maine Connections Academy, 8 Science Park Road, Scarborough and ZOOM (4:30-6:00pm)
• 10/11/23 Ribbon Cutting Ceremony - Maine Arts Academy, 310 Cony Road, Augusta (2:00pm)