WRCCS News

"Thank you all for your hard work supporting all of us!"

"The virtual confernece was great - thank you for putting this together in a (still) very difficult time during this pandemic - MUCH appreciated!"

"Great sessions and learning opportunities!"

"Loved the student video- wrapped up on our most valuable assets!!"

Two WRCCS Micro-credentials were successfully defended at the WRCCS Conference on July 27th. Each school presented virtually live to a panel of peer reviewers and conference attendees from around the state of Wisconsin. A WRCCS Micro-credential is a mini-certification demonstrating competence, experience, leadership, and growth around specific group of WRCCS School Competencies. Schools can defend a micro-credential in school culture, charter school operations, academic model, charter school governance, community engagement, and financial health.

Charter school defense teams consisted of school teachers, leaders, parents, students, governance board, and community members. The defense process followed a specific protocol which was assessed by a peer review team that was made up of a diverse group of educators and community members from around the state. In order to earn a WRCCS Micro-credential, a charter school or governance board needed to provide documentation of competence through artifacts that clearly represented competence around the WRCCS Micro-credential.

Through this process, WRCSS is providing a way to showcase charter school accomplishments in a transparent, credible, and collaborative format that aims to:

• Reinforce specific strengths, skills, and merits of specific charter schools
• Elevate charter school profiles in attracting new families, and
• Connect Wisconsin charter schools with specific expertise from other schools

Congratulations to these charter schools who have successfully defended the following WRCCS Micro-credential:

KTEC - Community Engagement

High Marq Environmental Charter Schools - Community Engagement

How can I get involved in WRCCS Micro-credential movement?

• Learn more about WRCCS Micro-credentials here. Are you looking to get involved? Actively participate in the next round of WRCCS Micro-credentials by signing up to be a peer review here.
• Looking to earn your own WRCCS Micro-credential? Use this quick survey to express your interest and WRCCS will be in touch with you.

WRCCS is happy to announce that we were able to award stipends to two pre-planning charter school governance boards this summer!

The design teams will be working across WRCCS domains of authorizer, governance board, leadership, and classroom to strengthen the plans for their school. If your governance board design team is in the pre-planning stage and would like to apply in the next round, watch upcoming newsletters or reach out for more information. Congratulations to these hard-working and well-deserving teams!

The WRCCS Mentor School Program is intentionally designed to be personalized to meet the needs of each charter school. WRCCS and dedicated WRCCS Peer Support Schools will be guides to support charter schools with questions, resources, and/or inspirations when needed.

WRCCS Peer Support Schools have been specifically chosen because they have demonstrated specific skills, sustainability, and have continuously met their performance measures. A strong relationship between charter schools across Wisconsin makes all the difference for the success of the WRCCS Mentor Program. To request personalized support from a Peer Support School, please fill out this short form.

WRCCS Peer Support Schools:

ARISE Virtual Academy

Birchwood Blue Hills Charter School

Carmen Northwest

Clark Street Community School (CSCS)

Class Act Charter School

DC Everest Idea School

Escuela Verde Charter School

High Marq Environmental Charter School

Kaleidoscope Academy

Kenosha School of Technology Enhanced Curriculum (KTEC)

Northland Pines Montessori Learning Center (NPMLC)

Northwest Passage High School

Ouisconsing School of Collaboration (OSC)

School of Options and Applied Research Middle School (SOAR)

Valley New School

Wildlands Science Research Charter School

A charter school’s authorizer is responsible to uphold best practices for schools, encourage and endorse school autonomy, and assure student and public interests. A charter school authorizer is responsible to transparently hold charter schools accountable to meet specific performance measures and the requirements in the charter school contract. Therefore, it is no surprise that a common characteristic of highly successful charter schools is the effective work of a strong authorizer. The WRCCS listened to your requests and increased our offerings for district school boards.

Are you looking for personalized authorizing training for your school board?

WRCCS provides authorizer training in the following areas:

• Charter School Performance Framework

• Using Charter Schools to Meet your Mission and Vision

• Charter School Monitoring

• Authorizer Annual Report

• Authorizer Policymaking

• Charter School Application Process and Review

• Charter Contracting and Renewal Decisions

Set-up a training for your board today!

Fill out this WRCCS Personalized Support Request Form

Are you looking for asynchronous training material?

WRCCS has designed 49 (12 specifically designed for charter school authorizers) WRCCS eCourses for just-in-time learning and resources.

Do you have other questions or concerns?

Fill out this WRCCS Personalized Support Request Form

WRCCS can now add your school promotional video to the yearbook!

If you would like to take advantage of this new feature, please email us your YouTube video link (must be a YouTube link) with the school name and we will take care of the rest.

Please review all other information in your charter school listing for the 2021-22 Yearbook. Launch the online yearbook, search for your school and review the information we have. If any updates need to be made, please submit them by clicking on the "Request Update To This Listing" button found on your schools listing page (see photo below).

Please note that this request is exclusively for the charter schools yearbook. Your school and/or district is also responsible for keeping up-to-date information in the DPI schools directory, for which you will need to submit similar changes to Kari Tenley Kari.Tenley@dpi.wi.gov 608-267-1071.

WRCCS Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) are a vibrant, ever-changing group of connections to which school leaders can go to both share and learn. PLN groups reflect our values, passions, and areas of expertise. PLNs consist of colleagues, mentors, and professionals that you connect with to enhance your learning and take charge of your own professional growth. It is an online community that allows you to personalize your needs and tap into a statewide wealth of knowledge. #wrccspln

If you have other ideas/inspirations, bring them to the PLN!

New dates are continually added!

Unchartered Waters

Join NACSA on Thursday, August 12 to hear from authorizers and special education experts on how they have been monitoring and supporting their schools during the pandemic and their plans for ensuring the needs of special education students are prioritized and met in the coming school year and beyond.

For more information or to register, click here.

We know this video only begins to touch on all the amazing things happening in Wisconsin's charter schools. We want to continue to celebrate your school and the work do. If you have good news you'd like us to share in our monthly newsletter and/or social media, please send it to support@wrccs.org.

Once again, thank you for all you do for your communities and students!!! We are so proud to be a part of your incredible work!

Birchwood Public Montessori - PK/K Teacher WECAN

Milwaukee College Prep

The Lincoln Academy

Virtual Academy of Agriscience and Technology - WECAN

Director

Nick Pretasky

Associate Director

Email: support@wrccs.org
Website: wrccs.org
Location: 304 Kaphaem Road, Tomahawk, WI, USA
Phone: 715-453-1079
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wrccs/
Twitter: @WRCCSworks