April 2023 ACCS - Item 2 Public Comment 2

Item 02, Attachment 24, Charter #1520

Public Comment Submission for the April 18th, 2023 ACCS Meeting

Agenda Item #2, Attachment #24 Determination of Funding Request Taylion High Desert / Adelanto

My name is Cory Cavanah and I help support the financial operations of Taylion High Desert Academy –a school whose Funding Determination is up for review on Item #2 of your board agenda.

I am asking the ACCS to reconsider the CDE's recommendation to cut the school’s funding by 30%

I have worked in charter school finance for nearly 15 years and have supported many Nonclassroom-based schools during this time. Having completed nearly 50 Funding Determinations as a consultant for Nonclassroom-based charter schools I understand the nuances of the Funding Determination Form criteria extremely well.

Taylion High Desert Academy acknowledges that they did not meet the 40% spending requirement for certificated staff expenditures, but the school did meet 80% spending requirement for overall student instruction expenditures. And the reason for not meeting the 40% requirement is significantly nuanced.

As demonstrated in the school’s mitigating circumstance letter, Taylion High Desert Academy saw unprecedent enrollment and ADA growth coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The organization grew from a pre-pandemic ADA of 177 to a 2021-22 P-2 ADA of 274. (It should a be noted that Taylion’s ADA was frozen at 177 from February 2020 until February 2022 due to the Governor’s hold harmless directive.) Furthermore, if you review the data outlined in the Mitigating Circumstance form you will notice that an overwhelming amount of that growth took place between December 2021 and March 2022 when ADA increased by 50% in a 3-month span. An increase of that magnitude is extremely tough to budget and staff for.

With that said, it should be noted that Taylion maintained a student-teacher ratio well below the CDE required 25:1 ratio throughout the entire 2021-22 school year. As demonstrated in the Mitigating Circumstance form, Taylion continuously increased FTE’s during the year and maintained an average student to teacher ratio of 14.12 during the 2021-22 school year. This documents Taylion was vehemently hiring each month to match increased student enrollment.

Taylion’s failure to meet the 40% spending requirement was not due to a lack of credentialed teachers, but rather the result of the school being able to hire newly credentialed teachers in the early years of their careers.

Due to a California statewide teacher shortage, that was only heightened by the Covid-19 pandemic, hiring teachers has been extremely challenging over the last 24 months. Specifically, hiring teachers with multiple years (5+) of experience. As a result, nearly all of the applications Taylion received were from newly credentialed teachers – not teachers will multiple years of experience. As a result, actual expenditures came in far lower when compared to projected budgeted expenditures. As demonstrated in Taylion’s 1st interim and 2nd budget reports, the school was projected to meet both Nonclassroom-based spending requirements.

Taking the above factors into consideration, I ask that the Commission not take the CDE's recommendation at this time and at least provide Taylion the opportunity to further discuss the factors surrounding our mitigating circumstances with the CDE in greater detail.

Sincerely,

Cory Cavanah

Return to the April ACCS Meeting Agenda