a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
Board members were very pleased with the Retreat and impressed with the help we got from Brenda Wellburn, NASBE's Executive Director. As a follow-up to work begun there, we finalized the following:
MISSION
Charged by the Constitution of the State of Colorado with the general supervision of Colorado's schools,
The mission of the Colorado State Board of Education is to provide all children equal access to quality, thorough, well-rounded educational opportunity in a safe and civil learning environment.
VISION
By accomplishing this mission, all children in Colorado will become educated and productive citizens.
VALUES
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
1. Fulfill our role as the state's educational authority.
2. Maintain commitment to accountability reform and accreditation.
3. Improve the long-term financial stability of education funding
4. Improve teacher quality, recruitment, retention, and distribution.
5. Increase public engagement.
6. Improve choice opportunities for Colorado students.
1. Staff evaluations - subcommittee of Randy, Jared, and Pam.
2. Individual roles and responsibilities; and taking positions on policy or legislation - subcommittee of Rico, Clair, Pam, and me.
The Colorado State Board of Education believes that our education system should continue to include a variety of opportunities and methods for students to achieve success.
School choice models can have several benefits:
We support school choice models that conform to the following principles:
ACCOUNTABILITY*
*One suggestion: Publicly funded school choice models should have a uniform accountability.
FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
ACCESS
Of the $800 million that was cut out of the current year's budget, two-thirds was maneuvering of money, such as the payday shift. The word going around about cutting $839 million from next year's budget also includes maneuvering and isn't truly all cuts - some are reductions in the amount of growth. There will be money put into certain reserve funds and there will be certain areas where revenue will increase. The 6% growth limits allows growth of about $325 million.
SB 53: Governance for the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind is being changed through this bill, taking it out from under the SBE and giving its appointed board of directors the authority to act as a regular school board, including have the authority to create charter schools for the deaf and blind. Currently they contract with CDE for hiring their personnel and other administration. Legislators ignored the information that CDE gave them on the negative effects of this change. The bill has passed the Senate and the House Education Committee with few amendments.
Bills on teacher licensure: HB 1176 is still in Appropriations, and HB 1114 hasn't been heard yet.
A question came up at the Retreat about the consequences of a district losing its accreditation. Roscoe Davidson summarized them as follows: (1) Fiscal - can affect bond ratings, property values, and realtors' reactions. (2) Legal - would require a reorganization of the district, which could affect contracts and bond ratings. (3) Students - might affect admission to higher education institutions, and could lead to transfers to districts that are accredited. (4) Staff - would affect morale and recruitment, and districts could have new staff policies under reorganization. (5) Parents/Community - would increase competition among school districts, and would cause loss of confidence and support.
We were given some clarification about the characteristics and indicators that would cause a district to go on Accreditation Watch status. Basically, the district would have to show no evidence of progress in achieving significant goals for improvement and no progress or accomplishment on major accreditation indicators (closing the achievement gap, student achievement, safe schools, parent and community involvement, and teacher quality).
Another clarification is that CDE makes the decision to put districts on Watch, not the SBE. However, the SBE is the entity that determines if a district is put on Probation.
A few years ago, the Legislature changed the law for licensing special education teachers, so that they wouldn't all need a Master's degree to be licensed. Also, the endorsements were separated into a number of technical categories (e.g., Teacher I, Teacher II). The new rules also address the problem that many of the same classes had to be taken in the general education area and in special education, but they were in separate "silos." Simultaneously, the Gifted and Talented Advisory Committee was seeking an endorsement in that area. Since GT is in the same department as special education, under ECEA, the new rules were done in a collaborative effort by Lorrie Harkness, Director of the Special Education Unit at CDE, and Dorothy Gotlieb, Director of Educator Licensure and Professional Services. We expect that higher ed would be able to accommodate the changes by next July.
There was previous discussion about how the SBE might impact the legislation removing the SBE's discretion in the revocation or denial of teachers' licenses. Gotlieb prepared for us some talking points to use in individual meetings with legislators on this topic.
Approval of the teacher preparation programs at private/independent colleges: State law does not specify that the SBE must approve these, but in order for teachers to be licensed, they must go through an approved program.
We had a question about the reading of the consent agenda. Our legal counsel said that we could shorten what we say (put details in a phrase "as published"), but we do need to read it out loud because rather than written minutes, our official documentation is the audio tape. We could also stop reading the agenda outline numbers and just read the titles, but that helps everyone follow what we're doing.
We discussed ways to increase public engagement. We will allow people to speak at the time that they have something to say on a specific topic we're discussing. We will have visitors sign in so we can acknowledge them. We'll do the public comment session at 11:30 and not let it wait if we're running late.
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