Agenda - 03-07-2019 8-a - Minutes

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5 1 Commissioner Marcoplos said he visited the Expedition School last year, and noted that 2 the staff is trying to do its best for the students, and it would be good to have representatives in 3 the room with the public school leaders. He would like to start with some semi-formal meetings 4 to establish relationships, before inviting them to the larger roundtable. 5 Commissioner Price agreed with this too, and said charter schools are always open to 6 visitors. 7 Commissioner McKee said he would hate to have a future board be sitting here watching 8 the charter school numbers increasing, leading to an "us versus them situation". He agreed with 9 Commissioner Marcoplos about starting off slowly. 10 Superintendent Wirt said charter schools are public schools, and it would be important to 11 be clear that charter schools are not being invited to the table to ask for capital dollars. He said 12 he would welcome the opportunity to meet with the charter schools, but would want to be very 13 clear on the purpose of such meetings. 14 Commissioner McKee said these are valid points, and would want to proceed 15 purposefully with clear parameters. 16 Commissioner Dorosin said it may require some legislative action, and the current 17 legislative leadership is committed to undermining traditional public education. He said the only 18 accountability of charter schools is parental choice. 19 Commissioner Bedford referred to the CHCCS capital investment plan, and the total of 20 unfunded capital needs, and said she will be looking for this information from OCS when they 21 meet again. 22 Commissioner Bedford referred to the Durham Tech Partnership Update, and the 23 concern about the awareness of educational opportunities. She asked both school districts if 24 student-counseling services have been independently reviewed. 25 James Barrett said CHCCS has a new Executive Director of Counseling, who is doing 26 great work. He said she also oversees the System of Care Director, and has a clear focus on 27 all the pieces of student success. 28 James Barrett the public schools can be billed as a hub of information for the community, 29 but sometimes the district's own programs are not well publicized. He said his daughter is in 30 one of these partnership programs, and is thriving. He said it is free, which is a bonus. He said 31 the classes show up on her high school and college transcript. He said access to the school 32 counselors is critical for parents/students to learn how to navigate the process. 33 Superintendent Baldwin said an outside organization evaluated the CHCCS counseling 34 program for two years, and staff continue to work through this report, and it is one of the 35 reasons there is now a Student Services Department at the central office level. She said there 36 is still a communication gap in making sure that all students have access to the variety of 37 programming available, which all are working on together to amend. 38 Superintendent Wirt said OCS has 188 courses being taken through College and Career 39 promise, and this number steadily increases. He said Durham Tech has been a great partner in 40 this process. He said OCS provides transportation for students, and has staff at both high 41 schools to assist students. He said funding for counselors at the state level is very low, and his 42 district repeatedly advocates for more. He said the acuity of need varies from school to school, 43 and he hopes any additional funding that may come will have some flexibility so that schools 44 can use it in ways that best meet the needs of their school. 45 James Barrett said the other main legislative agenda is calendar flexibility, and the ability 46 to line up the K-12 calendar with the college calendar. 47 Will Atherton referred to capital improvement and bond funds, and said it is important to 48 look at the SAPFO policy as it focuses on capacity and not on age of building. He said there 49 are schools that have $21 million in need, and it may be more prudent in building a new facility. 50 Chair Rich said this group is meeting now, with another meeting coming up.