Kairos board positions available – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

A “help wanted” sign is out at Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy.

The K-8 independent charter school’s board of directors, serving as the governing body for the Elm Street campus, has openings for two board positions, Jared Austin, school co-founder and executive director, wrote in an email on Wednesday.

General responsibilities for board members, who are unelected, can be found at the school’s website, www.kairospublicschools.org.

The board meets monthly to receive school reports and approve policies and procedures, Austin noted.

Source: Kairos board positions available – The Reporter

Kairos board OKs a 3 percent pay hike for all school employees – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Leaders of Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy earlier this week approved a 3 percent pay hike for all employees at the Elm Street campus, it has been announced.

The vote was unanimous, Jared Austin, co-founder and executive director of the independent charter school, noted in an email to The Reporter.

“The Board is excited to be able to approve salary increases for staff and thank them for their hard work and dedication to all scholars,” he added in the written statement.

Source: Kairos board OKs a 3 percent pay hike for all school employees

On Kairos agenda: New board member, SELPA agreement – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Approval of a new board member, an agreement to accept a change to the El Dorado County Special Education Local Plan Area (SELPA) document, and an update of the school’s special education program are on the agenda when the Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy board of directors meets tonight in Vacaville.

The directors are expected to approve the appointment of Leah Parker of Vacaville as the newest of seven board members for a three-year term. A former Buckingham Charter High teacher and the owner of Leah Dawn Photography in Vacaville, she will replace Bob Brigham.

The board also likely will approve an amended agreement with the El Dorado County SELPA, which, in October, OK’d a change in its “participation agreement,” which districts aligned to it must, in turn, approve.

Source: On Kairos agenda: New board member, SELPA agreement

Kairos agenda: One-time employee pay, board and director goals – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

One-time staff bonuses for eligible employees, 2017-18 board goals and executive director goals are on the agenda when Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy leaders meet tonight in Vacaville.

Among those eligible for the one-time pay, agenda documents indicated, are full- and part-time teachers, full- and part-time classified (or school-support) employees, said the executive director, Jared Austin.

Full-time teachers, classified employees and Austin will receive 1 percent of their 2016-17 base salaries; and part-time employees will receive .085 percent of their previous year’s base salaries.

Board of director goals for the new year include making sure the independent charter school (which is aligned with Vacaville Unified) remains fiscally sound; that academic growth and excellence are continued (the school, which has some 550 students in grades TK-8, typically posts high scores on state standardized tests); that stakeholders continue to “actively engage in positive community service”; and strategies “are developed to deal with the considerable student wait list. The goals are expected to be approved.

Source: On Kairos agenda: One-time employee pay, board and director goals for 17-18

Budget, suicide-prevention policy on Kairos agenda – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy leaders, when they meet Monday in Vacaville, are expected to approve the 2017-18 annual budget and accompanying Local Control Accountability Plan, to meet a June 30 deadline mandated by the Solano County Office of Education.

The board of directors, led by Executive Director Jared Austin, also is expected to approve a board policy and administrative regulation concerning suicide prevention, as required by Assembly Bill 2246, enacted last year. Authored by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, the bill requires school districts to adopt formal suicide-prevention, intervention and follow-up plans for all middle and high school students, including provisions that specifically address the needs of “high-risk groups.”

Source: Budget, suicide-prevention policy on Kairos agenda

Kairos directors hear draft of suicide-prevention policy – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy leaders heard the first draft of the charter school’s suicide-prevention policy, which, in accordance with state law, must be adopted by July 1.

In a board of directors meeting Monday, Pat Broughton, the education services director, introduced the three-page policy and the accompanying two-page administrative regulation.

Such policies, under Assembly Bill 2246 enacted last yearare required by every California school district, and, as an independent TK-8 charter school, — a school largely governed by its own board of directors and the California Department of Education — Kairos is, essentially, its own school district.

Authored by Assemblyman Patrick O’Donnell, D-Long Beach, the bill requires school districts to adopt formal suicide-prevention, intervention and follow-up plans for all middle and high school students, including provisions that specifically address the needs of “high-risk groups.”

 

Source: Kairos directors hear draft of suicide-prevention policy

On Kairos agenda: Second interim budget, facilities update – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Approval of the second interim budget for 2016-17 and updates on facilities and open enrollment are on the agenda when Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy leaders meet tonight in Vacaville.

Anita Schwab, the chief business officer for the independent charter school on Elm Street, will update the board on the budget. The board of directors likely will approve it.

She will stress that the current budget is a “blueprint” for the final one to be adopted before June 30, and that it will be subject to Gov. Jerry Brown’s state budget revision due in May.

In her summary, as indicated by agenda documents, Schwab said the budget reflects, among several things, the revised Local Control Funding Formula funding gap percentages adopted by the state, reduction in the per-pupil rate for one-time mandated money, additional curriculum for a new academy, and increases to tenant improvements.

 

Source: On Kairos agenda: Second interim budget, facilities update

Kairos exec director: State economy slowing, time for fiscal restraint – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

The California economy is slowing down, and school districts should exercise “extreme caution,” Jared Austin, executive director of Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy, said during Wednesday’s board of directors meeting.

Noting that he and two other officials from the independent charter school attended Tuesday’s annual Governor’s Budget Workshop in Sacramento, Austin said School Services of California leaders, who sponsored the workshop, advised district leaders to consider fiscal restraint during the 2017-18 budget-planning process.

“Don’t commit to anything ongoing,” requiring funding year over year, was one piece of advice, Austin noted during the meeting in the Elm Street campus’ library.

Additionally, state fiscal leaders said the new cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, will be 1.48 percent, he said.

 

Source: Kairos exec director: State economy slowing, time for fiscal restraint

Kairos on good financial footing, a $4.6M budget, sizable beginning, ending fund balances – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

No surprise, Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy, in its third year, will post a positive certification for its 2016-17 budget, meaning the independent charter school will be able to pay its bills in the coming year.

But at the school’s board of directors meeting Wednesday, it was the $2.2 million beginning fund balance of a $4.6 million budget that stood out among the financial figures presented by Anita Schwab, the school’s chief business officer.

Kairos Executive Director Jared Austin said board members may wonder why the fund balance is so large.

In a telephone interview Thursday, he clarified that the beginning fund balance “is money we’ve saved up” since the school opened its doors in fall 2014 at 129 Elm St., in the old Elm Elementary campus two blocks off Merchant Street.

 

Source: Kairos on good financial footing, a $4.6M budget, sizable beginning, ending fund balances

Plan to achieve racial, ethnic balance on Kairos agenda – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

A facilities update and a plan to achieve racial and ethnic balance are on the agenda when the Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy board of directors meets Monday night in Vacaville.

School executive director Jared Austin, who has led the K-8 Elm Street campus for three years, will make both presentations to the independent charter school’s seven-member board.

The agenda document about the facilities update is brief, one sentence, indicating that Austin would present information about the school and the Kairos Innovative Scholars Program facilities projects.

Of the plan to achieve racial and ethnic balance, he will cite the law, from the California Education Code, that governs the matter: A charter school “will achieve racial and ethnic balance” that reflects the district to which it is aligned. Kairos, with more than 500 students, is aligned with Vacaville Unified, with some 12,500 students, but, based on data from VUSD, the differences are startling.

 

Source: Plan to achieve racial, ethnic balance on Kairos agenda

State test scores, facilities and scholars program on Kairos agenda tonight – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

The Kairos board of directors, when they meet tonight, will hear a report about the latest state test scores and hear a pair of updates, on school facilities and the Kairos Innovative Scholars Program.

The school’s executive director, Jared Austin, will tell the seven-member board that the TK-8 independent charter school, meaning it is not governed by the district with which it is aligned, Vacaville Unified, posted, for the second time in as many years, some of the highest 2015-16 CAASPP scores in Solano County.

(CAASPP is the acronym for California Assessment of Student Performance and Progress, in its second year and tests students in grades three to eight and 11 on subject matter learned under Common Core.)

Austin and Patrick Broughton, the school’s educational services director, will note that some 320 students were tested, with 63 percent meeting or exceeding the standards in English, an increase of 4 percent over last year. Fifty-five percent did so in mathematics, an increase of 3 percent over last year, bettering averages of 43 and 32 percent in English and math, respectively, countywide, and 49 percent and 37 percent statewide.

 

Source: State test scores, facilities and scholars program on Kairos agenda tonight

Kairos board seats new trustee; school ready for facilities upgrades – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

With little fanfare or comment, leaders of Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy voted unanimously to appoint a new trustee during the governing board’s meeting Tuesday.

Ginger Holguin of Vacaville, the director of operations for an Inglewood dental firm. replaces Ron Mitchell, who cited work conflicts upon the taking of a new job, noted Jared Austin, co-founder and executive director of Kairos, as it’s called for short.

The vote came during the trustees’ regular once-monthly gathering in the Elm Street school’s library/media center at the independent TK-8 charter school.

In her letter to Austin expressing her interest to serve, Holguin, the mother of three, including a first-grader at Kairos, cited her work on several local boards. She was one of three people who applied for the vacant trustee seat.

Source: Kairos board seats new trustee; school ready for facilities upgrades

Kairos board to seat new trustee, hear updates on home-schooling, LCAP – The Reporter

By Richard Bammer

Seating a new trustee, and updates on a new home-school program and the Local Control Accountability Plan are on the agenda when the Kairos governing board meets tonight in Vacaville.

Among the first orders of business will be the likely seating of a new trustee, Ginger Holguin of Vacaville, the director of operations for an Inglewood dental firm. She will replace Ron Mitchell, who cited work conflicts upon the taking of a new job, said Jared Austin, co-founder and executive director of Kairos Public School Vacaville Academy, the full name of the TK-8 independent charter housed in the old Elm Elementary campus.

In her letter to Austin expressing her interest to serve, Holguin, the mother of three, including a first-grader at Kairos, cited her work on several local boards. She was one of three people who applied for the vacant trustee seat, Austin said Monday.

Source: Kairos board to seat new trustee, hear updates on home-schooling, LCAP