California Authorizer Recognized by the National Network for District Authorizing
Congratulations to Indra Ciccarelli, Director of the Los Angeles County Office of Education’s (LACOE) Charter School Office, and a CCAP board member, on receiving the Local Authorizing Exemplar Award from the National Network for District Authorizing (NN4DA).
Colleagues and supervisors praised Indra as a tireless and valuable leader and thought partner whose vision, sophistication, and technical expertise in navigating the complex Los Angeles chartering scene is a model for strengthening authorizing practices in LACOE, the state, and the nation.
He has served in LACOE’s charter school office for nearly ten years, first as a coordinator before becoming director in 2018. Prior to that, Indra served in leadership positions at several charter schools.
Since joining the CCAP Board of Directors in January 2022, Indra has been instrumental in planning conferences, conducting trainings, chairing one of CCAP’s Anti-Fraud Initiative working groups, serving on the State Controller’s Charter School Audits Task Force, and participating in the state Department of Education’s Charter Authorizer Support Initiative (CASI) programming.
This is Indra’s second honor. In June he had received CCAP’s inaugural Authorizing Exemplar Award at the June 2024 Annual California Charter School Authorizers Conference. CCAP in turn nominates its California awardees for the awards bestowed by NN4DA, of which CCAP is California’s state member.
NN4DA honored three other authorizers at its annual meeting, which took place October 20-21 in Houston, in conjunction with the annual conference of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA). Paige Neuharth, Director of Authorizing and Accountability for Denver Public Schools, received the Community Contributor Award for an authorizer who goes above and beyond by helping other districts. The Wisconsin Resource Center for Charter Schools, which is operated by Wisconsin’s Cooperative Educational Service Agency #9, received the Innovative Impact Award for developing a tool to help ensure that proposals for new charter schools and expansions meet the criteria for serving the local community. The State Partner Impact Award went to the Florida Association of Charter School Authorizers (FACSA) for its work in strengthening and supporting high quality authorizing practices and sharing them with other states.
CCAP accepts nominations for two annual awards: the Authorizing Exemplar Award and the Authorizing Community Contributor Award. The awards are presented at CCAP’s Annual California Charter School Authorizers Conference, which this year will be held in Palm Springs, June 16-18, 2024. Information and the online nomination form are on the Authorizer Awards page of CCAP’s website. Nominations for the 2025 awards can be submitted any time from now until May 5, 2025.
