a strong voice for kids 2nd Congressional District

HUDAK’S BOARD NOTES – MAY 2007

COMMISSIONER SEARCH: I am pleased to announce that the State Board of Education has unanimously selected Dwight Jones, Superintendent of the Fountain-Fort Carson School District, as our sole finalist for the new Commissioner position. By state law, we must wait 14 days after announcing one or more finalists before we can hire someone, in order to review the credentials of the finalist(s). We hope to have the new Commissioner hired by June 1.

SEARCH FOR NEW DIRECTOR OF BOARD RELATIONS: We will be interviewing applicants for this position on May 18.

SBE Work Session (Wednesday, May 9, 2007)

LEGISLATION – We reviewed the bills that related to our legislative priorities for the year. Bills passed relating to our priorities for the following: stabilizing the local share of school funding; giving the SBE the authority for producing the SARs and for creating high school graduation guidelines; and increasing the funding for the state assessments, school capital construction, exceptional student services, school trust lands, categoricals, early childhood, full-day kindergarten, family literacy, supplementary online courses, online education staff at CDE, post-secondary education options, and data usage.
FAST-TRACK SPECIAL ED ENDORSEMENT – CDE staff presented a plan for a "fast-track" endorsement for Special Education teachers, which would become available for general education teachers who are already licensed. It is a one-year program that is only for teaching mildly to moderately disabled students.

SBE Regular Meeting (Thursday, May 10, 2007)

ASSESSMENTS FOR CBLA – We approved CDE staff’s recommendation of only the following 3 assessments for CBLA (Colorado Basic Literacy Act): DIBELS (Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills), PALS (Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening), and DRA 2 (Developmental Reading Assessment, used by most large districts, including Denver, Jeffco, and Douglas County). CDE staff recommended these based on focus groups held in April. The vote was 6:1 (only I dissented; I did so because some districts, such as Boulder Valley, use other assessments, which they feel are just as useful).
ASSESSMENTS FOR READ TO ACHIEVE – A new state law requires the SBE to select a single assessment for Read to Achieve, one that is "valid and reliable" and approved for CBLA. We approved DIBELS on a vote of 6:1 (again I was the only one who dissented; I did so because very few of the districts I represent use DIBELS).
RULES FOR FAST COLLEGE FAST JOBS PROGRAM – We unanimously approved emergency rules to implement this program, which allows eligible schools (there are 62 currently) to implement a dual enrollment program that would allow students to simultaneously receive a high school diploma and an Associate’s Degree or Technical Certificate within five years of high school, as long as they enroll as freshmen. In approving these rules, we eliminated the SBE rule prohibiting funding for students who enrolled during their junior year in five-year dual-enrollment programs. However, in order for the four Republicans (DeHoff, Littleton, Schaffer, and Suckla) to agree to this, they insisted that we also eliminate the prohibition against students enrolling in online schools without having been enrolled in a regular public school the previous year; this passed on a 6:1 vote (only I dissented, which I did because our lawyer said it would be illegal until next year).

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 Poudre School District, on a vote of 5:1 (only I dissented), on the grounds that the district has not provided fair and equitable treatment to its charter schools.
Granted the authority to Pueblo School District 60 on a vote of 4:2 (Littleton and Schaffer dissented), based on the percentage of students in the district enrolled in charter schools.
Granted the authority to the Montrose County School District on a unanimous vote, based on the percentage of students eligible for free/reduced lunch enrolled in the district’s charter schools.

Charter School Appeals (May 9-10)

In the case of the Life Skills Center’s appeal of the revocation of their charter by Denver Public Schools, the SBE overturned the revocation on a vote of 4:3 (Berman, Middleton, and Suckla dissented).
In the case of the 2^nd appeal by Imagine Charter School in Firestone of the St. Vrain Valley School District’s denial of their application, the SBE remanded the school back to the district on a vote of 4:2 (Middleton and I dissented; Berman was absent).

UPCOMING EVENTS:

NOTE – There will be no regular SBE meetings in June or July. (Watch for an announcement of a Board Retreat during one of those months.)
May 18 – The SBE will conduct interviews of applicants for the Director of Board Relations position.
May 25 – Special Board Meeting (Executive Session) to discuss personnel matters.
June – Watch for an announcement of the annual CDE Standards Conference regarding the "Year of Reading and Writing."
July 28 – I will be speaking about education issues at a town meeting with State Representative Sara Gagliardi, at 10:30 a.m. at the YMCA on West 64^th Avenue in Arvada.
August 8 – SBE Work Session.
August 9 – SBE Regular Meeting.