May 3, 2022

Charter School programs often require more financial support than what is provided by state and federal funds, so how do you close that gap? Development and fundraising can be daunting tasks, but both are vital to any organization’s overall success and bottom line. Cultivating community relationships, engaging students and parents in the cause, and generating donations in a fun and meaningful way will give your Development Plan a good foundation. Spectrum Academy, a charter school for students with high-functioning autism, uses a variety of methods to bridge the financial gap and provide the unique educational programs and tools necessary to fulfill its mission.

Board meeting minutes matter. Minutes have specific guidelines (see Open and Public Meetings Act, Utah Code Title 52-4-203). Think of minutes like the evening news sports report of a basketball game. If the report only included the final score, you wouldn’t have a complete picture of the game. The equivalent in minutes would be just a listing of the votes of any given board action. The sports report often includes video highlights of important plays during the game. In meeting minutes, this would be a synopsis of important points in the discussion. Board minutes do not need to be a transcription of everything that occurred. They should however be complete enough for someone to understand the substance of the discussion. And just as a sports report includes listing key players in the game or out with injuries, minutes reflect meeting attendees and those absent. For big sports fans who want to know every detail of the game, they can go back and watch it in full. An audio recording is required for each open meeting so that if you want to know all the details they are available to you.

During my last year teaching in a large, low-income, district-run, turnaround school, I had 26 students in my sixth-grade class. Of those students, how many could read on grade level on the first day of school? Only two. What percentage of them could perform basic multiplication problems? Only 50%. In fact, a full 25% couldn’t perform a subtraction problem if it required borrowing. This data affected me profoundly, and I knew something had to be done. So, I did what every good teacher would do: I Googled for answers.

There are many definitions of the term Science of Reading (SOR). The International Literacy Association (ILA) defines the Science of Reading as: “a corpus of objective investigation and accumulation of reliable evidence about how humans learn to read and how reading should be taught.”

International Literacy Association, 2020

Anya Yeager, Board Chair After moving to Utah 15 years ago, Anya Yeager held an administrative position with the Utah State Office of Child Care as a Quality Improvement Consultant and, for the last decade, has served in the charter school world. During that time, her proud professional moments have included earning the title of

We can all breathe a sigh of relief — the Legislature’s general session is over. No more unnecessary wrangling. No more ill-considered, if well-intentioned bills. And perhaps most hopefully, less strife, more striving together.