a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District
Found that the decision of the Jefferson County School District in denying the application of the Madison Charter High School was in the best interests of the pupils, district, or community. The vote was 4:4 to remand (Hudak, Middleton, Munn, and Polis dissented). The vote to uphold the district’s decision was 4:4 (DeHoff, Littleton, Orr, and Suckla dissented). Thus, because there was not an affirmative vote to remand, the law requires that the district’s decision be upheld.
Found that the decision of the Jefferson County School District in denying the application of the Colorado Arts and Achievement Academy Charter School was in the best interests of the pupils, district, or community. (Vote was 8:0.)
Found that the decision of the Jefferson County School District in denying the application of the College Preparatory Charter High School was in the best interests of the pupils, district, or community. (Vote was 8:0.)
DEHOFF: Effective February 21, he will be the Executive Director of the Charter School Institute; is looking forward to the from aerospace to what he loves doing. Is excited about it, particularly looking forward to working with districts and doing what he loves doing, not to mention avoiding the drive to Colorado Springs every day. Tuesday he is speaking to music educators, continuing the conversation about standards.
HUDAK: I made my report during the Work Session yesterday on what happened at the NASBE Governmental Affairs Committee. Recently I attended a meeting of the Boulder Valley School District Student Accountability Committee, which was very impressive; there are 2-3 students from each of the district’s high schools on the committee, which meets monthly. The committee is currently working on reviewing the district’s Language Arts standards in terms of how well they are being implemented in the district’s high schools. I attended the Jeffco District Accountability Committee, which has developed 9 standards and 92 indicators to use to determine the accreditation of the district schools. CSAN (Colorado State Accountability Network) will be doing Regional Accountability Conferences in the metro area this month, in Littleton on February 17 and in Adams 12 on February 22.
LITTLETON: Urged us to attend the CBLA awareness presentations, so we know what districts are hearing. We need to register if we want to go.
MIDDLETON: No report.
MUNN: Has free time now that football season is over.
ORR: No report.
POLIS: Continues to meets with school boards around the state, and invites colleagues to join him when it’s in their district. Douglas County wants us all to come.
SUCKLA: Has changed our process for Board Reports. Is asking us to now make our detailed reports on Wednesdays at the Work Session, and then on Thursdays at the Regular Meetings report on future events, in 2 minutes. The Commissioner will have more time than that for his report. Will be attending the SUN (Spanish Ute and Navajo) conference on February 26. Will attend the CASB conference on February 24-25.
COMMISSIONER MOLONEY: Today’s paper has 3 articles about DPS, including one about the SBE’s meeting with Cole parents yesterday. There have been numerous excellent articles by Tina Griego about North High School. Some of what she has reported relates to the news release put out by Achieve, Inc., as mentioned yesterday, in which a survey showed that college instructors find that 42% of their students are not adequately prepared, and high school students report that they would work harder in high school if they could go back and do it again. The most severe criticism students say they would lodge against high schools, 77% said, is that they weren’t made to work hard enough. This is the same main criticism that has been lodged every year for 22 years. As Albert Shanker said, if we don’t fix the problem of the student work ethic, we will make no progress. High expectations are what can improve that.
(1) EMERGENCY EDUCATOR AUTHORIZATIONS
Approved emergency Type III educator authorizations for 55 initially and 2 renewals.
[Local districts may request Type III Emergency Authorization to employ non-licensed teachers, principals, administrators, or special services providers if they agree to provide an induction program. The SBE’s approval is based on consideration of whether the district has demonstrated a shortage of licensed personnel and the employment of non-licensed personnel is essential to preserving the instructional program and to the well-being of the children enrolled.]
(2) DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS
(These remain confidential until action is taken by the Board.)
(3) ENDORSEMENT APPROVAL IN ALTERNATIVE LICENSING PROGRAM:
Approved Colorado Christian University’s proposal to add the Special Education Generalist endorsement through their approved Alternative Licensing Program. [Newly adopted SBE rules provide that school districts, BOCES, accredited independent schools, accepted institutions of higher education, or any combination thereof may apply for approval of an alternative teacher preparation program. This proposal was reviewed by a committee that included representatives of higher education and educators who are experts in the field of Alternative Licensure. The agency received constructive comments on its proposal and made adjustments to its original proposal.]
(4) EXCEPTIONS IN EDUCATOR LICENSE DOAH CASE
Denied the exceptions filed and upheld the decision of the Administrative Law Judge in the matter of an educator license case in the Division of Administrative Hearings (DOAH). [In executive session on February 9, 2005, the Board reviewed the case of an educator license dispute. The Board examined each section of the Administrative Law Judge’s Initial Decision (i.e., Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Decision, etc.) and the Board’s Exceptions to Initial Decision, and determined how to act.]
Approved charter school waiver requests from February 10, 2005, to June 30, 2009, for West End Learning Center Charter School in the West End School District.
Approved payments of $228,462,401.12 under the Public School Finance Act. [Local districts are entitled to receive monthly payments from the state by the 25th of each month, under provisions of the Public School Finance Act of 1994, as amended.]
Conducted a Board-only discussion on the rules for the Administration of the School District Capital Construction Assistance Program. [On August 18, 2004, the SBE approved rules for the Administration of the School District Capital Construction Assistance Program. Upon review of those rules, Legislative Legal Services requested revisions as follows: (1) Remove references to back-up projects. (2) Add a section to match all statutory language regarding requirements for applications.]
VODY HERRMANN: Appreciates Hudak’s urging for CDE to go back to Legislative Legal Services to discuss the importance of putting the back-up projects back in the rules. We have now restored language that allows back-up projects to be listed in case projects that are contingent on the passage of bond issues are unsuccessful. Also, unused funds would revert to the fund for future use.
I mentioned that I am thrilled that LLS approved the language. Motion passed unanimously to approve the rules as amended.
Yesterday CCHE asked the SBE to agree to sign onto a resolution about higher education that they have asked other educational organizations to sign onto. Orr pointed out that the SBE was not listed as one of the stakeholders mentioned in the resolution. I pointed out an awkward wording of one of the items (it says "When a child starts school, the expectations shall include successful participation in pre-kindergarten through 12th grade," but pre-kindergarten occurs before a child starts school). Polis expressed concern that many young people will not be going on to college. DeHoff said that regardless of what high school graduates do, they still need the same skills. Orr agreed with Polis, saying that it is sending the wrong message that all kids must go to college; he said that kids often don’t know what they want to do when they go to college and it is a waste of their time. Middleton agreed that college is not for everyone, but rigor in the curriculum is important. Polis said that he fears the SBE will be assumed to agree with everything CCHE wants to do, and that might not be the case. Moloney said that there is a broad sentiment that we could probably agree to, and it would be good to give them the benefit of the doubt. He said that everything we do has the risk of being misconstrued, and the partnership with CCHE is important. Perhaps in the future we could give them one of our resolutions to sign onto. Munn suggested that we tell them that if they add us, we will sign on. DeHoff suggested that we draft the amendments we would like to see and discuss it in the meeting with them that we expect to have. That was agreed on as our course of action.
Moloney then said that he had spoken with Rick O’Donnell after our conversation yesterday regarding a memorandum of understanding with CCHE as to what appropriate college preparation is to be provided in our state’s high schools. Munn reviewed for us the work that had gone on over the last few years about the pre-collegiate curriculum. He had attended some of the meetings. They discussed issues such as what elements of algebra or science are required by higher education, as compared with what high school courses include. They tried to address the problem that some colleges find students lacking in their math or science knowledge although they had passed the appropriate high school courses. Munn feels that "somebody needs to put a stamp on it, so that if you have this course, it will be accepted." He envisions a situation in which CCHE and CDE make agreements about what colleges need and we would give districts the opportunity to submit to us documentation that they meet the pre-collegiate curriculum; then the colleges would be obligated to accept those courses. He feels that it maintains local control, and at the same time we can use accreditation to oversee the process. Polis said that the problem is that it would be like having a second set of standards. He acknowledged, however, that nothing is perfect in public policy. He wondered if we could ensure that it is included in our standards. Orr said that as much as we value local control, a high school diploma should be a "ticket in" to higher education, and if students are lacking, we should intervene. Many students go to the junior college (community college) because they don’t meet the requirements of 4-year colleges, and then they go on to 4-year colleges, but there are also problems of the 4-year institutions not accepting credits from junior colleges. Middleton pointed out that there is proposed legislation regarding the pre-collegiate curriculum, and it might be wise for us to try to take the lead on the issue. DeHoff said that he believes that the community colleges and 4-year colleges are trying to work out the problems of transferring credits. He pointed out that there has always been a response by high schools when higher education adds requirements. He said that there might be questions about whether the constitutional structure (local control) of Colorado allows us to mandate a pre-collegiate curriculum. I said that I think standards are the best place for us to address this issue. I added that we need to have discussions with the various organizations that have been doing research on high school reform and get their input on assuring rigor in the curriculum. I also said that I feel very sensitive about the issue of local control. Moloney agreed that when HB 1313 passed, implementing standards, it was careful to allow local control. It is a good concept, to have model content standards, and likewise we could consider holding up models of a pre-collegiate curriculum. Not to create a mandate, but to provide clarity on the issue. Suckla warned that we need to be careful that we set forth guidelines only.
The Board will be asked to approve the Friends School and Naropa University in Boulder as designated agencies for alternative licensure. [Newly adopted SBE rules provide that school districts, BOCES, accredited independent schools, accepted institutions of higher education, or any combination thereof may apply for approval of an alternative teacher preparation program. This proposal was reviewed by a committee that included representatives of higher education and educators who are experts in the field of Alternative Licensure. The agency received constructive comments on its proposal and made adjustments to its original proposal.]
The Board will consider rules for adding an alternative principal authorization preparation route to Colorado’s alternative licensing program. [HB 04-1104 allows non-traditional candidates to enter a preparation program from a variety of different backgrounds. The intent of the rules is to maintain the rigor and quality of "regular" principal preparation, while allowing for a wide and diverse candidate pool. At the time of licensing, all candidates will have fulfilled all requirements for a provisional (initial) principal’s license.]
The Board will consider reauthorizing the content of the educator preparation program at Mesa State College.
The Board will be asked to approve a contract between the Colorado Department of Education, Exceptional Student Services Unit, and the PEAK (Parent Education for Kids Assistance) Parent Center. [The PEAK Parent Center will work with adult service agencies and organizations to build a PCP (Person Centered Planning) consortium. PCP will assist school-based teams in planning for transition of high school students with a focus on students’ interests and preferences. Activities may include shared professional development, collaboration in developing materials to support PCP marketing to young adults and families, and other strategies to promote the use pf PCP to improve transition outcomes.]
The Board will be asked to fill vacancies on the State Advisory Committee for Gifted and Talented Student Education.
L. MORROW: This is Black History month. Is still working on his enterprise for fuel cells and is looking for funding. Believes that it is important to educate the populace. Believes that his elocution has gained him the respect of CDE. Found out that his problem with Munn is a generation gap. Says that the fact is that our Board should be commended for its attention to detail and hard work and commitment.
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