Missouri Senate Passes Charter School Legislation
The Missouri Senate today passed Senate Bill 576, increasing the accountability on charter schools and expanding their reach into areas outside of St. Louis and Kansas City. This legislation is the first major charter school bill passed by the State Senate since the original charter school statute passed in 1998. The bill passed by a vote of 31-2.
The bill, sponsored by Senator Bill Stouffer, will allow charter schools to open in any district that has been labeled unaccredited by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and in districts labeled provisionally accredited for three years under certain conditions. In fully accredited districts, charter schools could open but only if sponsored by the local school board of the district. In these districts only 35% of the district’s enrollment could attend a charter school.
SB 576 goes a long way in increasing the accountability of charter schools and their sponsors. The bill requires a performance contract to be established between the sponsor and school and uses that contract as the basis for renewal and revocation decisions. The bill also requires increased reporting on academic and financial performance of the school. Sponsors would also be formally evaluated every three years by the Department under the changes in statute. For more on this bill see our original posting.
The bill will now go to the Missouri House for consideration.
Frontier Schools Featured on Kansas City Spanish Radio
Frontier Schools students and staff were interviewed on Kansas City Spanish radio station La Gran D 1340AM. The interview was done 100% in Spanish and discussed the school’s unique programs, focus on the city’s Hispanic community and information on enrolling in the school.
Click below to listen to the interview.
MCPSA Opens Statewide Charter Public School Information Line
The Missouri Charter Public School Association has opened a new statewide charter public school information line providing families and community members access to all of the latest information on Missouri’s charter public schools. The number for the toll free line
is 1-800-455-3570.
“This line was created for anyone, anywhere in the state to be able to quickly obtain information on Missouri’s charter schools,” said MCPSA Executive Director Dr. Douglas Thaman. “The line can help parents in St. Louis and Kansas City find a quality charter school for their child, assist current charter school parents with information, or, be a tool for people outside of these areas to receive basic information on charters schools and gather information on the process for starting a school.”
A key goal of this new hotline is to help parents obtain information on charter schools in which they may have an interest for their child to attend. MCPSA staff can quickly help a parent find openings at Missouri’s charter schools and work with the parent to obtain programmatic information for all of Missouri’s charter schools or basic performance data, such as MAP test scores and other measures of success. This number will also serve as a help line for the MCPSA’s Data Dashboard released last month.
Under current law charter schools are only allowed in the boundaries of the St. Louis and Kansas City school districts. The Association is receiving increased interest in charter schools outside of these areas from communities interested in exploring charter school options should legislation pass expanding the geographic reach of charter schools in Missouri.
“The charter school directory, job postings and data dashboard sections of our website are highly visited,” Thaman continued, “but we are finding that some communities who have a strong interest in charter schools do not necessarily have broad access to the internet. We are able to help increase their access to charter school information through this toll free line.”
MCPSA Holds Screenings of ‘The Experiment’ in St. Louis and Kansas City
The Missouri Charter Public School Association hosted two free screenings of the charter school documentary The Experiment on Thursday, March 29 in St. Louis and Wednesday, April 4 in Kansas City. The film follows five children in their journey through the shifting public education landscape of post Hurricane Katrina New Orleans and highlights how the city has heavily used charter schools as part of a recovery school district model.
A group of over 100 enjoyed the screenings and networking receptions prior to each event. The film gave attendees the chance to see the struggles parents go through when seeking out a quality eduction for their child and how charter schools are meeting that need in post Hurricane Katrina New Orleans. It was evident in hearing the stories of the five families featured in the film that the same struggles occur on a day to day basis in many Missouri communities.
The Kansas City screening was held at the Screenland Theatre and sponsored by the charter school offices at the University of Missouri- Columbia, the University of Missouri- Kansas City and the University of Central Missouri. The St. Louis screening was held at The Chase Park Plaza, which is also the location of the 2012 Missouri Charter Schools Conference. This screening was sponsored by the charter school offices at the University of Missouri- Columbia, the University of Missouri- St. Louis and Southeast Missouri State University.
These screenings were a follow up to a screening of the film in the Capitol rotunda during National School Choice Week. if you are interested in having a group screening of this documentary, please contact our office at 314-776-3551.
Click here for photos from the St. Louis screening.
MCPSA Hosting Charter Governing Board Development Seminars
MCPSA’s first Governing Board Development Seminar is quickly approaching. This interactive seminar will walk boards through the development of assessment tools for their school leaders, or in further refining a current assessment tool already in place. The second piece of this interactive seminar is board self-‐assessment. In order for boards to grow and change based on need, it is important for the board to assess itself annually.
The Kansas City seminar will be held on May 3rd at the Kauffman Conference Center. The St. Louis seminar will be held on May 9th at the Missouri History Museum. Both seminars will begin take place from 6:00pm – 7:30pm. Check out the flier below for more information.
Click here to register for the Kansas City seminar.
Click here to register for the St. Louis seminar.
