Cali’s charter renewal OK’d by school board

Dual-immersion program given another five years on its
charter
by NATHAN WRIGHT, Staff Writer
Cali Calm/cac Charter School was given a thumbs up by the
Windsor School Board last week, and will continue its dual
immersion program for at least the next five years.
The board voted unanimously to approve the Cali Calm/cac Charter
renewal on Tuesday, April 15, and the members spoke out in
overwhelming support of the school.
The vote came after WUSD Superintendent Robert Carter
recommended that the board approve the charter. “My recommendation
to the board is to approve the charter for the next five years as
long as the two criterion are met,” Carter said.
The two criterion include: details of special education services
and funding provisions and the school’s admission requirements.
“We’re discussing how we’re going to provide for students with
special needs in special education,” said Cali Principal Ginger
Dale. The admission requirements will spell out how the school will
handle transfer students over the next five years. According to
Dale, these criterion are close to being met.
“We’re very close,” she said. “The week we get back from spring
break we have a meeting, and we’ll probably finish it all up
then.”
The charter renewal application has been revised several times
in the past months, and the administration is happy with the final
results. Dale said that almost 100-percent of her teacher’s signed
the charter petition. “It was a brilliant process and I was happy
to be part of it,” she said.
For Dale and Carter, the charter renewal process has been long
and tedious. Cali Calm/cac, a dual immersion school that
specializes in bilingual education, has failed to meet its API
testing goals for the past three years. While Cali Calm/cac has
received enormous support on the local level, there are concerns
that the school may be taken over by the state in the future if it
doesn’t meet its API goals.
The school has shown improvement, but the state is looking for a
five-percent minimum improvement in the test scores each year. No
school in the WUSD managed to meet that goal last year.
Dale and Cali Calm/cac staff are working hard to meet hose API
goals. The school is using after-school tutoring, reading
specialists and instructional aides to help students improve their
test scores.
The board acknowledged the school’s efforts at its latest board
meeting. “The school has nowhere to go but up, and it is going up,”
said School Board Member Cheryl Scholar. Most of the board offered
encouragement, including Board President Ted Seche. “I want to
congratulate you in putting this together and I want to wish you
luck in the coming years,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of Cali Calm/cac was student Nathan Ralls,
who spoke to the board moments before they approved the character
renewal. “I want to thank you on behalf of all the Cali Calm/cac
Charter Students,” he said.