Pub. 3 2013-2014 Issue 1

6 BOARD Message Accelerating Charter Schools in 2013-2014 “When performance is measured performance improves. When performance is measured and recorded the rate of performance accelerates.” On September 3rd Utah’s Grading System was launched. The first school most of us looked up was the school our own children attend. Then of course, we began to compare: the other local schools, schools of family members, schools of friends and so on and so on. I imagine that as we reviewed each grade, we perhaps experienced a variety of emotions: happiness, disbelief, surprise, or frustration. While I am not here to take sides on the issue of school grading, I do believe that regardless of the grade our school received, the opportunity lies before each of us to use this data in such a way as to empower teachers, staff members and parents with the tools and information they need to offer their students an excellent educational option. The charter school movement in Utah is growing rapidly – accelerating even – with an average of 6-8 new schools opening each year. As charter school leaders we need to be focused on achiev- ing the academic results and other performance measures outlined in our charter and don’t always have the time it takes to ensure that policy makers on the Hill are making decisions that are in our best interest. During the last three years, The Utah Association of Public Charter Schools has gained enormous respect and credibility with state and local policy makers as a direct result of Chris Bleak’s aggressive lobbying efforts on behalf of the over 100+ char- ter schools throughout the state. He is definitely the “Go To Guy” on the Hill when someone has a charter school question! His persistent efforts this year will continue to enhance the environment for charter schools allowing for greater growth and au- tonomy to innovate while reducing the financial or operational burdens. No doubt this allows charter schools to accelerate their own academic and charter specific perfor- mance. I invite you to join forces with the Association to more fully showcase the ben- efits to individual students that are realized by choice in public education. As we unite our efforts we continue to make a difference in the lives of Utah’s students. Thanks for your support. Gerry Hassell, Board Chair Gerry Hassell is the Vice-President Treasury Management Consultant for AmericanWest Bank. Gerry was raised in Colorado and attended Brigham Young University where he met his wife Natalie. He graduated from BYU in 1993 in Business Management with an emphasis in Organizational Behavior. Upon graduating he accepted a management position with Wal-Mart. In 2002 he was of- fered a Salt Lake City position, Director of Pharmacy Operations. He was responsible for 32 facilities and 400 employees. In seven years he was twice ranked in the top five in overall performance. Gerry started a small business consulting company called, ‘Hassle’ Free Consulting in 2009 and joined Zions Bank in 2010. UTAH ASSOCIATION OF PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS BOARD OF DIRECTORS: GERRY HASSELL (BOARD CHAIR) SONIA WOODBURY (VICE CHAIR) LINCOLN FILLMORE (TREASURER) DEBBY LLEWELYN (SECRETARY) JESSIE KIDD BRAD NELSON STACEY HUTCHINGS STAFF CONTACT INFO: CHRIS BLEAK CEO 801-680-8141 chrisrbleak@utahcharters.org TINA SMITH Director of Operations 801-558-7256 tina@utahcharters.org WHITNEY NEUMANN Director of Communications 703-994-8456 whitney@utahcharters.org TWITTER: @UTAHCHARTERS FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/UAPCS WWW.UTAHCHARTERS.ORG