§ 16-3.2-3. Procedure for creation of an empowerment school.
(a) The commissioner of elementary and secondary education shall develop a process for
a public school, with the approval of its superintendent and school committee, to
be designated as an empowerment school with the duties, responsibilities, and autonomies
set forth in this chapter. Said process shall also address the manner in which a school
and its school committee can convert an empowerment school back to a traditional public
school. No existing public school shall be converted into an empowerment school or
back to a traditional public school unless two-thirds (â…”) of the full-time professional
staff currently assigned to the eligible entity described in §â€‚16-3.2-4 approve the proposal. The empowerment school application process and timeline shall
be determined by the commissioner and include information including, but not limited
to, the vision for the empowerment school; the means it will use to improve school
performance and student achievement; performance criteria that will be used to measure
student learning at least sufficient to participate in the state accountability plan;
a plan for the governance, administration, and operation of the empowerment school;
whether the school will be funded via §§â€‚16-3.2-7 and 16-7.2-5 or through an alternative written agreement between the superintendent and the principal
of the empowerment school; and the state statutes, state regulations, contract provisions,
and school district rules from which variances or waivers are sought in order to facilitate
operation of the empowerment school. The application shall include a description of
the authority of the principal and how employment decisions of the principal would
impact the teacher and staff assignment process within a school district.
In order to facilitate statewide innovation, approved empowerment school plans shall
be posted publicly.
(b) Upon deeming an application to be satisfactory, the superintendent and school committee
shall transmit its approval of the designation to the commissioner of elementary and
secondary education, who shall then register the school as an empowerment school subject
to the duties, responsibilities, and autonomies of this chapter.
Nothing in this chapter shall require an empowerment school to include all of the
provisions of this chapter in its locally approved plan. In other words, empowerment
plans may include only a locally determined subset of the provisions made possible
by this chapter.
Nothing in this chapter shall prevent the creation of school-based amendment to the
district collective bargaining agreement, as defined in §â€‚16-3.2-4(f), to incorporate all or part of the empowerment plan into the local collective bargaining
agreement.
(c) If the designation of an empowerment school is approved by the superintendent and
school committee, it shall be authorized to operate for a period of up to three (3)
years. The empowerment school plan may be modified as necessary during its period
of authorization and may be renewed for increments up to three (3) years utilizing
the same process outlined herein for initial designation and registration.
(d) Upon registration of the empowerment school designation by the commissioner of elementary
and secondary education, the commissioner shall be deemed to have authorized all necessary
variances from statutes and regulations enumerated in the application.