The board has been busy networking with other charter schools and organizations and attending workshops to better understand best practices in charter school start up and operations.
The first opportunity was a roundtable discussion sponsored by Beacon Educational Network. Beacon's mission is to increase the college readiness, enrollment, and persistence of students in Santa Cruz County and beyond until every student, in every school in America, has the opportunity to succeed in college.
Panelists included Reed Hastings, President of Netflix and very active local charter school advocate and funder; David Conley, Director of the Center for Education Policy Research; Lisa Graham Keegan, one of the nation's most prominent and outspoken education reform advocates and CEO of Education Leaders Council; Brian King, Superintendent/President of Cabrillo College; Michael Kirst, Professor of Education and Business Adminstration at Stanford University since 1969; and Michael Watkins, Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools.
After the roundtable, we were able to speak directly with the panelists and members of the audience. In particular, we were able to speak with Reed Hastings, who now knows personally about SBP.
We also attended workshops on Charter School Startup and Charter School Finance and Facilities hosted by the Center for Charter School Development. These workshops provided a wealth of information which will help us ensure the school's success.
Other workshops as well as learning and networking opportunities are scheduled throughout the year. Charter schools that have gone before us and the largest state-wide charter organizations have been very open in sharing information and experiences. All of this makes our school much stronger and gives us the opportunity to avoid mistakes and apply best practices.
If you would like to participate in this part of the creation of SBP, please reply to this email.
