HUDAK’S BOARD NOTES – NOVEMBER 2007

SBE Work Session (November 8, 2007)

• COMMUNICATIONS – Don’t forget that you can sign up to receive CDE press releases by going to the Colorado Department of Education website, www.cde.state.co.us, and clicking on "CDE Communications" in the list under the heading of "CDE Information." The CDE website will be revised and improved soon; staff is working hard to prepare for this, with the goal of February 2008. The Communications Office was asked to send out a press release after SBE meetings similar to Hudak’s Board Notes, so the public will get a brief but official review of Board meetings. (It was said that some people have become "dependent" on my Board Notes!)
• SBE STAFF – We welcomed Marjorie Reinwald, who is the new assistant to the Director of State Board Affairs, Mary Frances Nevans.
• AYP AND SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT – The calculations of AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) for NCLB (No Child Left Behind) are complete for the last school year: 57% of Colorado school districts and 75% of Colorado schools made AYP. (Of course, they were all small and/or not very diverse.) The largest district to make AYP was Lewis-Palmer (in El Paso County) with 94 targets. Jefferson County, the largest district, made the most targets, 145 out of 153. Schools that received a review by the state School Support Team and/or a federal School Improvement Grant made the most progress.
• STANDARDS REVIEW – As part of the Commissioner’s Forward Thinking plan, CDE will contract with the Southwest Comprehensive Center at WestEd to conduct a review of all the content standards, followed by a review of all CSAP tests. They will make recommendations to the Board about what changes need to be made so that our standards reflect 21^st century skills and college and workplace readiness; have the appropriate level of depth, rigor, and relevance; and are articulated by grade level. The review will also cover the English Language Development standards and the Alternate Learning standards (for students with profound disabilities). This process will supersede the cycle of standards review that we have been doing, and it will include the Math and Science standards, which we had already reviewed and revised. Also, there is some discussion about having our standards aligned with those of other states in our region, as has been done in the East; CDE will be working with McREL to see if this is a viable option. The idea of national standards does not appear to be popular, but regional ones might work.
• INSTRUCTIONAL TIME – Last month Bob Schaffer had proposed that we take a vote on the rules for instructional time, to determine whether passing periods may be counted. Two superintendents came to talk with us about this issue, Walt Cooper from Cheyenne Mountain and Jim Christensen from Douglas County. They both said that districts need flexibility for the number of hours counted, since not all high school students attend for the same number of class periods and because unexpected snow days can necessitate having some extra time built in. The SBE cannot vote on rules changes without holding a public hearing, so the matter was taken off the agenda for now. Furthermore, changing the entire system of funding away from "seat time" is a complicated issue that the majority of SBE members would rather consider instead of "tweaking" the current rules, and such a radical change would require lengthy discussion and, of course, legislation.

SBE Regular Meeting (November 9, 2007)

• SBE CALENDAR – The SBE meeting originally scheduled for December 12-13, 2007, was canceled. The calendar for 2008 was revised slightly, with the meeting next May moved down a week (to May 14-15).

• CODE OF ETHICS – We finally passed a Code of Ethics for the SBE. The topics covered are as follows: outside employment and compensation, gifts and honoraria, use of state property, confidential information, duty to follow legal standards, conflicts of interest, Board member questions regarding ethical issues, confidentiality, and ex parte communications. We had the most difficulty with the section on conflicts of interest. It now says that SBE members may not have a financial interest in actions taken by the Board; will avoid the appearance of impropriety; will conduct affairs of the Board impartially; and will always disclose conflicts of interest and avoid voting or taking other actions on the matter, leave the room when the matter is being discussed, not discuss the matter with other Board members, and not influence others on the matter. We removed the section on "penalties" that would have had members publicly admonish one another for violating the code, because our operating procedures already say that the Board may "censure its members who behave in an egregious manner with willful disregard of the Board’s operating procedures and legally promulgated actions."

• ECEA RULES – We adopted the revised rules for the Exceptional Children’s Education Act, to conform with the federal regulations for IDEA. Some new amendments were made by staff to address concerns raised in the hearing we held last month. On the topic of comprehensive assessments in the area of suspected disability, they added "ensure that the initial evaluation is sufficient to appropriately identify all of the child’s special education and related services needs, whether or not commonly linked to the disability category in which the child has been classified." I attempted to add some compromise language in two other areas of concern, the inclusion of short-term objectives in IEPs (to ensure that the annual goals in the IEP are specific and measurable) and the age for transition planning (to change it from 15 to 14 – for transition planning only, not the provision of transition services), but I was unsuccessful; my amendments died on a tie vote (Suckla was absent, and Berman, DeHoff, and Littleton dissented).
• LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES – We finally completed our Legislative Agenda for 2008. Our areas of priority include the following: improving the long-term financial stability of education funding and developing a comprehensive school finance solution; increasing awareness of and income from the School Trust Lands; increasing funding for school capital construction and categoricals; improving funding and coordination of services for exceptional students; expanding concurrent enrollment programs; providing effective programs to close achievement gaps; increasing access to quality early childhood programs, preschool, and full-day kindergarten; giving CDE staff and the SBE more opportunities to participate on boards and commissions; and giving the SBE more flexibility for producing the SAR, addressing underperforming schools, and implementing legislative directives.
• RECOGNITION OF ACT SCHOLARS – We recognized the 24 Colorado students who had a perfect score of 36 on the ACT exam. This was by far the most we’ve ever had.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• November 13 – CDE and the SBE are hosting an "open house," 3:30-5:00 p.m., for staff from the Governor’s Office, Joint Budget Committee, and State Legislature.
• November 15 – I will be participating in the presentation that the Eligible Facilities Education Task Force will be making to the Joint Budget Committee, 5:00-5:20 p.m.
• November 26 – The SBE will meet with our Legislative Liaison, Anne Barkis, at CDE in the Board Room at 9:00 a.m.
• November 30 – The SBE will host a "coffee" at the CASB Conference (at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs) at 7:30 a.m. and will host a dialog with CASB members during a workshop session at 2:00 p.m. on the Commissioner’s Forward Thinking plan.
• December 1 – The SBE will co-present a workshop at the CASB Conference on School Trust Lands at 1:45 p.m.
• December 12-13 – No SBE meeting! But at some point, probably on December 13 in the afternoon, the SBE will meet with our Legislative Liaison. Also, we hope to schedule a dinner with the Joint Budget Committee the evening of December 13.
• December 14 – The SBE will meet with the Joint Budget Committee at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the CDE budget and our legislative priorities.
• January 9 – SBE Work Session, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• January 10 – SBE Regular Meeting, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
• January ? – We hope to schedule a meeting with the members of the House and Senate Education Committees.
• January-May – During the session of the State Legislature, we plan to meet with our Legislative Liaison every Monday morning at 9 a.m.