Transcripts
Hello, CharterFolk.
Jed Wallace:I am very excited about today's conversation.
Jed Wallace:We are in a unbelievable moment in public education history as well as just charter
Jed Wallace:movement history, CharterFolk evolution.
Jed Wallace:We are going through a pandemic and and a moment of challenge
Jed Wallace:for educators that is just beyond anything that we've seen before.
Jed Wallace:And while our world I do believe is coming through it in ways that are healthier and
Jed Wallace:better and more intact than we're seeing in many other places in public education,
Jed Wallace:it's absolutely true that we are facing a great challenge and we need to find
Jed Wallace:ways to get more oxygen into our room.
Jed Wallace:So that CharterFolk can just breathe more.
Jed Wallace:And if we can make it through the difficult months that are in front of us
Jed Wallace:I think we have great reason for optimism that the days in front of us are going
Jed Wallace:to be even more exciting and successful than the ones that we've had in the past.
Jed Wallace:And so I thought it would be good to start a new series where I might
Jed Wallace:be able to connect briefly around 20 minutes with people who I've come across
Jed Wallace:during my time in the charter world who have always filled me with oxygen.
Jed Wallace:And as I was thinking of the list of people, the first person I
Jed Wallace:wanted to talk to was Yvonne Chan.
Jed Wallace:And I reached out to Yvonne and I said, Yvonne, would you be willing
Jed Wallace:to be the first of our visitors, our guests on a new series, we would be
Jed Wallace:calling the CharterFolk Oxygen Bar.
Jed Wallace:And I'm delighted that Yvonne said yes.
Jed Wallace:So Yvonne, thank you so much for being here.
Jed Wallace:It's great to see you again.
Jed Wallace:Welcome.
Yvonne Chan:Thank you.
Yvonne Chan:And thank you for having me here.
Yvonne Chan:And I'm so glad to be able to communicate with the CharterFolks.
Yvonne Chan:It's been what?
Yvonne Chan:30 long years and blink and here we are 2022.
Yvonne Chan:So when you talk about oxygens and energy, right?
Yvonne Chan:Not only, we are good stretch runners.
Yvonne Chan:It's been 30 years and we are still running .For me.
Yvonne Chan:I would see myself as like a candle, the candle continue to burn.
Yvonne Chan:Until it dies.
Yvonne Chan:But of course I'm not going to let myself die, you kidding?.
Yvonne Chan:So make sure along the way I try to light other candles or
Yvonne Chan:actually preheatother candles in order to build that people power.
Yvonne Chan:So yeah, candles doesn't have to be just a state.
Yvonne Chan:I've seen, we have different shapes.
Yvonne Chan:We have flowers, we have blocks of blobs of candle burning.
Yvonne Chan:So it is important for us to come together to have the candle burning.
Yvonne Chan:And how do you burn that?
Yvonne Chan:How are you going to keep the light on is through innovative.
Yvonne Chan:Water is about innovation.
Yvonne Chan:We chose this path.
Yvonne Chan:Why do the same old, which you shouldn't just stay in our own closet.
Yvonne Chan:So a charter license us to dream.
Yvonne Chan:And unfortunately, some of us are not using those tools, all the
Yvonne Chan:tools with courage and confidence.
Yvonne Chan:So when we talk about innovation, now let's look back.
Yvonne Chan:Jeez, 30 years ago.
Yvonne Chan:Yeah.
Yvonne Chan:People thought that way experiment.
Yvonne Chan:Oh my God, here we are.
Yvonne Chan:Still very strong, a lot of challenges, but we are still here.
Yvonne Chan:So that innovation, I'm looking at it in the very beginning.
Yvonne Chan:You remember that's Apire Don Shalvey a great mentor.
Yvonne Chan:He lit the candle and populate me and Joe Lucente center, from Fenton.
Yvonne Chan:Those days.
Yvonne Chan:Yeah, absolutely, in the beginning, we were just a little weakling flame zip,
Yvonne Chan:but we're able to get equal funding.
Yvonne Chan:I remember that.
Yvonne Chan:Yeah.
Yvonne Chan:Unfortunately, all battle is about funding and that's not good.
Yvonne Chan:That's not, we definitely the next phase, in the it's 10 years, you remember that
Yvonne Chan:we have all types of innovations, right?
Yvonne Chan:. Whether, some of us take on the spins.
Yvonne Chan:In fact some already, have the community school design.
Yvonne Chan:Come on, now they are doing community school design, right?
Yvonne Chan:30 years later, where I thought about that, with healthy
Yvonne Chan:start and put the clinic on.
Yvonne Chan:And we did already the stem and we did all types of collaboration in PD.
Yvonne Chan:We did all of that is through the innovation.
Jed Wallace:I remember coming to, cause I think I was at Vaughn
Jed Wallace:when it was still K through six.
Jed Wallace:I think you were serving about 600 kids, but I remember walking around
Jed Wallace:the campus with you and you were like, oh, we're going to go K-12 and we're
Jed Wallace:going to build this health center and we're going to acquire these
Jed Wallace:other properties in the neighborhood.
Jed Wallace:And you were just this never ending just source of new ideas and energy.
Jed Wallace:And I remember when I wanted to try to help convince people from Hooper avenue
Jed Wallace:to convert, to charter school status.
Jed Wallace:I think we put about 150 teachers and others on a bus
Jed Wallace:to come and see you at VOD.
Jed Wallace:And you, the, you in front of those 150 teachers, it was just one of the
Jed Wallace:most electric moments of my life.
Jed Wallace:And I think it was that way for those other 150 people to what do you think.
Jed Wallace:And you have, how, w how is it that you have that level of energy?
Jed Wallace:How is it that, that level of passion, and is that what is sustaining you through
Jed Wallace:this and then leads you to that kind of an innovation that you're talking about?
Jed Wallace:What is that inner flame for you?
Jed Wallace:Do you think?
Yvonne Chan:Because you said about all those dreams, right?
Yvonne Chan:Dreams, again, like people say.
Yvonne Chan:It is not implemented, that is just a dream.
Yvonne Chan:And you sleep on it for years.
Yvonne Chan:So I think what has happened is my dream become a lot of people's dreams
Yvonne Chan:and then come together, small step.
Yvonne Chan:Extending the school year, extended the school day, doing the 21st century style
Yvonne Chan:with what, a more individualized help.
Yvonne Chan:So being able to realize, little dream little bit at a time, what
Yvonne Chan:is absolutely impossible would just take us a little bit longer, but
Yvonne Chan:whatever is difficult we do it.
Yvonne Chan:We took over the food services, we went ahead and went for a whole year
Yvonne Chan:round and not the busing type of year around, and then went ahead and
Yvonne Chan:it took on first five and now only have the preschool and the main thing
Yvonne Chan:though, is not just within Vaughn.
Yvonne Chan:Basically, northeast valley, these valleys are a hotbed of charter, that brought
Yvonne Chan:in the rest of the folks as a charter community and say, oh, it can be done.
Yvonne Chan:Can be done.
Yvonne Chan:It just can be done.
Yvonne Chan:And absolutely fighting the facilities issue.
Yvonne Chan:Yeah, we were not allowed to own land.
Yvonne Chan:Remember?
Jed Wallace:Here's a question I have for you.
Jed Wallace:It's like your metaphor is, Hey, I'm a candle and I'm going to light others.
Jed Wallace:And wait a second.
Jed Wallace:If now we're a dozen candles, the amount of light that we can cast is larger.
Jed Wallace:And Hey, we can cast across the entire San Fernando valley.
Jed Wallace:We can cast across the entire state when you became a state board member.
Jed Wallace:Now you're a board member at LACOE you're doing it across 1.4 million
Jed Wallace:kids, but do you think our movement is doing as good a job as we could?
Jed Wallace:Just lighting other candles so that we can share this load.
Jed Wallace:It seems like a moment of particular importance to share the load, right?
Jed Wallace:To have more candles, casting, light.
Jed Wallace:What's your thought about that?
Yvonne Chan:True.
Yvonne Chan:I've seen it, I've seen in new leaders.
Yvonne Chan:If they feel themselves that only they can do it, that's not good.
Yvonne Chan:Okay.
Yvonne Chan:Or if they feel that they don't have the confidence and delegate
Yvonne Chan:everything, that's not good either.
Yvonne Chan:You have to be what we call a breakthrough leader.
Yvonne Chan:I don't mean the virus, but through, okay.
Yvonne Chan:I'm talking about your breakthrough leader is you can foresee some challenges where
Yvonne Chan:you yourself would take on some and show the others that it can be done, but then
Yvonne Chan:you got the snap generally, go, okay, depending on, the people and the timing.
Yvonne Chan:So you don't go and let the others continue and let the candle
Yvonne Chan:burning, then you burn yourself out.
Yvonne Chan:Okay.
Yvonne Chan:Now look at me.
Yvonne Chan:Okay.
Yvonne Chan:Look at me again.
Yvonne Chan:And also this other thing, we do operation.
Yvonne Chan:At times you've got to settle down and say, look, let's look upon policy.
Yvonne Chan:Okay.
Yvonne Chan:Policy within your own charter school.
Yvonne Chan:Policy in your consortium that you can share, might not blow
Yvonne Chan:all kinds of COVID policy.
Yvonne Chan:And some of us happen to be on the state board and on the LACOE board.
Yvonne Chan:Wasn't that policy when we frame and pass prop 39.
Yvonne Chan:Remember those days?
Yvonne Chan:Wasn't that an oh my God day.
Yvonne Chan:Yeah.
Yvonne Chan:All right.
Yvonne Chan:And also being able to have the knowledge base to think through policy too.
Yvonne Chan:Because always we are just so immersed into the lunch schedule, staff,
Yvonne Chan:vaccination, the staffing, and all that, but, well read, read more about
Yvonne Chan:policies and what people are doing and possibly you can frame your own policies.
Yvonne Chan:An example, look at that option three for SELPA.
Yvonne Chan:We're almost the whole thing, right?
Yvonne Chan:My god, I said, okay, then we said we walk, but then somehow we convinced and
Yvonne Chan:again it's as the Don Shalvey, there was various one of us and LA Unified, and
Yvonne Chan:even now you're talking about when you start spreading those candles, guess what?
Yvonne Chan:Don't forget.
Yvonne Chan:Not just CharterFolks.
Yvonne Chan:You spread those lighting candle in the districts folks.
Yvonne Chan:Yep.
Yvonne Chan:Absolutely.
Yvonne Chan:They can be your best friend.
Yvonne Chan:And for me, I'm in the old day you said that I'm always combating.
Yvonne Chan:No, I have not very collaborative with the school district.
Yvonne Chan:Very collaborative with general public, because we are definitely need to be
Yvonne Chan:respected that our thoughts count.
Yvonne Chan:That our ideas, our innovation will spread.
Yvonne Chan:So therefore, so the innovation also have to populate into folks
Yvonne Chan:that's working in the district or working in non-charter world.
Yvonne Chan:So not just us.
Yvonne Chan:So therefore, really, we have to look at operation, policy,
Yvonne Chan:that how innovation that we have can embed it into all of these.
Jed Wallace:Yeah, we can pick our battles at different times and also we
Jed Wallace:can pace our battles and we can assess where we are, and it may very well be
Jed Wallace:that we'd like to take something on.
Jed Wallace:Maybe it's related to funding equity, maybe it's related to special ed
Jed Wallace:or facilities, but we can also work on that next year or next month.
Jed Wallace:Is if what we require right now is greater collaboration with other
Jed Wallace:educators, whatever it may be that allows us to just nurture our own
Jed Wallace:candles and those kinds of things.
Jed Wallace:I wonder if
Yvonne Chan:I do not see, after 30 years, okay, that's 20 before with LA unified,
Yvonne Chan:I don't see things as battle anymore.
Yvonne Chan:No, I'm sorry.
Yvonne Chan:Because in public education, if we want to be successful,
Yvonne Chan:you really want to help kids.
Yvonne Chan:We cannot havewinners-losers okay.
Yvonne Chan:We can not have right or left, okay.
Yvonne Chan:Democrat and Republican.
Yvonne Chan:What have you.
Yvonne Chan:Okay.
Yvonne Chan:Charter non-charter.
Yvonne Chan:We have to really seek commonn ground.And I think now with the COVID and 30 years
Yvonne Chan:anniversary, I believe that definitely opportunities for common grounds.
Yvonne Chan:Common grounds said we do need each other.
Yvonne Chan:And I don't mean to repeat what you said.
Yvonne Chan:Okay.
Yvonne Chan:I still use the word battle and war and all that, but I have to say
Yvonne Chan:that, okay, together, we get the job.
Yvonne Chan:No,
Jed Wallace:No, I completely agree with you.
Jed Wallace:I think that there are, I think that there are some things where it is
Jed Wallace:tension and there still is challenge and a need for, to embrace conflict.
Jed Wallace:But I also think that there are all sorts of other places where there are
Jed Wallace:opportunities for us to work together.
Jed Wallace:And if there was ever a time for us to be smart about taking advantage of
Jed Wallace:every opportunity to work together, rather than over exert ourselves
Jed Wallace:on unnecessary conflict or on conflict that we can perhaps defer,
Jed Wallace:perhaps this is a moment to do that.
Jed Wallace:And you've just been one of these people, I think that has done an amazing job of
Jed Wallace:calculating when is the moment to push.
Jed Wallace:And do I have this opportunity to grow from 500 to 800 to 3000.
Jed Wallace:Is my right contribution within the charter school community, is my right
Jed Wallace:moment to go to the state board, is it my right moment to go to LACOE?
Jed Wallace:You've just, shown amazing smarts and an overall dedication to all
Jed Wallace:kids and to all schools that, I think has been key to your overall impact.
Yvonne Chan:Yeah.
Yvonne Chan:I think, we have to be respected not just by our peers.
Yvonne Chan:But by also general public.
Yvonne Chan:So how you really light the candle again, mass, this, enormous energy
Yvonne Chan:for the goods of kids and the community, you get the respect.
Yvonne Chan:And when you respect me or enter into the policy world and
Yvonne Chan:they impact a whole lot more.
Yvonne Chan:But again, this is again, through very, deep thinking of how we can
Yvonne Chan:be creative to solve persistent problem, and the achievement gap.
Yvonne Chan:And now it's a learning loss.
Yvonne Chan:And I think doing the two years of school closing, many of
Yvonne Chan:us have been very innovative.
Yvonne Chan:Not only we maintain the service to the kids and mental health and all,
Yvonne Chan:but also the trust of the community.
Yvonne Chan:See what's new for us is the tremendous trust when the light goes off, when
Yvonne Chan:all of this wind blew, whatever it is, that's what candle stands.
Jed Wallace:That's right.
Jed Wallace:And if there's ever a moment for us to innovate, I think it's now and
Jed Wallace:we have so many teams, we can't find enough teachers to do different roles.
Jed Wallace:We can't find enough teachers assistants and these kinds of things.
Jed Wallace:And so the future that we need to make is going to require us
Jed Wallace:thinking about all sorts of problems in completely different ways.
Jed Wallace:And it is my sense that our creativity and our abilityto innovate gives us a
Jed Wallace:sense of hope and optimism, something specific to work toward that many other
Jed Wallace:educators, unfortunately, don't have, we need to get it to those educators as well.
Jed Wallace:But in the meantime, we certainly for our own kids and for our own communities, get
Jed Wallace:these things created as quickly as we can and then help share them as broadly as
Jed Wallace:we possibly can with every public school.
Jed Wallace:In addition, learning from a bunch of others that have already figured
Jed Wallace:these things out so that, there's this collective learning happening across all.
Yvonne Chan:Exactly.
Yvonne Chan:Now let's look at most of us.
Yvonne Chan:I would say all of us received those COVID relief money, right?
Yvonne Chan:Especially the title one schools in such a big amount.
Yvonne Chan:It is time to rethink the financial aspect and how we use
Yvonne Chan:these dollars effectively, okay.
Yvonne Chan:Whether it is get better long-term facility.
Yvonne Chan:Whether it is to upgrade our IT, our website, and for us had to be
Yvonne Chan:very information and data savvy.
Yvonne Chan:Learn that now, okay.
Yvonne Chan:Whether it is use that money to leverage partnership in mental health,
Yvonne Chan:where they will be there to stay.
Yvonne Chan:So the best thing we can do now is see how we are not going to waste those
Yvonne Chan:COVID relief money and a one-time base.
Yvonne Chan:So think through how you can use it for your innovative program,
Yvonne Chan:for your innovative infrastructure.
Yvonne Chan:How you going to have that as a leverage for the next five, 10 years to come.
Yvonne Chan:And that is staying ahead of the challenge.
Jed Wallace:Yeah what I think just longer term, I see our counties in
Jed Wallace:California being incredibly important because what we want really is, in my
Jed Wallace:opinion, is places like school districts to evolve into becoming more like
Jed Wallace:charter schools, to get more freedom, to get more flexibility, but also to
Jed Wallace:have higher levels of accountability and they need it and they need a good third
Jed Wallace:party that's going to evaluate whether or not they're doing well by kids.
Jed Wallace:What's a good third party?
Jed Wallace:Our counties, right?
Jed Wallace:Our counties can serve as authorizers of charter schools, but they
Jed Wallace:could also service quote unquote authorizers of school districts.
Jed Wallace:And we now begin to see a north star toward which all schools are learning.
Jed Wallace:And then, th the learning that would happen between LA unified and LA charters
Jed Wallace:would be way better if we were all under your umbrella rather than squabbling with
Jed Wallace:LA unified about facilities or Special Ed.
Jed Wallace:So that's where I think, a north star is for us to be thinking about, but of
Jed Wallace:course, you've got to have somebody great and energetic, situated at that north
Jed Wallace:star, which is why I was so thrilled to hear that you had taken that position at.
Yvonne Chan:Hey, I think people thought I'm crazy, after seven years on state
Yvonne Chan:born and I'm still pretty much, helping out onsite mentoring and grandma,
Yvonne Chan:don't forget, two kids are Vaughn.
Yvonne Chan:And still building a new building and the LA unified third augmentation grant.
Yvonne Chan:No taker?
Yvonne Chan:We just took it.
Yvonne Chan:So anyway, joining the LACOE board also allow me to reflect
Yvonne Chan:on the role off the camera.
Yvonne Chan:As the county does have the resources.
Yvonne Chan:I remember on state board lots contracts, go to the county, your county, you
Yvonne Chan:do career tech, you do 21st century.
Yvonne Chan:You do preschool.
Yvonne Chan:You dohead start as well as the county also has the services
Yvonne Chan:may need the fiscal services.
Yvonne Chan:As well as other PT services, the English learner, stem, and so forth.
Yvonne Chan:But also don't forget, it's a monitoring.
Yvonne Chan:It monitors you 180 school districts and charter schools and all the charges.
Yvonne Chan:In terms of finance, right?
Yvonne Chan:Finance, you'd have to send in your interim report and your sex before
Yvonne Chan:your honorary board, and they will come and count your how many toilets
Yvonne Chan:you have, you have potential teachers and of course it authorizes charters.
Yvonne Chan:Yes.
Yvonne Chan:LACOE.
Yvonne Chan:LA.
Yvonne Chan:Los Angeles county, we have about 28, countywide, and those on appeal.
Yvonne Chan:And with the passage of AB 1505, it just maybe more, it just may be more.
Yvonne Chan:So having myself, and other board members who are much more understanding
Yvonne Chan:of charters will allow that open communication with the public, educate
Yvonne Chan:the public also be able to use our experience to ask the right questions and
Yvonne Chan:make sure the good charters get approved.
Yvonne Chan:Ones that need help get help.
Yvonne Chan:Those ones that are not good, close it down.
Yvonne Chan:It's, it probably will be a much, a better place where charters can
Yvonne Chan:collaborate with other charters, can obtain the services, can be able to,
Yvonne Chan:cross-fertilize with non charters county office have very special type of schools.
Yvonne Chan:We have a superintendent Eduardo and we went back a few years and she's
Yvonne Chan:very effective and we hope that will be the equitable allocation of
Yvonne Chan:resources, as well as making sure that charters all, be included.
Yvonne Chan:And I really looked forward to this four year term.
Yvonne Chan:Yeah, it was not too crazy.
Jed Wallace:Well, Yvonne, I'll just wrap up with this last statement.
Jed Wallace:And then the last question, let you share whatever you want to with the
Jed Wallace:CharterFolk people, but you did a, an enormous favor to me when I was at
Jed Wallace:Hooper Avenue at the very beginning of my charter school journey.
Jed Wallace:And you pled with me not to make a mistake to say that we would only
Jed Wallace:open our charter for more teachers than necessary sign the petition.
Jed Wallace:You said, please don't do that yet.
Jed Wallace:Please don't do that.
Jed Wallace:It's not necessary.
Jed Wallace:I did it anyway.
Jed Wallace:And it ended up costing me a great deal, such that, that,
Jed Wallace:that charter could not happen.
Jed Wallace:And I remember calling you afterwards and I don't remember the exact words,
Jed Wallace:but it was basically buck up young man.
Jed Wallace:Your charter school story is not over yet.
Jed Wallace:And you're going to do this new thing, but bring this experience with you.
Jed Wallace:And, within five years, I think it was five years, it might've been six.
Jed Wallace:I was at High Tech High, bringing a statewide application for a
Jed Wallace:statewide charter application to you.
Jed Wallace:And so you've just been one of these people that not just for me,
Jed Wallace:but for so many others provided support and then, help pick us up at
Jed Wallace:different times and set us on our way.
Jed Wallace:And it just, this incredibly compelling leader and then
Jed Wallace:person that's inspired folks.
Jed Wallace:So I say, thank you for having always done that.
Jed Wallace:And I just wonder if there's any last message you might want to share with
Jed Wallace:CharterFolk along those lines, as we continue to stay in touch going forward
Jed Wallace:through CharterFolk in your work at LACOE.
Yvonne Chan:Okay.
Yvonne Chan:Probably a couple messages.
Yvonne Chan:Number one is, I've learned from experience that there is
Yvonne Chan:no playbook, you know, that you look up page one and to do what?
Yvonne Chan:So CharterFolks need to see what I call the invisible.
Yvonne Chan:If you cansee the invisible, as people said, then you can do the impossible.
Yvonne Chan:Second messages, as 2022 mark out 30 year anniversary of the charter law.
Yvonne Chan:Again, licenses to dream.
Yvonne Chan:Let's let us all use the charter tools, and the charter spirits, our
Yvonne Chan:sense of autonomy, the creativity, the confidence, and the courage to really
Yvonne Chan:break through what all the challenges now and innovate, and be in fact impactful
Yvonne Chan:so we can really have these innovations that needed by millions of kids.
Yvonne Chan:And with that, I wish everybody a happy new year.
Jed Wallace:Thank you so much, Yvonne.
Jed Wallace:Exactly what I envisioned for the oxygen bar.
Jed Wallace:I know I'm full of awe as I always am in your presence.
Jed Wallace:So thank you so much, I look forward to staying in touch.
