Monthly Charter Chats
CASI, the Charter Authorizer Support Initiative, is off to a great start.
About 50 participants joined the first of CASI’s free monthly Charter Chats on Zoom on March 30. CCAP and the Santa Clara County Office of Education (SCCOE), which are partners in this statewide, state-funded effort to strengthen charter authorizing, discussed hot topics in authorizing, fielded questions, and heard from local authorizers about their needs and challenges.
The discussion began with an overview of hot topics in charter oversight, including:
- Developing, reviewing and approving Comprehensive School Safety Plans;
- Williams Act monitoring for schools eligible for support from the California Department of Education (CDE);
- Support for Differentiated Assistance; and
- Annual Site Visits.
The Charter Chat then moved into a review of authorizer responsibilities on required fiscal oversight and how budgeting should be guided by the LCAP (Local Control and Accountability Plan) process to ensure that LCAP goals drive the budget, not the other way around.
Additional information on financial oversight covered audits and the role of the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT) in identifying schools in fiscal distress, as well as grants available for schools to improve A-G completion rates.
Participants then moved into breakout rooms based on geographic region to discuss and prioritize burning topics and biggest challenges around authorizer oversight and reported back to the entire group. There also was a separate breakout discussion among non-authorizer participants.
Each 1-hour monthly Charter Chat will feature timely updates for authorizers with time for virtual regional breakout sessions for authorizers to discuss local authorizing issues.
You can find dates for all the 2022 Charter Chats and register for the free Charter Chats on the CASI website. You’ll also find a place there to sign up for the CASI listserv.
Quarterly Regional “Hybrid” Meetings
CASI’s quarterly regional meetings and trainings start this month. At least three meetings will be held in different locations around the state each quarter hosted by one of CASI’s partner county offices of education (COEs), with virtual participation also available. The first meetings are being held on April 13 from 9 am to noon hosted by Contra Costa COE, April 19 from 9 am to noon hosted by Sutter COE, and April 19 from 9 am to noon hosted by Riverside COE.
The topic of the training offered in these first regional meetings will be Annual Performance Reports by authorizers about their authorized charter schools. Presenters from CCAP and Santa Clara COE will introduce participants to CCAP’s Annual Reports Toolkit and site visit tools from Santa Clara COE.
The goal of these meetings is to build networks and focus training on local needs, especially for small and rural charter school authorizers. So far, CASI’s other partner COEs include El Dorado, Kern, Los Angeles, Mono, and Shasta. Other key collaborators include the Small School Districts’ Association (SSDA) and the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team (FCMAT).
Get more information and register on the CASI website.
You can help build CASI’s local networks by reaching out to the small and rural authorizers in your neck of the woods.
Charter Authorizing & Oversight 101 Workshops
CASI also provides workshops on Charter Authorizing Oversight 101 at other education conferences for new authorizers and those who could use a refresher. CCAP and the Santa Clara County Office of Education presented the first CASI presentation at the Small School Districts’ Association (SSDA) 2022 State Conference on March 7, 2022, in Sacramento. Our next one is a full-day, stand-alone preconference session scheduled for Wednesday, June 22, at the CCAP Charter School Authorizers Conference in Costa Mesa. The fee for this preconference workshop is $50.
