Mission, Need, Executive Summary and Enrollment

1. Mission, Need, Executive Summary and Enrollment

2. Need What constitutes a “Need” in a community? Examples (not exhaustive) • Failing schools in the community • Lack of programs (language immersion, character ed, leadership, STEM) offered in the community • High Crime Rate • Only one school and distance (time on the bus)

3. Documenting the Need • It isn’t enough to state the need in your application, you have to back it up with data. • Do your research on what is offered in the schools in your area. For example, if ABC Elementary School is offering an innovative program but only children zoned for that school can participate then that is a need. More children interested than the district can support. This requires real numbers. • Data can be in many forms, it just needs to document your stated need.

4. Places to Find Academic and Population Data for Support • The SDE website will supply you with the latest testing data available through the research portal. www.ed.sc.gov Click on research portal. • Another suggested place on the SDE website is the Research and Data Analysis Page which includes • Active Student Headcount • Home School Enrollment • Poverty Index • College Freshmen Report

5. Other Places to Find Data • Chamber of Commerce • Sherriff's Department • United Way • Colleges and Universities • Census • County Government

6. Interested Parties • Also to document the need for the school the committee must gather students, parents and teachers to their cause. • The committee must be able to document its efforts to enlist interested parties. All racial groups must be represented in the marketing plan. • The committee can choose a target population i.e. at-risk but it can not choose a target race. • It can choose a target gender! By SC Charter School Law single gender schools are now allowed.

7. Interested Parties • Documentation of the number of students parents and teachers expressing and interest in the proposed charter school • You are not required to submit a list in the application but you need to have it. This list becomes your starting point for recruitment of student and teachers

8. Connecting the Need and the Educational Program • Once you have documented the need then you must choose an educational program that addresses the need. • The relationship between the need and the educational program is not a casual relationship. Itshould bea marriage made in heaven! • A strong application can show that the educational plan proposed will “fill the void,” or “correct the problem,” alleviating the need in the community.

9. The Educational Program must be INNOVATIVE! • Best Practice is not innovative • Too many innovations leads to the educational program becoming unfocused, too many is just as bad as not enough • All your innovations should tie back to your documented need. • Being the only charter school in the district is not innovation. Its what you are offering that is innovative. • Just doing it better is not innovative

10. The Educational Program must be INNOVATIVE! • Examples of Innovation (not exhaustive) • STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) • Leadership Academy • Project Based- (real project based not just hands on learning) • Single Gender • Middle or Early College • Dual Credit • The Arts • Blended Learning • Language Immersion

11. Traditional and Charter Green is traditional school responsibilities Red is the innovation of the educational plan

12. Mission Statement A mission statement should be… • a clear and succinct representation of the school’s purpose for existence. • the end result of the journey • the description of what the child “looks like” when they leave or what the child is prepared for in life Example for a STEM school; Creating the next generation of scientists

13. Mission Statement A mission statement should not be: • a description of the efforts of adults • 4 sentences long • educational jargon Bad Example ABC Charter School strives to be a glowing light that will improve student academic performance by engaging students in joyful, meaningful, and creative learning. We will develop a collaborative learning community that promotes inquiry based learning and critical thinking to prepare students to meet the needs of our global society. Reword to: preparing students to be critical thinkers to meet the needs of our global community.

14. If you can’t recite your mission then change it.

15. Mission Statement • http://www.nonprofitmarketingblog.com/comments/reader_question_how_do_i_make_my_mission_sound_more_exciting • Don’t write your mission until you know what your need and educational plan are. • Have a vision for what you want your students to achieve.

16. Who is Eligible to Enroll? • A charter school must admit all children eligible to attend public school to a charter school, subject to space limitations, except in the case of an application to create a single gender charter school.

17. Racial Make-up • However, it is required that the racial composition of the charter school enrollment reflect that of the local school district in which the charter school is located or that of the targeted student population of the local school district that the charter school proposes to serve, to be defined as differing by no more than 20% from that population.

18. Non Discrimination • A charter school must not limit or deny admission or show preference in admission decisions to any individual or group of individuals, except in the case of an application to create a single gender charter school, in which case gender may be the only reason to show preference or deny admission to the school.

19. Not a Factor in Enrollment • Race • Special Education Status • Socio-Economic Status • Religion • Ethnicity • Native Language

20. What’s the Plan for Diversity • In the application the applicant must describe how it will recruit across all racial groups. • The charter school law requires that school be within 20% of the racial make-up of the local school district or the target population.

21. Documenting the Plan • It is important that the applicant keep detailed documentation of all of its recruiting efforts. • In the event that the actual enrollment does not fall within the 20% required the SCPCSD will ask to review the recruiting plan and the documentation of all recruiting activities.

22. Desegregation Orders under OCR • Unless you are opening a school in a local school district that is currently under an OCR plan then this is not applicable to your application. • The State Department of Education is required to maintain the list of districts • Districts that are under plans • Beaufort • Georgetown

23. Priority Enrollment • A charter school may give enrollment priority to • a sibling of a pupil currently enrolled and attending, or • who, within the last six years, attended the school for at least one complete academic year.

24. Priority Enrollment • A charter school also may give priority to children of a charter school employee and children of the charter committee, IF • priority enrollment for children of employees and of the charter committee does not constitute more than 20% of the enrollment of the charter school.

25. Have a guideline for what is expected of Charter Committee MembersDoes showing up to two meetings get a child priority enrollment?

26. Lottery • If the number of applications exceeds the capacity of a program, class, grade level, or building, students must be accepted by lot, and there is no appeal to the sponsor.

27. The Waiting List • Any child not chosen in the lottery (if needed) will be placed on the waiting list.

28. No Lottery Needed • If there are more spaces then children at the deadline for registration then no lottery is needed and all children are accepted. • Children are then accepted on a first come first served bases.