Joe Hendrix has seen many changes during his two decades as a teacher and administrator in both traditional schools and charter schools. He has, however, found constants to fostering a culture that provides students with the best educational opportunities: high standards, high expectations, good communication, and relationship building. This includes communication and relationship building between the district authorizers and the charter schools they authorize, as well as among all schools within the community, regardless of their classification.
“What excites me is the power of relationships. I believe having the right priorities and trying to uphold them with relationships is a key to helping everybody do their best and achieve their greatest potential,” offered Hendrix, who, as deputy superintendent for the Sutter County Office of Education (COE), is responsible for charter school authorization and oversight as well as special education services.
Hendrix discovered CCAP while searching the Internet for authorizer resources, and he reached out to learn more. He was gratified to find a source of pertinent information that also seemed to share his core values. When CCAP invited him to the Board of Directors in 2022, he accepted.
“I saw it as an opportunity to support the authorizers and charters… to help them achieve their greatest potential in serving kids,” he explained. “The resources and the opportunity to consult with CCAP has helped improve the quality of our oversight and our ability to have meaningful conversations about program effectiveness.”
One standout example he cited was using CCAP’s Annual Report Toolkit with AeroSTEM Academy, a COE-authorized school with about 120 students. “It helped us focus our discussions and gave us a reference for why we needed certain information from the charter school,” said Hendrix, adding that he has begun holding meetings with other authorizers and charter schools on how to use the toolkit to get the most impact.
Hendrix is a longtime believer in ongoing professional development to stay current on new ideas, regulations, and information to improve student learning. When he joined the Marysville Joint Unified School District as a dropout prevention specialist, Hendrix earned a Dropout Prevention Specialist Certificate from California State University, Sacramento. Later on, as superintendent of Nuestro Elementary School District, he attended an authorizer bootcamp to improve his effectiveness in that role.
These days, Hendrix is a regular participant on the monthly, virtual Charter Chats on hot topics and best practices in authorizing that are held by CASI (the Charter Authorizer Support Initiative) and managed collaboratively by the California Department of Education, CCAP and the Santa Clara County Office of Education through a federal grant.
He also hosts professional development and collaboration opportunities for district and charter leaders and supports Sutter COE’s other charter, Pathways Charter Academy, a nonclassroom-based county community charter school that Hendrix was instrumental in establishing to expand opportunities and improve outcomes for students who have previously been expelled or otherwise referred by probation or their district of residence.
“We really focus on providing support for agencies that serve students, regardless of whether they are at a district school, a charter school, or a private school,” he stressed. “It’s our obligation to help the people who are serving them.”
That principle, and Hendricks’ belief in the importance of relationship building and inclusiveness, are catching on. When COVID shut down schools, one of the nonclassroom-based charter schools in the community trained staff at traditional seat-based schools on how to teach remotely. More recently, a group of local charter schools and school districts has begun collaborating on a dual enrollment consortium that would allow students from any participating school to enroll in an under-enrolled class at any other participating school.
Hendrix said he is encouraged that many schools and districts are overcoming common assumptions about the friction between charter and traditional schools. “You have what some might think are opposing agencies, [yet] everybody’s working together because it’s good for the community and it’s good for the kids.”
