SBE Work Session (Wednesday, July 13, 2005):

• ACCREDITATION – The Board will be passing rules to create a formal process to put school districts on Accreditation Watch or Probation, to ensure that the process is not subjective or arbitrary, and to give more flexibility to school districts as to the length of time they are on Watch before they go on Probation.  The new rules will be drafted by Gary Sibigtroth, who took over as Assistant Commissioner in charge of Accreditation when Roscoe Davidson retired.
• NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND – Recently there was an article in the paper saying that districts are having their funding for NCLB cut.  We received a summary of the exact amounts that districts have received for NCLB over the past few years, which showed that some districts are getting good increases this year, especially the larger districts with a recent increase in enrollment of poor children.  We also received a revised “flow chart” showing how CDE and SBE will work with various advisory groups on NCLB; the Hub Committee has been moved up to the top of the chart as a direct advisory to the SBE.  The Committee of Practitioners, a group advising CDE, will meet with the SBE soon, probably during the September 7 Work Session.  I shared with the Board a press release I received at June’s meeting of the NASBE Governmental Affairs Committee, stating that Florida received flexibility from the U.S. Department of Education in their NCLB plan which allows them to consider that all schools rated A or B (like our schools rated Excellent or High) had made Adequate Yearly Progress.  I also reported on my meeting with Senator Salazar’s staff; he is co-sponsor of one of 18 bills being proposed in Congress to amend NCLB.
• NASBE – Our member from the 6^th Congressional District, Randy DeHoff, was recently elected as the co-director for the Western Region on the board of directors of NASBE (National Association of State Boards of Education).  At the NASBE convention in October, our member from the 4^th CD, Clair Orr, will receive the Friend of Education award.
• NSPRA – Karen Gerwitz, our Director of Board Relations, is the new president of COSPRA (Colorado School Public Relations Association).  She recently attended the NSPRA meeting, at which Colorado received two awards, one for Best Distinguished Project (for our newspaper supplements) and the other to our state’s chapter for the Most Successful Chapter.
• CALCULATING DROPOUT RATES – SB 91 requires us to calculate a uniform method for districts to determine their dropout rates; staff believes the bill was passed because our numbers come out higher than some other groups’ calculations.  A committee will be working on drafting the rules for SB 91, which are due by November 15.  We currently do our calculation by taking the number of students completing 8^th grade and comparing it with the number who graduate 4 years later, taking into account the number of students who transferred in and out during the intervening time (based on end-of-year counts). 

SBE Regular Meeting (Thursday, July 14, 2005):

• E-BOARD – The State Board of Education has changed to “paperless” Board meetings.  Rather than receiving our Board Books on paper through the mail, costing the state money in copying and mailing, we access them online.  The public also has access to them through the website.  (Go to the CDE website, www.cde.state.co.us, click on State Board of Education on the left, click on Meetings in the list on the bottom right, and then when you get to the SBE’s web page, click on Meetings on the line at the upper left.  You will get the agenda for the most recent Board meeting available, with links to detailed pages.)  SBE members have their own password to access the confidential pages.  At Board meetings, the appropriate agenda pages or handouts are projected on a screen in the Board Room.  Board members access it by a wireless connection, and that is available for any attendee as well.
• CONTINGENCY RESERVE – We approved an emergency reserve award to the Woodlin School District for assistance with extreme emergency facility repair.  State statute allows payments to assist a district with financial emergencies that are caused by a variety of factors.  Woodlin’s reason is “an act of God” (a severe hail storm caused them to suffer severe damage to the interior of the school in every classroom and hallway).
• EXEMPTIONS FROM SAR RATINGS – We approved 12 more schools for exemption from the School Accountability Report (SAR) rating. These are in addition to the 40 schools previously approved.  Each meets the eligibility criteria in accordance with SB 02-94 and SB 04-83, which allow school districts to ask for exemptions for schools meeting the criteria as “alternative education campuses” if they serve primarily at-risk or special needs students.  These schools still receive an SAR, but without a rating.  They are, however, still subject to NCLB.
• STUDY COMMITTEE ON ALTERNATE ASSESSMENT – As required by HB 1246, we appointed 8 members to the Study Committee for the Assessment of Students with IEPs (Individual Education Plans).  It will study the administration of the CSAP to students on IEPs who are not eligible to take the alternate assessment (CSAP-A) and determine whether another alternate assessment should be created for these students, often referred to as the “gap kids.”  In accordance with our usual policy, we appointed people from a variety of geographic locations around the state and with a relative balance politically (4 Democrats, 3 Republicans, and 1 Unaffiliated).  Also, we selected some recommended by CDE and some recommended by the Consortium of Special Education Directors.
• CEDAR – We were briefed on the newly developing Colorado Education Data Analysis and Reporting system, which will be an online data system available to anyone interested in accessing data from CDE in a user-friendly format.  There are four schools districts piloting this system (Big Sandy, Colorado Springs 11, Platte Canyon, and Fountain-Fort Carson). 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

• August 2, 11 a.m. – Press conference at CDE announcing the 2005 CSAP and ACT results.
• August 5, 9 a.m.– I will be presenting a workshop on No Child Left Behind at the CASE conference (Colorado Association of School Executives) at Beaver Run in Breckenridge.
• August 10-11 – The SBE Work Session and Regular Meeting will take place in Rifle at the Garfield School District RE-2.  Look for details on the SBE website.
• September 7 – 8 – SBE Work Session and Regular Meeting, at CDE.
• September 14 – Challenges to the Exclusive Chartering Authority of the Boulder Valley and Adams County 50 (Westminster) school districts, 1 – 3 p.m. at CDE.