Symposium Panel Footage

Sharing best practices is essential to creating a new market of public education that offers parents choice and catalyzes innovation.  We encourage you to view the panel discussions below and pass the information on to your colleagues, friends, and others involved in the new schools movement.  Please click on the links below to access video footage for the indicated panels:

Replicating District Success
Learn about aspects of the school replication process from school selection to expert supports required, and from proposal development and school launch.

Panelists:
Bogdana Chkoumbova, Principal, Walt Disney II Magnet School
Michael Guinan, Vice President of Operations and Academics, Replications, Inc.
Dr. Kathleen Hagstrom, Principal, Walt Disney I Magnet School
Moderator: Josh Edelman, Executive Director, Office of New Schools, Chicago Public Schools

Innovative Answers to a Tight Facilities Market
A look at how cities are overcoming a tight facilities market for new schools with limited budgets.

Panelists:
Andrew Alt, Vice President of Operations, UNO Charter School Network
Michael Duffy, Executive Director, New York City Department of Charter Schools
Michael Ostermeyer, Partner, Quarles & Brady, LLP
David Umansky, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Civic Builders
Moderator: Jill Levine, Director of School Services, Illinois Facilities Fund

High School Transformation
Leaders from Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City share key strategies being used to transform high school performance as well as the metrics they use to measure success.

Panelists:
Allan Alson, Executive Director, Office of High School Transformation, Chicago Public Schools
Robert Hughes, President, New Visions for Public Schools
Marco Petruzzi, President and COO, Green Dot Public Charter Schools
Moderator: Carmita Vaughan, Chief of Staff, Office of High School Programs, Chicago Public Schools

Creating a Quality Supply: The Competitive Authorization Process
Leaders from the Chicago Public Schools and The Renaissance Schools Fund discuss how they worked together to create a rigorous, quality rubric, a multi-staged review process based on high standards, and the critical roles played by national experts and the community.

Panelists:
Jim Ford, Charter Schools Programs Director and Lead Underwriter, Raza Development Fund
William Gerstein, Principal, Austin Polytech Academy
Connie McHugh, Chief Operating Officer, The Renaissance Schools Fund
Jeanne Nowaczewski, Senior Director of Recruitment, Office of New Schools, Chicago Public Schools
Moderator: Margaret Lin, Of Counsel, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools

The Role of the Private Sector in the New Market of Education
Chicago’s business and civic leaders discuss strategies used to engage the private sector in the new schools movement. 

Panelists:
Ron Manderschied, President, Northwestern University Settlement Association
Steve Solomon, Director, Corporate Relations, Exelon Corporation & President, The Exelon Foundation
Errol Stone, Partner, Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, LLP
Eileen Sweeney, Director of Corporate & Philanthropic Relations, Motorola Foundation
Moderator: Phyllis Lockett, President and CEO, The Renaissance Schools Fund

Building an Entrepreneurial Pipeline
Panelists share strategies used to both identify strong new school leaders and prepare them for the educational and entrepreneurial challenges of opening a new school.  The conversation concludes with an assessment of how current principal training programs can adapt to better prepare principals to lead a successful start-up venture.

Panelists:
Chris Clemons, Deputy Executive Director, Building Excellent Schools
April L. Ervin, Executive Director, New Leaders for New Schools, Chicago
Michael Milkie, Superintendent & COO, Noble Network of Charter Schools
Kelly Wright, Director of Principal Development Programs, KIPP Foundation
Moderator: Jason Cascarino, Manager of Program Investments, The Chicago Public Education Fund

Measuring Progress in the New Schools Movement
Learn about tools being developed to evaluate new schools and findings from studies conducted to date.

Panelists:
Eric Chan, Grants Manager, The Renaissance Schools Fund
Robin Lake, Associate Director, Center on Reinventing Public Education
Kathleen Weaver, Director of Accountability, Office of New Schools, Chicago Public Schools
Paul Zavitkovsky, Instructor and Program Coach, College of Education, University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)
Moderator: Macke Raymond, CREDO, Stanford University

Going to Scale: Strategically Growing High-Performing Networks
Operators, district partners and education venture philanthropists share challenges and best practices found in successful growth plans for emerging and growing school networks.

Panelists:
Robert Hughes, President, New Visions for Public Schools
Tim Knowles, Executive Director, Center for Urban School Improvement, University of Chicago
Ben Lindquist, Partner, Charter School Growth Fund
Evan Rudall, Chief Operating Officer, Uncommon Schools
Moderator: Jim Peyser, Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund

Turnaround Schools
Explore the critical elements in a turnaround school model, the challenges associated with the turnaround strategy, and the feasibility of its success.

Panelists:
Lionel Allen, Principal, Sherman School of Excellence
Barbara Eason-Watkins, Chief Education Officer, Chicago Public Schools
Elizabeth Purvis, Executive Director, Chicago International Charter School
Meghan O’Keefe, Project Director, School Turnaround Strategies, Mass Insight Education & Research Institute
Moderator: Jordan Meranus, Partner, NewSchools Venture Fund

The Parental and Political Infrastructure to Drive Change
Learn best practices and strategies for engaging multiple stakeholders, particularly parents, in the campaign for more quality public school options and examine the challenges to this reform effort.

Panelists:
Kim Davis-Ambrose, Liaison, Parents for School Choice
Alderman Walter Burnett, Jr., City of Chicago, 27th Ward
Elizabeth Evans, Executive Director, Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS)
Joe Williams, Executive Director, Democrats for Education Reform
Moderator: Lawrence Patrick, Past President & CEO, Black Alliance for Educational Options

Luncheon Keynote Panel: A Collective Vision for a New Public School System
Three leaders of the growing new schools movement address Chicago’s Renaissance 2010 initiative including: hiring quality school leaders and staff and what supports must be in place to take the initiative to scale.

Panelists:
Frank Clark, Chairman and CEO, ComEd
Michael Milkie, Superintendent & COO, Noble Network of Charter Schools
Commissioner Robert Steele, Cook County, 2nd District
Moderator: Elizabeth Brackett, Correspondent, Chicago Tonight & The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer