Reply to DC Charters are behind national standards for transparency, open meetings, etc.

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Reply to "DC Charters are behind national standards for transparency, open meetings, etc."

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[quote=Anonymous]We get it...alot of anonymous posters are in support of perpetuating the "charter transparency" agenda.  For those just popping in and out of these threads...be cautious as this is a part of a big unionize charter schools or charter schools are bad, etc. push. Feel what you like about it, but for those of us on the inside (yes, I am on the inside) it is clear that DCUM is being weaponized a bit on these boards.

A few facts that this little article misses:

1) DCPS is NOT subject to Open Meetings Laws...it applies only to public "bodies" as defined in DC law (find it all here- https://code.dccouncil.us/dc/council/code/sections/2-574.html). DCPS is an Agency, not a public board. Interestingly, neither are ANCs. Also, the non-profit act has annual meeting and notice provisions that charter schools must follow...so meetings are not entirely behind closed doors as some will maintain. At my school (and the one where my kids go) meetings are published and families are welcome to attend.

2) DC Charters are all 501(c)(3) organizations. This is a bit atypical in the national charter landscape. So, when we say our charters are "behind other states", we also need to understand that each state is different and in many states and locations, charter schools operate as a part of the local school system. These are "district charters" and, therefore, subject to governmental transparency laws because they operate under the same boards or authority as other public schools.

Please realize that most charter leaders are not against being transparent, but we are against having to respond to endless and pointless FOIA requests  that will take our focus off doing work for kids. We don't need teachers searching years of emails or giving over copies of work/tests that have to be redacted. We don't have huge central office staff and a team of lawyers reviewing document requests. We are not against transparency, we are against having to waste time on things that won't help kids and we know there is a better way to satisfy people's desire to understand our work than requiring access via FOIA.

Also, PCSB requests hundreds of documents from schools each year. You can find many of them online at https://www.dcpcsb.org/data/dc-pcsb-transparency-quick-links.  You can see budgets, audits, and other information about financials for every charter school. Charter board meeting minutes are collected by the PCSB, so are information about our buildings, how we meet nearly every law in the DC Code, and many other documents. Not enough, we submit monitoring documents to OSSE (again, available via FOIA) and teacher information.  I would be shocked if what any person wanted to see was not already accessible by doing a FOIA to PCSB or OSSE. In fact, most other documents would be protected by some FOIA exemption or exception.

In short, I hope people are not getting sucked in to an anonymous poster's agenda points. Most of what you would want to know is out there...can we and PCSB do better, sure. However, DCPS is subject to FOIA and so is every other DC Agency and I fail to see this "tool" cleaning up and making everything transparent.

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