BOARD ACADEMIC COMMITTEE MEETING Merit School of Music 38 S. Peoria, Chicago, IL MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 MINUTES OPEN SESSION 6:00 P.M.

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1 BOARD ACADEMIC COMMITTEE MEETING Merit School of Music 38 S. Peoria, Chicago, IL Elluminate Link: Conference Line: , passcode then # MONDAY, MARCH 9, 2015 MINUTES Call to Order: OPEN SESSION 6:00 P.M. Time: 6:13 P.M. 1. ROLL CALL RENEE NASH COMMITTEE CHAIR ABSENT/PRESENT Board Members: Renee Nash, Chair Seth Harkins, Vice Chair Staff: Amy Biasbas Head of School Farland Jenkins Board Administrator 1. ROLL CALL 2. Introduce Guests: 3. Public Comments on Agenda Items None.

2 4. Accept Agenda Seth Harkins Accept the agenda. : None. 5. PARCC Testing Request that management provide management provide a summary of the PARCC testing process including the amount of time that went into test preparation for teachers and students at the next Academic Committee meeting. Seth Harkins : PARCC testing began today. Fifteen students tested. There were some computer issues that were worked through. Testing will take place during the entire month of March. The last week will be a makeup week. Students attend the learning center 3 times each week in order to complete their testing. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday are used for the testing. They are broken into 5 grade levels. At this point there are 10 opt outs. There is guidance from CPS and the State regarding opt out. Opt out is really not an option as far as the State of Illinois is concerned. Management has to make sure that every student or learning coach who does not participate, that the test is offered to them. The student needs to attend, be given the test, read the directions, and they have to say that they refuse to take the test. This has to be done for every section of the test. Guidance from CPS was distributed on Friday. There are over 400 students that will test. All but 20 students need to test in order to meet the 95% threshold. There are 3 special education students who take the DLL. A summary should be prepared of the testing process. The report should indicate how much time went into the testing preparation for teachers and students. The report will indicate how much time is taken from instruction time.

3 6. SPED Teacher Staffing Ratios Seth Harkins Request management present the financial status of Special Education Clinician program. No Vote, Motion Amended. Seth Harkins Request management inform the Committee of the level of spending regarding special education related services at the next Committee meeting. : The number of required instructional ARS minutes is 45,600 weekly, not annually as the report presented indicated. The Committee has a question about how many students a teacher can actually provide services to. Most of the students are taught in small groups. The severe students are taught in smaller groups of one to three students. A typical school day is 300 minutes of instructional time. When schedules are filled out for PARF, the teachers daily time is accounted for in their caseload and the number of ARS minutes and when submitted indicates the amount of minutes the teachers have of instructional time per day. The students are then listed on their caseloads. The minutes conform to the IEP allocation. A distinguishment needs to be made between individualized and individual instruction. If one teacher can provide instruction to 15 students, according to the PARFing, the minutes are allocated per week not per day. There are approximately 90 SPED students. An additional teacher has been recommended. Management has PARFed twice this school year. There was a situation last year where the school had to pay for services spent for special education staff because there was more staff than CPS allocated. Last year there were only 3 special ed teachers initially approved by CPS. It may have been for related services. There is concern that this year we are not in the same scenario at the end of the school year. Management has a system in process to make sure that does not happen this school year. There 45,600 weekly, not annual minutes that is presented on the document. Service is provided for 45 thousand minutes per week.

4 Per management, there are many students that are at 1,500 plus minutes per week. Management ultimately needs 9 or 10 special education teachers because of the way that the model works. Management tries to have students on site and tries to do small groups for everyone and reach multiple students at once. There are 4 days for instruction each week. The 5 th day is used virtually, however teachers do not have time to write IEP s, etc. There are 3 students who receive direct occupational therapy services There is a large increase in related services for the year. Evaluations are not automatically initiated when referrals are received. Management meets as a team to evaluate the data to determine if an assessment is warranted. Approximately 10% of the students evaluated do not warrant an assessment. Because CVCS students are mostly at home, learning coaches can see that their student is not up to grade level. In a traditional school, many students are not at grade level so the teacher may teach down to the average grade level. The speech therapist is averaging 32 hours per week. The school was allocated 0.8 FTE of a speech therapist, which would be 32 hours per week. CPS reimburses $90 thousand times 0.8 per year ($72 thousand). With the speech therapist s hourly rate, there are only 27 reimbursable hours per week. The speech therapist s rate is $55 per hour which is well below market cost. There are two students serviced by the speech therapist, one of which needs an audiologist. The Board wants to be sure that at the end of the year the budget is not in the red for unreimbursed services. Management should review the services critically and if the services are in the red the Board will be alerted by the April Academic Committee meeting. Management has presented a report on the financial status of the clinicians in the past. Contracted special education services are a volatile area. The designation EMH in the special education is classified as intellectual disability on the IEPs. There is a specific CPS PARF approval process. There is a notification from CPS for next year s special education allocation. CPS polls current numbers for this year then estimates the allocation for next year. The estimates are typically low and management PARFs for additional teachers each year. The CPS staffing projections for FY 2016 are for 5 special education teachers and 3 aids. Management will have to PARF based on the SPED student population at the beginning of next school year. Notification is made by October or early November if additional teachers are approved. There are currently 8 special education teachers. Management has a plan for additional students at the beginning of next school

5 year. The Board has taken previous action that management does not have to wait for approval to hire special education teachers in order to stay in compliance. Management will hire to meet the needs and PARF may take a month or two for approval. 7. Teacher Performance Evaluation Rubric Update K12 is developing an evaluation rubric that categorizes performance for virtual teachers by levels. K12 is developing an internal system for the data to be in one place. Management will blend the rubric with the CVCS model. The current rubric has not been merged with the K12 model at this time. Management will have multiple administrators perform the evaluations. CVCS triangulates evaluations so 3 administrators do at least one observation on the same teacher. Some states require evaluations to be performed with a state-wide rubric. 8. ELL Instruction Compliance A teacher has been hired and has started in the position. Management will forward a repost that outlines the ELL program. The teachers will receive training in March or April regarding ELL support. There will be EL parent workshops every month until the end of the school year. There are currently 31 EL students. CVCS is in compliance and will not have to provide compensatory support. The instructor is currently working 25 hours per week at $25 per hour. This is within the remaining budget. There may be funds left over by June.

6 9. Title I Grant Update Renee Nash If there is a need to amend the Title I program design the administrator and the Title I committee along with a teacher, parent will be able to move it forward and that the administrator notify the Board that action has been taken. Also, the items have to be a part of one of the original Title I program design : Two parent involvement meetings have been held. Sylvan services are up and running for 3 rd through 8 th grade. Forty students have accepted to participate in the program, 18 are in tutoring, 12 are in the assessment process and 10 are at the welcome status. Two students have declined services. The Tudor.Com contract has just been signed. The system will be up and running by the end of the week. The 20 high school students will start with that service next week. There are 60 additional students to pursue for the program. The search for the family support positions continues. The Title I funds must be spent by June. Tudor.Com will be paid in full for services. Sylvan will be paid only for individual students that participate. There is up to one month for management to amend the program. If it becomes evident that all the funds will not be spent, an amendment can be made to spend the funds on other items like books or software for example. The decision would need to be made quickly and presented to the Board. Management would like to make the Board aware that CPS requires an administrator, a teacher and a parent to amend the program design. To expedite time a list of activities was presented to the Board for the original program design. The Board would like to see a list of amendments from the original list. It may not be feasible for the Board to be able to review any amendments in time for the sake of spending all of the funds. It will be important for the Board to receive a copy of any program plan amendment as soon as possible. There are 20 parents signed up for the parent committee. Management is concerned that items that were reduced in the original program design process may need to be added back. This is acceptable as long as management provides an explanation and a rationale. Title I does not allow foe the encumbrance of the funds without being spent. It is critical that the funds are spent by June.

7 : 10. Public Comments A summary has been provided on this month's "data dig". The summary provides information on progress towards strategic goals. Spring Committees are being developed: o Technology o Instructional Program Design o Positive Behavior Intervention System (PBIS) o Budget/Planning The K -8 and High School data will be presented at the full Board meeting. : 2nd: 11. Adjournment - Adjourn the meeting. Seth Harkins.Voice Vote- Unanimous Aye, Motion Carries. Time 7:23 P.M. Respectfully Submitted: For Board Secretary These minutes have been posted on Chicago Virtual Charter School's Web Page -