Charters to get more oversight

The Del Norte County Office of Education and the charter schools it authorizes are going to be working more closely on academic programs.

The School Board advised Superintendent Don Olson on Thursday to move forward with reviewing each charter school’s academic program and then reporting back to board members.

“We’re coming from a position of support,” Olson said. “We want to increase student achievement and the development of the whole child.”

This was met with enthusiastic support from administrators of  some of the charter schools.

After a recommendation from a state organization that Uncharted Shores Academy be closed due to low test scores, Olson said he started reading more about charter schools and the COE’s role as an authorizer.

He told the board it would be a good idea to have more oversight of the charter schools’ academic program — as the COE does for their finances — and set expectations for student achievement.

USA will be the first school to undergo review as the school will soon be submitting a proposal to renew its charter.

The COE can outline “what we want to see in their charter,” Olson said, and USA can report on whether the school has met  the expectations.

The COE would help the charter schools achieve goals laid out by the board, he said.

Some of the things Olson will be looking at include attendance, whether the curriculum is based on California standards, what skills the school expects students to have, how students are being assessed and what’s being done to intervene with struggling students.

Charter schools’ test scores should be on par with district schools, Olson said. Right now, there’s about a 100-point difference between the three charter schools and district schools.

“We believe we can close the achievement gap,” he said.

Administrators from USA and Klamath River Early College of the Redwoods at the meeting Thursday said they want to work with the COE and welcomed more academic oversight.

“We’re very excited about having academic accountability,” said Danielle Carmesin, director of academics and operations at KRECR.

Shari Smithson, a co-director of USA, said the school wants to improve and wants help to do so.

“We’re really happy to see it happening,” she said.

Local business leader Chris Howard, who has been an outspoken critic of charter schools, said he was glad to see recognition that the COE needs to do more with academic oversight.

“We trust our district is helping every student achieve as they do in our public schools,”

Howard said.

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