Letters to A. Warren
November 15, 2017
Dear April,
Per the request at our meeting on October 19, attached is a list of issues that are present with the K12 Grad Plan Tool as well as a synopsis of the process that was implemented this year for placing new 11th and 12th graders.
Grad Plan Tool
Problem: The newly added duty of using the K12 Grad Plan Tool was discussed yesterday. We informed you of the many glitches, errors and inaccuracies with the tool and discussed that it is not effective for CAVA or useful for our students. Due to the unreliability of the tool, we are not in favor of sending out grad plans to our students that are inaccurate. The amount of time spent and number of emails sent regarding ideas to “fix” the grad plan issues have prevented us from doing important parts of our jobs, such as contacting at-risk students and tracking senior grades.
Below is what we heard from your team yesterday.
Solution: Our proposed solution to this problem is to teach students to use their transcript and a worksheet as their 4-year plan. We are willing to host blackboard sessions and create recordings to advise families on this important topic. Since the grad plan tool does not currently function in a way that serves the needs of our CAVA students, we are requesting to use this alternative solution.
Placement of 11th and 12th Graders
Problem: The newly added duty of placing new 11th and 12th graders into classes this year was also discussed yesterday. We outlined the time consuming process of placing new students and informed you that it is not a cut and dry process. The many barriers to placing students was outlined for you.
Solution: Our proposed solution is to continue placing new 12th graders and for Guidance Counselors to have a caseload of no more than 300 students each.
Our current workload is unsustainable. Please respond to this letter on or before October 30th letting us know how you plan to proceed with these two issues.
Sincerely,
CAVA Guidance Counselors and Freshmen Support Specialists: Amber Blodgett, Sheryl Carruth, Andrea Hagen, Katie Jamreonvit, Molly Mackin, Rose Malihan, Erin Parra, Kelly Racca, Erica Zide
Dear April,
Per the request at our meeting on October 19, attached is a list of issues that are present with the K12 Grad Plan Tool as well as a synopsis of the process that was implemented this year for placing new 11th and 12th graders.
Grad Plan Tool
Problem: The newly added duty of using the K12 Grad Plan Tool was discussed yesterday. We informed you of the many glitches, errors and inaccuracies with the tool and discussed that it is not effective for CAVA or useful for our students. Due to the unreliability of the tool, we are not in favor of sending out grad plans to our students that are inaccurate. The amount of time spent and number of emails sent regarding ideas to “fix” the grad plan issues have prevented us from doing important parts of our jobs, such as contacting at-risk students and tracking senior grades.
Below is what we heard from your team yesterday.
- CAVA and k12 understand there are many technical problems with the grad plan tool
- CAVA and K12 understand the issues needing to be fixed are clerical and it was voiced at our meeting that we should not be doing doing clerical work. CAVA Guidance Counselors can best serve students by what we are credentialed to do.
- CAVA and K12 are willing to fix the issues with the Grad Plan Tool
Solution: Our proposed solution to this problem is to teach students to use their transcript and a worksheet as their 4-year plan. We are willing to host blackboard sessions and create recordings to advise families on this important topic. Since the grad plan tool does not currently function in a way that serves the needs of our CAVA students, we are requesting to use this alternative solution.
Placement of 11th and 12th Graders
Problem: The newly added duty of placing new 11th and 12th graders into classes this year was also discussed yesterday. We outlined the time consuming process of placing new students and informed you that it is not a cut and dry process. The many barriers to placing students was outlined for you.
Solution: Our proposed solution is to continue placing new 12th graders and for Guidance Counselors to have a caseload of no more than 300 students each.
Our current workload is unsustainable. Please respond to this letter on or before October 30th letting us know how you plan to proceed with these two issues.
Sincerely,
CAVA Guidance Counselors and Freshmen Support Specialists: Amber Blodgett, Sheryl Carruth, Andrea Hagen, Katie Jamreonvit, Molly Mackin, Rose Malihan, Erin Parra, Kelly Racca, Erica Zide
Dear CAVA Administration:
This letter is to document my concerns regarding the facilitation of a-g science labs for chemistry from California Virtual Academies(CAVA). My purpose is to protect the integrity of CAVA as a leader in charter school education. It is paramount that CAVA revise the procedures and guidelines for providing a-g chemistry labs for its students immediately.
California is a state with high environmental standards, a strong advocacy for child protection and a legal bias to uphold its standards. Chemicals must no longer be provided directly to students. Access to chemicals must be controlled by the teacher and held in safe storage. Disposal and health issues must be addressed and provided to students and their families.
I trust that a new procedure with guidelines for teacher facilitation will be in place by October 30, 2017. Meanwhile, I will provide and prepare chemicals for my students’ use during this transition period. I am still not clear on whether these labs were prescribed by CAVA or the curriculum provider K-12. I do know that all curriculum used by CAVA for virtual courses is the property of K-12 Inc. I cannot facilitate the CAVA ‘live’ lab, scheduled for October 19, Properties of Substances. This lab calls for a chemical requiring respiratory equipment, is dangerous and is a mutagen not to be handled by humans without proper protective equipment, who are planning child-bearing.
Currently I am storing all the chemicals for my students at the Simi Valley science lab and not at the homes of the students where there is uncontrolled access. The chemicals in the lab must be moved to a locked room, which is available within the current lab room. I would need a key or access to a key during CAVA business hours for lab day and when I need to prepare chemicals for students. I purchased chemicals for my lab on September 18. For the next lab on October 5, I purchased chemicals from Flinn Scientific, a nationally recognized provider of chemistry supplies for elementary, middle school, high school and college level courses. The chemicals have proper documentation and trackability. Their SDS include disposal protocols. The chemicals provided by k-12 and AquaSolutions, leave disposal to the end-user.
My goal is to protect CAVA from costly defense from the environmental agencies, non-compliance issues with the California Department of Education and civil suits from parents concerned for their child’s safety in the classroom. California is a very litigious State.
I look forward to hearing back on the matter and will help in any way I can to protect CAVA from unnecessary heartache.
Respectfully,
Deborah Lilly
HS CAVA Science Teachers
This letter is to document my concerns regarding the facilitation of a-g science labs for chemistry from California Virtual Academies(CAVA). My purpose is to protect the integrity of CAVA as a leader in charter school education. It is paramount that CAVA revise the procedures and guidelines for providing a-g chemistry labs for its students immediately.
California is a state with high environmental standards, a strong advocacy for child protection and a legal bias to uphold its standards. Chemicals must no longer be provided directly to students. Access to chemicals must be controlled by the teacher and held in safe storage. Disposal and health issues must be addressed and provided to students and their families.
I trust that a new procedure with guidelines for teacher facilitation will be in place by October 30, 2017. Meanwhile, I will provide and prepare chemicals for my students’ use during this transition period. I am still not clear on whether these labs were prescribed by CAVA or the curriculum provider K-12. I do know that all curriculum used by CAVA for virtual courses is the property of K-12 Inc. I cannot facilitate the CAVA ‘live’ lab, scheduled for October 19, Properties of Substances. This lab calls for a chemical requiring respiratory equipment, is dangerous and is a mutagen not to be handled by humans without proper protective equipment, who are planning child-bearing.
Currently I am storing all the chemicals for my students at the Simi Valley science lab and not at the homes of the students where there is uncontrolled access. The chemicals in the lab must be moved to a locked room, which is available within the current lab room. I would need a key or access to a key during CAVA business hours for lab day and when I need to prepare chemicals for students. I purchased chemicals for my lab on September 18. For the next lab on October 5, I purchased chemicals from Flinn Scientific, a nationally recognized provider of chemistry supplies for elementary, middle school, high school and college level courses. The chemicals have proper documentation and trackability. Their SDS include disposal protocols. The chemicals provided by k-12 and AquaSolutions, leave disposal to the end-user.
My goal is to protect CAVA from costly defense from the environmental agencies, non-compliance issues with the California Department of Education and civil suits from parents concerned for their child’s safety in the classroom. California is a very litigious State.
I look forward to hearing back on the matter and will help in any way I can to protect CAVA from unnecessary heartache.
Respectfully,
Deborah Lilly
HS CAVA Science Teachers
April Warren, Head of Schools California Virtual Academies
50 Moreland Road
Simi Valley, CA 93065
Dear Ms. Warren:
50 Moreland Road
Simi Valley, CA 93065
Dear Ms. Warren:
The State Controller’s Office (SCO) conducted an audit of 14 charter schools – 11 California Virtual Academies and 3 Insight Schools of California (together CAVA) – for the period of July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2016. The objective of the audit was to determine whether CAVA: (1) complied with its contractual agreements with authorizing entities; (2) accurately reported attendance, enrollment, and cohort dropout/graduation outcome data results to the California Department of Education (CDE); (3) appropriately allocated and reported shared expenses; (4) appropriately identified, accounted for, and disclosed related-party relationships and transactions in its independent audit report; and (5) is organizationally independent from K12 Inc.
The audit disclosed that CAVA did not fully comply with the schools’ contractual agreements with authorizing entities, lacked sufficient documentation to support that pupil attendance was accurately reported to CDE, lacked sufficient documentation to support satisfactory progress of students between 19 to 22 years old, and may have miscalculated its pupil-teacher ratio. The audit also identified issues that were not specifically defined in the audit objectives, but were related. Specifically, SCO determined that CAVA paid authorizing entities oversight fees in excess of legal limits and that the restatement of prior years’ financial statements may have violated the schools’ memoranda of understanding with authorizing entities.
Additionally, SCO determined that CAVA and K12 Inc. were not organizationally independent during the audit period. Specifically, SCO found that CAVA assigned significant authority to a K12 Inc. employee, the fee structure CAVA agreed to with K12 Inc. bound the entities together, and CAVA agreed to provide check-writing authority to K12 Inc., among other issues. The July 8, 2016 settlement agreements with the California Attorney General’s Office required that no CAVA employees report to any K12 Inc. employees, CAVA and K12 Inc. modify their fee structure, and K12 Inc. remove itself from check-writing authority over CAVA bank accounts.
Based on the audit results, CAVA must institute the following corrective actions:
Finding 1 – Inaccurate calculation of supervisory oversight fees the schools paid to authorizing entities
CAVA must establish a reconciliation process to ensure the accuracy of the calculations of the supervisory oversight fee billings paid to the authorizing entities. This reconciliation process must be provided to CDE by December 1, 2017.
Finding 2 – Lack of sufficient documentation to support claimed average daily attendance
CAVA must maintain sufficient attendance documentation to support claimed average daily attendance (ADA). Specifically, California Education Code, Section 47612.5, sets forth the requirements which charter schools must comply with as conditions of apportionment. Additional information regarding these requirements is contained in the following link: http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cs/as/csncbadaltr04.asp.
Based on SCO’s audit, attendance for 40 students was not adequately supported, representing 12 to 15 percent of the students sampled. Considering CAVA reported 12,731 enrolled students to CDE in the 2015-16 school year, the ADA claimed for approximately 1,500 to 1,900 students may not be adequately supported.
To address this concern, CAVA must obtain an audit opinion regarding the accuracy of claimed ADA. This audit must be conducted as an attestation engagement in accordance with the Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. The certified public accountant must identify and quantify any unsupported ADA. The attestation engagement must be completed and submitted to CDE by April 1, 2018.
Finding 3 – Lack of sufficient documentation to support satisfactory progress of students between 19 and 22 years old
By December 1, 2017, CAVA must provide documentation to CDE substantiating that teachers properly monitored all students between 19 and 22 years old during the 2014-2015 and 2015-16 school years. Additionally, CAVA must update its attendance reporting guidelines to ensure that it claims apportionment for students between the ages 19 and 21 only when those students show measurable progress toward
graduation. CAVA must submit its updated attendance reporting guidelines and proof of Governing Board approval to CDE for review by December 1, 2017.
Finding 4 – Pupil-teacher ratio may have been inaccurately calculated
CAVA must provide documentation to CDE substantiating its calculation of its
pupil-teacher ratio for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 fiscal years by November 6, 2017. To accurately calculate CAVA’s pupil-teacher ratio, employees that worked less than 175 days in the fiscal year are considered part-time positions that would generate a partial full-time equivalent on a proportional basis. For additional assistance on calculating pupil-teacher ratios, please see: http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/eo/is/iscalcinst14.asp.
Observation 1 – Schools contracted to pay their authorizing entities oversight fees in excess of legal limits
CAVA must provide copies of the amended memorandum of understanding (MOU) with each of its authorizing entities to CDE demonstrating that payments of oversight fees do not exceed state law by December 1, 2017.
Observation 2 – The restatement of prior years’ financial statements may have violated the schools’ memoranda of understanding with the authorizing entities
CAVA must remit $1,995,148 to CDE. Based on SCO’s audit, CAVA improperly claimed the restated amounts as valid expenditures or obligations that were previously forgiven. Additionally, the report indicates that instead of applying Common Core revenues to the schools’ net position, CAVA applied these revenues to balanced budget/credits. Further, the audit reported that increasing the payable to K12 Inc. after the end of the school year appears to violate the terms of the MOUs between CAVA and its authorizing entities, which state that no obligation to K12 Inc. should continue after the end of the school year. In the future, CAVA should ensure that all Common Core funds are properly encumbered, expended, and accounted for in accordance with state and federal requirements.
Organizational Independence
CAVA must provide documentation to substantiate that it is now organizationally independent from K12 Inc. including: (1) organizational charts; (2) the modified
K-12 Inc. fee structure; (3) revised MOUs reflecting that the terms of the contracts, including fees, are fair and reasonable to CAVA; and (4) documentation substantiating that K-12 Inc. no longer has check writing authority over CAVA’s bank accounts.
If you have questions regarding this information, please contact Kimberly Tarvin, Director, Audits and Investigations Division, by phone at 916-323-1547, or by email at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Original signed by Michelle Zumot. Michelle Zumot
Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction
The audit disclosed that CAVA did not fully comply with the schools’ contractual agreements with authorizing entities, lacked sufficient documentation to support that pupil attendance was accurately reported to CDE, lacked sufficient documentation to support satisfactory progress of students between 19 to 22 years old, and may have miscalculated its pupil-teacher ratio. The audit also identified issues that were not specifically defined in the audit objectives, but were related. Specifically, SCO determined that CAVA paid authorizing entities oversight fees in excess of legal limits and that the restatement of prior years’ financial statements may have violated the schools’ memoranda of understanding with authorizing entities.
Additionally, SCO determined that CAVA and K12 Inc. were not organizationally independent during the audit period. Specifically, SCO found that CAVA assigned significant authority to a K12 Inc. employee, the fee structure CAVA agreed to with K12 Inc. bound the entities together, and CAVA agreed to provide check-writing authority to K12 Inc., among other issues. The July 8, 2016 settlement agreements with the California Attorney General’s Office required that no CAVA employees report to any K12 Inc. employees, CAVA and K12 Inc. modify their fee structure, and K12 Inc. remove itself from check-writing authority over CAVA bank accounts.
Based on the audit results, CAVA must institute the following corrective actions:
Finding 1 – Inaccurate calculation of supervisory oversight fees the schools paid to authorizing entities
CAVA must establish a reconciliation process to ensure the accuracy of the calculations of the supervisory oversight fee billings paid to the authorizing entities. This reconciliation process must be provided to CDE by December 1, 2017.
Finding 2 – Lack of sufficient documentation to support claimed average daily attendance
CAVA must maintain sufficient attendance documentation to support claimed average daily attendance (ADA). Specifically, California Education Code, Section 47612.5, sets forth the requirements which charter schools must comply with as conditions of apportionment. Additional information regarding these requirements is contained in the following link: http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/cs/as/csncbadaltr04.asp.
Based on SCO’s audit, attendance for 40 students was not adequately supported, representing 12 to 15 percent of the students sampled. Considering CAVA reported 12,731 enrolled students to CDE in the 2015-16 school year, the ADA claimed for approximately 1,500 to 1,900 students may not be adequately supported.
To address this concern, CAVA must obtain an audit opinion regarding the accuracy of claimed ADA. This audit must be conducted as an attestation engagement in accordance with the Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States. The certified public accountant must identify and quantify any unsupported ADA. The attestation engagement must be completed and submitted to CDE by April 1, 2018.
Finding 3 – Lack of sufficient documentation to support satisfactory progress of students between 19 and 22 years old
By December 1, 2017, CAVA must provide documentation to CDE substantiating that teachers properly monitored all students between 19 and 22 years old during the 2014-2015 and 2015-16 school years. Additionally, CAVA must update its attendance reporting guidelines to ensure that it claims apportionment for students between the ages 19 and 21 only when those students show measurable progress toward
graduation. CAVA must submit its updated attendance reporting guidelines and proof of Governing Board approval to CDE for review by December 1, 2017.
Finding 4 – Pupil-teacher ratio may have been inaccurately calculated
CAVA must provide documentation to CDE substantiating its calculation of its
pupil-teacher ratio for the 2014-15 and 2015-16 fiscal years by November 6, 2017. To accurately calculate CAVA’s pupil-teacher ratio, employees that worked less than 175 days in the fiscal year are considered part-time positions that would generate a partial full-time equivalent on a proportional basis. For additional assistance on calculating pupil-teacher ratios, please see: http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/eo/is/iscalcinst14.asp.
Observation 1 – Schools contracted to pay their authorizing entities oversight fees in excess of legal limits
CAVA must provide copies of the amended memorandum of understanding (MOU) with each of its authorizing entities to CDE demonstrating that payments of oversight fees do not exceed state law by December 1, 2017.
Observation 2 – The restatement of prior years’ financial statements may have violated the schools’ memoranda of understanding with the authorizing entities
CAVA must remit $1,995,148 to CDE. Based on SCO’s audit, CAVA improperly claimed the restated amounts as valid expenditures or obligations that were previously forgiven. Additionally, the report indicates that instead of applying Common Core revenues to the schools’ net position, CAVA applied these revenues to balanced budget/credits. Further, the audit reported that increasing the payable to K12 Inc. after the end of the school year appears to violate the terms of the MOUs between CAVA and its authorizing entities, which state that no obligation to K12 Inc. should continue after the end of the school year. In the future, CAVA should ensure that all Common Core funds are properly encumbered, expended, and accounted for in accordance with state and federal requirements.
Organizational Independence
CAVA must provide documentation to substantiate that it is now organizationally independent from K12 Inc. including: (1) organizational charts; (2) the modified
K-12 Inc. fee structure; (3) revised MOUs reflecting that the terms of the contracts, including fees, are fair and reasonable to CAVA; and (4) documentation substantiating that K-12 Inc. no longer has check writing authority over CAVA’s bank accounts.
If you have questions regarding this information, please contact Kimberly Tarvin, Director, Audits and Investigations Division, by phone at 916-323-1547, or by email at [email protected].
Sincerely,
Original signed by Michelle Zumot. Michelle Zumot
Chief Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction
Dear CAVA Administration,
I am writing this email after a conversation I just had with my RLT. I have learned that once again my role as a Community Day High School teacher will be changing. I am not writing this as a plea for change, as I know this is not possible. I have been told many times.
I am writing this as an insight into the lives and minds of your valued teachers. It is difficult for us to sit in a staff meeting and repeatedly hear how valued we are and that we are such an integral part of CAVA from both administration and families, yet our personal work load is overlooked.
I understand that students should not be turned away and that they are enrolled at different times. What I do not understand is how my title can be dismissed just to fill the seats of new students on my roster.
Over the past six years I have worked for this school and have received two nearly perfect reviews with my administrators. I have helped changed the program of Community Day to strengthen not only my site, but the relationship between high school teachers and the rest of the team. I have taken on any task put onto my plate with a smile, because I love my job and value my students. I have had an overflowing Homeroom because I have never once turned away a student or started a wait list. Last year I graduated 10 students, all of whom were on my roster since their freshman year at CAVA.
Going into this year, I knew that my numbers were low. I was told not to worry, it would grow. It would not change my role and I would not lose my position as CD teacher at Glendora. Due to short staffing at my site, we are postponed and marketing for our site was stopped. Due to this circumstance, I was not given any new CD students. I did come up with a plan to “get my numbers up”, which was technically not necessary as it was only a means to fill a quota. I took students from Burbank CD off the wait list and offered to be their Homeroom teacher.
This seemed to be a good plan. They were made up of both C1 and C2 students. Everything seemed fine until I got a call that I would be taking on C4 students as well. This now leads to the issue of wearing three hats. I am now Glendora CD/virtual teacher, Burbank virtual but not CD teacher, and a virtual teacher to 5 new C4 students.
The trouble that I have, is that this was all done to fill a quota. It was not done as a benefit for the students or for me as a teacher. I understand that other teachers have high numbers as well, but I am not a virtual teacher. I am a CD teacher, and I should be treated as such with students who are willing to attend with me at my site.
The fact that they are not leads to confusion and a lot more work on my plate.
I hope that even if this letter does not lead to change, it will at least open the eyes and hearts of the people making decisions on my workload and how I can best serve my students.
Brooke Adamiak
I am writing this email after a conversation I just had with my RLT. I have learned that once again my role as a Community Day High School teacher will be changing. I am not writing this as a plea for change, as I know this is not possible. I have been told many times.
I am writing this as an insight into the lives and minds of your valued teachers. It is difficult for us to sit in a staff meeting and repeatedly hear how valued we are and that we are such an integral part of CAVA from both administration and families, yet our personal work load is overlooked.
I understand that students should not be turned away and that they are enrolled at different times. What I do not understand is how my title can be dismissed just to fill the seats of new students on my roster.
Over the past six years I have worked for this school and have received two nearly perfect reviews with my administrators. I have helped changed the program of Community Day to strengthen not only my site, but the relationship between high school teachers and the rest of the team. I have taken on any task put onto my plate with a smile, because I love my job and value my students. I have had an overflowing Homeroom because I have never once turned away a student or started a wait list. Last year I graduated 10 students, all of whom were on my roster since their freshman year at CAVA.
Going into this year, I knew that my numbers were low. I was told not to worry, it would grow. It would not change my role and I would not lose my position as CD teacher at Glendora. Due to short staffing at my site, we are postponed and marketing for our site was stopped. Due to this circumstance, I was not given any new CD students. I did come up with a plan to “get my numbers up”, which was technically not necessary as it was only a means to fill a quota. I took students from Burbank CD off the wait list and offered to be their Homeroom teacher.
This seemed to be a good plan. They were made up of both C1 and C2 students. Everything seemed fine until I got a call that I would be taking on C4 students as well. This now leads to the issue of wearing three hats. I am now Glendora CD/virtual teacher, Burbank virtual but not CD teacher, and a virtual teacher to 5 new C4 students.
The trouble that I have, is that this was all done to fill a quota. It was not done as a benefit for the students or for me as a teacher. I understand that other teachers have high numbers as well, but I am not a virtual teacher. I am a CD teacher, and I should be treated as such with students who are willing to attend with me at my site.
The fact that they are not leads to confusion and a lot more work on my plate.
I hope that even if this letter does not lead to change, it will at least open the eyes and hearts of the people making decisions on my workload and how I can best serve my students.
Brooke Adamiak
Hi April,
I hope this email finds you doing well. I want to start off by saying that I really appreciate the very positive messaging you have sent out from day one this semester. I have enjoyed participating in and reading the shout-outs and positive spotlights on what everyone is doing to start off the year. I believe that this is a really good step in the right direction to boost morale among teachers. Thank you!
I also wanted to share with you some real-time developments that I feel lead to many of the issues that we have been discussing at the bargaining table.
Last week, my friend and colleague, Shea decided to leave CAVA and take a position at Inspire. She was teaching two English preps, 208 and an upper level AP course. One of my English 108 teammates, Lien Huynh was moved today from English 108 to English 208 to take over Shea’s class. Lien’s 108 students will now be distributed across the classrooms of those of us continuing to teach English 108.
This is an extremely unfortunate development for Lien, because she has been working for the last month at familiarizing herself with the 108 content (a Summit course), creating lesson plans, and developing a rapport with her students. She is now being asked to jump into English 208, catch up on what has already been taught and learned in the class, create new lesson plans (which will be challenging to do before having an opportunity to learn what has already been taught so she can scaffold that material), and develop a rapport with new students. This transition will be very stressful for Lien.
This transition will also be stressful for many of the students in that 208 class, as they have gotten into a routine with Shea, and will now be asked to familiarize themselves with the teaching style and requirements of a different teacher.
This transition will also be stressful for many of the students from Lien’s English 108 class, as they will all now be moved into a different class, and have to familiarize themselves with the teaching style and requirements of a different teacher.
This transition will create additional work for those of us teaching English 108, as we will now take on many new students, and need to transfer over their grade books, and invite them to our Class Connect sessions, and communicate the expectations and requirements of our classrooms, respectively.
All of this will get done, as it always does. But it is extremely unfortunate that it happens so frequently. When a teacher leaves CAVA, and when a teacher is asked to leave CAVA, it creates a ripple effect that extends a great distance, and negatively affects a great deal of people.
It is also unfortunate and frustrating that this always seems to happen right about this time of the semester.
I shared this information in the pulse-check survey a few days before Shea announced she was leaving, and I wanted to share it with you as well, because it proved to be prescient:
I find myself in this exact same position every year as a CAVA teacher (this is year five for me): After the first two weeks of content classes, I feel like saying to myself, "You know what? I think I might finally have this CAVA thing figured out. I think I have finally found how to be effective and efficient with my time to get both my homeroom and content students up and running."
And then, like clock work, Cohort 2 responsibilities come along and disrupt our order and organization. The rhythm that I have gotten into (teaching at 9 and 10am, then checking on students and answering questions, then creating a lesson plan, then grading, then attending to emails and completing random administrative/attendance responsibilities, then reviewing and making a list for the following day), that rhythm is disrupted as if a good song came to a record-scratching halt on a dance floor. New homeroom and content students need lots of our time and attention to allay their confusion and feelings of being overwhelmed. This attention means that the students with whom we are just starting to develop a rapport (our Cohort 1 homeroom and content students) have to take a back seat in terms of attention received. It is very challenging to find that rhythm again, because even if we are able to relatively seamlessly incorporate the new students into our existing routine, there are other things that begin to pop up at this time as well, such as teachers being asked to switch preps based on unforeseen enrollment numbers, teachers being laid off because of declining enrollment numbers, teachers leaving for a more stable/better-paying teaching opportunity, the addition of academic support responsibilities, the influx of SPED department collaboration meetings, and many other tasks and responsibilities that make it extremely challenging to stay sane, let alone to give each student the time and attention they deserve.
This is year five for me with CAVA, and on Friday I could see and feel the wave of chaos that always seems to show up at this time of the school year. The wave will completely drench our school, leaving behind confusion and frustration. I keep thinking that one day I might be able to build a strong enough foundation to withstand this unavoidable wave of chaos, but that day has yet to come, and I fear that it never will as I brace once again for the wave's wrath.
I wanted to share with you the real-time developments because we feel that it is absolutely imperative for everyone involved that we fix our unusually high teacher-turnover rate. We feel the best way to do this is to provide a more competitive salary for our teachers (there is currently a palpable feeling of frustration that the starting salaries on EdJoin would be paying new CAVA teachers the same as teachers who have worked here for many years), a more stable and secure working environment that addresses our current at-will status, and some tweaking to our current live class schedule, which has taken away much of the flexibility that students and teachers need to optimize success in this unique environment.
I feel comfortable sharing this info with you, April because I know that you want a fair contract as much as we do. I sincerely respect and appreciate the challenging position you occupy as our Head of Schools. My goal is for this email to come across as informative and constructive. In no way is my intention to be combative, whiny, or difficult.
Please feel free to reach out to me if you would like to discuss anything further.
Have a great day.
Chris Carlock
HS English Teacher