Practicing for Renewal: One CMO's path back from closure

This session will show how a close brush with closure led one organization, serving mostly poor students of color, to completely overhaul its governance, finances, facilities, and compliance, as well as improving its instructional program. This session will offer schools across the state a preview of what aggressive declining enrollment authorizers will do to close schools. and a pathway forward for schools trying to overcome that push. It will also showcase how important a stable leadership team and board can overcome massive hurdles, and turn around systems-challenged schools.

When/Where:
,
Seaside-5, Long Beach Convention Center

Topic:
Advocate - Authorization and renewals

Format:
Breakout Session

Presented by

Brent Zionic
Chief Accountability Officer
Griffin Technology Academies

I bring a background in education, engineering, technology, and entrepreneurship to our newly created Accountability office, focused on governance, compliance, facilities, and assessment. Implementing a system of quality management, I'm leaning on standards and processes to stabilize our charter.

Lee Rosenberg
Partner/Attorney at Law
Young, Minney & Corr, LLP

Lee is an attorney with Young, Minney, & Corr. His practice areas include Charter Development, Charter Defense, and Charter Litigation. Before attending law school, Lee taught at a middle school in NYC through Teach for America. During law school, Lee worked in the legal office of the San Francisco USD and was a Bay Area fellow in the Education Pioneers program. Lee also previously worked in government for a California governor and a United States Secretary of Labor. Lee earned his BA from UC Berkeley, his MS in Teaching from Pace University, and his JD from UC Hastings.

Nick Driver
Superintendent
Griffin Technology Academies

Nick Driver serves as Superintendent of Griffin Technology Academies, a four-school group of college preparatory public middle and high schools in Vallejo. For the past 20 years, he has supported, created or turned around hundreds of public schools, advising school leaders, serving on school design teams and providing technical, political and operational advice for charter and district public schools. He also serves on the board of the award-winning Mission Preparatory School. In Oakland and Richmond, he serves as board chair of Education for Change Public Schools, and board vice-chair of AMethod Public Schools.