Dear School Leaders, Advocates, and Supporters,

We’ve made it to June! It’s hard to believe that we have another school year and budget season (almost) behind us. To our brilliant LEA leaders, congratulations to each of you on your hard work this school year. No one is more proud and appreciative of all you do than the DC Alliance team. We see all of it––the successes and triumphs and the challenges you face every day. Thank you for trusting us to be your thought partner, and to advocate for your students and families alongside you. It is our privilege.

Beyond the great work our school leaders do every day to support their communities, their collective voice and action have also been critical to the DC Alliance’s strong budget advocacy this Spring. Here are some of the highlights:  

• The Council rejected Mayor Bowser’s proposed repeal of annual facilities allotment increases. At this time, the budget includes an additional $17.5 million for charter facilities funding over the 4-year financial plan to restore the annual 3.1% charter facilities allotment increase law.
• Mayor Bowser’s proposed 12.4% increase to the UPSFF was adopted. This also includes increasing the weight for Adult students from .91 to 1.0 and increasing the Alternative program weight from 1.52 to 1.58. 
• The Council has invested in students who choose to attend St. Coletta Special Education Public Charter School. The budget will provide $1.2 million in one-time funds to support excess costs of students with significant and complex disabilities.

In a tight budget year, with limited funding and cuts across critical programs, the public charter school community engaged Councilmembers and staff collaboratively and thoughtfully on issues that mattered to the sector. Thank you for generating your thousands of emails to the Council, making personal phone calls, extending invitations to Councilmembers to tour your schools, and being responsive when called upon. The budget season will not conclude until the final vote on the Budget Support Act later this month, but I am hopeful the Council will not roll back these strong investments in public education. We are grateful to Chairman Mendelson, Councilmember Henderson, and the entire Council for holding us to task when necessary, but ultimately finding ways to make sure public charter schools in the District are funded equitably.

In addition to our budget work, the DC Alliance team is thrilled that after more than three years of partnership, discussion and debate, and advocacy with the DC PCSB staff, Board, and Executive Director, the PCSB has taken steps to get us closer to a high-quality accountability system that also prioritizes equity by approving the ASPIRE framework. We are grateful for our continued partnership with PCSB, and for their genuine collaboration with school leaders. While there are still additional details to work through for some of our member schools, we are confident that the 2024-2025 school year will provide ample opportunity to test the data, ensure schools understand their pathways to goal attainment and work through the remaining unfinished metrics. We testified earlier this year about the importance of having a strong, independent authorizer in the District. PCSB’s work on ASPIRE, while simultaneously partnering with the DC Alliance on the above budget advocacy wins, is a strong example of how authorizers and advocacy organizations can push each other to build a stronger sector together!

Ariel

A Round of Personal Thank Yous from Ariel: To the DC Alliance team, thank you for your incredible work this Spring. With many competing priorities, you continue to work tirelessly for our schools, and, for that, I am eternally grateful. A very special shout out to our Senior Director of School Development and Accountability, Anne Herr, for leading efforts on the ASPIRE framework. And, another big thank you to our Government Affairs team, led by Senior Director of Government Affairs, Tami Lewis, for herculean efforts this budget season. 

DC Alliance Updates: 

Farewell to Dr. Grant: Dr. Christina Grant has served as a champion for children and families across the District as State Superintendent of Education, and we’re sad to see her go. We’re so grateful for her thoughtful partnership and support of charter schools, and her leadership has been a key component in the difficult job of ensuring long-term academic recovery for our students. Under Dr. Grant’s leadership, OSSE engaged in critical work to create, maintain, and improve systems vital to charter schools’ recovery strategies, from high-impact tutoring programs to classes helping students prepare for high-wage, high-skill, in-demand careers to ensuring that educators have robust training opportunities in literacy instruction, just to name a few. She will be greatly missed, but we wish her all the best in her extraordinary new opportunity!

Our 2024 Needs Assessment Report: The DC Alliance conducts a needs assessment each year because we strive for our support, programming and resources to be fully aligned with our diverse schools’ actual needs. We thank all the school leaders and partners who contributed input to our 2024 needs assessment! That includes the 56 LEA leaders who completed the survey, 6 focus groups of school staff we met with, and 19 school partners we interviewed. We look forward to working with the charter community on the next steps outlined in the report. The DC Alliance will also continue ongoing support, including engaging with agencies to problem solve, navigating the rollout of ASPIRE, and organizing training on staff satisfaction and governance. Click here to read the report.

Growing the Student Support Leader Community: This week we host our final student support leader meeting of school year 2023-24. Based on feedback from our 2023 needs assessment, we piloted a monthly learning community for student support directors, clinicians, and culture and special education leaders to build networks and partnerships across LEAs. Over 60% of charter LEAs engaged in conversations on a variety of topics, including chronic absenteeism, safety, and student and community trauma. Based on feedback from leaders, we are excited to continue to facilitate space for this community next year and plan to pilot a similar opportunity for academic leaders.

Get Involved & Upcoming Events:

Save the Date for the DC Alliance Gala: The DC Alliance will celebrate its first Gala on October 25th, 2024. This year, we are honoring the life and legacy of Dr. Ramona H. Edelin. Dr. Edelin was a civil rights icon who dedicated the last two decades of her life to steadfastly advocating for high-quality educational opportunities for all students in Washington, DC. She helped catalyze the establishment of the first charter schools and championed the sector that now educates nearly half of the District’s students. To honor her legacy, we are excited to bestow Pat Brantley, CEO of Friendship Public Charter School, with the inaugural “Dr. Ramona H. Edelin Legacy Award.”