Massachusetts Charter Public School Association

December 6 and 13, 2023. 10:00a-12:30p. Virtual Meeting (Zoom). OVERVIEW.

Building Enrollment Momentum: Marketing Strategies to Boost Enrollment. December 8th, 2023. 10:00 - 11:30 a.m.

Charters SPEAK is a community of practice for public affairs (communications and advocacy) professionals from MCPSA member schools, offering trainings, best practice sharing, and thought partnership around topics related to advancing political and public support for the charter public school sector in Massachusetts.

This session is rooted in the importance of crafting and communicating your school's unique story, the narrative of the charter school sector, and your 'why.' This session explores the pivotal role in utilizing storytelling to rally support for your school, from fundraising to advocacy. Participants will also explore the responsibility of the board in supporting consistent messaging regardless of school circumstance - from school success stories to crisis communications.

January 25 and February 6, 2024. 1:00p-3:00p. Virtual Meeting (Zoom). OVERVIEW.

January 29, February 5, and February 12, 2024. 1:00p-3:00p. Virtual Meeting (Zoom). OVERVIEW.

School leaders are leaving their jobs at an alarming pace. Every board should be asking itself how it can best support their school leader and make it possible and desirable to stay in the job, while also exercising oversight over the school's and school leader‘s performance. We will offer practical suggestions on how to balance support and oversight, establish trust with the school leader, and agree on powerful and strategic goals–and how to use the school leader evaluation process as the framework for all of this.

February 7 and 13, 2024. 10:00a-12:00p. Virtual Meeting (Zoom). OVERVIEW.

March 6 and 12, 2024. 10:00a - 12:00p. Virtual Meeting (Zoom). OVERVIEW.

Charter public school boards in Massachusetts are much less racially diverse than the state’s charter public school students. About 75% of charter public school students are students of color, while only about a third of board members are people of color. Over the past two years, the percentage of board members of color in the state increased by just 4 percent. How can your board prioritize racial diversity, what other kinds of diversity are important to your board, and why do diverse boards matter for students? We will share concrete ideas and strategies for building and maintaining a board that reflects the students your school serves.

Details to follow.

March 20 and 27, 2024. 1:00p-3:00p. Virtual Meeting (Zoom). OVERVIEW.

March 21, 2024. 1:00p-3:00p. Virtual Meeting (Zoom). OVERVIEW.

What the Charter Leader Succession Planning Workshops Provide: 1. Content knowledge and useful tools.

While board members don’t teach, hire, design curriculum, or grade tests, student success should be the focus of every single board of every single school. It is the board’s job to ensure that the school is providing its students opportunities to thrive; the board does this by setting clear goals with the school leader, identifying the key data the board will look at to measure progress to those goals, resolutely monitoring progress throughout the year, and holding the school leader accountable for sustaining success and changing course as needed to achieve those goals. We will share our board dashboard template in this session and answer questions about adapting the template to fit your school.