Renewal Review –

Premier Arts and Sciences

Charter School (Premier)
Harrisburg School District
Presentation to the Board of School Directors
August 20, 2018
 Premier – Basic Facts

Charter: granted in 2013 with term from 7/1/13 to 6/30/18

Location: 500 North 17th Street, Harrisburg

Enrollment in 2017-2018: 220 students in K-5, per Charter

Mission: “To provide learning opportunities for students using a back-to-

basics approach to learning.”

Admission requirements: None

 Renewal Review Process
 Section 1728-A of the CSL requires the school district to perform a
comprehensive review of the charter school’s performance and
operations prior to granting a five year renewal of the charter

 School Board Policy 140 Renewal Guidelines:

 Require submission of a Renewal Application by October 31 of

renewal year

 District administration to conduct at least one site visit and

attend at least one Charter Board meeting

 District administration will inform the charter school whether it

intends to recommend renewal or non-renewal
 Renewal Review of Premier

 Premier requested renewal and submitted renewal application by October 31, 2017

 Administration conducted review of renewal application and requested additional

documents and information; conducted numerous site visits

 At the request of HSD, Premier provided supplemental information in early January, 2018

 Administration and legal counsel met with Premier representatives and legal counsel on
February 20, 2018

 On February 28, informed Premier that grounds for nonrenewal existed and asked Premier
to voluntarily cease operations at the end of 17-18

 Additional meetings occurred with Premier officials in May and August; additional
information gathering and site visits occurred

 Board has been provided with documentation provided by Premier during review
 Premier – Child Accounting
Deficiencies
 Failed to have proper procedures and trained staff in place to perform
child accounting functions
 PIMS Average Daily Membership (“ADM”) reporting
 Safe Schools reports
 Data impacting State assessment system

 Because of child accounting failures, Premier did not receive SPP data
for the 2016-2017 school year and the State could not report PSSA data
or PVAAS data for 2016-2017
 Appears to be the only school in the State that had this problem

 Premier did not maintain its attendance and enrollment data for any
year prior to 2017-2018. Because there is no archived data, Premier
could not remedy the child accounting issues for prior years. No way of
verifying accuracy of attendance records for prior years.
 Premier – Child Accounting
Deficiencies

 Premier reported inaccurate ADM data to the State throughout the

charter term, compared to ADM billed to the District and ADM
submitted to PDE through SHARRS. By way of example:

 In 14-15, 124.98 ADM reported to PIMS but billed HSD for ADM of
175.533
 In 16-17, 171.83 ADM reported to PIMS but billed HSD for ADM of
212.183

 Results in deficiencies to School District’s State subsidy presently

and into the future

 Also results in raising the School District’s charter school tuition rates
paid out to all charter schools
 Premier – Noncompliance with
Applicable Laws
 School and Student Safety:
 Safe Schools reports submitted to PDE for 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 contain false
data. Premier filed a corrected report for 2016-2017 with PDE on June 13, 2018,
approximately 11 months after the deadline.
 Corrected report appears to be incomplete as it does not report any data
for suspensions, expulsions or truancy.
 Corrected report indicates 53 incidents but only two parent contacts made

 Fire drills and bus evacuations were not performed on a monthly basis as required
by State law; reports were not made with the State as required

 Premier did not complete student physical exams, dental exams and vision
screenings as required by law

 Inconsistent Code of Conduct documentation submitted; one version references

Louisiana law and violates Chapter 12; the second version does not inform
parents or students of any due process procedures for expulsions in violation of
Chapter 12
 Premier – Noncompliance with
Applicable Laws
 Personnel Issues:
 Clearance information was not collected from all employees as required by law
 No evidence of Act 168 sexual misconduct reporting
 No evidence of Act 126 mandated reporting training

 Significant turnover in staff during charter term

 Five principals in five years, which Premier described itself as a “major weakness”.
 Most recent principal resigned as of June 30, 2018.

 Several teachers have been hired on a contractual basis rather than as

employees, which violates the Charter School Law

 Special Education
 Staff does not understand programming differences between Section 504 and
IDEA, which may account for the significant rise in number of identified special
education students during the 2017-2018 school year
 Special ed policy references Chapter 14, which does not apply to charter schools
 Premier – Noncompliance with
Applicable Laws
 Governance Matters:
 Sunshine Act: Board did not act in compliance with Sunshine Act
 Multiple board meetings where action taken without a quorum
 Executive sessions announced improperly or for improper reasons

 Board did not act in compliance with its own Bylaws or the Charter School Law
 Board did not take action to approve school calendars, 16-17 budget,
retention of auditor, approval of audit reports, employee actions and
compensation
 Board did not have the committee structure required under its Bylaws
 Board did not consistently meet Bylaw requirements for the number of
directors

 Clearances were not collected from all Board members who interact with
students; one Board member has a record that violates clearance requirements

 Independent financial audit for the 2016-2017 school year was not completed
until July 11, 2017
Premier – Academic Performance
Pertinent reported data from PDE for Charter term:

13-14 (prior to 14-15 15-16 16-17

realignment
SPP Score 63.1 None received 39.7 Unable to
calculate
PSSA – Math 70.00 12.7 4.35 Not reported
PSSA – ELA/Reading 60 27.8 19.13 Not reported
PSSA – Science (grade 4) NA 43.6 26.32 Not reported
Grade 3 Reading NA 32.5 23.08 Not reported
Indicators of Closing Achievement Gap – All NA Not reported 0.00 Not reported
(Math)
Indicators of Closing Achievement Gap – All NA Not reported 0.00 Not reported
(ELA)
Indicators of Closing Achievement Gap – All NA Not reported 0.00 Not reported
(Science)
Indicators of Closing Achievement Gap – H.U. NA Not reported 0.00 Not reported
(Math)
Indicators of Closing Achievement Gap – H.U. NA Not reported 0.00 Not reported
(ELA)
Indicators of Closing Achievement Gap – H.U. NA Not reported 0.00 Not reported
(Science)
PVAAS – Math NA 50.0 (red) 51.00 (red) Not reported
PVAAS – ELA NA 72.0 (green) 62.00 (yellow) Not reported
PVAAS – Science NA 50.0 (red) 50.00 (red) Not reported
Attendance Rate NA 94.49 94.78 93.25
Premier – Comparative Academic
Performance to HSD Schools
Harrisburg School District: Premier Arts & Science CS:
ELA PSSA Performance (%P+A) ELA PSSA Performance (%P+A)
Grade 13-14* 14-15 15-16 16-17* 13-14* 14-15 15-16 16-17*
3 34.9 18.6 19.4 20.5 60 32 21 3
4 28.7 17.4 16.6 21.6 N/A 23 8 19
5 23.0 18.1 20.3 20.8 N/A N/A 29 8

Harrisburg School District: Premier Arts & Science CS:

Mathematics PSSA Performance (%P+A) Mathematics PSSA Performance (%P+A)
Grade 13-14* 14-15 15-16 16-17* 13-14* 14-15 15-16 16-17*
3 37.7 10.4 13.7 17.5 70 20 5 5
4 36.9 9.4 12.0 12.0 N/A 5 5 0
5 28.6 6.2 8.7 10.5 N/A N/A 3 0

Harrisburg School District: Premier Arts & Science CS:

Science PSSA Performance (%P+A) Science PSSA Performance (%P+A)
Grade 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17* 13-14 14-15 15-16 16-17*
4 35.9 32.2 26.1 28.2 N/A 43.6 26.3 56
Premier – Comparative Academic
Performance to HSD Schools
School Performance Profile Comparison: 2014-2017 SY

2013-2014 (pre- 2014-2015 2015-2016 2016-2017

realigned PSSA)
Premier: 63.1 PDE did not assign an SPP score Melrose: 67.5 Ben Franklin: 60.8
to K-8 schools, to establish
Foose: 57.8 baseline performance for the Ben Franklin: 50.3 Melrose: 58.2
PA Core Standards-aligned
Scott: 57.0 PSSA ELA and Math Downey: 47.8 Foose: 53.3
assessments
Melrose: 53.1 Foose: 46.8 Scott: 52.7

Downey: 49.4 Scott: 44.6 Downey: 45.5

Ben Franklin: 44.6 Premier: 39.1 Premier: No score

 Premier – Charter Noncompliance
 Premier did not comply with its Charter in terms of material curriculum to be provided and
attainment of goals
 Did not implement the Core Knowledge curriculum and Marva Collins Reading
Program as the core curricular programs
 Did not utilize Stanford Achievement tests to measure goal attainment
 False representations made in Title I Schoolwide Planning document in 2016 about the
use of these resources

 Particular to Premier’s attainment of the goals in its charter application:

 98% student participation rate on the PSSA – DID NOT MEET

 98% student attendance – DID NOT MEET
 98% parent volunteer participation rate– DID NOT MEET
 98% student participation in volunteer community service activities – DID NOT
MEET
 98% parent participation for training in teaching techniques to use at home –
DID NOT MEET
 Performance on Stanford Achievement Tests – Premier never administered such
tests, so cannot measure
 Premier – Recommendation

 Asking the Board to adopt a resolution instituting nonrenewal

proceedings against Premier

 Contains the charges justifying nonrenewal

 Institutes the hearing process where evidence would be presented
in support of the charges, witnesses could be cross-examined by
Premier’s legal counsel and Premier could present evidence in its
defense
 Asks the Board to appoint a hearing officer to ensure that the
process moves forward and evidence is properly collected for
presentation to the Board
 Board would render final decision on the nonrenewal following the
completion of the record and the receipt of public comment
 Premier – Recommendation

Questions?