Dear California Charter School Leaders,
2020 was unequivocally a memorable year. We saw our membership base grow and with it the charter movement strengthen its resolve in the face of a pandemic, social unrest, and political uncertainty. California’s schools provided distance learning opportunities, a challenge in itself in the face of limited infrastructure and training for staff. In addition, charter schools had to navigate confusing and rapidly changing guidelines, and the recently legislated, imposing restrictive laws while preparing to face the consequential laws governing charter-granting and appeals.
With the support of our members, CSDC remained the only statewide charter advocacy organization that consistently and unflinchingly opposed these negative changes throughout the legislative and regulatory process. Notwithstanding 2019’s and 2020’s major setbacks, CSDC remains optimistic about the prospects for charter schools in California. We’ve redoubled our advocacy efforts in the legislative and regulatory arenas and are intervening more proactively than ever before.
We consistently hear from our members that CSDC is their trusted resource for reliable, comprehensive, and accurate charter school information in California. Our hard work in 2020 was a testament to our trust in charter schools’ abilities to innovatively meet every obstacle they encounter and to thrive; their membership is a testament to the value of our services and support.
As the pandemic forced everyone to work from home, our team went into overdrive to provide guidance, trainings, and resources to California charter schools so that they could put their best foot forward and meet their students. In 2020, CSDC staff released 17 publicly available COVID-related Currents articles, alongside 21 other member-specific Currents articles, expanded legislative action alerts, and updated and added a significant collection of assets to our resource directory.
For 2021, we will continue to update and sharpen our member-focused resources and other offerings, including, but not limited to the following:
- Extensive updates to our popular Sample Governing Board Policies ,
- Comprehensive and easy-to-interpret summaries of key legal, legislative, and regulatory changes,
- The Annual School Planning Calendar, updated every month to aid charter leaders in preparing for and tracking critical dates and deadlines,
- More resources to assist schools on topics ranging from charter renewal to evolving charter teacher credentialing mandates,
- Updates to our popular training programs including the Charter Business Officer Training program, our signature Charter School Leadership Intensive (“Boot Camp”), and the California Charter Schools Leadership Update Conference,
- Expansion of our increasingly popular, on-demand Governance Academy online courses, and
- More trainings and webinars to help you navigate the “local control” accountability plan (LCAP) process.
For those of you who are continuing members, we thank you for your support. If you’re not yet a member of CSDC, we hope you will consider joining so that your staff and board can benefit from the many services, opportunities, and resources that our current members find so essential.
Sincerely,
Eric Premack
Executive Director and Founder
Charter Schools Development Center
