Will There Be Sports?

I recently heard several instances of people claiming that there will be no sports at the new charter school. There will be sports.  Charter schools are allowed to compete with all DOE schools just as though they were also a DOE school, and our new charter school will continue to do so, as they have budgeted for the required fees and costs associated.

I have heard others saying that you cannot have sports teams without coaches, and we can only pay for 2 coaches.  The charter schools budget already has plans for at least 5 coaches.  That is $7500 set aside specifically to pay coaches.  Meanwhile there are people actively searching for grants and other ways to increase this amount for the upcoming school year.

PUBLIC BOARD MEETING THIS TUESDAY

There is a public board meeting this Tuesday the 14th of February, at 6pm, in the LHES band room.  All are welcome to attend.

The link below will take you to the Laupahoehoe Community Public Charter School calendar of upcoming events.

http://www.calendarwiz.com/calendars/calendar.php?crd=lcpcs&PHPSESSID=c35b7fa51566a712e0629d196f4940ee&jsenabled=1

Clearing Up Confusion

In an attempt to clear up some confusion, I have spent some time looking for answers to a couple of persistent questions going around.  This is what I found:

Question 1:

Do teachers have to be "accepted", after an application process, in the first transition year of the charter school?  Or, do they just continue teaching, simply by applying by February 15th, followed by a review based decision at the end of the first year, as to whether they are invited to stay with the charter or not?

Answer:

There has been no legal support found, for the proposition that current DOE employees already have positions at Laupahoehoe Community Public Charter School for school year 2012-2013.  The Public Charter School is an autonomous entity.

Attempts to schedule meetings with the employee unions about this issue have received no official response.  The DOE also has yet to officially respond.

For teachers worried about the February 15 charter application deadline arriving prior to hearing from the DOE about transfer positions.  Keep in mind that this is the APPLICATION deadline, not the date at which you would have to accept or decline a charter position.  Get your applications in by the fifteenth if you MIGHT want to work at the charter school!  You can decide later, after hearing from the DOE, if you plan to accept or reject a charter position offer.

Also note that the DOE does not share any teacher information with the charter school.  Therefore the charter must get copies of things like resumes (hence the application deadline) for their teachers-to-be.

Question 2:

Why are we not stakeholders of our school?  And why were Local School Board elections postponed?

Answer:

Firstly, we ARE all stake holders of the current Laupahoehoe Public School.  Therefore all parents and teachers of children registered in the school had a chance to vote in February 2010, for or against, the current school becoming a charter school.

However, we are not all automatically stakeholders of the upcoming charter school.  The stakeholders of the CHARTER school will be the the parents, students, teachers and staff, and community of the charter school when it opens.  Since the charter school has not actually opened yet, and teachers have not been hired yet, and students are not enrolled yet, and we do not yet know who will be living in the community, who move in, and who will move out, we cannot possibly expect there to be a complete list of stakeholders of the charter school at this point.

Secondly, the Local School Board elections were postponed due to the above stakeholder issue.  Without charter specific stakeholders, how can there be a charter specific vote?  This was affirmed by the Board Of Education.

Movement of Teachers in Transition Year - Flow Chart

An easy way to see what your options are, as a teacher.  Straight from the BOE.

Guidelines for Teachers Moving Between DOE and Charter - Transition Year

I hope this document I found helps to clarify teacher concerns about the possibility of switching back to a DOE school if charter is not for you.

Losing Sight of the Goals

Most arguments that I see, against the Charter School seem to be less and less about how the new school will benefit the attending students, and more and more about teachers jobs, specific deadlines, and other operational details.  While I understand that these things are all important, they are all being handled properly by people who know what is REALLY happening.  Many people are working very hard to ensure that the charter will open as soon as possible, as a complete and functional school, with as few positions as possible being lost in the process.

These technicalities are not what pro charter vs. anti charter debates should be focused on.  The whole point of perusing a charter option should be, and has been, to create a better learning environment for the community's youth.  If everyone believes that charter is a better educational route for the schools attendees , there should be no argument.  If this is not the case, then please, lets discuss it.