CDE News Release on Charter School Grant Award

Colorado Awarded Three-Year, $40.8 Million Federal Grant To Expand Charters And Public School Options

Denise Mund, director of the Schools of Choice Office at the Colorado Department of Education announced today that Colorado will receive a $40.8 million charter school grant to increase public school options in Colorado. The state will be awarded $13.6 million each year for three years.

The U.S. Department of Education announced Monday the award of 12 charter school grants, totaling $136 million per year to state education agencies in Arkansas ($3.4 million), California ($51.8 million), Colorado, the District of Columbia ($1.3 million), Georgia ($13.1 million), Indiana ($10.9 million), Michigan ($16.7 million), Missouri ($2.2 million), New Hampshire ($1.3 million), Rhode Island ($2.4 million), South Carolina ($5.7 million) and Texas ($13.8 million).

The purpose of the Charter Schools Program is to increase financial support for the startup and expansion of these public schools, to build greater national understanding of the public charter school model and to increase the number of high-quality charter schools across the nation.

"Ninety-five percent of these funds will go directly to new charter schools in their first three years of operation," said Mund. "The grant will fund curriculum, professional development, administrative costs, desks and classroom supplies, office equipment, furniture and technology."

The remaining 5 percent of the grant funds the Schools of Choice Office and provides development opportunities for charter school leaders. Numerous trainings are offered throughout the year, including a finance seminar, business manager network meetings, mentoring opportunities, online board training modules and a variety of other online resources.

CDE's Schools of Choice Office is recognized for its support of developing charter schools and received a very good monitoring report from the federal government in 2009. Last year Mund provided technical assistance to 14 states and was a featured presenter at a national conference and webinar. Colorado, which has seen an overall increase in charter school funding since 1998, received $7.4 million in grant funding last year.

Through the Colorado Charter School Startup and Implementation grant, CDE's Schools of Choice provides technical assistance to charter schools and authorizers, processes waiver requests for the Colorado State Board of Education, collects data on charter schools, produces special topical studies, performs the state evaluation of charter schools, and responds to questions from the general public. For more information, visit www.cde.state.co.us/cdechart/index.htm

More information about the Charter Schools Program is available from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Innovation and Improvement at www.ed.gov/programs/charter/index.html

New Charter Schools in Colorado Get Grant Award

The Colo. Department of Education announced today the Schools of Choice Unit has received a $40.8 million grant award from the U.S. Department of Education under the Charter School Grant Program. The state will continue administering a federal startup and implementation grant program designed to assist new charter schools in up to their first three years of operation.

The state will have $13.6 million for each of the next three years to fund the unique startup expenses of a charter school. Many of the schools receive these funds in the spring prior to their opening, which allows them the opportunity to hire an administrator early. New charter schools don't get operating funds until July 1.

The schools rely on this startup grant to purchase desks furniture, technology, lockers, curriculum, and train their new staff members. Further, the money is often used to inform the community about a new charter school through advertising.

The grant is competitive and as many as 40% have been denied funds. For further information on the grant program, click here.

Advisory Committee for Charter School Institute Charter Schools Meets

Yesterday was the first meeting of the advisory committee established by SB10-111, sponsored by Sen. Keith King. King is an administrator at Colorado Springs Early College, a CSI school. It was the second day of school for King so he joined the group via the telephone for a portion of the meeting.

Patricia Hayes chaired the meeting. Hayes is a board member of the Charter School Institute, former CU Regent and former State Board of Education member. About a dozen people attended the meeting, reflecting the representative required by SB 111.

The purpose of the committee is to make recommendation to the next legislative session's Education committee members about CSI schools becoming their own LEA. In addition to this potentially impacting Special Education, there is also a potential impact on federal entitlement funds, the Carl Perkins Act and gifted and talented programs. The committee discussed what would be studied by the committee and what would not.

The questions raised centered on what problem was the committee attempting to solve? Since the delivery of Special Education services is distinctly different for CSI schools and district charter schools, the "problem" to solve was quite different. CSI schools must conduct their own Special Ed services and do not have liability coverage through CSI. District charter schools deliver Sped services via a contract with their district (using a variety of different models) and their district has ultimate liability.

Sen. King noted that his interest for the work of the committee was not so much about Special Education, but rather what other programs might be different if administered by the charter school, instead of CSI. He noted a few federal programs, but then also recognized that with increased responsibility comes increased accountability, which may include paperwork and bureaucracy. King carried another bill this session that allows charter schools to form cooperatives with CSI. His other bill allows even district charter schools to seek federal grants through CSI.

It was generally agreed that if there was a better way for delivering Special Education services to CSI schools or there was a more efficient way to operate, the committee's report should uncover those options. The committee will conduct research on what other state's have done and consult nationally recognized groups such as the National Assn of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.

The committee will meet monthly throughout the fall. For more information, contact the Charter School Institute.

Money to Replicate

Today the U.S. Department of Education's Charter School Program released a new competitive grant program notice. This one is for charter schools that want to replicate and serve turnaround schools.

This grant program, in Title V of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (f.k.a. No Child Left Behind), is a new program in support of high quality charter schools with demonstrated records of success. Priority will be given to charter schools assisting turnaround schools in poverty areas.

Each applicant for this grant needs to demonstrate that they have strong academic results and there are no significant issues in the areas of student safety, financial management, or statutory or regulatory compliance in order to be competitive against the other applicants.

The anticipated average award will be $7 million for a five-year period. An estimated 5-8 awards will be given this fall.

Business Manager's Network Meeting Update

Last week the Colorado Business Manager's Network meeting revealed a LOT of new information for charter schools! Here's a synopsis:

· SB 10-001, Eliminate PERA’s Unfunded Liabilities, increases the employer’s contribution from 13.85% this year to 14.75% next year. The bill moves COLA benefit increase from March to July. It also puts a 12-month waiting period on contributors being eligible to get the benefit. In 2010 the COLA is calculated by 20% of the CPI for wage earners (-.6%). This resulted in about 90 million extra money for PERA to invest for the next year. PERA pensions are compounded annually. Highest average salary calculation remained over 3 years (5 yrs was originally proposed in the legislation). Minimum age for retirement will increase to 60 yrs of age, but is age 58 for schools if the wage earner has worked in schools for at least 10 yrs (affects people hired after Jan. 1, 2011).

· Legislative Update, Vincent Badolato, CLCS: 6.3% cut for FY 10-11. Statutory 5 million for charter school capital construction remained intact. The capital construction will now be paid monthly, instead of in one lump sum.

· HB 1036: Financial Transparency Act. Annual budgets, quarterly financials and general financial information must be posted online this coming school year. Next year additional information will be required. May be in a PDF format.

· HB 1345, Emergency Powers over Charter Schools: Commissioner has authority to intervene in an emergency situation. State board rule will define what can be an emergency. This impacts CMOs that have schools in a variety of districts.

· HB 1412, Charter School & Authorizer Standards Review Cmte. A 13-member advisory committee to make recommendation to the state board for quality standards. Authorizer standards would probably be modeled after the NACSA Principles & Standards. Appointments to the committee will be made by October 2010.

· SB 111, CSI Clean-up. Establishes a study group to consider letting charter schools develop a cooperative to become an LEA. Creates a school food authority account in the CSI fund to receive any moneys received operating as a SFA.

· SB 161, Charter School Collaboratives. Allows charter schools to apply for competitive federal and state grants without needing the consent of a charter school’s current authorizer. CSI may function as the LEA and fiscal agent for collaborative that choose to apply for grants.

· FMLA is applied to schools with more than 50 employees within a radius of 75 miles. Schools with less than that may not be covered by FMLA, but they should act as if they are covered since they wouldn’t want to be a test case. Employees who have physically worked 1250 hours are covered. Employees must be given 12 wks of leave (may be unpaid or take vacation time). Upon return must be able to resume job or comparable job. Intermittent use of the 12 wks is permitted. Notified 30 days in advance is required if the employee knows about the illness. A doctor’s note can be required if the employee is out more than 3 days. If the employee has benefits before FMLA the employer must pay the employer portion of benefits, but the employee must pay their portion.

Tennessee Squeezes Their Charters Out of Race to the Top Funds, Too

It's not just Colorado that has no plans to share their Race to the Top Funds with public charter schools. Back in January, I wrote about Colorado's RttT application not having any benefit for our state's charter schools. Colorado was selected as one of the 16 finalists for Race to the Top, but only Tennessee and Delaware were chosen for Phase One funding.

Race to the Top is a U.S. Department of Education competitive grant that is awarded to state's meeting certain criteria. One of these is how they treat their charter schools. Colorado faired well in this category.

The Memphis Business Journal reports their state's charter schools won't receive a benefit from the Race to the Top funding recently awarded to Tennessee. The money will be given to school districts that do not have an obligation to equitably distribute those funds to their public charter schools. The reason for this juxtaposition is that the federal RttT guidance doesn't include charter schools in a meaningful way. The grant is very misleading to the public who thinks that because states must be "charter friendly" in order to get the grant, the charter schools would receive some sort of benefit. Not so.

Business Manager's Network Meeting, Mar. 12th

Charter school business managers met last Friday. Here's a synopsis of their meeting:


Larry Hudson, CLCS Lobbyist and Vincent Badalato, CLCS Public Affairs

1. Budget update: 2.3% cut in current FY; Figure Setting last week with CDE projected a 8.8% cut for next year; next revenue forecast Mar 22; CS cap construction-JBC recommended be fully funded at 5 mil
2. HB 1343: Board cannot adopt standards; concerns expressed about putting charters into a box and reducing creativity/innovation
3. HB 1344: meet authorizer standards by July 1, 2011; may contract with another entity like a BOCES; advisory group to advise state board
4. HB 1345: Brighton and CCA Network situations; Commissioner quasi-judicial role due to emergency nature of the possible situations the bill is designed to address
5. Speakers’ bills taken off calendar indefinitely until agreement reached.

Ken Buckius, UMB Corporate Trust
1. Periodic reports & Certifications include:
a. Monthly construction reports
b. Quarterly financial reports – comparative
c. Insurance consultant review and certification
d. Arbitrage rebate calculation & payments

Colorado School District Self-Insurance Pool
Provided summary of SB 08-181, which requires all schools to have a crisis plan in line with the National Incident Management System. The plan requires the identification of “key people” who are trained to lead in the event of a crisis. The Self-Insurance Pool can provide someone to assist schools in creating their plans and training is also available for the key people at each school.
Website: csdisp.net

Trish Boland, Federal Title Funds
1. Charter reps will need to sign the consolidated grant app as proof that they were informed about how the funds will be used. The signature doesn’t mean the charter rep agrees with the plan.
2. Charter schools can no longer be given a proportional amount to do something different with.
3. Title II, Part A can no longer fund one-day workshops.
4. Time and effort must be documented daily and reported twice a year for all positions funded with state or federal funds.