(1) Within 60 days of receipt of a proposal submitted under ORS 338.045, the school district board shall hold a public hearing on the provisions of the proposal.
(2) The school district board shall evaluate a proposal in good faith using the following criteria:
(a) The demonstrated, sustainable support for the public charter school by teachers, parents, students and other community members, including comments received at the public hearing held under subsection (1) of this section;
(b) The demonstrated financial stability of the public charter school;
(c) The capability of the applicant, in terms of support and planning, to provide comprehensive instructional programs to students pursuant to an approved proposal;
(d) The capability of the applicant, in terms of support and planning, to specifically provide, pursuant to an approved proposal, comprehensive instructional programs to students identified by the applicant as academically low achieving;
(e) The extent to which the proposal addresses the information required in ORS 338.045;
(f) Whether the value of the public charter school is outweighed by any directly identifiable, significant and adverse impact on the quality of the public education of students residing in the school district in which the public charter school will be located;
(g) Whether there are arrangements for any necessary special education and related services for children with disabilities pursuant to ORS 338.165; and
(h) Whether there are alternative arrangements for students and for teachers and other school employees who choose not to attend or who choose not to be employed by the public charter school.
(3) The school district board must approve a proposal or state in writing the reasons for disapproving a proposal within 30 days after the public hearing held under subsection (1) of this section.
(4) Written notice of the school district board’s action shall be sent to the applicant. If the proposal is not approved, the reasons for the denial and suggested remedial measures, if any, shall be clearly stated in the notice sent by the school district board to the applicant. If the proposal is not approved, the applicant may amend the proposal to address objections and any suggested remedial measures and resubmit the proposal to the school district board. The school district board shall approve or disapprove the resubmitted proposal within 20 days after receiving it. If the proposal is not approved, the applicant may appeal the decision of the school district board to the State Board of Education.
(5) Individual elements in a public charter school proposal may be changed through the proposal and chartering process.
(6) A proposal to convert an existing public school to a public charter school must be approved by the school district board of the public school.
(7) The school district board or the State Board of Education shall not charge any fee to applicants for the proposal process.
(8) Upon request by a school district, the State Board of Education may grant an extension of any timeline required by this section if the district has good cause for requesting the extension. [1999 c.200 §7; 2005 c.209 §27]
Section: Previous 338.020 338.025 338.030 338.035 338.040 338.045 338.050 338.055 338.060 338.065 338.070 338.075 338.095 338.105 338.115 NextLast modified: August 7, 2008