Did you know that the Department of Education is supposed to have links re: charter school notifications and hearings on its website? The problem is that not all of them work. When the links don't work, it makes it difficult to see which notifications were not carried out in a timely fashion, or not done at all, if they are unavailable online or anywhere else.
Some passages of state law would suggest that transcripts may be required; here is the passage of state law that was pointed out to me by a source:
"…In addition, such school district shall submit copies of any and all written
records or comments generated from the hearing to the charter school's charter
entity and the State Education Department within 15 business days of the
hearing."
Although a representative of the DOE claims that all relevant materials from charter facitilites siting hearings have been shared with the New York State Education Department, he also claims that at some meetings and hearings, stenographers are not always present and that the expense of hiring them to cover meetings and prepare transcripts would be expensive enough to come at the expense of student-centered educational activities undertaken by the Department. (Am I the only one that sees a contradiction here? Either a stenographer has prepared transcripts for all the relevant materials at all the hearings, or NOT because of the great expense: which is it?)
If you're interested in finding out more about the law, here is an excerpt of the law, and here's the link: www.regents.nysed.gov/2007Meetings/July2007/0707emscvesida4.doc
"Within thirty days of initially receiving notice of the receipt of an
application for the formation of a new charter school, of an application for the
renewal of an existing charter school, or of a charter school's request to
revise its existing charter, the school district in which the charter school is
located shall hold a public hearing to solicit comments from the community in
connection with the foregoing. …. Such hearing shall be held within the
community potentially impacted by the proposed action or charter school. When a
revision involves the relocation of a charter school to a different school
district, the proposed new school district shall also hold a hearing within such
thirty-day period. …In addition, such school district shall submit copies of any
and all written records or comments generated from the hearing to the charter
school's charter entity and the State Education Department within 15 business
days of the hearing."
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