REVISED 08/2008

Contract Programs Policy

 

Policies for both Courses and Educational Activities

Policies for CP Courses

Policies for Educational Activities

 

Policies for both CP Courses and Educational Activities:

 

1) Courses and Educational Activities are initiated based on the student’s educational needs. No sectarian or denominational instruction may be given in a CP course, either directly or indirectly.

 

2) No student is officially enrolled or may attend:

a) a course unless Contract Programs has received the ES’s approval allowing the dollar amount stated in F.R.E.D. for the course to be encumbered for that student in their Instructional Funding account.

b) an activity unless a PO has been created in F.R.E.D. and received by the business prior to the date of the activity.(see additional requirements for "pre-pay" events below).

 

3) Courses and Educational Activities may be held in a variety of locations. The school may request proof of insurance.

 

4) Courses and Educational Activities may be held on Monday through Friday. Make up courses may be scheduled as needed. Courses may not be scheduled exclusively on weekends, holidays, school breaks, prior to the first day of school or continue after the last day of school unless approved by CWCS Administration.

 

5) Courses and Educational Activities may be restricted or unrestricted. (See Restricted Course Policy.) Those listed under #3 on the Restricted Course Policy with additional requirements may only be set up as an Educational Activity (using a PO Request), as they may only be done with a school approved commercial vendor, and not an instructor.

 

6) Anyone who will be providing transportation to a course or an educational activity for students other than their own children must submit a Volunteer/Employee Vehicle Usage-Transporting Students form to their ES. (Follow instructions on the form).  

 

7) The ES is responsible to collect a signed permission slip prior to the student’s attending an activity if it is a GEA or a Course with Additional Requirements. All forms should be filed in the student’s file and mailed to the office only upon request. The ES must make sure their students do not attend the activity until all required documents have been received

 

8) ESes must record learning and activities from the Courses and Educational Activities in the student's learning records.

 

9) Connecting Waters Hiring Policy: CWCS will not employ any minors to work for the Charter School.

 

Policies for CP Courses:

 

1) Course instructors must be approved by the ES prior to instruction and will be given a copy of Instructor Policy and Procedures. Once Contract Programs gets the contract back from the instructor, they will mark "approved" in the status box and change the start date of the class if the start date was before the approval date. Even if the instructor was an employee of the school before the contract was received, the beginning date of the class can not be before the office gets the contract back from the instructor (the approval date).

 

2) Under no circumstances may a contract program course begin or will an instructor be paid for any courses taken prior to a signed contract with the school. A contract between the school and the instructor of a course will be in effect after:

a. the course has been educationally approved by the ES who set up the course.

b. the service contract has been signed and returned to Contract Programs.

c. the ES for each student has approved enrollment and funds encumbrance in F.R.E.D.

 

3) After enrolling in a course in F.R.E.D., the ES must print a copy of the course approval form showing their approval.  The student (or ES) will give this approval to the instructor of the course on the first day, who will then allow the student to attend the course. No students may attend a course without this approval form.

 

4) The instructor may state the minimum and maximum number of students they will allow in their courses.  The instructor’s contract for each course will be based on a per student rate times the maximum amount of students they will accept.  CP will only pay the per student rate for each student actually enrolled in that course each calendar month. An instructor may cancel a class with 5 days written notice to Contract Programs that falls below their stated minimum number of students.6.  A course may be cancelled for safety reasons or if the instructor is not fulfilling their contract with  5 days written notice.

 

5)  Total instructor costs for a class will reflect the usual remuneration in the community.  The ES who sets up the course will select the instructor qualifications, on which allowed pay will be based.

 

6) Contract Program courses will be set-up based on a per student rate.  The 15% employment costs for classified instructors (if applicable) will be included in the per student rate that is quoted to the ES for the course. The encumbered cost for a course may be less than that approved by the ES for their student, BUT NEVER MAY MORE BE DEDUCTED FROM AN ES’S IF ACCOUNT FOR A STUDENT FOR A COURSE THAN THAT ES HAS APPROVED in F.R.E.D.

 

7) A separate amount may be encumbered in the ES IF account for materials for a course and a course facility fee.  That amount will be charged out evenly over students taking the course and must be stated in the signed contract with the instructor.  THESE MATERIALS AND FACILITIES CHARGES WILL BE STATED IN THE E-MAIL FOR ES APPROVAL, AND WILL THEN BE ENCUMBERED UPON APPROVAL BY THE ES.

 

8) Materials for courses may be obtained by:

a. The ES: for his/her individual student. He/she submits a purchase order and the individual charge for these material will be made to the ES’s IF account as with any other student order.

b. Purchased by the instructor: The funds will be reimbursed to the instructor.A list of these materials must be submitted with a course set-up worksheet.

 

9) Books are the property of the school they were purchased from and must be returned to the school at the end of the course. Instructors must see that materials are returned to the school at the end of the course.

 

10)  High School Core classes must be taught by a person with a California teaching credential or with a BA in the area that they are teaching. (i.e. if the class is an upper level math class, it might be taught by an Engineer, or if it is an English Class, by someone with a degree in English). High School classes can be taught on core subjects by people other than the above, only if the class is supplemental to the core course that is taught in the home and supervised by the credentialed ES. The Contract Programs class in this situation is not the complete course, it is only to be an additional help/aid to the student as they complete the course with their HQT. See NCLB Highly Qualified Teachers for more information.

 

11) An HQT Set Up Form must be used for setting up HQT CP courses, HQT CP Tutoring, and HQT CP Access taught by CWCS employees. Not required for Elluminate HQT CP Courses,  Learning Center HQT CP courses, or HQT courses taught by business vendors (for business vendors, use a PO). ESes must submit the form as an attachment to cwcs@connectingwaters.org

12)  A student is committed to paying for one calendar month's worth of Contract Programs courses at a time after they have signed up on the web and the ES has given approval.

13) The truancy policy applies to the HQT Dept. courses and other CP courses (grades K-12) for the following subjects: English, Math, Science, Social Science, VPA, Foreign Language. An unexcused absence will be counted as a truancy.
a) Excused Absence is defined as :
The student or parent shall notify the teacher of the absence at least 24 hours* prior to the time the class meets. Students who have notified their teacher that they will be absent due to illness, doctor's appointment, or another reason, MUST complete their assigned make-up work within 48 hours of the regularly scheduled class meeting. If make-up work is not turned in to the teacher within 48 hours, the missing make-up work will affect their grade.
b) Unexcused Absence is defined as:
The student or parent shall notify the teacher of the absence at least 24 hours* prior to the time the class meets. If the teacher has not been notified by the student or parent of an absence at least 24 hours* prior to the time the class meets, the student absence will be "unexcused". The student MUST complete their assigned make-up work within 48 hours of the regularly scheduled class meeting. If make-up work is not turned in to the teacher within 48 hours, the missing make-up work will affect their grade.
c) Truancy notification: The CP instructor will email the ES and cc the student on the same day that the unexcused absence occurred to notify them that the student was unexcused and therefore truant, and that they must turn in their make up work within 48 hours or it will affect their grade. The ES must follow the truancy policy and mail a truancy letter within 24 hours of the date that the email was sent.
(If there are extenuating circumstances that do not allow for at least 24 hours, then the teacher must still be notified prior to the start of class; allowances may be made depending on the circumstances. Examples of extenuating circumstances: car accident, sudden illness, etc.)
ESes must explain this policy to their students/parents. Use the parent info linked to the truancy policy when explaining.

 

14) To drop a student from a course before the course begins, you may click on the red X on Course page in FRED. To drop after the course begins, you must email cp@ieminc.org. Include the drop date in the email. A student may drop from the course, but their instructional funding will be committed to paying for the rest of that calendar month unless the course is officially cancelled. The ES is responsible to make sure that the CP instructor is notified when one of their students drops from a class. A phone call to them is sufficient. If this is not done, the instructor may continue to bill for the course. If after an ES has notified CP and the instructor of the drop date, they find that an instructor has continued to bill for that student, e-mail ap@ieminc.org and the charge will be adjusted (keep in mind that some instructors may charge for remainder of month). (save a copy of the email)

 

15)  Instructors with relatives in their classes must have an equal number of enrolled school students as relatives in order for the class to be approved.

 

16) An ES who is also a school CP instructor may not be paid from the Instructional Funding account they control for their own children or other children who reside in their household. But, the ESs children may attend the class they teach for free, ordering any required materials separately on a PO for the child. Be sure to take this into consideration when stating the maximum number of students allowed in a CP course.

 

17) An ES may not require any of the students on their “class list” to enroll in the CP courses they instruct. If an ES feels that a student would benefit from one of the above activities, and the parent disagrees, the ES can only require it of them if approved in writing by the ES's Advisor. (This does not limit a parent’s ability to choose to participate in any of these situations).


18) The CP Instructors send a Student Progress Report Form to the school office on a monthly basis. These forms include the name of class, learning period dates, class times and instructor name along with the students’ assignments and what they’ve covered during that period. It also lists the individual student name, ES name, attendance, positive participation, # of assignments completed, understanding of material, grade to date and any comments the instructor would like to include. If you are not currently receiving a progress report for your students taking classes with our CP Instructors and would like to, please email bjohansson@connectingwaters.org to let her know and she will mail you a copy when we receive them in the school office.

 

Policies for Educational Activities
1) Vendors for Educational Activities must be approved through Vendor Relations. An ES may not become a contracted "business vendor" during the same time they are a school employee. An ES may teach courses or offer tutoring as a school employee through contract programs in addition to serving as an ES.

2) Permission slips, Vehicle Use forms (if applicable), and any additional paperwork needed for high risk courses, must be collected prior to the submission of a purchase order. (see School Restricted Courses Additional Req. )

3) No business may charge us any more that what they charge the general public.

4) No activity will be paid for by the charter school if the vendor does not receive the PO prior to the start of the activity.

5) Only one family or student per PO, and only one activity per PO. Do not submit one PO for multiple families or activities.

6) A PO may be submitted for up to 18 weeks worth of service (one full semester only), unless there is a special "year long" price, and the family has enough funding to cover that expense. (Businesses may bill monthly or wait until the end of the services to bill.) Be sure to include the correct unit/quantity so that the total amount will be listed on the PO. (i.e. if the PO is listed by months, be sure to enter the price per month and the number of months to be included, or if listed by semester, the price per semester and the number 1 under quantity.) Please note, if a PO is made out for a full semester, the parent should be aware that funding may be encumbered for the full amount and that refunds if the student drops from the course may not be possible. Note: If the vendor allows, in most cases, it is best to create the service POs using the number of months and the price per month rather than per semester.

7) The school does not pay for season passes, memberships, team sport registrations, uniforms, parking, etc. but for specific events, educational services and activities only. The ES IF can pay for "instruction", but membership and registration fees a business may require in order for a student to participate in their activity cannot be paid for by the school, but must be paid for by the parent/student in order to participate in that activity.

8) For Vendors that require prepayment, checks are issued to ESes and given to parents after paperwork requirements are met.

9) Course request forms should NOT be filled out in F.R.E.D. if a PO is submitted for the activity.