2024-5: August 12, September 9, October 15, November 12, No December meeting, January 13, February 10, March 10, April 14, May 12, June-come to conference!, No July meeting
Meetings are held via Zoom. If you are not receiving Member Meeting reminder and agenda emails, please email gina@utahcharters.org.
Minutes below: click "+" below for meeting recap
MEMBER MEETING RECAP
Thanks for joining us! You can see all this information (and past member meetings) on our website: https://www.utahcharters.org/member-meetings. Click on the + on the website to show all the notes.
TRAINING UPDATES:
Information about all training opportunities can be found on our website HERE and on our EVENT CALENDAR
APPEL INFORMATION:
We are offering classes that your APPEL teachers need at a cost LESS THAN local college classes. Our format allows you to get the course work in on a Saturday and complete the homework assignments independently after the course. Credit for our courses is awarded in MIDAS so the course will be permanently attached to your records with USBE. This eliminates the need to constantly send transcripts. We really have a great program to offer.
Mark your calendars for these dates:
Link to register: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf5iegYchkQw7fFs719GjNIewJYsGFNpkGEq4yy2KUuIlNNMQ/viewform
Licenses: Please be sure that all teachers in your building have either an LEA-specific, associate, or professional license. For teachers working through the APPEL program, often they will have a LEA-specific license while working toward their professional license. To get funding for a "highly qualified educator" license information must be submitted in CACTUS by October 13, 2024. Please be aware of board public meeting approval requirement for LEA specific licenses and teacher requirement to complete pedagogical modules in Canvas (can take a half a day to complete).
See the updated procedures for LEA-specific licenses found here: https://schools.utah.gov/licensing/licensingfiles/LEA-Specific%20License%20Endorsement%20Procedures%20Updated%20for%20SY24-25.pdf
There is also a helpful infographic of requirements: https://schools.utah.gov/licensing/licensingfiles/LEA-Specific%20Licensing%20Responsibilities%20SY25.pdf
If your teacher is in the UAPCS APPEL program, we prepare the PLP (personalized learning plan) for the teacher after application approval. To have a teacher apply, please send this form to them: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc-Z8i5x-X3TjDaxrwSLMiE-dM27ACZaux5ujkbfznABrYHWw/viewform
STATE CHARTER SCHOOL BOARD, Clint Biesinger:
Announcements and Upcoming Events
We are excited to start a new school year and another year of our statewide Adobe Contract. There are a lot of upgrades to the Adobe Creative Cloud Console as well as our new pilot with Adobe SIGN. The best thing is that we will have the ability to track actual usage of the Adobe products. In order to roll this out, we need you to list a MAIN contact for your Adobe Creative Cloud Console and a MAIN contact if you applied to be part of the pilot for Adobe SIGN.
We need each LEA to complete this FORM so we have the most up-to-date information.
You will also need to send one or more representatives from your LEA to a specific training at the Adobe Lehi building, lunch is included:
Center for the School of the Future, Utah State University, David Forbush
Lewis Young Robertson – Meeting Sponsor
Click here for an informational flyer.
Legislative Update, Royce Van Tassell
Minutes coming soon....
Archived minutes below
Announcements and Upcoming Events
Preoperational School Training:
Administrative Lunch Seminar:
Spring 2024 School Board Training
Summer 2024 School Board Training Course: This will be held on June 11th at the Davis Convention Center
2024 Summer ACES Course: This course will kick-off with the UAPCS Summer Conference, June 11 & 12th.
Links for Zoom are found on our Event Calendar
School Land Trust
Higher Education – Roundtable Discussion
Utah Fits All & Charter Schools
Able & Strong – Meeting Sponsor
Public Notice Website
Proposed Legislation
Next Meeting
Announcements:
UAPCS Utah Charter Schools Conference-REGISTER TODAY! Early Bird registration extended to Friday, March 22, 2024.
Legislative Summary:
HB 84 School Safety Amendments Discussion:
Utah House of Representatives, Ryan Wilcox, District 7
State Security Chief Matt Pennington
Chief Pennington introduced himself and discussed that all decisions about HB 84 implementations will be done in collaboration with stakeholders, including local law enforcement and LEAs. He works closely with Shauntelle Cota, Safe and Healthy Schools Coordinator, at USBE. Their primary objective is to identify a needs assessment matrix that all schools can use. They hope to have something finalized soon. There are a couple of existing assessments that they are considering. Funding for school safety improvements will be available beginning in July, but the needs assessment needs to be completed before qualifying for grant funding. All schools will need to have a completed needs assessment by the end of 2024.
There were many questions regarding panic alerts, shatterproof glass film, USBE vendors and using economies of scale for safety improvements, requirements for staffing a School Safety Director, a School Safety Specialist, and School Guardian/SRO. Royce prepared a summary of the bill that will capture some of the questions and points of the discussion.
HB 84 SUMMARY DOCUMENT (download here)
If you would like to read the full bill, HB 84 can be found here: https://le.utah.gov/~2024/bills/static/HB0084.html
Constitution Live Information, Catherine Findlay, American Preparatory Academy
Member Meeting Recap
Please take our Charter School Salary and Benefits Survey. We will share the results without individual schools listed. If you have a salary schedule or other explanation of benefits, you can send to debby@utahcharters.org.
Thank you for your time!
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
ANNOUNCEMENTS
APPEL
UAPCS Utah Charter School Conference
NEW Charter School Conversations Podcast
MEETING SPONSOR
https://www.hubinternational.com/
Ryan Bingham, ryan.bingham@hubinternational.com, (801) 727-6004
Ryan shared the 401K, health insurance, dental, and compliance benefits that HUB offers. They would love to have a discussion with you about keeping your budgets in check and offering great options for your employees. They can help you come up with a competitive package of benefits or offer a comparison to what you currently offer.
HUB Flyer PDF (click to view)
UTAH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-Representative Candice Pierucci, District 49, Co-Chair House Education Committee
Rep. Pierucci reported that the Education Committee priorities are teacher retention and teacher recruitment. They are looking at the student teacher stipends bill by Rep. Peterson and she believes that will pass. Rep. Thurston's teacher licensing bill adjusts some of the requirements for teachers. She is sponsoring a bill with paid maternity leave requirements and would create a master teacher program to keep teachers in the classroom and from moving to administration.
Hot button issues of the DEI bill and political neutrality bill are in the news, but she is focusing on what will help the teachers on the ground.
The leave bills of Ballard and Pierucci have a different approach for maternity bill. A leave "bank" in Ballard's bill may be difficult to administer. She suggests that schools reach out to their legislators about the impact that the bills will have on their schools.
She welcomes all to come to education committee hearings for public comment, or text/call her.
cpierucci@le.utah.gov, 385-414-1488
UTAH STATE SENATE-Senator Lincoln Fillmore, District 17, Co-Chair Public Educations Appropriations Subcommittee, Senate Rules Vice Chair
Senator Fillmore shared recommendations from the PEA which include "big rocks" of 5% WPU increase (3.8% already in place), at-risk student enhancement of $27M, and school district equalization funding that flows to charter schools. They put as much as they could to put in flexible allocation. He is sponsoring a pilot program to reward high-performing teachers with large bonuses. For schools classified as "high poverty" the bonuses would be larger. They are still working out the details of determining the top teachers. He is not sure if the recommendations will be accepted.
He mentioned that the demand for the Utah Fits All scholarship is about 4xs what funding has been set aside initially but that they won't give the funding for that without also increasing the WPU. The committee priortized $360M for public ed and $50M for Utah Fits All program.
Comments included suggesting extra funding for Special Education teacher bonuses to aid in retention.
Contact Senator Fillmore: lfillmore@le.utah.gov, 385-831-8902
Royce will address legislative updates in detail in Legislative Updates meeting on February 13, 2024
Member Meeting Recap
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Charter Day on the Hill
For schools registered, final details will be emailed early next week.
National School Choice Week
UAPCS Utah Charter School Conference
Call for presenters will be sent out soon! Don't be shy in sharing your good practices with your peers!
NEW Charter School Conversations Podcast
MEETING SPONSOR
https://www.american-ins.com/
Jeff Hirst, jeff.hirst@american-ins.com, (801) 364-3434
USBE TOPICS TO WATCH-Royce Van Tassell
UTAH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-Representative Jeff Stenquist-District 46
Royce will schedule and in-person follow-up meeting, hopefully the first week of the session, to address these issues with Rep. Stenquist further.
School LAND Trust-Winter Training-Holly Korous
schoollandtrust@schools.utah.gov
UTAH HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES-Representative Susan Pulsipher, District 45
NEXT MEETING: Monday, February 12, 2024 via Zoom
Monday, December 11, 2023 – 11am
Announcements
Preoperational School Training:
New Board Chair Training
Administrative Lunch Seminar:
Fall ACES Course:
New Director Meeting
SCSB Director Meeting Training:
Crucial Conversations 2 Day Training:
Administrative Winter Conference
Utah State Charter School Board
Legislative Updates-Royce Van Tassell
Meeting Sponsor-Grow Schools (formerly Charter School Capital)
Utah House of Representatives-Mike Schultz, District 12
Welcome
Utah State Board of Education
Don’t Say: | Say: |
Anniversary | One month, six month mark, Commemorate their life, remember who they are, etc. |
Trigger | Activate |
Execute | Facilitate, organize |
Lost (for victims) | Killed, murdered |
Event, incident | Tragedy |
Announcements and Upcoming Events
Meeting Sponsor-Board Works
Legislative Updates
Next Meeting
Monday, September 11, 2023 – 11am
October 14, 2023 | Creating and Managing a Learning Environment |
January 20, 2024 | PPAT Bootcamp |
February 10, 2024 | Strategies for Teaching Diverse Learners |
March 9, 2024 | Introduction to Special Education |
April 13, 2024 | Math Methods |
May 11, 2024 | Foundations of Literacy Bootcamp |
Announcements and Upcoming Events
School Spotlights:
Training Updates
APPEL Updates
Utah State Governor’s Office--Brittney Cummins, Senior Advisor of Education
Meeting Sponsor: Association of American Educators—Candace Inghram
Utah House of Representatives—Ken Ivory, District 39
Archived minutes below
Thanks for coming to our Member Meeting!
Announcements and Upcoming Events
National Alliance Toolkit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ci4KYHy07xHJN50elaUvK2xT3L2EbRZujsgC8kXtjn8/edit
Share the following:
Social Media Graphics: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/y8vdu9i4b4lki5h/AADbrVwPI5fRIbRgqv8aF0vza?dl=0
UAPCS Charter School Conference June 6-7, 2023
Training Updates
Utah State Board of Education, District 2
Utah House of Representative – District 14
Utah House of Representative – District 43: Mental Health Screener
Updates
Next Meeting
Monday, April 10th, 2023 – 11 a.m.
Announcements and Upcoming Events
Meeting hosted by Chris Bleak, UAPCS Board Member because Royce Van Tassell was out of town.
Karen Peterson, Utah House of Representatives - District 13
Ms. Peterson reported on the great year for public education in the Legislature. Highlights include an increase in the WPU at 6%, teacher pay raises, full-day kindergarten fully funded, school safety issues address, and increase in the permanent school fund.
Constitutional Earmark. Ms. Peterson explained the conversation around school funding sources should be around getting money to schools, and not what the source of the money is. An amendment to the constitution (SJR10) changes the funding source of public education and creates priorities to make sure that education is adequately funded. It frees up income tax to be used to fund other programs in addition to education and serving those with disabilities. These priorities include:
Student growth is expected to be flat, and possibly decline, in the next 10 years. This amendment, if passed, will make sure that the WPU spending does not decline, and that increased costs will hold up for 5 years. If passed, WPU base funding will increase by 2% to get on top of inflationary growth.
Constraints on the general fund also demand tying in removal of the food tax to this amendment as well. Funding issues must be combined to allow moving funds to cover all the expenses of the government appropriately using all revenue sources (property tax, income tax, etc.)
Ms. Peterson also discussed HB 249 about education records. It addresses school safety and parental involvement by doing the following:
Sarah Reale, Utah State School Board - District 5
Ms. Reale has been in education for 20 years. She is the Director of Digital Marketing and an adjunct professor of political science at Salt Lake Community College. Her priorities on the USBE include the following:
When asked about working with the range of opinions on the current board, Ms. Reale stated that collaboration and willingness to get work done are key elements to unify the board. She has found heading down rabbit holes in meetings is ineffective. Ms. Reale believes that her purpose is to represent the will of her constituents.
sarah.reale@schools.utah.gov cell: 435-757-4660 (call or text are great!)
Legislative Updates-See 2023 Legislative Summary HERE
Chris Bleak-UAPCS Board Member-Chris shared the UAPCS 2023 Legislative Summary. Some highlights include the following:
Meeting Sponsor – HUB
Ryan Bingham explained that HUB offers a health insurance plan through the association. His team is willing to help you evaluate your health insurance plan for competitiveness in rates and benefits for your employees. He can be reached at ryan.bingham@hubinternational.com.
Announcements and Upcoming Events
Next Meeting
Monday, April 10th at 11am - Online
Announcements and Upcoming Events
American Insurance & Investment Corp. – Meeting Sponsor
Legislative Updates --Royce Van Tassell
Utah State Board of Education-Jim Moss
Next Meeting
Announcements
Dan Johnson, Utah House of Representatives, District 4 & Vice Chair House Education Committee
Bryan Bowles, State Charter School Board, Chair
Lisa Cluff, Executive Director Artworks for Kids/Friends of BTS Arts, shared a video about the Beverly Taylor Sorensen Arts Learning Program. As a public/private partnership with USBE, they support arts integrated education. They would love more charter schools to participate. Grants cover up to 80% FTE licensed arts education teacher. Many charter schools have 0.5 FTE. Program applications accepted in late January.
Please see the following handouts for more information, including the benefits of arts education:
Contact lisa@thesorensongroup.com with any questions.
Please evaluate your APPEL candidate teachers twice this year (also, all new teachers need 2 evaluations in their first year, APPEL program or not). The PPAT begins in January. We recommend candidates takes PPAT this year because remediation is available if they don't pass the 36 cut score.
Questions? Email Joylin and April at appel@utahcharters.org.
Pre-Operational Training: Construction 101
Lunchtime Administrator Training: Developing Loyalty with Parents and Students
ACES (Aspiring Charter Executive Seminars) begins January 10, 2023. ACES Registration
Free Registration Open! Monday, January 23, 2023
Come listen to Governor Cox!
11am-2pm
Travel stipends will be available $100-$300/school depending on number of schools participating.
Please register before Winter Break (to help us with planning)! Register Here
Tuesday, October 11th, 2022 – 10:30 a.m.
Utah House of Representatives District 2, jeffersonmoss@le.utah.gov