HUDAK’S BOARD NOTES – OCTOBER 2007

SBE Work Session (October 3, 2007)

• COMMUNICATIONS – CDE is trying to do a better job of communicating with the public. You can sign up to receive CDE press releases (they come out often!) by going to the CDE website, www.cde.state.co.us, and clicking on "CDE Communications" in the list under the heading of "CDE Information."
• REGIONAL SERVICES – For the first time that I can remember, the CDE Regional Managers from all 8 regions met with us to describe the school districts they work with and the kinds of services they provide. The Regional Managers are in charge of making recommendations about whether districts should be put on or taken off Accreditation Watch or Probation.
• CODE OF ETHICS – We received a draft for the new SBE Code of Ethics. Bob Schaffer said that he would have some amendments to propose the next day at the Regular Meeting. Elaine Berman, who has been working on the draft, complained that although he was supposed to have been working with her on it, he did not attend the meeting we held to work on the document, and she expressed dismay that he came up with substantial changes at the last minute. I said that I would like to make a few revisions to clarify the wording and would like to strike a section that had not been in the draft we worked on at the afore-mentioned meeting, the section calling for public "admonishment" of Board members – by other Board members – for not following the Code. [We were not able to approve the Code of Ethics at the next day’s meeting because there was too much confusion about different drafts; it is on the agenda for approval in November.]
• ONLINE EDUCATION – The new Director of Online Instruction, Pam Hoppe-Ice, met with us for the first time; she had been on the job for only 3 days. Nevertheless, she had already worked with Deputy Commissioner Ken Turner and Assistant Commissioner Jeanette Cornier to prepare a draft of the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) required by Senate Bill 07-215 between multi-district online schools and each of the school districts in which they have "learning centers." Staff reported that they had met with representatives from the current online schools for their input on the MOU. Randy DeHoff said that he felt the proposed MOU was a "disaster" and would have recommendations for substantial revisions at the Regular Meeting the next day.
• INSTRUCTIONAL TIME – Schaffer had asked staff a few months ago to answer some questions on the issue of passing periods in schools. Deputy Commissioner Karen Stroup and Vody Herrmann, Director of School Finance, said that the $145 million cost reported previously was based on an estimate of 5-minute passing periods, which might be higher or lower than is actually the case. Districts receive funding based on the number of hours of instructional time students receive, with 5 hours being the minimum for full-time. Legislation excludes funding for lunch time, but does not mention passing time (thus, it can be addressed through SBE rules). There are 32 districts that have designated passing periods as part of instructional time. Several SBE members expressed concern about "seat time" being the basis for funding and proposed that we change the rules, or at least allow a "pilot program" by a few districts to determine funding based on something other than the number of hours of attendance. Schaffer said he will put a question on the agenda for us to vote on at the November meeting about whether passing time should count as instructional time. I pointed out that the districts directly affected by this decision are some of the largest in the state, such as Jefferson County, Colorado Springs District 11, Cherry Creek, Adams 12, St. Vrain Valley, and Pueblo District 60. I warned that because this is a very substantial issue, with far-reaching effects, we should include as many people as possible in the discussion about it. [Nevertheless, it was added to the agenda for November, with no public hearing set.]

SBE Regular Meeting (October 4, 2007)

• ONLINE EDUCATION – We went over the MOU for multi-district online schools that had been presented at the Work Session. DeHoff had sent staff some suggested changes, and they presented us with a new version which incorporated some of his suggestions. The only one that was controversial was his proposal not to require a "common calendar" for all learning centers that are part of the same online school, but instead to require that all the learning centers within each school district have the same calendar as the district they are in. I argued that this could result in 178 different calendars for the learning centers that are part of the same online school; staff agreed that this would make the job of monitoring and auditing more difficult. Tony Dyl, the Assistant Attorney General assigned to the SBE, pointed out that this was one area of "serious deficiency" revealed by the State Audit Report on Online Education. Nevertheless, on a vote of 5:2 (with Berman and me dissenting), the Board deleted the entire calendar issue from the MOU. The Commissioner said that we can deal with the issue when we make the rules for the overall supervision of online schools, which is our next task, anyway.
• HEARING ON ECEA RULES – We held a hearing on the proposed amendments to the rules for the Exceptional Children’s Educational Act. So many people came to testify that we had to set up chairs in the lobby outside the Board Room. Testimony basically consisted of directors of special education asking that we change the rules to exactly match the new regulations from the U.S. Department of Education, and some parents from the Colorado Special Education Advisory Committee asking that we keep our rules the way they are in the following areas: the age to begin transition planning, the inclusion of short-term objectives on IEPs, and doing comprehensive assessments to determine the disabilities rather than only in the areas of suspected disabilities. A concern was expressed about whether speech-language pathologists are considered providers of direct services or related services. Another area of concern is whether the deadline of August 15 for implementation of RTI (Response to Intervention) is realistic. The Board decided to close the oral portion of the hearing and discuss the rules at the next meeting, with possible adoption at that time.
• LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES – We met with Anne Barkis, our new Legislative Liaison, to discuss the Board’s legislative agenda for the coming session. We went over the previous year’s legislative priorities and made some revisions. We agreed to add a few things: to the School Trust Lands section, allowing the State Treasurer flexibility on investments; to the section on eligible facilities, increasing coordination of educational services; to capital construction, supporting additional efforts to deal with capital needs; and to SBE authority, asking that CDE staff and/or SBE members be required to serve on all relevant boards, commissions, and task forces.
• SBE CALENDAR – We approved our meeting schedule for 2008. We will continue to meet on the second Thursday of each month (except the months when NASBE meetings occur the second Thursday or Friday), but the schedule is somewhat different from previous years, in the following ways: several meeting days were added (Fridays following the regular meetings) for the sole purpose of holding charter school appeal hearings; the June meeting might be a Retreat; the July meeting is canceled; and the December meeting (if needed) will be held in conjunction with the CASB conference at the very beginning of the month.

UPCOMING EVENTS

• October 9 – I will be visiting Foster Elementary School in Arvada with the Jeffco Legislative Forum.
• October 11-13 – The Commissioner and most SBE members will be attending the NASBE Annual Conference in Philadelphia.
• October 19 – I and other SBE members will be presenting a workshop at the CASB Fall Conference to discuss High School Graduation Guidelines, HB 07-1118.
• October 24 – I will be visiting Chatfield High School with the Jeffco Legislative Forum.
• November 7 – SBE Work Session, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• November 8 – SBE Regular Meeting, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.