SEQUOIA MONTESSORI SCHOOL: Supplemental Information The following is a response to questions raised by Salem Keizer School Board members

at the November 8 School Board first reading of the Sequoia Montessori School charter proposal. 1. Financial Concerns: Board members expressed concern about financial stability because of the state charter grant funding. There are three separate grants that are involved: In 2008 ODE received notification of receiving the Charter School Program grant. The Charter School Program (CSP) grant, to which we currently have access, provides funding for planning, professional development, and contracts with groups to market the school. The Salem Keizer School District is the fiscal manager for this grant and has all records of its budget and expenditures to date. This grant is for $56,000, to date we have spent $5414.37. Generally included in the CSP grant award are the implementation phases of the CSP after a charter developer has signed a charter contract with a sponsor. In 2010, the US Department of Education (USDE) abruptly scaled back the ODE CSP funding. The ODE is still in discussion with the USDE to try to get this funding back. If the State is successful in recapturing these funds, we would have access to $215,000 for implementation once we have a charter in hand and have finished our planning stage. Timeline: Unknown, however, any funds associated with this grant would have to be spent by July 31, 2011. The second is the next Charter School Program grant the State will apply for in Winter/Spring 2012. This may provide implementation funding for year one ($215,000) and year 2 (up to $215,000) of the school operation. Timeline: The State plans to apply in March and will find out if they are awarded this funding in June. In January, we believe we will find out whether Sequoia could get preference to the new grant award since we were already awarded a charter grant. If Sequoia were able to get preference, we could access the funds by August 2012. If we have to reapply and were successful in our reapplication, we would get funds in December 2012. The above description of the grant funding stream timeline was vetted through Margaret Bates, Educational Specialist for Charter Schools at the Oregon Department of Education. Because of the uncertainty, the Sequoia Board has determined that if implementation funding does not become available by April 2012, the school will not open for September 2012.

One Board member was concerned about financial stability because he did not see evidence that the following issues were addressed in the budget. Here are the issues cited and where their funding appears in the budget (budget is attached): Administrative consulting to evaluate the teachers (p.24) is addressed in line 18 of the budget. Special education is funded through the sponsoring district as detailed on p. 35, 36. This follows current state statute. The flow chart in appendix m has been corrected to reflect that the sponsoring school is responsible for providing special education services. Salem Keizer Coalition for Equality contracted services are accounted for in the planning grant budget that Sequoia Montessori School is currently accessing. SKSD has all records on the budget for this account. Professional development for the staff and Board are funded in the planning grant and line 27 of the operating budget submitted to the District. Contracts with Salem Keizer - The services that the school may contract back with the Salem Keizer School District are in the budget: Board line 45 Assessment and Testing line 33 Mail line 46 TIS line 55 Telephone line 53 SASI line 55 Maintenance line 50 Custodial line 48 Utilities line 57 These categories are also subject to negotiations after the application is approved during charter negotiation and also depend on whether the school locates in District space. 2. Concerns with financial plan based on 100% of District funding. The amount of per student state funding that the District provides the school is subject to negotiation after the application is approved. The budget has an adequate contingency and allows room for adjustments as needed. 3. Concerns with bylaws not complying with public meetings law. Sequoia Montessori School incorporated as a public benefit non-profit corporation and wrote its bylaws accordingly. Once the school enters a charter agreement with Salem-Keizer Public Schools District, and thus becomes a public body, the Board

will amend the bylaws to comply with Oregon public meetings law (ORS 192.610690) 4. Concerns that all new laws pertaining to charters were not included on page 31. The new requirements to which the Board member referred are all contained in ORS 338, which we state we will follow on pages 8,23,31. 5. Concern that the school did not include a plan to meet Common Core State Standards. As stated in the proposal on pages 3, 9, 10, 15, and 52, the school intends to mirror the instructional goals of the Salem Keizer School District in relationship to Oregons academic content standards and benchmarks. Following the Salem Keizer School District timeline, Sequoia Montessori will crosswalk and expand its current curriculum alignment to the newly adopted Common Core State Standards and be ready to fully implement them in the 2012-13 school year. Professional development funds in the planning grant budget and in the operational budget, line 27 will be used to support this alignment. 6. Concern that student achievement was not addressed in proposal. Student achievement and the assessments used to demonstrate the achievements of each child are addressed in proposal on pages 3, 5, 7, 21, 22, 38, 31, 51, 53, 54, and 55. As stated throughout the proposal, Sequoia students will participate in OAKS testing (and the new Oregon CCSS testing when available) as well as being regularly assessed for achievement though continual teacher observations and conferencing. 7. Concern with error in appendix draft handbook that refers to Silver Falls. This error is in the draft student/parent handbook in the appendix page 105 and will be corrected in final version. It does not affect substance of proposal.