Board of Directors - 12/6/23

MATERIAL REVISION

Material Revision to Increase LH K-8 Enrollment

Rationale for MR

1. Giving East Oakland and LCPS families deserved access to State Mandated TK programming, the first of a two year Kindergarten. While we have room in our enrollment cap to do this at Lodestar, we do not have this at Lighthouse.

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• Adding an additional 70 students to our LH K-8 campus - This is our most prescribed campus in terms of application and lottery demand. This would translate to an additional ~$1M in LCFF revenue.

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• This would allow us to support two key areas - our Special Education Encroachment and Overall Teacher compensation (we anticipate a 3%+ COLA based on FICMAT and adding 70 students would be a 4% increase in LCFF revenue).

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• OUSD has been able to meet enrollment targets largely by expansion of TK this year and remain more competitive because of this offering. We need to offer the same to LCPS families and create a pathway for families to join us when kids are 4.

Material Revision to Increase LH K-8 Enrollment

MR Compliments broader revenue strategy

Three focus areas to increase revenue (beyond grants/giving)

1. Material Revision to increase enrollment at most proscribed school, LH K-8
2. Increase enrollment at Lodestar
1. Start with one section TK/K combo for the 24-25 school year
3. Continued, strong push on attendance
• Now at 92%

Material Revision to Increase LH K-8 Enrollment

Goal for MR

• Total - 70 students for the LH K-8 LEA
• Add ~40 students for TK (two sections)
• Add 30 students in the K-8 for SPED encroachment.

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Material Revision to Increase LH K-8 Enrollment

Legal Guidance on MR

• YMC’s interpretation of AB 1505 is consistent with CCSA which asserts that authorizers cannot set enrollment caps and cannot prevent a charter from serving kids on its waitlist if has space to accommodate those students
• MR is not required for adding TK (OUSD agrees with this)
• If a charter is seeking to add more students, as long as not moving to a new facility or adding grade bands not authorized in the charter, they do not need to seek a material revision to add TK
• However, in further discussions with YMC, we believe we can take a non adversarial tone with OUSD and seek this material revision so we can:
• Serve all/most of our student demand
• Provide additional funds for our growing special education costs
• Provide additional funds for increases to teacher compensation
• Allow us to eventually serve TK (first one site, then eventually at a new site) which we are required to start doing per UPK grant

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Material Revision to Increase LH K-8 Enrollment

Outreach-OCS and OUSD School Board

OCS:

• Kelly Krag Arnold, OUSD’s Office of Charter Schools encouraged us to file a Material Revision for the additional students
• She has taken the time to understand our special education encroachment challenges and the needs for TK programming per Newsom/CDE’s state mandate.

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School Board:

• To date, had conversations with 3 Board members
• By mid December, will have engaged with 5 members

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Material Revision to Increase LH K-8 Enrollment

Process and Timeline for MR

Process & Timeline:

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• LCPS Board approval at December 6 Board meeting
• LCPS submits MR packet before the break (if LPCS Board approves)
• Work with OCS in Jan 2024
• Feb 2024 OUSD BOE presentation and subsequent vote
• Spring 2024 (if approved):
• Lottery for Lighthouse K-8 at 565 K-8; Launch TK 1 or 2 sections in 2025-6
• FYI: Lodestar is planning for 1 to 2 sections of TK in 2024-25, and does not require an enrollment cap increase at this time

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