a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District

HUDAK’S BOARD NOTES – APRIL 2007

COMMISSIONER SEARCH

You may continue to give your input on the new Commissioner, through April 26, at www.nasbe.org – click on the button at the left that says "Colorado Board wants your opinion." At this site, there is also a place to get information about receiving an application for Commissioner. Applications are being accepted through April 26. The Board will meet on April 30 to review the applications and will conduct interviews on May 8.

SEARCH FOR NEW DIRECTOR OF BOARD RELATIONS

We are accepting applications through April 20 for our new Director of Board Relations. It is Position #9005; the application can be found at http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdemgmt/HR/jobs.htm.

SBE Special Meeting by teleconference (March 21, 2007)

In the dispute between the Dolores Huerta Preparatory High Charter School and the Pueblo 60 School District concerning provisions of the charter school’s contract, the SBE concluded that the mediator exceeded his statutory authority and misconstrued the provisions of the Charter Schools Act in awarding $900,000 to fund the long-term facilities needs of Dolores Huerta. The school’s appeal for the district to adhere to the mediator’s decision was denied. (The vote was 5:2; Littleton and Schaffer dissented.)

SBE Work Session (Wednesday, April 11, 2007)

LEGISLATION – We discussed several bills relating to changes in the state’s accountability system, including HB 1118, High School Graduation Requirements; HB 1284, Exception of Certain CSAP Scores; and SB 73, English Competency Graduation Requirement. We decided not to support these bills, because they are "piece-meal fixes," and we prefer to have a broad conversation with the education stakeholders about what the state’s accountability system should be and then make comprehensive changes all at once. (We hope to participate with Governor Ritter’s P-20 Council, when he convenes it.) Regarding HB 1345, School Accountability, we will remain neutral, since this bill proposes to make many of the changes to the SARs (School Accountability Reports) that we have been requesting for years, but doesn’t go far enough (for example, it doesn’t change how the ratings on schools are determined or give us the authority to do that).
ONLINE EDUCATION – We had a discussion with the co-chairs of our Online Education Task Force about its report, as well as with Senator Sue Windels about her bill SB 215, Online Learning Education, but we did not make any decisions.
READING – CDE reported that focus groups are being held to discuss what assessments should be used for the Colorado Basic Literacy Act (CBLA) and Read to Achieve. We should have the results by next month. Regarding SB 192, which reauthorizes Read to Achieve, staff reported that if the bill passes, it will give us a very, very short timeline to implement the changes and for school districts to apply for the grants – by July 1!
YEAR OF READING AND WRITING – CDE reported on its analysis of how our students are doing in Reading and Writing. There is a distinct gender gap in these two content areas; regardless of state, country, or age level, girls outperform boys on every assessment. In Reading, there is a large disparity between our state’s performance on CSAP and on NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) – an average of 67% of our students score Proficient or Advanced on CSAP at all grade levels, but on NAEP, Colorado is 25^th out of 48 states, with 37% scoring proficient.

SBE Regular Meeting (Thursday, March 8, 2007)

SCHOOL TRANSPORTATION VEHICLES – We passed new rules for the minimum standards for school transportation vehicles, aligning them with new national safety standards. The controversial aspect of the new rules is that districts will no longer be able to purchase "coach" or charter-style buses to use for activity trips.

RESOLUTION ON HPV VACCINE – SBE member Peggy Littleton decided to withdraw her request for us to consider her resolution on the HPV vaccine, which would have said that the SBE opposes mandating the vaccine or having the state fund it. I objected to the resolution because I don’t think it is a topic that the SBE needs to have a position on, and we would not have been unanimous. We agreed, after much discussion, that we should continue our practice of requiring unanimity in order to pass resolutions, as we do with our Legislative Priorities.

EXCLUSIVE CHARTERING AUTHORITY

Several school districts requested a grant of exclusive chartering authority, either as a renewal or for the first time (DeHoff recused himself from these votes, since he is the Executive Director of the Charter School Institute). We:

Denied the Adams 12 Five Star School District and the Durango School District, because their requests were submitted late. (It was a tie vote in both cases; Berman, Littleton, and Suckla voted to deny, and Middleton, Schaffer, and I voted to grant.)
Granted the Lewis Palmer School District and Weld County School District #6 in Greeley, based on their having a percentage of students in charter schools at least 3% above the state average.
Granted the Colorado Springs School District 11 and Montezuma-Cortez School District, based on their having no discernible history of authorizing charter schools.
Granted the Primero School District and Karval School District, based on their having less than 3,000 students.

UPCOMING EVENTS

April 20-21 – I will be presenting workshops on NCLB, accountability, and legislation at the State PTA Convention; this convention celebrates Colorado PTA’s 100^th birthday.
April 30 – SBE Executive Session to review applications for Commissioner.
May 8 – SBE interviews of candidates for Commissioner.
May 9 – SBE Work Session, with charter school appeal hearings of Life Skills of Denver Charter School vs. Denver Public Schools at 1:30 p.m. and Aurora Expeditionary Academy Charter School vs. Aurora Public Schools at 3:00 p.m.
May 10 – SBE Regular Meeting, with hearings for exclusive chartering authority of the Poudre School District and Pueblo School District 60 at 10 a.m., and charter school appeal hearing of Imagine Schools of Colorado vs. St. Vrain Valley at 11 a.m.