F.Y.I
Found this on the New York State Department of Education Web Site. New York State tax payers(I am one) will be funding the new charter school recently opened by The Hyde School Leadership Division. Check out the tastey $ they will collect from New York State acting as the CMO. I wonder if the States Department of Education would be interested in what we have been discuusing here.
Scroll to near bottom of document to see the annual payouts by year and projected enrollments. By year 2009-2010 The Hyde Leadership Division will be payed over 10 million dollars per year.
New York State Education Department
Summary of Proposed Charter
Summary of Applicant Information
Name of Proposed Charter School: Hyde Leadership Charter School (HLCS)
Address: To be determined
Applicant(s): Herbert B. Fixler
Anticipated Opening Date: August 30, 2006
District of Location: New York City ? CSD 5/ Region 10
Charter Entity: Chancellor, New York City Department of Education
Institutional Partner(s): None
Management Partner(s): The Hyde Leadership Schools Division of the Hyde Foundation of Maine will assume the role of Charter Management Organization (CMO).
Grades Served: K, 6 (K-4, 6-10)
Projected Enrollment: 220 (904)
Proposed Charter Highlights
Applicant(s)
The lead applicant, Herbert Fixler, has submitted the application in conjunction with the Hyde Foundation of Maine. Mr. Fixler is the proposed Chairman of the Board of Trustees for HLCS. Mr. Fixler is a former Hyde parent and a partner in the Private Client Services Group of Wolf, Block, Schorr, and Solis-Cohen LLP, concentrating in the fields of estate planning and administration. Mr. Fixler advises owners of businesses and commercial real estate on ownership structures, owners? agreements, compensation agreements and business succession. Mr. Fixler received his J.D. from the Washington College of Law of the American University where he served as Director of the Legal Aid Society. The applicant is a member of Attorneys for Family-Held Enterprises, a non-profit organization comprised of attorneys from throughout the United States. Upon graduation, Mr. Fixler served as a VISTA volunteer and then entered private practice in New York City; he is a member of the bars in the State of New York and in the District of Columbia.
Institutional Partner(s)
None.
Management Partner(s)
The Hyde Leadership Schools Division of the Hyde Foundation of Maine will assume the role of Charter Management Organization (CMO). The Foundation of Maine?s president is Joseph W. Gauld who in 1966 founded the Hyde School in Bath, Maine (a boarding high school). The CMO will offer the School the Hyde character and academic curricula; will support the growth of HLCS through the provision of key policy and procedure manuals (for example, the staff, faculty, parent and student handbooks and the financial policies and procedures manual). The CMO will develop improvements to the curricula and to the policies and procedures and share these with HLCS, will assist HLCS in identifying and recruiting personnel, provide professional development for the School?s staff and consulting support to the administrators and Trustees. The CMO will not manage the School on a daily basis, nor will it hold or control school records. The School will pay the CMO an amount equal to three percent of the School?s pupil funding when received from the New York City Department of Education to cover the deliverables and services listed above as well as to support research and development work. HLCS will also reimburse the CMO against invoice for out-of-pocket expenses (for example, HLCS staff training accommodations, printing, which will be billable separately, and without mark-up). The CMO is providing services to two private boarding high schools, the Hyde School in Bath, Maine and the Hyde School in Woodstock, Connecticut, as well as to the Hyde Charter School in Washington, DC and a newly opened charter school in Oakland, CA. The CMO plans to add five new Hyde Schools over the next few years, including HLCS.
Curriculum/Assessment/Instruction
§ The Hyde Leadership Charter School states its mission is ?To develop the deeper character and unique potential of each student.?
§ Using the Hyde Process for family-based character education, the HLCS intends to unite parents, teachers, and students in helping each student achieve his/her best academically and in sports, the arts and the community.
§ The School has established eight performance goals for the five-year charter period.
§ HLCS intends to integrate an academic program with character development and family renewal.
§ The School intends to offer a variety of differentiated instructional methods; these methods may range from the teacher delivering lessons on content and skills mastery to students taking full responsibility for peer learning outcomes; the School expects to have a high degree of cooperative learning, coaching and collaboration within the academic setting.
§ HLCS will use several ?packaged? curriculum programs, which they state will fulfill the 28 New York State learning standards.
§ The math program to be used in grades kindergarten through eight will be Saxon Math.
§ The school-wide writing program will be the Collins Writing Program.
§ Kindergarten through grade five will follow the Houghton-Mifflin reading program. The middle grades will study trade literature, reading comprehension and literary conventions.
§ The School will use the Language! Program with the intention to integrate 18 strands of language arts into HLCS activities.
§ In the elementary grades, the School will use the Core Knowledge for content study in science, social studies, humanities and fine arts; this will be supplemented each year by two units each of the Delta Science hands-on kits, teacher-friendly units.
§ In the middle school, science and social studies will employ Joy Hakim?s series.
§ Johns Hopkins University is currently finishing a hands-on science program to complement the Hakim series; the School intends to implement this program as the laboratory component in the sciences.
§ The high school will follow a college preparatory curriculum through the junior year; in the senior year, the English and social studies courses will be modeled on the curriculum employed at the Hyde college preparatory school.
§ The high school will use textbooks that will be selected in year 4 of the charter; the criteria that will be employed to make an informed decision have been set out in the Textbook and Materials Adoption Procedure.
§ HLCS students will study Latin starting in the middle school; Spanish will also be offered in high school.
§ Social skills and conflict resolution will be taught through Getting Along Together and parental and community involvement will be addressed through Solution Teams.
§ Five Hyde words and principles will be integrated through Discover Groups and the Discovery Process.
§ HLCS will educate students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment, with their non-disabled peers, to the extent appropriate and allowed by the student?s Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
§ The HLCS believes that a structured English immersion program will be most helpful to English Language Learners (ELLs) in improving their abilities to master the English language. All instruction will be in English; the extended day may be used for additional intensive English language instruction.
§ HLCS?s core school day will run from 8:00 a.m. to 3:05 p.m., but the school day will begin with breakfast at 7:30, and the extended day will finish at 5:00, except on Thursdays when early dismissal will be at 3:05.
§ The School will assure the equivalent of 180 school days of instruction.
§ 30.5 hours per week will be devoted to core academic subjects.
§ The Hyde Family Program will be strongly encouraged; HLCS states the Family Program is a fundamental part of the Hyde process.
Governance
§ The HLCS Board of Trustees (BOT) will review and approve all basic policies for the Corporation and see that they are consonant with the purposes of the Corporation in conducting the School; approve the budgets for the School; be responsible for the oversight of all aspects of the School?s use of public and private funds; negotiate and approve any contract with a Charter Management Organization (CMO) or an Education Management Organization; and authorize the appointment and termination of the Head of School.
§ The BOT will have an Executive Committee, Nominating Committee, Finance and Audit Committee, and an Education Committee.
§ The Head of School will report to the BOT, and the School?s Chief Operating Officer (COO) will report to the Head of School.
§ A Director of Studies will serve all levels in the School with the intention of assuring continuity and building of the academic program from one level to the next.
§ As the School grows, three Directors will be added (one for each level: elementary, middle and college preparatory).
§ The faculty and the academic support staff will report to the Head of School (in most cases through the directors of the elementary, middle and high schools), and the CMO will report to and support both the Board?s Executive Committee and the Head of School.
§ The Board will retain and work directly with the School?s ?pro-bono? outside legal counsel and auditors.
§ The governance of the School will include a Parent Teacher Advisory Board.
§ The initial BOT will be comprised of nine Trustees; the Head of the School will be an ex-officio member of the Board.
§ The Board of Trustees shall meet at least 10 times during the school year; meetings will be held at the school at 6 p.m. on the second Monday of the month.
§ The number of Trustees shall not be fewer than five (5) and shall not exceed twenty-three (23); in addition, an ex officio seat is reserved for a parent of an enrolled student in HSCS.
§ Trustees will be elected to serve terms of three (3) years. All Trustees shall be eligible for re-election.
§ HLCS plans for and expects an active role for parents in the governance of the School; the School will establish a Parent Association.
Students
§ HLCS plans to serve 220 kindergarteners and sixth graders in year 1; in year 5, HLCS plans to expand to serve 904 kindergarten through fourth and sixth through tenth graders; each year the School intends to add a grade to its initial grade configuration. (For example, in year 2 the School will add a first and seventh grade.)
§ HLCS intends to serve students with similar demographic profile as CSD 5; students attending traditional public schools are predominantly African American (~69%) and Latino (~29%); 85.3% of students in CSD 5 are eligible for free lunches and less than 35% of elementary and intermediate school students meet standards in English Language Arts, Math and Science.
§ The students will be selected by a blind, random lottery. Preference will be given to students living in the New York City School District. Students with siblings enrolled in the School receive preference over waiting list candidates who do not have siblings enrolled.
Budget/Facilities
§ HLCS has received two grants totaling $30,000 and a grant recommendation from Ms. Mellor, who is a donor of funds to the US Charitable Gift Trust, to receive $40,000 in year 1 with follow-up grants of $50,000 over years 2 and 3.
§ HLCS has budgeted to receive a $90,000 start-up grant as well as additional $40,000 in supplemental funding from the City of New York in year 1.
§ HLCS plans to lease space from an existing New York City Department of Education (DOE) school facility with rent costs of $1 annually.
§ The School has assumed a DOE space pro-ration of $50,000 in year 1, increasing by $5,000 for each year following.
§ The School has begun to formulate a contingency plan and to explore possible alternative space.
§ The School intends to establish a $500,000 line of credit with Bank of America, guaranteed by the Hyde School, to cover the early deficits and fluctuating cash flows.
§ HLCS intends to establish a Development Committee to raise funds to cover the cost of programs, such as the Family Education Program, the extended day program and the competitive sports program.
§ The School will establish a Board Finance Committee to oversee the financial well-being.
Personnel
§ Joanne Goubourn, the Head of School at the Hyde Leadership Public Charter School of Washington, DC will assume the role as founding Head of School.
§ The School will hire a Head of School, a Director for elementary, middle and high school (progressively increasing by one beginning year three), two family coordinators/assistants/office staff (increasing to five in year 2 and six in year 4), a leadership assistant (increasing by one beginning in year 3), a business manager/COO, two accountants/registrars (increasing to three in year 3 and 3.5 in year 4), a school nurse, a security officer, and a data clerk (increasing by one beginning in year 3).
§ HLCS will provide ongoing professional development to teachers and staff; professional development will include intensive two-week summer training.
§ In addition to leadership and administrative staff, HLCS will employ the following staff: ten general education teachers in year 1 (21, 30, 40, 44 respectively for years two through five), two special education teachers (increasing by two each year), a .5 substitute teacher, five teaching assistants (to decrease to four in year 4 and increase to eight in year 5), two specialty teachers (to increase to three in year 3, four in year 4 and five in year 5), a physical education/athletic director (to increase to two in year 3), one director of studies, a FLC director, a dean of students, and a student support coordinator (half-time in year 1, to increase to full-time status beginning in year 2).
Fiscal Impact
§ When fully enrolled with 904 students, HLCS will take .052% of the District?s budget (see Potential Fiscal Impact Chart).
§ Programmatic and fiscal audits will comply with all requirements made of public schools. The School will employ a New York State licensed public accountant or certified public accountant to perform the fiscal audit. In addition, the School will ensure that the audit is conducted in accordance with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) issued by the U.S. Comptroller General.
Potential Fiscal Impact of
Hyde Leadership Charter School
(New York City CSD 5/Region 10-Central Harlem/Manhattan)
School Year
Number of Students
Projected Payment*
Projected Impact
2005-06
220
$2,182,390
.0121%
2006-07
430
$4,457,532
.0240%
2007-08
618
$6,694,694
.0350%
2008-09
762
$8,626,081
.0438%
2009-10
904
$10,694,077
.0527%
*Assumes a 3 percent annual increase in the district?s budget from a 2004-2005 base of $17 billion and a 4.5 percent annual increase in the average expense per pupil, per year from the 2004-2005 final average expense per pupil of $9,084.
Community Support
§ HLCS has collected over 825 parent signatures from interested parents; of the signatures, 160 are from parents/guardians whose children will be entering kindergarten and 123 from parents/guardians whose children will be entering the sixth grade in September 2006.
§ Letters of support have been submitted from the following persons:
Beth Pettit, The St. Aloysius Education Clinic
Nick Blatchford, Founder/Executive Director, New Heights Youth, Inc.
Stephanie Palmer, Executive Director, New York City Mission Society
Mimi Levin Lieber, Regent Emerita from New York City
Hon. Lottie Wilkens Culpepper, whose child attended Hyde Schools
Recommendation
Approve the application.
Reason for Recommendation
1) The charter school described in the application meets the requirements set out in Article 56 of the Education Law, and all other applicable laws, rules, and regulations; (2) the applicants can demonstrate the ability to operate the school in an educationally and fiscally sound manner; and (3) granting the application is likely to improve student learning and achievement and materially further the purposes set out in subdivision two of section twenty-eight hundred fifty of Article 56 of the Education Law.
