Jan. 28-31 SBOE Meeting Highlights
Part 1
SBOE Info: texednews.com/sboe
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Also in this issue:
-- African American Course Clears Hurdle
-- Commissioner's Comments
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To Open in School Year 2021-22
Board Briefed on Charter Applications
TEA staff told the SBOE’s Committee on School Initiatives that the agency received 22 applications for new charter districts by the Jan. 21 deadline. This was out of the 96 separate entities that had sent representatives to mandatory charter info sessions held by the TEA late last year.
(agenda/webcast-click Item 4)
Generation 25
The applicants are in the Generation 25 group that are seeking to open new charter districts starting in School Year 2021-22.
Heather Mauzé, the TEA’s director of charter school administration, said that charter applicants surviving the upcoming intensive vetting process will undergo individual interviews by TEA staff and SBOE members, which will be webcast, starting about the week of July 27.
Mauzé added that to answer criticisms by SBOE members, school districts and the public that there hasn’t been enough time between the commissioner’s announcement of his picks for new charter districts and when the SBOE votes on whether to veto them, there will be extra time (about two weeks) built into the schedule for this to occur.
The SBOE is scheduled to vote on whether to veto the commissioner’s eventual selections for Generation 25 charters at its September meeting.
Generation 26
Meanwhile, the committee discussed issues related to the upcoming creation of the Generation 26 charter application process, which Mauzé said the agency has just begun work on. These will be for charters selected to open in School Year 2022-23.
SBOE members and representatives of a 17-member coalition of teacher and school management groups (in testimony) asked that applications require an applicant to specify in greater detail about where they plan to open a charter campus — such as by zip code — instead of just generally specifying in applications that campuses would be located in a city or a county.
Other concerns voiced included asking that the TEA consider, in deciding whether to approve new charter campuses, if the area to be served is already over-saturated with schools, whether they be ISDs or charters.
Mauzé responded that the TEA is looking into adding a “market analyst” to the agency’s charter staff, but she did not specify what the person’s duties would be.
Mauzé also introduced to the committee Dr. Bruce Marchand — who was formerly with the Texas Charter Schools Association and, before that, was the superintendent of the Pineywoods Community Academy charter in Lufkin. Marchand was recently hired by the TEA for the newly created position of charter portfolio manager.