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Author Topic: Corbett School District Considers Going All Charter  (Read 11140 times)
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« on: November 18, 2018, 06:49:05 AM »

The Corbett School District is considering going to an all charter district.

UPDATED 5/14/19: The board is voting on this 5/15/2019: Details: http://corbettoregon.com/forum/index.php?topic=1588.0

There is a Special Board Meeting on Monday night (tomorrow) at Menucha Lodge starting at 5:00pm. This will be a board development workshop facilitation with OSBA Information/Discussion about what it would mean for the Corbett School District to operate as an autonomous charter district.

Link to board books with official CSD agenda and minutes: https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicHome.aspx?ak=1001104)

* The agreement with OSBA to facilitate this topic was initiated at the end of October (10/29/18) and signed by the Superintendent on November 6th. The public notice about this meeting was posted to board books yesterday (11/17/18). See attached.


* osbaallcharter.pdf (929.59 KB - downloaded 477 times.)
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Mindy Schmidt
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« Reply #1 on: November 18, 2018, 10:21:58 AM »

In the recent CSD (Corbett School District) newsletter, RT (Randy Trani - Superintendent of CSD), explains that going to an all Charter District will allow CSD to retain the students (and the funding for those students) after a law sunsets that has allowed students to come to Corbett from other districts. He states:

"It is well known that approximately half of Corbett's students are from out of district. They have always been a part of the fabric of our school system, as has been the money that comes with them." and "The current student population of approximately 1225 (K-12) has remained steady for the past seven school years."

CSD's local population has historically been 600-700 students.
The fabric of our community school changed when Randy Trani and Bob Dunton created the first Charter School.


2001 - 576 total enrolled  * 30 transfers
2004 - 639 total enrolled  * 76 transfers
2008 - 696 total enrolled  * 153 transfers
2009 - Charter opened
2013 - 1338 total enrolled * 663 transfers

The below is a recap and condensed timeline (including the enrollment numbers/transfer #s) that may help to give some perspective about the hesitancy in Corbett to support "going all charter".




2009 - The Corbett Charter School was not legally established with Multnomah County. This meant CSD denied the Corbett community their legal right to a public hearing to find out what the growth of Corbett Schools (from adding hundreds of students from out of the area) might look like. This propped open the door to the expansion we have seen over the past 10 years.

2011 - Randy Trani initially faulted a computer glitch and state funding black magic for a budget shortfall of $725,000. CSD tried to float a levy to cover the shortfall - but it failed as no one (even board members at the time) could explain what happened. CSD chose to expand the Charter School (adding even more out of area students) to "save CSD" financially. http://corbettpost.com/news/levy-info/

2012 - CSD fell out of compliance with Multnomah County from adding too many students to our buildings. CSD converted libraries and staff rooms into classrooms and they even divided rooms in half. This created the overcrowding issues and lack of square footage per student that later CSD fliers claimed we needed for the best instructional environments for kids. CSD also refurbished the Springdale School (an empty building at the time) to add more students.

The Superintendent (Randy Trani) did not not involve the school board or the community when he applied for expanding the allowed student population numbers with the County in 2012. His initial application (had it been approved) would have allowed over 2,100 students/staff (for a school that was historically 600-700 kids). RT is on record telling the county he had no plans to add students (even though he later asked the school board for "unlimited openings" from out of area students). CSD also appears to have misled the County by saying they had no plans for structure expansion when asked. Unless they forgot that at the same time, CSD was working on passing a bond for exactly that... structure expansion. http://corbettpost.com/application-for-conditional-use/

CSD is now legally allowed to add up to 1,730 students/staff into our district (if we go all Charter or laws change).
If we pass a bond, and change the size of buildings or the campus - CSD can revisit that application process and ask for even more out of area students.





1999 - DUNTONS ARRIVE
Bob Dunton was hired as the Superintendent. His wife was employed soon after by CSD. Later they became the directors of the Corbett Charter School (a school with less than 500 students where they earned over $325,000 a year). While other districts made cuts, CSD expanded with the use of the I-Tax funds (around 04/05) and started actively recruiting kids from outside of Corbett.
 
2001 - 576 total enrolled * 30 transfers
 
2002  - 593 total enrolled * 43 transfers
 
2003 - 597  total enrolled * 50 transfers
 
2004 - DUNTON HIRED TRANI
Trani came to CSD as a teacher. He was promoted to principal and then appointed to Superintendent after the Charter came on line. He was listed as the president of the Charter in tax documents. These men worked together in Alaska years before. They implemented "Imaginative Education" at CSD (experimental educational philosophy by Dr. Egan) this included removing grades and creating blended classrooms of 3 grade levels for many years.
 
2004 - 639 total enrolled * 76 transfers
 
2005 - TRANI BEGINS AP FOR ALL WHICH LEADS TO "NATIONAL RANKING"
AP FOR ALL is the mandatory Advanced placement high school program in Corbett. The National Ranking tagline was based on how many AP tests were taken per graduate. The ranking at that time was not based on test performance. CSD purchased over 1,000 AP tests for graduating classes of less than 70-80 kids at one point. http://corbettpost.com/news/newsweek/
 
2008 - 696 total enrolled * 153 transfers

2009 - CHARTER OPENS
Never legally established with the County as mentioned above. Trani/Dunton were quoted in the papers at this time saying that they had been talking about the Charter for 5 years. It was a surprise to many in Corbett that we had opened a charter school though.
 
2010 - 970 total enrolled * 340 transfers
 
2010 - TRANI APPOINTED TO SUPERINTENDENT
When Dunton became the director of the Charter full time, Trani was tapped to take his chair. There were no other candidates considered for Superintendent. No current administrator at CSD has ever served as an administrator in any other district. All were promoted from teachers. Some came to Corbett as first year teachers.

2011 - $725,000 COMPUTER GLITCH
RT blames state funding black magic and a computer glitch in his community presentation (you can see this power point at the following link). The levy fails. CSD allows the Charter to expand (after one  year) to allow in more out of area students to help fill budget shortfall. http://corbettpost.com/news/levy-info/

2011 - 1101 total enrolled * 491 transfers
 
2011 - SELP (State Energy Loan Program) DISCUSSION  
RT states at this time that the middle school will need to be replaced and torn down within the next 10 years. He and staff are embarrassed by the building. No mention of it being unsafe until the bond campaigns begin. http://corbettoregon.com/forum/index.php?topic=516.0 (There was also no mention of plans to fix the middle school).
 
2012 - CAPS (SPRINGDALE SCHOOL) OPENS AND HB3681 ALLOWS MORE KIDS IN

The Superintendent encouraged the board to see this as a way to make more revenue by expanding programming. This increased the size of our district again with out of area students as it opened up more seats. Many people still believe the school was built with grants. It was not. CSD took out loans to refurbish the empty building. http://corbettpost.com/news/springdale-million-dollar-loan/ and http://corbettpost.com/news/house-bill-3681/
 
2013 - 1338 enrolled at CSD - with 663 transfer students
 
2013 - FIRST FAILED BOND
There is a recap of the Nelson Survey (CSD paid for to find out what the Corbett community would support). CSD ignored the findings of that report though and went "big" and asked for more than the community said it would support. See here: http://corbettpost.com/csd-board-meeting-notes-7-2013/

There was also a facilities use committee leading up to the first bond. This started with over 60 participants - but that number dropped to 19 people. Many cited frustration with the process and feeling as though they weren’t being heard, or there was already a plan they wanted everyone to agree with. Here are some of the things heard by the consultant helping CSD pass a bond at that time: “Verbiage change is to disguise the things those surveyed did not seem to want.” … “Bill it as gym space and make it whatever you want later on.” … “General way to describe it & get voters to approve.” http://corbettpost.com/news/csd-bond-in-2013/
 
2014 - SUPERINTENDENT TRANI'S AFFAIR WITH MARRIED STAFF MEMBER CONFIRMED BY DUNTON IN EMAIL TO PARENTS
The school board chair at the time  "buried" this with district lawyers as a "personnel issue" .... The school board never met in executive session (or otherwise) to discuss the issue formally. http://corbettoregon.com/forum/index.php?topic=810.0
 
2014 - CSD EVICTS CHARTER AND OPEN ENROLLS (ABSORBS) CHARTER STUDENTS (470+ out of area students).
There were CSD bond fliers at this time - claiming that the new buildings (from the passage of a bond) would not be for the Charter. However, they did not mention that they had evicted the Charter and kept all those out of area students. http://corbettpost.com/csd/charter-school/

2014 - SECOND FAILED BOND

2014 - THIRD FAILED BOND
 
2015 - CSD LOSES SMALL SCHOOL FUNDING
This came after trying to force through (on paper) a "STEM SCHOOL" to help split up the numbers at our high school .... CSD was caught by the state for not actually having that second school - and lost about 1/2 million a year in funding. http://www.corbettsos.com/the-loss-of-small-school-funding/

2016 - STATE FINDS DUNTONS VIOLATED LAWS
In April of 2016 the Oregon Government Ethics Commission investigated Bob Dunton and Sheri Dunton and found sufficient evidence that Bob Dunton was in violations of State Laws pertaining to Abuse of Office and Nepotism. http://corbettpost.com/news/commission-finds-robert-dunton-violated-laws/

2016 - FOURTH FAILED BOND


* Enrollment numbers (as reported to ODE) compiled by Corbett SOS here:
http://www.corbettsos.com/csd-enrollment-data/




* csdenrollment.jpg (545.62 KB, 1368x1293 - viewed 989 times.)
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