Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 27, Number 1, 1 January 2010 — Charter schools still doing more with less [ARTICLE]

Charter schools still doing more with less

ByT. Ilihia Gionson Publications Editor Adeeade sinee the first eharter sehools in Hawai'i opened their doors, the quasi-independent stu-dent-eentered puhlie sehools are still doing more with less. "The biggest differenee between running a eharter sehool and a traditional sehool is the laek of hnaneial stability," explained David Rizor, edueational direetor of the Voleano Sehool of Arts & Seienees on Hawai'i. Founded in 2001, VSAS is a sehool of 162 students in grades K-8, of whieh about 30 pereent are Native Hawaiian. Rizor explained that while a traditional school's funding is "pretty certain fairly early" in the school year, a charter school's funding is unpredictable. There are three dates in the year that have major implications on charter school funding. In May, the state Legislature decides its alloeahon to charter schools. In July, the governor releases the money - sometimes with changes, as happened in 2009 when Gov. Linda Lingle took a substantial cut fromthe charters' alloeahon. And Oct. 15 is the official student count day, from whieh eaeh charter school's funding is allocated based on a certain amount per pupil. This school year's charter school alloeation of $6,243.21 per student - $5,758 from the state and an additional $485.21 in federal stimulus funds - is down fromlast year's $7,590, and continues a downward trend from a high of $8,149 in school year 2007-2008. Contrast this with the per-pupil allocation to a traditional state Department of Education school of about $11,000 in the current school year. "The charter schools have never had equitable funding," Rizor said. "This is a critical year for the Legislature to decide

where they're going with charter schools." The next legislative session begins Jan. 20. "The situation for charter schools was really improving, then over the past several years it's been declining," Rizor said. "There are more bureaucratic and reporting requirements taking time and stealing resources that we don't have to spare." The per-pupil alloeahon for charter schools comprises all the money that the schools receive from the DOE; there is no additional funding for staff, supplies, utilities or facilities. Many of the charter schools make do with makeshift facilities - VSAS, for example, conducts classes in a mix of repurposed quonset huts and tents. Until the completion of their first new building at Kauhale 'Ōiwi O Pu'ukapu, Waimea's Kanu O Ka 'Āina was holding its classes in tents and shipping eontainers - more on that later. State Sen. Norman Sakamoto, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said the precise amount that charter schools receive per pupil is debatable, and that all parties should agree on what that amount is before the legislative session begins. "Charter schools don't feel they've been fairly funded, and we're working with other parties to clarify what equitable funding is," said Sakamoto (D-Salt Lake-Foster Village). Sakamoto said that the monies are budgeted as a fixed amount during the legislative process, so it's too early to say how mueh the charter schools - or any school, for that matter - will receive per pupil next year. "If you fix a number and then you get more students, the amount per pupil goes down," he said. "It's a moving target. "Going forward, we'd like to get everybody on the same page. People in the charter school community are working on it." Because of these funding constraints, those See CHAKTER SCH00LS on page 09

charter sch00ls Continued from page 03 in leadership positions often end up doing whatever is necessary for the schools to function smoothly. "I do everything from meeting with the school board to plunging toilets," Rizor said. In the case of the Hawaiian eulture and language-based charter schools, some help comes from Kamehameha Schools and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Seventeen of Hawai'i's 3 1 charter schools are focused on Hawaiian culture or deliver instruction through 'ōlelo Hawai'i, and those schools are popular among Native Hawaiians, who make up 80 percent of students in those schools, as opposed to 28.9 percent of students in conventional puhlie schools. OHA stepped in to help narrow the funding gap this school year, authorizing a grant of $ 1 .5 million to be distributed among the 17 Hawaiian language and culture-based charter schools. In past years, OHA charter school funding has been

used by schools to support in-class programs, curriculumdevelopment, staff development, renovate facilities and buy vehicles. Kamehameha Schools' Ho'olako Like program has provided charter schools with supplemental services and supplemental funding of $1,500 per pupil. The services include leadership development, staff and faculty professional development, models of "best practices" curriculum, materials and teaching methods, parent, community and loeal school board development, and advocacy. But for the multitudinous ehallenges, charter schools reap a great reward: independence. Rather than coming under the direct oversight of the state Board of Education, charter schools are eaeh governed by a loeal school board that sets policy, approves the school's budget and hires the school director. "The neat thing about the charter school boards is that they are stakeholder boards," explained VSAS's Rizor. "They are community members, teachers, staff, students and parents." "Having this inclusive model makes us mueh more responsive to community wants and needs," Rizor

said "They pay attention to the school, and boy do we hear about it if they aren't happy." Perhaps the charter schools' biggest strength as a result of that independence is flexibility. "We ean change quickly based on a small group of even an individual student," Rizor said. That flexibility leads to creativity and great successes. A decade after opening their tents for business, Kanu O Ka 'Āina last year blessed the first building in their community learning complex Kauhale 'Ōiwi O Pu'ukapu. OHA Trustees awarded a grant of $1 million toward the construction of Hālau Ho'olako, a $4.8-million lesson in sustainable practices built on Hawaiian homestead land and used by the entire Waimea community. "Hālau Ho'olako is the result of an organization-wide capacitybuilding effort," said Kēhaulani Marshall, a teacher at Kanu O Ka 'Āina. She credits the development of Hālau Ho'olako to partnerships and good relationships. "Start first with your community base - from there, you will forge important partnerships that keep you accountable to a community-based vision." ■