Charter Schools - Listserv

Below are recent messages that were sent out through the Charter School Administrator's Listserv.

2011-2012 Listserv Postings

7/26/2012 - News from the Division of Grants Administration

Planning amounts for open-enrollment charter schools are now available for programs in the 2012–2013 NCLB Consolidated Federal Grant Application on the Division of Grants Administration Federal Entitlements page (http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=5040&menu_id=2147483678).

The NCLB Application Designation and Certification (ADC) form and application are populated with planning amounts and are due September 4, 2012.

7/26/2012 - 2012–2013 NCLB Consolidated Application Negotiators

Carlos Garza – 1, 2, and 4

Djuna Scott – 3, 5, 9, and 11

Murray Moore – 6, 7, and 8

Linda Freeman – 10, 19, and 20

Mary Nyert – 12, 13, and 14

Nelli Nino – 15, 16, 17, and 18

Revised planning amounts for programs in the 2012–2013 Title I, Part C, Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act Grant Application are also available on the Division of Grants Administration Federal Entitlements page (http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=5040&menu_id=2147483678). Planning amounts for open-enrollment charter schools are included.

If your LEA planning amounts have changed and your application is in the review process, your regional negotiator will return the application during this process so the LEA may adjust its budgets. If a Notice of Grant Award (NOGA) has already been awarded, Texas Education Agency staff will initiate budget adjustments and will adjust the largest budgeted class/object code to incorporate the revised planning amounts. Lastly, if your LEA has not submitted its 2012–2013 Title I, Part C, Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act Grant Application, budgets are populated with revised planning amounts and applications are due August 31, 2012.

7/26/2012 - 2012–2013 Title I, Part C Carl D Perkins Career and Technical Education Act Grant Application Regional Negotiators

Samara Florus: ESC regions 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11

Amy Samet: ESC regions 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10

Kristen Stohl: ESC regions 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20

For additional information regarding these planning amounts, please contact the Division of Grants Administration at (512) 463-8525, or visit the TEA Grant Opportunities page.

6/29/2012 - School Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) Ratings

The preliminary 2012 School Financial Integrity Rating System of Texas (FIRST) ratings have been released within Charter School School FIRST Application (CSSF). These preliminary ratings are only accessible to the open-enrollment charter schools.

Consistent with prior years, open-enrollment charter schools have an opportunity to appeal their preliminary rating within 30 days of the release of these ratings if the open-enrollment charter schools believes that the rating was based on a data error.

               http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147507461

The deadline to appeal the preliminary rating is July 30, 2012.

Final ratings will be released in September 2012.

REMINDER:

In order to access the Charter School School First (CSSF) application, you must have a TEA Login (TEAL) user account. TEAL is the new secure environment that will eventually replace the current TEASE security system.

If you have not already done so, you must do the following to be able to use this capability:

Request your TEAL account by clicking the Request New User Account link on the TEAL login page and completing the self-registration form.

Once you have a TEAL account, request to be a TEAL Primary Approver for your organization. This is accessible once you are logged into TEAL by clicking the Manage Approver Status link at the bottom of the Edit My Profile page.

Once you have a TEAL account, request access to the CSSF application.

Without TEAL access, you cannot access your preliminary FIRST rating.

4/16/2012 - Reminder - SC5010 Data Request Form Available in eGrants

Reminder – The SC5010—Data Request Form for Federal Funding for school year 2012–2013 is available in eGrants for the following grantees:

Open-enrollment charter schools

South Texas Independent School District

Windham School District

Texas Juvenile Justice Department

Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired

Texas School for the Deaf

The SC5010 is not applicable to public school districts.

For new charter schools opening for the first time in fall 2012, the deadline for submitting the SC5010 is 5:00 p.m. Central Time, November 1, 2012. For all other grantees, the submission deadline is 5:00 p.m. Central Time, April 30, 2012. These deadlines will not be extended for any reason.

For a detailed description of the NCLB funding process, including instructions on accessing the SC5010, refer to the March 2, 2012, letter published on the TEA Correspondence page. If you have any questions regarding the SC5010, call Annie Molina in the Division of Grants Administration at (512) 463-8525 or email GAFPC@tea.state.tx.us.

4/12/2012 - Deferment of the End-of-Course 15 Percent Grading Requirement

Please remember to send an email to commissioner@tea.state.tx.us if your charter plans to defer the 15 percent grading requirement for end-of-course exams this year. As stated in the commissioner of education’s February 22, 2012 letter, which you can read in its entirety at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147505601, the ability to defer implementation of the statutory provision that requires performance on an end-of-course assessment to count as 15 percent of a student’s final course grade applies only to the 15 percent grading requirement in Chapter 39 of the Texas Education Code and will affect only the 2011-2012 school year. For this school year, the ultimate decision whether to include state-required end-of-course examination scores as part of course grades will be determined locally by school districts and charter schools. As the letter states, notification is due to the agency via email no later than May 1, 2012, if your charter wants the one-year deferment for 2011-2012.

3/5/2012 - NEW SC5010 - Data Request Form for Federal Funding-

The SC5010 - Data Request Form for Federal Funding for school year 2012-2013 for charter schools, South Texas ISD, and specific state schools is available in eGrants. The submission deadline date is April 30, 2012, at 5 p.m. Central Time. No exceptions to the submission deadline will be granted. A detailed letter concerning the NCLB funding process was posted on the TEA Correspondence website on March 2, 2012, and can be located at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/taa_letters.aspx.

Accessing the SC5010

The SC5010 may be located through the Grantee Profile in eGrants. Logon to eGrants through TEASE by linking to the following web-address: https://seguin.tea.state.tx.us/apps/logon.asp. Type the individual username and password.

From the Application List, select eGrants.

Open the dropdown list titled "Available Grant Programs in eGrants."

From the dropdown list, select the entry titled "2012-2013 NCLB Consolidated Federal Grant Application."

Select "2012-2013 NCLB Data Request Form for Federal Funding."

New charter schools that are opening for the first time have an alternate deadline of November 1, 2012, at 5 p.m. Central Time, for submitting the SC5010 - Data Request Form for Federal Funding. If you have questions regarding the SC5010, contact Annie Molina in the Division of Grants Administration at TEA at (512) 463-8525 or via email at GAFPC@tea.state.tx.us.

Please note that the SC5010 is not applicable to public school districts.

2/13/2012 - News from the Division of Grants Administration

The Texas Education Agency (TEA) has implemented a new procedure, effective immediately, for requesting an extension to grant expenditure reporting deadlines. For detailed information, see the February 8, 2012, “To the Administrator Addressed” letter posted by the Division of Grants Administration on the TEA Correspondence page (http://www.tea.state.tx.us/taa_letters.aspx).

Requests for expenditure deadline extensions are not granted automatically. TEA staff will evaluate each request on a case-by-case basis, with the decision to extend a deadline remaining completely within TEA’s discretion. TEA reserves the right to review all supporting documentation, such as the general ledger, in determining whether a request will be granted.

Meeting required deadlines is a responsibility of all grantees. Regardless of this procedure, failure to meet expenditure reporting deadlines may result in loss of funds and could cause the grantee to be identified as “high risk.”

All requests for extensions to expenditure reporting deadlines must be submitted using the Request to Extend Expenditure Reporting Deadline form, available on the Request to Extend Expenditure Reporting Deadline page (http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index4.aspx?id=2147505449).

For further information regarding either expenditure reporting or the process for requesting an expenditure reporting deadline extension, please contact the Cash Management/Fund Control Unit in the Division of Grants Administration, at (512) 463-8525 or GAFPC@tea.state.tx.us.

11/1/2011 - 2012-2013 Expansion Amendment Requests and 2012 Charter Orientation Sessions

Please see the announcements on the Division of Charter School Administration website, http://www.tea.state.tx.us/charters.aspx, for a letter that was sent to all charter administrators on October 7, 2011. In the letter and in the list of announcements, you will find information about expansion amendment requests for 2012-2013, new school designation for 2012-2013, and spring 2012 charter school orientation sessions. Of specific interest may be the upcoming webinar on Monday, November 14, 2011, about the expansion amendment request process.

If you have any questions, please contact Nina Gonzalez in the Division of Charter School Administration by phone at (512) 463-9575 or by email at nina.gonzalez@tea.state.tx.us.

10/18/2011 - News from the Division of Federal Program Compliance

The Division of Federal Program Compliance is offering a webinar to provide guidance to local educational agencies (LEAs) regarding the 2011–2012 Title I, Part A, Comparability of Services requirement.

Background

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 (Public Law 107–110, Section 1120A[c]) requires that campuses receiving Title I, Part A funding must receive the same level of services through state and local funds as campuses that are not receiving Title I, Part A funding. If all campuses in an LEA are receiving Title I, Part A funds, then the LEA must ensure:

That the services provided by state and local funds at their Title I, Part A campuses are substantially comparable, taken as a whole, at each Title I campus; or

That the services provided by state and local funds at their Title I, Part A campuses with higher percentages of low-income students are equal to or greater than the services provided at their Title I, Part A campuses with lower percentages of low-income students.

The webinar is designed to help LEAs understand and comply with the Comparability of Services requirement, and will be offered twice. LEAs are encouraged to participate and can register by selecting one of the registration links below:

Thursday, October 20, 2011, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time

Thursday, October 27, 2011, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Central Time

More information about the public webinar will be posted soon to the TEA Title I, Part A Comparability of Services web page.

Additional information on Title I, Part A Comparability of Services, including instructions for submitting the required comparability of services forms via the NCLB Reports section of the Texas Education Agency Secure Environment (TEASE), is available at Title I, Part A Comparability of Services web page.

If you have any questions about the information on this page, contact the Division of Charter School Administration at (512) 463-9575.

Division of Charter School Administration
1701 North Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78701
Phone: (512) 463-9575

Page last modified on 8/29/2012.

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