(Photo from MS Charter School Authorizer Board on Facebook)
- A 3% staff salary increase request was included in a total budget increase request for FY 2028 of about $88,000. The request also includes increases to health insurance and fringe benefits.
A budget request for Fiscal Year 2028 that includes a 3% staff pay raise was approved by the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board this week.
The Board also heard public input on a revised version of the Mississippi Charter School Performance Framework and was reminded of the state’s ethics and open meetings law.
Denise De Rossette with Cornerstone Consulting Group presented the details of the budget request during Monday’s meeting, adding the deadline to turn the request into the Legislature is August 3. A 3% staff salary increase was included in the request, equating to $28,000 of the total budget increase request of about $87,800. Increases to health insurance and fringe benefit rates were also factored into the request.
“We know that the fringe rate for retirement is going up another 0.5% in FY 28. That’ll bring it from 18.9%, another 0.5%,” Rossette explained.
She added that the budget increase is based off of the amount appropriated for Fiscal Year 2027 as well as what will be requested for Fiscal Year 2028. The anticipated total expenditure for Fiscal Year 2028 is $1.49 million.
During the public comment period of the meeting, the Board also heard a request to remove a charter school from the Board’s Mississippi Charter School Performance Framework accountability system that addresses adverse findings known as the “intervention ladder.”
Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School Executive Director of Amanda Johnson said the school’s performance framework financial document from the 2024-25 fiscal year inaccurately states the school fails to meet expectations, making it appear as though the school cannot manage its finances.
“Our financial health is great,” Johnson clarified. “We refinanced our loans. We ended with 121 days in cash.”
The school’s current status on the intervention ladder makes it difficult to obtain letters of good standing for loans.
“But at the end of the day, I think if you were to have an honest conversation about where Clarksdale Collegiate is, how we are performing, and what we are doing for kids in the Delta, you will see that we should be a school in good standing,” Johnson said.
She requested the Board remove the school from the ladder and correct that year’s performance framework documentation.
With the Board set to adopt changes to the performance framework that day, the executive director for Midtown Partners, who holds the charter for Midtown Public Charter Schools, asked for a more streamlined method in the renewal process. Dr. Kristi Hendrix said the current renewal process is 113 pages.
“The current process for renewals asks a renewing school to essentially rebuild its case from scratch with a lengthy narrative application regardless of how the school has actually performed over time,” she described.
Hendrix proposed cutting the renewal process to 17 pages with the Board centering their decision on actual performance under the framework.
“For schools that have been meeting or exceeding expectations year after year that’s the right basis for the renewal decision,” Hendrix added.
The budget request and the revised performance framework were later approved by the Board.
A copy of the framework changes is shown below.
Ethics and Open Meetings Update
In addition to those agenda items, a presentation on ethics was also heard by the Board from Mississippi Ethics Commission Assistant Director and Counsel Ross Hammons. He stated that all charter schools are subject to ethics, governance, public records and open meetings laws.
Lisa Karmacharya, executive director of the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board, said she likes to have someone from the Ethics Commission speak to the Board to ensure they are versed on the law.
“Because it’s important that everybody be aware of the rules and the statutes that apply to open meetings and ethics as a board member,” Karmacharya added.
Not all complaints result in a need for the ethics commission to take action.
“You can imagine we get a lot of complaints about individuals who may not be conducting themselves in the right way but not giving rise to an ethics and government violation,” Hammons explained.
Some of the things Hammons advised the Board to stay away from included voting on matters of employment or contracts where family is involved. In those instances, Board members should recuse themselves. He also advised the Board not to purchase items being sold by a school under their governance.
“The example of that from a school standpoint, like a school board member couldn’t buy a surplus school bus and take it to the deer camp,” he elaborated.
Other ethics violations include insider trading and holding meetings outside of the public eye through blatant violations of the open meetings act.
“Deliberations of a quorum must take place in a proper public meeting and when a quorum splits into separate groups and discusses the same matter of business with the same people, that is a quorum deliberating. A meeting has occurred,” Hammons said, quoting from a Supreme Court decision.
Reasons to hold an executive session can include personnel matters, pending litigation and security matters, among others. While all public meetings need to be open to the public, Hammons added that there is no requirement that matters be discussed in executive session.
Accusations of improper use of executive sessions by small bodies are one of the complaints his office receives the most.
Another complaint that comes to his office regularly is when there was no public comment period in a particular meeting. Hammons clarified that there is no rule that a body has to provide a public comment period. However, that body also cannot ban cameras or prevent someone from recording a meeting, so long as that person is not in another person’s personal space.
“If someone wants to sit in the back and record the meeting, they’re allowed to do that,” Hammons said.
Jeremy Pittari
