Bowling Green Charter School Sample Charter

Editors Note:

The following is the charter petition for the Bowling Green Elementary Charter School in the Sacramento City Unified School District. Bowling Green was an existing elementary school that had participated in and already begun substantial restructuring efforts prior to "converting" to charter status in 1993. The school was one of California's earliest charter "conversion" efforts and several portions of the charter are seen by many as being exemplary. Some of the stronger elements include:

The school started with a substantial base of restructuring experience and was able to clearly identify barriers to their continued restructuring efforts. These are presented in the rationale portion of the Introduction.
A comprehensive description and framework for the school's instructional program, based on a combination of both research and successful practice. Other sections of the charter also provide detail on how the school plans to continue to address the needs of special needs and limited English proficient students.
An analysis of the students to be served and their current levels of achievement.
A clear explanation of the school's broad goals for its students, aligned with districtwide school performance goals. The charter also contains a specific description of, and timeline for, how it will develop these broad goals into a more comprehensive student and school assessment system.
A detailed description of the specific assessment tools that the school will use to measure student progress. This description is not merely a list of popular assessment "buzzwords." Instead the description shows that the charter developers have a strong grasp of the different types of assessment tools that will be used, how they will be used, the strength and weaknesses of each. The charter also contains a helpful table listing the specific assessment instruments to be used for each of the major goal areas. The charter may be lacking, however, a description of what specific goals it expects to attain and how progress toward these goals will relate to the charter review and renewal process.
A broad description of how the school will be governed. Here too, the description of the governance structure is grounded in substantial research and thought about how decisions should be made in a school and how this process can support the school's instructional program. The description also outlines how the school's governing body will relate to existing site level decision-making structures and processes. (Additional information that other charters may want to include are a description of how the governing body would be constituted, who the founding members would be,and how and when the bylaws would be drafted and adopted.)
Descriptions of how the school's relationship with the sponsor district will and will not change, including specific examples to illustrate important changes.
A draft budget that reflects a competent and careful analysis of the resources available to the school under charter status and which shows how resources will be reallocated in support of the school's change efforts.

Despite the clarity and detail provided in its charter, staff and leadership at the Bowling Green Charter school have struggled to protect the autonomy and authority specified in its charter document. The clear provisions and detail, however, have often proven extremely helpful when the school engages in activities to protect its autonomy.

Several other provisions of the charter have also proven difficult to implement, including the extremely high level of consensus required in governance decisions, provisions include the 80 percent vote of confidence required for maintaining the site principal, and the mixed adherence to provisions in existing labor agreements. The full text of the charter follows.

A Charter School Petition Submitted to the

Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education

from Teachers at Bowling Green Elementary School

I. INTRODUCTION

II. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE ITEMS FOUND IN 47605 (B) OF THE CHARTER SCHOOLS ACT OF 1992 AND OF THE ITEMS REQUIRED BY THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

III. OTHER CHANGES TO CURRENT RULES, REGULATIONS, AND POLICY

IV. DURATION OF THE CHARTER

V. AMENDING THE CHARTER

VI. SIGNATURES OF TEACHERS

AMENDMENT 1

I. INTRODUCTION

Rationale for Submitting this Charter Petition

We feel strongly that every student can learn and that every teacher can become an excellent teacher. The current system, however, does not encourage dedicated staff members to work together to help their students soar. Instead, we find a system that very successfully sorts both teachers and students into those who can and those who can't.

Earlier this school year, the State of California awarded Bowling Green Elementary School a SB1274 grant to demonstrate the restructuring of a low achieving public elementary school in a large urban district. The goal of restructuring is to increase student performance, both academically and socially for all our students.

As we began implementing the restructuring activities, however, we found, as did the district's own Special Committee for School-Based Decision Making, that the system is constrained by too many established routines and arrangements. In its May 29, 1992, report to the Board of Education, for example, the Special Committee identified four major categories of impediments to site-based decision-making and restructuring. They are 1) centralized administration and programs, 2) state law, 3) governing board policy, and 4) collective bargaining requirements.

Given where our district is today, we feel that in order to: 1) fully implement the SB1274 restructuring activities in a timely manner and 2) transform our school into one where every teacher and every student can soar, it is necessary to eliminate impediments that fall into these categories. Becoming a charter school allows us to do that.

Benefit of a Charter School to Our District

The recent state legislation that authorizes up to 100 charter schools represents an unprecedented opportunity for the SCUSD Board of Education to take the initiative in school reform. Never before in modern state history has a school board been given the authority to override state education code! This is recognition that the "system" is part of the problem.

The Charter Schools Act of 1992 encourages school boards and schools to think outside the "box" to find solutions. A major stipulation of the legislation is that we stay within existing funding levels. Another is that we create a school where all students can be academically successful, especially those who traditionally have not been successful. One hundred out of the approximately 8,000 schools in California will have a chance to experiment.

With that in mind, this charter petition proposes to create a demonstration school within our district based on W. Edwards Deming's principles of management. Deming suggests that 95% of the problems in an organization can be traced to a faulty process or routine in the system. Deming, an American, is widely credited as the person most responsible for turning post-war Japan worldwide economic power. He is also seen by many as the father of total quality management. According to Deming's principles of management, an organization must always focus on quality. He sees quality as pride in workmanship and taking joy in one's work. When these conditions exist, there is also continuous improvement of the system.

Source of Problems in Organizations:

Special Causes (5.0%)

Procedures/Routines in the System (95.0%)

Moreover, such a demonstration school can serve as a safe laboratory for trying ideas that today might never get off the ground in our district due to the cumbersome bureaucratic rules and structures now in place. In this way, our charter will benefit the district as a whole. In our SB1274 proposal, we underscored this point by using Peters and Waterman's description of a skunk works as:

"a safe harbor in an organization for a project team to try innovation. The members of the skunk works team are generally just a bit out of the mainstream in terms of having the same rules to follow as the rest of the organization. Industry is filled with examples of large organizations with successful skunk works. These organizations take pride in their skunk works. It allows the organization to depart in a safe way from the ordinary to create innovation while maintaining order in the rest of the organization. A skunk works also protects the project team from internal organizational threat." (In Search of Excellence, 1981)

Finally, the approval of our charter petition will help us implement our restructuring demonstration in a timely manner before voters decide on the voucher initiative in June, 1994. We want to show that public education can work when managed differently. We feel that it is important to demonstrate to the taxpaying public that our public school system can work in Sacramento for ALL students when certain rules and regulations that impede our efforts are eliminated.

The Limited Nature of this Charter Petition

The charter that we seek is limited in nature. We intend, for the most part, to work within existing conventions. We will

1) continue to operate as a school in the Sacramento City Unified School District,

2) continue to be district employees, and

3) continue to educate district students.

Unless otherwise stated in this petition, existing district policy, existing contract agreements, and existing state education code will be applicable at Bowling Green School. Thus our petition calls for retaining the same medical benefits, the same pay scale, the same retirement benefits, the same seniority rights, etc. that other members of the School Employees International Union (SEIU), Teamsters, Sacramento City Teachers Association (SCTA) or Sacramento City Administrators Association(SCAA) receive. We also propose that the processes for employee unions/associations to assist their members continue to exist. Teachers and classified staff, for example, may still grieve contract violations that are pertinent and have union advocates for any matter not described in this charter.

ADA generated from our student population will continue to go to the district general fund. We will use what is allocated to our school based on established formula, except as noted in this charter petition. There are existing formulas for allocating general and categorical funds to schools. In other words, we will work within our proportional share of funds. We do, however, ask for control over how to use that allocation to achieve our academic goals. For example, we intend to reduce the student to teacher ratio by using our allocation differently.

Section 47605 (h) of the Charter Schools Act calls for the school district governing board to give preference to petitions that demonstrate the capability to provide comprehensive learning experiences to pupils identified by the petitioner or petitioners as "academically low achieving". Our successful SB1274 grant serves as the foundation of this charter petition. The capability of that grant was validated by leaders in California education. Of the over 800 proposals submitted for a SB1274 grant, the state's leading educational leaders selected only 138. These final 138 proposals represented the work of some of the best practitioners in the state. Our proposal scored 19 out of a possible 20 points. They felt that it had the potential to successfully raise academic achievement among traditionally low achieving students. This testifies to the quality of the plan described in this petition as well as to its potential for success.

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II. DESCRIPTIONS OF THE ITEMS FOUND IN 47605 (B) OF THE CHARTER SCHOOLS ACT OF 1992 AND OF THE ITEMS REQUIRED BY THE BOARD OF EDUCATION

a. A description of the educational program of the school,designed, among other things, to identify those whom the school is attempting to educate, what it means to be an "educated person" in the 21st century, and how learning best occurs. The goals identified in that program shall include the objective of enabling pupils to become self-motivated, competent, and lifelong learners.

Key Features of the Educational Program When Fully Implemented:

Integrated thematic instruction
Efficacy instruction
Mastery of standards adopted by teachers, parents, and students;
Smaller student to teacher ratio
Students assigned to a team of teachers
An extended year round calendar of up to 210 days (with 180 regular days and 30 intersession days)
Preschool through 6th grade.

Students to be Served

With a third month enrollment of 814 students, Bowling Green is the second largest elementary school in the district. Approximately 8% of our students are orthopedically handicapped (O.H.). Our limited English proficient student population jumped from 10% two years ago to over 20% this year. Our student body is 39% African-American, 22% Hispanic American, 20% Asian American, 18% Caucasian, and 1% Native American.

Most students come from families with large economic and social needs. Over half are from homes receiving Aid for Families with Dependent Children; three-quarters qualify for the Free or Reduced Price Lunch Program. Many students come from home environments where educational success is not a high priority. Many of our parents want help and guidance in raising children. In addition, our attendance area has a high crime rate, destructive gang activities, highly transient students, and a significant problem with drug distribution and use.

The Educational Program

Existing Inadequate Program. Low standardized test scores from the last six years suggest that the existing educational program is not working for our students. Between 1987-88 and 1989-90, the declining scores on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) and on the California Assessment Program (CAP) caught the attention of both the district and the state. Bowling Green was identified by them as one of four schools in the district in need of a special program improvement plan. The plan that was developed focused on tightening up the existing program. The drop in scores leveled off in 1990-91 and has remained low, as shown in the following chart.

The pattern shown in the chart is also applicable to our math and language scores. The scores have been consistently below the districtwide averages. [graphic not scanned]

Educational Goals

Recognizing that the traditional approach and even tightening up on the traditional approach was not working, the staff began committing itself to an alternative approach based on the premise that every student could succeed and develop fully in spirit, mind, and body. The philosophy behind our approach is grounded in the Efficacy approach developed by Jeff Howard and in the Integrated Thematic Instructional approach developed by Susan Kovalik. Both approaches assume that all students can and will learn. Both approaches are described below after we briefly describe what it means to develop fully in spirit, mind, and body.

In developing their spirits, students will grow in confidence of themselves as competent learners. They will know how to initiate new learning experiences to satisfy their need to know. They will understand that risk taking and requesting help are part of the learning process. At the same time, students' feeling of compassion for themselves, others at school, and members of the broader community will increase.

They will come to understand the value of their knowledge to positively benefit themselves and others. They will develop skills to: work together cooperatively, use the healing power of humor, and resolve conflicts in nonviolent ways.

In developing their minds, students will become master learners. As such, they will excel in oral communication, reading, writing, mathematics, and problem solving. They will also develop conversational skills in a second language. As the breadth and depth of their knowledge grows, they will become complex thinkers and problem solvers.

In developing their bodies, students will become as physically fit as possible and learn how to understand and take care of their bodies through exercise, nutritious eating habits and healthy practices, such as abstaining from drugs. They will, for example, demonstrate their level of fitness by covering a mile in ten minutes.

Efficacy Approach

The Efficacy model has its roots in developmental psychology and social psychology. One of the major ideas is: smart is not something you are, it is something you get by working hard; knowledge is constructed. Efficacy assumes that everyone has the brains, but not everyone knows how to get smarter. The first step is believing you can get smarter. If you believe you can, then you will work hard. If you work hard by keeping focused, by staying committed, and by developing alternative strategies when you encounter an obstacle, then you will get smarter.

Think you can -- Work Hard -- Get Smarter

keeping focused
staying committed
developing alternative strategies

The model also states that you don't get smarter unless you are challenged in your Zone of Development (ZOD). This is an area a little beyond your current abilities and knowledge. Goals in the ZOD are difficult but they are something you can obtain if you work at it. when you are successful, you will feel excited and proud of yourself - because you know it was not easy. On either side of the ZOD are the "Too Easy" Zone and the "Too Hard for Now" Zone. In the former, you get bored. In the latter you get frustrated. The Zone of Development is where you get smarter and develop.

Other strategies of the Efficacy approach which help you get into and stay in your Zone of Development include:

using the strong side over the weak side, attribute theory,
using feedback to find your personal learning zone,
developing and using a support group.

The underlying theme of these strategies is that the responsibility for development and the ability to develop rests with each individual. The strategies are the skills and attitudes that we are teaching at Bowling Green so that our students and our teachers develop and get smarter in their personal Zone of Development.

Integrated Thematic Instructional Approach

If Efficacy is the motivational and self-empowering aspect of our educational program, then the Integrated Thematic Instructional (ITI) approach developed by Susan Kovalik is the pedagogical process that we believe describes how learning best occurs.

The ITI approach combines the accumulated knowledge in the following three areas: brain research, teaching strategies, and curriculum development. When we use knowledge from these three areas and incorporate them into lessons, there is a greater chance that development will occur.

Moreover, the Life Skills that are part of the ITI approach are also empowering. Those skills include: perseverance, patience, sense of humor, curiosity, common sense, cooperation, effort, friendship, problem solving, flexibility, caring, initiative, and responsibility.

Kovalik asserts that the curriculum and the instructional strategies used in today's traditional classrooms are brain-antagonistic. Traditional instruction is heavily weighed toward using only two intelligences: logical-mathematical and linguistic. There are at least five other intelligences that are often neglected in schools. Howard Gardner identifies them as: spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, intrapersonal, and interpersonal. The brain learns best when it can utilize all its intelligences.

Kovalik's Integrated Thematic Instructional (ITI) approach suggests that learning best occurs when the following eight elements are present:

Absence of Threat,
Meaningful Content,
Choices,
Adequate Time,
Enriched Environment,
Collaboration,
Immediate Feedback,
Mastery.

Not all are present in the traditional classroom setting. By using the ITI approach, teachers develop year-long themes that serve as the mechanism to pull together the year's instruction. Each month under the theme, an important aspect of the theme is studied. Each week, meaningful content is taught and learned via key points and inquiries.

Key points are concepts, facts, and skills worth knowing forever. Inquiries are activities that give practice and real-world application of the key points. Key points come out of the state curriculum frameworks as well as from the teacher's knowledge of the subject matter as it is related to the theme.

The ITI approach requires teachers to do research and to become more knowledgeable about what they teach. Teachers must go beyond the teacher's manual and their own, perhaps, limited prior experience. Teachers must be willing to be "strong sided" and take the risk of learning more themselves.

In the ITI model, the focus is on the learner making sense and discovering for him/herself the important concepts that need to be mastered. This is done by doing teacher-designed inquiries or activities that are brain compatible. To ensure that inquiries or activities are not limited to one or two intelligences, teachers design inquiries to be accomplished using Gardner's seven problem-solving intelligences. Using all seven of the intelligences insures that all student learning styles have been accommodated. Ideally, at least 50% of the inquiries are what Kovalik calls "being there" or real-life experiences. Rather than reading about lizards, for example, students would actually study lizards in their habitat.

Teachers using the ITI model spend less time lecturing. As a rule of thumb, the amount of lecturing per hour is limited to the number of minutes that corresponds to the learner's age. Fourth graders, for instance, would have about 10 minutes of lecture or direct teacher instruction per hour. The remaining 50 minutes is engaged in doing inquiries designed by the teacher. During these fifty minutes, the teacher can serve as a coach with the class.

Class periods would also be longer. The ITI model requires adequate time, for example, to observe and study the habitat of lizards. The ITI method of teaching requires extensive preparation. There is much less reliance on text books and worksheets which require much less preparation. The ITI method requires teachers to do research by talking with knowledgeable people, by seeking outside resources, and by reading widely. This is crucial since the human knowledge base is doubling at an ever increasing rate. That means that there is probably new information about even lizards every year.

Since the ITI process focuses on teaching and learning concepts, reading, writing, math, and visual performing arts are used as tools when studying the concepts. It takes time and collaboration with other teachers to develop inquiries that do all this. Last summer, 27 of our teachers attended a week long institute led by Susan Kovalik and Associates. Now, we are using our SB1274 funding to pay for a curriculum coach from Susan Kovalik and Associates to work with our staff six days each month. This coming summer the remaining teachers will be among the approximately 30 teachers we send to the annual Kovalik institute. We feel strongly that all students can learn and that as educational professionals it is our duty to learn how to create a brain compatible learning environment that makes it happen.

Context of the Educational Program

Initially, the educational program, will be conducted in context of a 180-day single track year round schedule, with the option of students and teachers participating in an additional 30-day extended year program on a voluntary basis. The 30 days will initially be run like summer school with a three hour daily session in the morning. Moreover, the 30 days will be spread throughout the year and held during intersessions.

During the life of the charter school, we will look for full funding from sources beyond the general fund (e.g., grants) to extend the school year to 210 full days. The current nine month school schedule worked for agricultural communities 100 years ago. A single track year round schedule with the option of extending the school year through intersessions is more appropriate today for at-risk students attending large urban schools. R. D. Alcorn, for example, reported in the April 1992 issue of Thrust for Educational Leadership that "year round education which substitutes several shorter vacation breaks for the traditional 3-month summer vacation enhances the momentum and continuity of instruction and produces high pay offs for educationally and economically disadvantaged students." We are proposing an instructional year that may, for example, start in September and have a sequence of three months on and one month off.

During each of the off months, a two week instructional intersession will be conducted. These intersessions are much like summer school except that they occur throughout the year. Attendance at the intersessions is not mandatory, although we expect it to be high. They provide students an opportunity to catch-up or to jump ahead In addition to higher academic achievement we expect reduced teacher burnout.

The student to teacher ratio will be reduced to approximately 25:1 to increase the opportunity for establishing relationships between teachers, students, and parents at the proposed charter school. The budget in Part VII of this petition details how the reduction will be accomplished by using funds allocated to the school differently. Initially teachers will be organized in grade level teams. As a team, the teachers are responsible for all the students assigned to that grade level. Close collaboration between teachers is the key to making the proposed charter school work.

The reduction in the student to teacher ratio is also consistent with the state's recommendation for teaching young children as described in Here They Come: Ready or Not. In addition, the reduction will facilitate the integration of our many orthopedically handicapped students into general education classrooms. This helps the school move towards becoming one seamless educational system rather than a system fragmented into "regular ed" and "special ed."

b. The measurable pupil outcomes identified for use by the charter school. "Pupil outcomes," for purposes of this part, means the extent to which all pupils of the school demonstrate that they have attained the skills, knowledge, and attitudes specified as goals in the school's educational program.

This section begins by describing five specific site-adopted targets. When a student reaches all five of the targets, he/she will have attained, by design, the educational goals described above in section "a." The five targets are actually outcomes. The term "target" is used because it provides a clear mental picture of what students are working towards. They also give teachers clear direction of what to teach towards. The section ends by describing the six Board-adopted targets.

Site-Adopted Targets

The Efficacy Institute uses three indicators to identify a high school graduate who is adequately prepared to participate in the 21st century. They are: using calculus, writing a 25 page paper, and speaking a second language. Taking the institute's lead in preparing students for the 21st Century, we feel that each of our students should be able to do the following by the time he/she completes 6th grade at Bowling Green:

1. Use algebraic skills and concepts.

2. Be fluent in one language (e.g., English or Spanish) and be conversational in a second language (e.g., Spanish or English).

3. Walk run, or use a wheelchair to cover a mile in 10 minutes.

4. Read and interpret a variety of materials from different sources to gain useful and applicable information.

5. Identify an opportunity to serve the community. In the course of doing research, read and comprehend what others have done that is related to the opportunity. Develop a written proposal that describes the opportunity and which persuades others that what you intend to do is a worthwhile service. Provide the service. Finally, describe the process in writing as well as through another medium including but not limited to: video, music, speech, paint, or dance.

Refining and Using Site-Adopted Targets and Benchmarks

During the first year of the proposed charter school, with the aid of an assessment coach funded though our SB1274 grant, teachers, students, and parents will work together to operationally define each of the targets. We will also break down each of the five targets listed above so that each has a series of benchmarks. The benchmarks serve as milestones on the way to the targets. The benchmarks will include the educational goals that are described in section "a." We will operationally define these goals and then integrate them into the benchmarks. In covering a mile in 10 minutes, for example, we might end up with the following benchmarks for students:

Identify a mile long course.
Complete the course - no time limit.
Understand the importance of physical endurance in everyday life.
Understand how healthy eating habits and healthy practices contribute to endurance.
Run, walk, or use a wheel chair to complete 1/4 of the course without stopping.
Run, walk, or use a wheel chair to complete 1/2 of the course without stopping.
Run, walk, or use a wheel chair to compete the whole course without stopping.
Run, walk, or use a wheel chair to cover a mile in 10 minutes.

By using these benchmarks, students can see where they are in relation to the target. Teachers can also see this and design their curriculum accordingly. As such, the benchmarks in this example might be used as performance indicators. Since the benchmarks are not tied to grade levels they might also be used in non graded classrooms. Non graded classrooms are a possibility for the second or third year of the charter. The benchmarks also let parents see where students are in relationship to a proficiency standard.

In doing this work, we will follow the lead of the new California Assessment Program (CAP). The CAP will initially report the proportion of students who reach a statewide proficiency standard. Starting in 1993-94, the new CAP will report individual scores in relationship to the proficiency standard. We will use the same approach in reporting student mastery of our targets.

Also during the first year of the proposed charter school, we will develop scoring rubrics,operationally define our educational goals such as compassion, and more clearly define the targets. One resource for this process will be the assessment framework presented in Dimensions of Learning by Bob Marzano (1992). Student surveys may also be used. Once the operational definitions and rubrics are established, assessment of these outcomes will often be integrated with other desired outcomes. As the assessment process builds and the various types of assessments are defined, implemented, revised, and implemented again, we will be creating alternative reporting forms to the current report cards that will better communicate to parents the multi-faced growth their students have made.

Finally, as we indicated in Part III section 2.11 of this petition, each May the principal will report to the Board on the status of the school. In May 1994, our "state of the school" report will include a description of the benchmarks, the proportion of students and teachers who have arrived at each benchmark, and a more refined operational definition for each of the five targets.

During the second year of the charter, we will invite parents to join their child and the staff in personally aiming for each of the five targets themselves. In May 1995, our "state of the school" report will include the number of parents and teachers who have accepted the challenge of aiming for the five targets and who have reached the targets.

Board-Adopted Targets

Our program will also work towards six targets adopted by the Board of Education. The Board has spent the past year working to identify their targets and agreeing on their operational definitions. One of the targets, student achievement, is incorporated into our site-adopted targets. The Board's six target areas are:

Student Attendance. The Board's target is 96% actual attendance and 98% ADA. Shown below is a record of the school's actual attendance by month over the last four years. There has been improvement, but not yet to the degree that we desire. The activities described in this petition are intended to increase attendance. They include: a single track year round schedule that's extended to 210 days, the employment of additional community workers, the reduction in the student to teacher ratio to foster relationships, use of the Efficacy approach and using integrated thematic instruction.

Drop-Out Reduction. At Bowling Green, both retention and suspension of students will be minimized toward a target of zero. Also, a procedure will be created to follow up students who leave the school to determine if any of these students are dropping out. The following chart shows our contribution to reducing the likelihood of dropping out by reducing the number of suspensions during the last three years.[chart not scanned]

Parental Involvement. This means increasing their participation at all levels, through governance of the school, setting social and academic standards, and helping in classrooms. We see ourselves seeking to fully develop a student's body, mind, and spirit by showing parents, if needed, how to be a more powerful member of their child's support team. This will be done, in part, by the additional school community workers that will be employed at the charter school. As indicated above, we will be asking parents to join their children and the staff in aiming for the five site-adopted targets.

Employee Relations. The Board would like to see all employees have an opportunity to participate in a governance process at their school or department. Our proposed charter school will be using the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) that was started three years ago. The process involves certificated staff, classified staff, and parents. During the first year of the proposed charter school, a process will be developed to include student input in the CIP.

Students Can and Will Learn. This is essentially higher expectations for all students.

Student achievement. The Board wants to see a year's growth for a year's worth of instruction. More specifically, the Board expects all students to "learn how to read" by the time they complete third grade and begin "reading to learn" in the intermediate grades.

Summary of Targets Identified by the Board of Education

Target	Goal	Measuring Device
96% actual attendance and 98% ADA attendance	Student attendance	-Monthly attendance reports from Business Services
0 suspensions 0 retentions	Drop-out reduction	-Suspension records at school -Retention records at school
95% of parents feel as if they are "empowered" members of child's support team	Parental involvement	-Parent participation in parent-teacher conferencing -Parent survey -Interviews with parents
Develop a participatory process which engages stakeholders, especially employees	Employee Relations	-Problems solved with the site-based Continuous Improvement Process -Number of grievances filed by employees
Higher student expectations	All students can and will learn	-Mastery of the curriculum by the students
Every student will receive and master the core curriculum/ Students learn to read by 3rd grade.	Student achievement	-Quality of inquires and key points that students use -Reading ability

c. The method by which pupil progress in meeting those pupil outcomes is to be measured.

Assumptions about Assessment

Our choice of methods to assess pupil progress is based on the following four beliefs about assessment:

1. In order to have a complete picture of a student's growth different types of assessments must be used. Assessments should focus on a student's growth towards a proficiency standard rather than comparing a student's performance - against other students.

2. There should be a close relationship between a desired student outcome and the means used to assess it.

3. Assessing what students do with knowledge is as important as assessing what knowledge they have.

4. Assessment should promote and support reflection and self-evaluation on the part of students, staff, and parents.

Based on these beliefs, we will use a variety of performance-based assessments such as portfolios, demonstrations, and integrated performance tasks. We will also use the statewide California Assessment Program (CAP), a standardized test that compares individual student progress to state standards. The CAP is also intended to report the proportion of students at Bowling Green who have reached the state proficiency standards in math, reading, writing, science, and social studies.

Description of Assessment Tools

Portfolios will provide one perspective for assessing student growth. A portfolio is a collection of representative work. Literacy portfolios, for example, will contain results of student performance on a variety of literacy assessments in writing, reading, and oral communication. Scoring rubrics will be developed and staff will receive training on using the rubrics. Student reflection will be an integral part of the portfolio. In addition, the portfolios will serve as one tool that lets us determine how well we meet our site-adopted target of mastering one language and being conversational in a second.

Demonstrations provide another means of assessing students growth. Demonstrations will, for example, be used to assess the school target that students travel a mile within 10 minutes. Demonstrations may also be a part of a Literacy Portfolio or a mathematics assessment. The key element will be students demonstrating their attainment of specified standards to a panel of judges. These standards or desired outcomes will be established based on the state-adopted curricular frameworks.

Integrated Performance Tasks (IPT) are another means that will be used to assess students growth. Based in, but not limited to the curricular area of social science, teachers will identify 8 to 10 important performance tasks that "effectively and efficiently 'map' the essential content" that they will cover in the year (Wiggins, G., 1992, "Creating Tests Worth Taking." Ed. Leadership 49:8, p. 29). Contextual rich tasks will then be designed along with a scoring rubric that specifies the requirements of task mastery. These tasks will be designed to measure what students knows and how well they apply what they know.

The school, for example, has set a target that will be assessed as a Integrated Performance Task. This complex task represents the integration of several highly desired outcomes for students. The task is as follows:

Identify an opportunity to serve the community. In the course of doing research, read and comprehend what others have done that is related to the opportunity. Develop a written proposal that describes the opportunity and which persuades others that what you intend to do is a worthwhile service. Provide the service. Finally, describe the process in writing as well as through another medium including but not limited to: video, music, speech, paint, or dance.

Standardized Test Assessments that compare student progress to a proficiency standardized will be used. These tests include the California Assessment Program (CAP) to measure reading, writing,and math proficiency in 4th grade, and history and science proficiency in the 5th grade; the Language Assessment Scale for measuring gains in English proficiency; and the Student Attitude Measure (SAM) to measure student motivation, student academic self-confidence, student sense of control over performance, and students sense of instructional mastery.

The Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) will only be used to qualify students for the district's Chapter 1 program. This is the current districtwide method for identifying 2nd through 6th grade students for Chapter 1 services. We feel that tests such as this which compare students to one other rather than to a proficiency standard is counter productive when nationwide, half of all the test takers are expected to score below the 50th percentile and essentially "fail."

Expected Results

We expect each student to grow and show improvement towards each of the five site-adopted targets and on the CAP. We expect students to aim for and hit each of the site-adopted targets and the state proficiency standards for the CAP.

Method for Measuring Site-Adopted Targets and Goals

	Target	Goal	Method*
S P I R I T	Identify an opportunity to serve the community.	Compassion Confidence Knowledgeable of one's learning process (i.e. meta-cognition) Self-initiation (motivation) Work cooperatively Use humor Non violent conflict resolution	IPT, D IPT, D IPT, D IPT, D P, IPT, D P, IPT, D IPT, D
M I N D	Use algebra skills & concepts Fluent in one language and conversational in a second Read & interpret a variety of materials from different sources to gain useful and applicable information. Identify an opportunity to serve the community.	Math and Science Fluent in one language; conversational in a second Read Oral communications Writing History/Social Studies, Visual Performing Arts	P, IPT, D, CAP in 4th P, IPT, D, CAP in 4th & 5th ST P, IPT, D, CAP in 4th P, IPT, D, CAP in 4th IPT, D P, IPT, D, CAP in 4th P, IPT, D
B O D Y	Walk, run or use a wheelchair to cover a mile in 10 minutes.	Regular exercise Healthy eating habits Healthy practices - e.g., abstain from drugs and alcohol.	D D D

*

P = Portfolio, a collection of representative work in language as well as in math and other areas.

ST = Standardized Test that compares student's growth to a proficiency standard.

CAP = California Assessment Program which is a standardized test

IPT = Integrated Performance Task such as the one described for 6th graders in this petition

D = Demonstration such as traveling a mile in 10 minutes.

d. The governance structure of the school, including, but not limited to, the process to be followed by the school to ensure parental involvement.

The Board of Education establishes district goals. We will use these goals. The site based-discussion process identifies problems that get in the way of achieving the goals and develops solutions. The Steering Committee and principal report directly to the Board of Education.

The Board of Education has approved Site-Based Decision-Making (SBDM) in concept. At Bowling Green, SBDM is through a Steering Committee process made up of representatives from administration, certificated staff, classified staff, support personnel, and parents. We pioneered this concept in our district three years ago as part of the Continuous Improvement Process.

The Steering Committee facilitates the identification of problems and the consensus building needed to identify and implement solutions that will help achieve the school's mission. Consensus is defined as agreement to a solution by all those involved. Agreement means that the participants can live with a solution, even though some may not like it. On major issues, such as a schedule change, we routinely survey parents to determine if the solutions have their support. Moreover we encourage parent input by reserving at least two seats on our Steering Committee for them.

When solutions are outside of the authority of this charter, the Steering Committee will inform the Board of Education. Unless the Board vetoes the solution within 30 school days after it first appears on a Board agenda and is presented by the principal at a Board meeting, the solution will become a part of this charter and will be reflected as an amendment that will be attached at the end of this charter in sequence as "Amendment 1, Amendment 2, etc."

In our SB1274 proposal, we described our site-based decision making process and our experience with it during the last three years as follows:

To move forward to ensure that every student succeeds, requires changing the current system. We feel that a bottom up collegial approach, such as the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP), in which ownership is pushed to the lowest organizational levels will increase academic achievement. We have had success with that approach in dramatically improving our learning environment. We can have even more success when we have the opportunity to extend our approach to its logical end. That end would result in empowering teachers with knowledge, giving them the time to create solutions together, and giving them the authority and resources to act on their solutions. As Jeff Howard of the Efficacy Institute points out: "All students can learn, if the process is effectively organized and managed by adults." We believe that learning can best be organized at the site level by empowering the teachers and administrators who work the closest with the children and their families.

The Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) provides a means for everyone in our school community to have input in identifying problems and inventing solutions so that we can reach our goal. The Continuous Improvement Process starts by comparing the desired state of affairs with the actual state of affairs. Then, those involved in the process

1) identify problems that stand in the way of closing the gap,

2) invent solutions, and

3) implement those solutions. There is a continuous feedback loop that informs them of their progress towards the desired state of affairs. With updated information, additional problems are identified. More solutions are then invented and implemented. We realize that not all solutions will work. Utilizing the continuous feedback loop and keeping focused on our goal, however, will help us generate additional solutions until we find ones that do work.

At Bowling Green, the CIP is facilitated by a steering committee. The 12 members of the committee are elected by different constituencies including teachers, aides, support staff and parents. Schoolwide problems are identified by means of a suggestion box or by constituents through their representatives. The steering committee is the forum where these problems are first publicly discussed. The representatives share the discussion after the meeting in constituent meetings where the steering committee solutions are accepted or modified. If they are modified, the feedback goes back to the steering committee. This process continues until consensus is reached or until all objections have been addressed.

A key assumption in the Continuous Improvement Process is that 95% of an organization's problems are created by the routines that make up the system and 5% by the people who are members of the system. This suggests that 95% of the reason for low student achievement stems from the way that the school and community are organized. Accordingly, the key elements of our proposal revolve around changing the organizational structure of our school and district.

In addition to the CIP/Steering Committee, we will continue to operate other committees/councils at school that have authority over our Compensatory Education Program, School Improvement Program (SIP), and our Bilingual Program. Each of these committees/councils has staff and parent representatives. Except where prohibited by federal law, these committees will act as sub committees to the Steering Committee.

Finally, during the first year of the proposed charter school, a process will be developed to include student input in the CIP.

e. The qualifications to be met by individuals to be employed by the school.

Each certificated employee at the charter school will meet the state licensing requirements for the position that he/she holds. Verification will be done in the established manner though the Personnel Department. When no state licensing requirements exist, as in the case of most classified positions, the employee needs to meet all performance specifications required for the position as described in the notice of vacancy. Exceptions to today's standard operating procedures are listed below in Part III of this charter petition.

f. The procedures that the school will follow to ensure the health and safety of pupils and staff. These procedures shall include the requirement that each employee of the school furnish the school with a criminal record summary as described in Section 44237.

There will be no change to existing procedures used in the district. If funds are available, the Steering Committee will consider a full-time hall monitor who will be employed to patrol our eleven acre school site. The hall monitor will also provide additional supervision on the playground before and after school. The monitor's duties will also include supervising dismissal of students who walk home, and when necessary walking groups of students home in the attendance area north of the school.

g. The means by which the school will achieve a racial and ethnic balance among its pupils that is reflective of the general population residing within the territorial jurisdiction of the school district to which the charter petition is submitted.

During the last three years, our ethnic and racial mix has remained balanced and rather stable. There has been a slight increase in the percentage of Asian and Hispanic students and a 3% decrease in Caucasian students. At the end of the second school month of the current school year, there were approximately 39% African-American, 22% Hispanic, 20% Asian-American, and 18% Caucasian students enrolled at Bowling Green. Initially, we will maintain this balance by continuing to enroll students from our current attendance area. We will try to move towards the district averages shown in the following table by inviting students from groups in which we are low. The current district distribution and our current school distribution, as shown in the table below, will serve as the range that we will stay within. If we go outside the range, the Steering Committee will identify a solution to get it back within it.

Comparison of Ethnic Distribution Districtwide at the Elementary Level and at Bowling Green

Ethnic Group	Districtwide	Bowling Green
African-American	21.4%	38.5%
Hispanic	20.8%	22.1%
Asian American	24.9%	20.4%
Caucasian	31.6%	18.2%
American Indian	1.3%	0.9%

* From Ethnic Composition of the Student Population of the Elementary Schools, Fall 1992

h. Admission requirements, if applicable.

Section 47605 (d) of the Charter Schools Act of 1992 states that: In addition to any other requirements imposed under this part, a charter school shall be nonsectarian in its programs admission policies, employment practices and all other operations, shall not charge tuition, and shall not discriminate against any pupil on the basis of ethnicity, national origin gender or disability. Admission to a charter school shall not be determined according to the place of residence of the pupil, or of this or her parent or guardian, within this state, except that any existing public school converting partially or entirely to a charter school under this part shall adopt and maintain a policy giving admission preference to pupils who reside within the former attendance area of that public school. We will follow these guidelines.

Admission to the general education program is open to:

1. students living in the current attendance area and children of staff members employed at the school,

2. students who attended Bowling Green then moved away, and

3. any student living in California.

Preference will be given to students who currently live in the attendance area and to children of staff members now employed at the school. Students in categories two and three may apply to attend Bowling Green on a space available basis using the district's permit process, except that permits may be approved at anytime during the year. Before a permit or enrollment is canceled, a hearing will be conducted. The members of the hearing board will include a parent, a teacher, and the principal or his/her designate.

Parents of students on permit are responsible for transporting their students to and from school. If it is possible, transportation will be provided to students on permit if there is room on a bus that serves Bowling Green. For example, if there is room on a Special Education bus that transports a Bowling Green student then it might be possible for that student's non Special Education sibling or neighbor to ride the same bus to attend the general education program at Bowling Green.

Admission to the school's Orthopedically Handicapped program is open to all students now enrolled in the program as well as to students not yet enrolled who would normally be eligible to participate as determined by an IEP. Students now enrolled come from throughout the entire SCUSD and from neighboring districts such as Elk Grove and Folsom-Cordova.

Tuition will not be charged.

Admission to both the general and special education programs will be limited by class size restrictions and by the number of classrooms available at the school as shown below.

UTILIZATION OF CLASSROOM SPACE

[graphic not available]

i. The manner in which an annual audit of the financial and programmatic operations of the school is to be conducted.

Annual fiscal audits will be conducted in the same manner as they are now conducted in the SCUSD, which are done in accordance with standard accounting procedures.

In regard to financial operations, The Internal Audit Department of the SCUSD will conduct their annual audits. Outside audits are now conducted by an independent auditing firm. Program audits will take the form of established Program Quality Reviews. A Program Quality Review is scheduled to be conducted during the 1993-94 school year. In addition, the school will participate in the state's California Assessment Program.

Moreover, we will contract with either the Multilingual Department or an outside consultant to conduct an annual audit to ensure that our services to Limited English Proficient students meet federal and state guidelines.

The charter school may still be audited by means of a Coordinated Compliance Review conducted by the State Department of Education.

In addition, the Steering Committee will appoint an Academic Success Committee made up of staff and parents and older students to determine the impact of schoolwide programs on achievement. These schoolwide programs include: Writers' Workshop, Class Meetings, Integrated Thematic Instruction, Efficacy, and Positive Discipline. This information will contribute to the updating of the school's plan each year in March.

j. The procedures by which pupils can be suspended or expelled.

The established district procedures will be used when suspending or expelling students. This includes procedures for both teacher suspensions and principal suspensions. During the last four years, suspensions have been reduced from a high of over 213 in 1988-89 to 21 in 1991.

k. The manner by which staff members of the charter schools will be covered by the State Teachers' Retirement System or the Public Employees Retirement System or federal social security.

There will be no change in the way employees will be covered. The established system will be used. The certificated and classified staff at the charter school are employees of the SCUSD.

l. Public School attendance alternatives for pupils residing within the school district who choose not to attend the charter school.

47605 (f) No governing board of a school district shall require any pupil enrolled in the school district to attend a charter school.

Independent of charter status, Bowling Green is now overcrowded. Next year, again, independent of charter status there will be a leveling off of enrollment. The current kindergarten enrollment suggests that number of classes at kindergarten and first grade will be reduced by one at each grade level. This means that there will be fewer students who may need attendance alternatives if they choose not to attend the charter school.

General education students whose parents choose for them not to attend Bowling Green, have the following options available to them:

1. Apply at a magnet school such as John Still, John Sloat, da Vinci, or Camellia.

2. Request a permit at another district school that has room available.

3. Accept enrollment at another school as identified by the district's Concap program.
Transportation is provided with this option. During the last two years, Harkness Elementary has taken our overflow enrollment. It also takes in students from Mark Hopkins and Woodbine.

By limiting the general education enrollment to 680 students as shown in the following table, attendance alternative will be needed for approximately 70 students. Most of them will probably be concapped. Last year, over 60 students were concapped to Harkness from Bowling Green. This year, we added room for 60 students and found that when we went over 750 student at this converted junior high school site, it severely taxed the facilities and deteriorated the quality of the program at the school. The increased student population, for example, required 2.5 hours to serve lunch and three separate 10 minute recess periods in the morning. It was difficult to find time for all classes to use the playground for physical education activities.

m. A description of the rights of any employee of the school district upon leaving employment of the school district to work in a charter school and of any rights to return to the school district after employment at a charter school.

Since our petition does not require Bowling Green to be separated from the SCUSD, staff members at the charter school will continue to be employed by the school district. Therefore, no rights will be lost when coming to work at the charter school or when leaving the charter school to work at another school.

When an employee chooses to leave the charter school, he or she will do it in the manner described in the applicable collective bargaining agreement.

When an employee who is hired by the charter school leaves the charter school, his/her return rights to the school district is based on seniority that corresponds to the date that person was hired and if that person meets district qualifications on the date that he/she began work at the charter school.

Additional and pertinent information related to this item is found in Part III Section 2 of this petition. That section is titled: Staffing.

n. A listing of the specific services for which the school would like to contract with the district.

As a district school, we intend to continue using those general funded services that have always been available to the school. We will continue to use payroll, accounting, internal audit, food services, insurance, transportation, maintenance, operations, risk management, personnel services, multilingual, curriculum, etc. The arrangement that we have had in the past with these and other support service departments will not change.

With regard to categorically funded services from SIP, Chapter l, and state bilingual, however, we will pay for those services as needed. In the past, an overhead charge was taken from site funds. Last year this amounted to over $40,000 from Bowling Green. Now that the overhead will be returned to the charter school, it is only fair to pay for services in the district now supported by those funds. If for example, we have a need for staff training from a district employee funded by SIP or Chapter 1, then we should pay a reasonable charge. Or if we send in a requisition that needs to be processed by the Consolidated Programs Office, we should pay a reasonable charge for each requisition.

o. A description of how the school's insurance needs and liability responsibilities will be handled.

There will be no change in existing practices because the charter school remains a member of the school district.

p. A discussion of the relationship to be maintained with the district including utilization of district resources and compensation for these resources.

As indicated in Part I of this petition, our charter school remains a school in the SCUSD. The certificated and classified staff are employees of the district. We intend to be a school that demonstrates what can be done when some of the bureaucratic rules are changed. The diagram shown below indicates that we will report directly to the Board of Education. [graphic not scanned]

During the life of the charter, the school may choose to associate itself informally with an administrative area or office so that it can do two things:

1. keep in touch with what's happening in the district.

2. share information from the charter school with the rest of the district.

Initially the charter school will remain associated with the Vanguard Cluster for informational purposes except for those activities that are funded through Consolidated Programs.

As noted in response to item "n," as a district school we intend to continue using those general funded services that have always been available to the school. We will continue to use payroll, accounting, internal audit, food services, insurance, transportation, maintenance, operations, risk management, personnel services, multilingual, curriculum, etc. The arrangement that we have had in the past with these and other support service departments will not change.

Also as noted in response to item "n" with regard to categorically funded services from SIP, Chapter 1, and state bilingual, we would pay a reasonable price for those services as needed.

q. A discussion of how fiscal accountability will be handled including identification of who would serve as financial officer and how payroll would be handled. The proposal should also include a preliminary budget.

No change from current district process. A preliminary budget can be found in Part VII.[budget not scanned]

r. Identification of the general fund dollars to be allocated per student.

This is shown in the budget found in Part VII.[budget not scanned] The budget shows that we intend to use what we have in a different way.

s. Description of how the Charter School will meet the criteria for all district schools of choice: 1) effective instruction (research based); 2) safe and orderly campus; 3) training for parent involvement; 4) committed to continuous improvement (data driven); 5) inclusion and belief in all children; and 6) equal district per student funds.

Effective Instruction. In choosing to attend the charter school at Bowling Green, parents and students are selecting a brain-compatible instructional program that is on a year round schedule. As described earlier in this petition, our instructional approach is based on a combination of the Efficacy model developed by Jeff Howard and the Integrated Thematic Instructional model developed by Susan Kovalik. Data from Efficacy's Kansas City project show that improvement on standardized tests occurred during the third year of implementation.

Kovalik's model evolved out of action research by her and by fellow practitioners as they studied brain research and then tied it to curriculum development and teaching strategies. Kovalik relies heavily on the work of Leslie Hart, Howard Gardner, and other proponents of brain-compatible learning. Locally, her model has been adopted by the Mid-California Science Project (sponsored by the David and Lucille Packard Foundation) and is consistent with the recommendations from the State Department of Education on creating brain compatible schools. Recently four of the seven elementary schools in the Alisal School District in Monterey County were awarded prestigious SB1274 grants to demonstrate restructuring. Kovalik and her associates have been working closely with those schools for several years.

Safe and Orderly Campus. During the last two and a half years, the staff has worked hard to make Bowling Green a safe and orderly campus. Three years ago, the campus was characterized by some as being out of control. That we have reduced suspensions from a high of 213 just four years ago to twenty-one last year, suggests that we have come a long way in improving the learning environment. The consistently lower number of suspensions during the last three years points out that our success is for real.

Student Suspensions between 1985 and 1993

Year	Total Year	Number by Principal	Number by Teacher	By Principal-Teacher
1985-6	115	41	69	5
1986-7	169	51	118
1987-8	125	37	86	2
1988-9	213	52	159	2
1989-90	145	39	106	0
1990-1	33	32	1	0
1991-2	21	19	2	0
1992-3 through 1st semester	16	14	2	0

The recent addition of telephones to each general education classroom also improves safety on campus.

Training for Parent Involvement. Parent involvement has traditionally been low at Bowling Green during the last several years. It is starting to improve. Two years ago, we began a family math, family science, and family reading programs after school to show parents how they could help their children learn better. Last year, for the first time, a bilingual advisory committee was started to help guide our bilingual program. Hiring Spanish speaking teachers assigned to either the classroom or to a resource position helped facilitate the involvement of those parents. Next year, we intend to increase parent involvement by employing several school community liaisons. The focus will be on training and showing parents how they can become even more effective members of their children's support team as they move through our public school system. Each of the liaisons will be responsible for the coordination of a schoolwide parent function such as room mothers, tutoring, coaching parents on committees such as the Bilingual Advisory Committee, or setting up parent workshops. In addition, each of the liaisons will be assigned to work with a grade level on maintaining good attendance.

Committed to Continuous Improvement. Since it's introduction three years ago by Conal Lindsay, the staff has remained committed to the Continuous Improvement Process (CIP). Each Monday, the school Steering Committee meets. The Steering Committee representatives then meet with their constituents. Earlier in this document, we described how that process works.

During the first year after the CIP's introduction, the staff focused on improving schoolwide discipline and improving communications among themselves (1990-91). The results of that first year are reflected in the dramatic reduction in suspensions and in the reduction of broken windows from over 100 the first summer to less than 20 the next summer.

For the second year (1991-92), the staff identified writing as a curricular area in need of improvement. After getting trained, the staff implemented the Writers' Workshop program schoolwide. Periodically during the year, our Schoolwide Assessment Team (SWAT) collected writing samples and provided feedback to teachers on what they saw in student writing. As a result, writing is becoming one of our strengths.

During the second year, the Coordinated Compliance Review was conducted by the State Department of Education. Their findings showed that our program for limited English proficient students was weak. In response we designed a program for those students and implemented it this year. Many teachers responded by studying for the Language Development Specialist Certificate. We also began an aggressive program to recruit bilingual teachers at those grade levels where they were needed. We were successful in hiring five bilingual teachers during the last two years.

In the middle of the second year after reviewing data on student progress, it was agreed that there was a need to reexamine the whole instructional process at Bowling Green. This lead to submitting an application for a state restructuring grant. Our proposal was accepted. The limited funds from that grant are being used almost exclusively for training teachers to use the Integrated Thematic Instructional (ITI) approach. This is a different approach from what was used before. One of the major differences is that we are trying now to make the curriculum and instruction compatible with the brain. Some of the grant award, for example, is being used to support visits from a certified ITI curriculum coach six time a month. Another part will be used to send staff members to a week long Integrated Thematic Instruction Institute this summer. Last summer, we sent 27 teachers.

So far this year (1992-93), we have received training in ITI and in the Efficacy approach. Teachers are beginning to use both methods to help students to improve academically. We have also listened to high school teachers comment on what we could be doing differently so that our students will be better prepared for middle school and high school.

Inclusion and Belief in All Children. One of the central premises of the ITI model is that inclusion is necessary before students learn. Since their return from the ITI training last summer, and more teachers are practicing inclusion activities each day. Teachers, for example, are using the Tribes materials.

In addition, our staff was among four schools this year that voluntarily belief that all children can learn also play a central part in the Efficacy model. The focus of the training is on helping students see that they have control over what happens to them at school. The nature of the training also forces teachers to confront themselves with two questions: Do I believe all children can learn? Do I believe I am capable of teaching children?

Next year, with the approval of this charter petition, we intend to increase our ability to include students by reducing the student to teacher ratio on campus. This helps create more time for students to have a relationship with a teacher.

Equal District Per Student Funds. The charter school that we are proposing does not intend to take all the ADA generated by students attending the Bowling Green. As stated earlier in this petition, we intend to use the funds and resources normally allocated to our school. The major exception is our request later in this petition to swap eight of our old portable classrooms for eight newer models with air conditioning. It is our understanding that there are approximately 32 of these newer portable classrooms that are now sitting vacant throughout the district.

The swap will allow us to increase the number of air conditioned rooms to 21 out of 31. This will also give us a boost as we seek to find outside funds to put air conditioning in the remaining rooms. The swap will be seen as the district's contribution to prepare Bowling Green to go on a single track year round schedule that will eventually lead to an extended year schedule of 210 days for students. Current state incentives for air conditioning require schools that accept the incentives to go multitrack. A multitrack schedule, however, would make it extremely difficult to extend the school year to 210 days.

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III. OTHER CHANGES TO CURRENT RULES, REGULATIONS, AND POLICY

In our SB1274 proposal we stated that: "Achieving our goal requires shifting authority and responsibility to the site for making decisions. Instead of implementing top down administrative decisions that cover the entire district, decisions need to be tailored to the unique needs of each school by a well-trained and focused staff. We feel that once the Board has set the high standard s for us to reach, it is the responsibility of each school staff to find a way to get there, provided that they have the authority to use the resources available to them as determined by the school's site-based decision making process."

With that in mind, we ask that the changes described on the following pages be made at Bowling Green as part of our charter so that we can implement our SB1274 grant and implement additional reforms that will lead to a higher level of academic achievement and social responsibility among our students.

1. Organizing the Work Place

1.1 By consensus, the staff at the charter school may organize themselves to provide instruction in a manner that will increase the likelihood of attaining our academic and social goals.

Teachers may for example, choose to create non graded classes (e.g., non graded primary with students now enrolled in 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade). As another example, seven teachers who work together in a collaborative work group may decide to divide their students into six instructional groups in order to free up the seventh one to serve as a resource teacher for the other six in the afternoon. As a third example, the staff may agree to have seven resource teachers, each teaming with a grade level group in grades K through 6.

1.2. By consensus, the certificated staff sets the daily schedule after consulting with parents. Done by MAY of the preceding year.

This year, for example, we eliminated the early-late schedule. As a result, there are 22 minutes more each day for instruction for primary students and 17 minutes more each day for intermediate students. Moreover, there is more time for teacher planning during the day.

1.3. By consensus, the certificated staff sets the yearly schedule after consulting with parents. Done by APRIL of the preceding year.

The staff, for example, may agree to start the 1993-94 year on September 1 and use September 1,2,3 as planning days to outline the course of instruction for the entire year. Instruction would then start on the day after Labor Day. The first three days would be akin to release days currently authorized under School Based Coordinated Plans.

1.4 When a support service employee is assigned to work at the charter school, as in the case of Food Service or Transportation, the support staff supervisor and the principal will work together to develop schedules that support the school's program. They will also work together to conduct evaluations of these employees using the district's standard format.

2. Staffing

2.1 When there is a vacancy, any person meeting the minimum requirements, including temporary and probationary employees of the district, may apply for a vacant classified or certificated position. Posting the position is still a Personnel Department function as is checking for minimum requirements. The Personnel Department, however, will forward a list of all applicants to the principal. The principal and a selection committee appointed by the Steering Committee will select a finalist from the applicants. The committee will consist of the principal, parent(s), teacher(s), and classified staff member(s). The finalist's name will be forwarded to the site Steering Committee for consensus after the selection committee has checked references.

2.2 Positions cannot be filled administratively by the central office. This goes for teachers as well as for classified employees such as custodians, bus drivers and food service personnel who work at the school. As an example, a surplused teacher from elsewhere in the district cannot be unilaterally assigned to fill a vacancy at Bowling Green.

2.3 Temporary positions, positions filled by surplus, and positions administratively filled at Bowling Green since June 1, 1992, will be declared vacant at the end of the 1992-93 school year and will be posted and filled according to the above procedures.

2.4 Volunteers may be used as long as they do not displace a salaried person at the school.

2.5 As a hiring guideline, we will look for people who are willing to "challenge the process," who have a vision that is consistent with the school mission, who model what we intend to accomplish. At the same time, to the extent possible, we intend to create a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic staff that reflects the diversity of the residents in our school district in terms of ethnicity, language skills, and gender. We will use district guidelines, for example, in staffing to meet the needs of language minority students.

2.6 If surplusing of a charter school staff member is necessary it will be done based on program needs and seniority.

2.7 Charter School staff will not be transferred due to a districtwide reduction in force during the life of the charter. That means that there will be a bubble around our staff; they cannot be bumped by a more senior staff member from elsewhere in the district.

2.8 Teachers have the option of calling for substitutes when they are ill or with the prior approval of the principal, having colleagues cover for them and then having the daily pay for the substitutes go to the school's budget.

2.9 The principal is selected by a committee appointed by the Steering Committee that includes teachers and or classified staff assigned to the site and parents of students going to school at Bowling Green. The names of the finalist will be submitted to the Steering Committee for final consideration. Selection is by consensus of the Steering Committee. The selection committee will check references.

2.10 The principal serves as long as he/she has a vote of confidence. A vote of confidence is taken in March of each year ending in an odd number. Full-time certificated staff members are eligible to vote. The question will be: Is the principal adequately contributing to the improvement of the school? If 80% of the voters agree, then the principal shall continue serving. It is the Steering Committee's responsibility to see that there is adequate public discussion before calling for a vote. When there is not a vote of confidence, the principal continues to serve until the end of the school year. The principal will continue to have administrative responsibility with regard to, but not limited to, making teaching assignments, making room assignments, supervising staff, disciplining staff, recognizing staff, initiating spending that is described in the school plan, and filing reports. The responsibilities of the principal may change during the life of the charter. Changes will be agreed upon by the Steering Committee and the Continuous Improvement Process.

2.11 In place of the evaluation process described in the employee union contracts, each May, the principal will report to the Board on the state of the school with information pertaining to, but not limited to students, staff, and the community the school serves. Student achievement information should include an analysis of the proportion of students reaching the targets established by the school and the targets established by Board. The focus of the report will be on improvement in quality at the school.

2.12 It will be the policy of the charter school to encourage and support each staff member's continuous improvement though education, training, coaching, supervision, and self-study. A committee appointed by the Steering Committee will develop checklists of skills, abilities, and attitudes for each program at the school. These skills need to be mastered by all teachers before full implementation is in place so that we can achieve the goals of the charter. The lists will be adopted by consensus of the certificated staff for programs such as Class Meetings, Efficacy, Integrated Thematic Instruction, English Language Development, Continuous Improvement Process, Sustained Silent Reading, and Writers' Workshop.

Criteria for Determining Level of Implementation:
Percentage of Teachers Mastering the Check List

No implementation	Beginning Implementation	Growing Implementation	Almost Full Implementation	Full Implementation
	20%	50%	80%	100%

2.13 When the charter school's authorization expires, staff members who have changed assignments within the charter school will return to their positions that existed at the school before it became a charter school. In the event that there are not enough positions at the site, staff members will be surplused from the former charter school based on the procedures in the contract. For example, a classroom teacher who takes a resource/team teacher position during the life of the charter has return rights to a classroom position when the charter is not renewed.

2.15 Employees currently assigned to Bowling Green who do not wish to remain with the charter school shall be included in the Phase I referral list for other vacancies in the district. Teachers may also voluntarily surplus themselves from the proposed charter school.

3. Alternative Use of Resources or Funds Allocated to the School

3.1 By consensus, the certificated staff may reallocate the funds from classified positions (e g, clerk, custodian) and certificated positions (e g., prep specialists) paid from the general fund in order to support instructional activities that help us reach our goals.

The staff may, for example, decide to surplus four hours of existing clerk time and 4 hours of custodial time. The money saved from the surplusing might be applied to implementing the instructional technology portion of our SB1274 grant. Or it might be used to pay for "being there" experiences that are so important to the integrated thematic approach that we are implementing.

3.2 Non-ADA state funds that are allocated to schools based on the number of general education students (e.g., Compensatory Education, School Improvement, Bilingual, "590" text book allocation) may be used, for example, to reduce the student to teacher ratio, and to carry out other activities described in this charter.

3.3 All categorical funds generated by students at the site will be allocated to the site. The site will buy back services as needed. For example, in the 1992-93 school year, approximately $40,000 in overhead was taken from the consolidated program funds that Bowling Green students generated. The overhead went to Staff Development, Evaluation, and the Director's Office. Control of these funds would return to the site. The site would buy back services as needed from the Materials Lab, etc.

3.5 When it is more cost effective to buy a product or service from a non district source, the charter school may do so.

3.6 The cafeteria manager assigned to the charter school will work with the principal and the Food Services Department to design menus that best support the goals of the school. This includes looking at alternative ways of running the cafeteria, alternative menus, and ways to stretch the money allocated to feed Bowling Green students.

4. Reporting to Parents

4.1 Staff and parents will determine a method of reporting student progress to parents and guardians that focus on individual improvement towards established proficiency standards to be mastered by all students at the charter school. The standards will be developed by staff, parents, and, when applicable, by students. The standards will be presented to the Board of Education for its review.

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IV. DURATION OF THE CHARTER

The length of this charter will be three years starting July 1,1993 and ending June 30, 1996, plus the remainder of the 1992-93 school year. The charter may be renewed at the discretion of the Board of Education.

Preparations for making the transition to charter school status will begin upon approval of this charter by the State Board of Education. At that time, for example, we will begin the staff selection process for vacant positions. New staff, however, will not be assigned officially until after the close of the current school year on June 17, 1993.

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V. AMENDING THE CHARTER

In Part II Section "d" of this petition, we stated that our site based-discussion process identifies problems that get in the way of achieving the goals and develops solutions. At Bowling Green, the Steering Committee facilitates the identification of problems and the consensus building needed to identify and implement solutions that will help achieve the school's mission.

When solutions are outside of the authority of this charter, the Steering Committee will inform the Board of Education. Unless the Board vetoes the solution within 30 school days after it first appears on a Board agenda and is presented by the principal at a Board meeting, the solution will become a part of this charter and will be reflected as an amendment that will be attached at the end of this charter in sequence as "Amendment 1, Amendment 2, etc."

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VI. SIGNATURES OF TEACHERS

Section 47605 of the Charter Schools Act states that a school district governing board may grant a charter if it determines that the petition contains the signatures of not less than 50 percent of the teachers employed at one school in the district. There are 43 certificated teachers who hold 38.8 FTE positions at Bowling Green as shown in the following chart[not scanned].

If approved, this charter may be revolved if any of the following are done by the school staff:

1. Commit a material violation of any of the conditions, standards, or procedures set forth in this document,

2. Fail to meet or pursue any of the pupil outcomes identified in this document,

3. Fail to meet generally accepted accounting standards of fiscal management,

4. Violate any provision of law.

In applying to become a charter school, we, as teachers, support and agree that:

1. The focus of all restructuring efforts should be on students; it should not be for the convenience of adults,nor change for change's sake.

2. Restructuring means moving from a rule-based to a performance-based accountability system. Schools need to be held accountable for outcomes and for student learning, in return for increased deregulation and flexibility.

3. Assessment practices need to be modified to reflect the emphasis on a thinking, meaning-centered curriculum which requires a shift away from multiple choice tests to those that are performance-based. My signature below indicates that I am now employed in a certificated non-management position at Bowling Green Elementary School and that I support this petition for creating a charter school at Bowling Green Elementary School. If this charter is granted and if I continue in an assignment at the charter school, I accept the responsibility for implementing the activities described in this document and for working towards the goals stated in this petition.

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AMENDMENT 1

In order to clarify how limited English proficient (LEP) students will be educated at the proposed charter school, this amendment is being added to the charter. During the last three years, the total number of LEP students at Bowling Green has increased from 101 in April 1991 to 216 in February 1993. As the following table shows, that's an increase of 115 students. Percentage wise that's an increase from 14% to 27% of the student body.

Language	Total April 1, 1991	Total April 1, 1992	Total Feb 26, 1992
Spanish	28	53	64
Cantonese	21	29	44
Vietnamese	17	34	39
Hindi	9	15	15
Hmong	8	19	33
Tagalog	5	5	3
Filipino	3	4	2
Mien	3	6	8
Russian	2	2	0
Other	5	8	8
Total	101	175	216

Three years ago, there was no bilingual program. In the spring of 1991, as we put together our school plan for the next year, we recognized that fact. A state Coordinated Compliance Review (CCR) validated our conclusion early the next calendar year.

Recognizing the increasing limited English proficient (LEP) student population at Bowling Green, the proposed charter school will make every effort to see that each LEP student has content area instruction in his/her primary language and an opportunity for structured English language development. Our strategy to meet these goals has two parts:

1. staffing to provide content area instruction in L1 and

2. creating and refining a program of English language development.

Staffing to provide content area instruction in L₁. In the three years since 1991, we have gone from a staff of zero to five bilingual teachers. Four are Spanish bilingual; one is Cantonese bilingual. Four of the five earned bilingual cross cultural credentials form CSUS' Multicultural Teacher Education Center. Harold Murai is the director. Three years ago there were only two seven-hour Spanish bilingual aides serving the LEP students.

Using the "10 or more at one grade level" trigger, we will surplus teachers without the proper bilingual or language development specialist certificates and hire in their place bilingual teachers when the opportunity arises. Before the end of this school year, for example, we will surplus junior teachers as needed in order to bring on board two Spanish bilingual teachers. For the 1994-95 school year, there is a projected need to surplus two additional teachers to bring on board two additional Spanish bilingual teachers.

The Spanish bilingual teachers help solve the problem of providing content area instruction in L1 to our Spanish speaking LEP students. This is a fast growing segment of our student body. Content area instruction using Hmong, Vietnamese, Cantonese, and Hindi will be done with CSUS interns or CSUS student teachers. Professor Harold Murai, when addressing the Board of Education on March 16, indicated that he was prepared to send bilingual student teachers and interns to the proposed charter school. He has already provided interns this year who have worked with Hmong and Spanish speaking students. We look forward to expanding that relationship.

Languages that we cannot cover with teachers or interns will be given priority when we hire classified employees as bilingual community workers. At least three of the five community worker positions described in the charter will be used this way. That means we will need to surplus the two seven-hour Spanish bilingual aides that are now on staff. The money from those two positions will be used to help fund the bilingual community workers. The bilingual community workers will play two roles. One is to help build a bridge between the L1 community and the school. The other role is providing content area instruction in L1 under the direction of a certificated staff member.

Related to instruction in L1 is our position that academic achievement needs to be measured using the student's primary language. It makes no sense, for example, to measure academic achievement using a tool that is heavily dependent on a language that the student has not yet mastered.

Refining the English Language Development Program

The biggest single refinement that we have made involves increasing the number of trained teachers. Two years ago, only two of our 32 classroom teachers had language development specialist (LDS) training. Today, six have the LDS certificate. Three more have passed the test and are doing their language requirement. Eleven more have completed the training or are now in training. That's twenty teachers.

The program will be further refined as we increase the knowledge of the entire staff. During the 1993-94 school year, we are looking at undergoing 44 hours of training for the entire staff of the proposed charter school. This would be done during a series of release days. The course work is patterned after what the Modesto City Schools offer their LDS trained teachers. We may even use their trainers. Or we will work with Professor Harold Murai and the CSUS Multicultural Teacher Education Center to create training that includes the following:

6 hrs Culture

8 hrs Theory

16 hrs Methods

3 hrs Compliance

3 hrs Cooperative Learning

8 hrs Whole Language for LEPs

Our current ELD program was written last year in response to the state CCR. We are not happy with the results that it is producing. That is one reason that we recently invited Dr. Edmund Lee, Director of Bilingual Education in Modesto City Schools, to give us an outside opinion of what we could do as a next steps to improve our current program. He was our guest on March 29. He visited classrooms, talked with teachers, and gave us some solid suggestions. Among them:

- develop some specific performance-based language goals for LAS Level 1 and 2 students;

- consider using one of the two state adopted series for English Language Development; and

- engage in staff development beyond the LDS training.

During the life of the proposed charter school, we expect to continue a relationship with Dr. Lee and other experts in the area of bilingual education. We appreciate his pro bono work.

At our April 1 staff meeting we discussed Dr. Lee's suggestions and agreed that training beyond the LDS was necessary. A committee is examining the other two suggestions and will consult with the school's Bilingual Advisory Committee. His first suggestion is very consistent with the performance-based approach that the charter school is taking. Discussing prospective goals for our LAS Level 1 and 2 students will be on the next agenda of the Bilingual Advisory Committee.

Finally, the principles that underlie the integrated thematic instructional (ITI) approach will heavily influence us as we refine the ELD program at Bowling Green. In the ITI model, learning is most likely to happen when all eight of the following exist: meaningful content, interesting content, choice, collaboration, absence of threat, enriched environment, adequate time, and mastery. Similar ideas also appeared in Krashen's discussion on second language acquisition.

Recently, the California Association of Bilingual Education (CABE) recognized the Alisal School District in Salinas for its exemplary program for teaching LEP students. They use the ITI approach to teach LEP students. Pattie Mills described this to the Board on April 13.

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