LAUSD Special Board Meeting Agenda Dec. 5: Charters

Eight charter schools up for renewal are being recommended for approval at Tuesday’s special LAUSD Board meeting, as are two new charter petitions, while one charter renewal and two new charters are recommended for denial. The full agenda can be found here.

On the renewal approval list are: Citizens of the World – Mar Vista, Crenshaw Arts Technology Charter High, Extera Public School No. 2, High Tech LA, Metro Charter, PREPA TEC – Los Angeles, Stella Middle Charter Academy, Valor Academy High, ICEF View Park Preparatory High. New petitions on the approval list are: Rise Kohyang Elementary and Valley International Preparatory High.

On the denial list are the renewal petition for Executive Preparatory Academy of Finance and new charter petitions for Acumen Academy Charter and iLEAD Encino Charter.  

Also at the meeting, the LAUSD Board will hear three superintendent reports: on the history of the District Required Language the Charter Schools Divisions staff requires in charter petitions, on Brown Act open meeting requirements and a review of the LAUSD Advisory Task Force’s attendance recommendations.

The Advisory Task Force comprises some prominent Los Angeles leaders, such as former Publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times Austin Beutner, former Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel, former CEO of Paramount Pictures Sherry Lansing, UCLA Professor Pedro Noguera and ICM Partner Chris Silbermann.

According to the Task Force report, in 2016–2017, over 80,000 LAUSD students, 14.3 percent, were chronically absent. That percentage increases to almost one-third of LAUSD students missing significant time at school if one adds the 17.9 percent of students who missed 8-14 days.

The Task Force is recommending “broad-based outreach to parents, students, and the community, and targeted approaches that support the unique needs of individual students and families.” Improving student attendance would significantly help LAUSD’s financial crisis, the Task Force found. If every child in LAUSD attended one more day of school, LAUSD would have approximately $30 million more to invest in the classroom.

The report also recommends greater accountability and efficacy measures for LAUSD’s current programs designed to improve attendance, “a cash reward program for schools to incentivize them to achieve better results,” and direct intervention programs at schools to provide “one-on-one counseling to students and families most in need.”