STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING REPORT- JULY 2010

By: Jim Puckett | July 9, 2010, 4:01 am

The regularly scheduled monthly meeting of the State Board of Education was held in Atlanta on July 7 and 8. Newly appointed interim State Superintendent of Schools Brad Bryant was welcomed to his first meeting in the new role.

Wednesday, July 7

Budget Committee: The Committee reviewed contracts and grants for submission to the Committee of the Whole for action. A major topic of discussion related to a contract for external monitoring of a federal grant for the student information system.

Charter Committee: The Committee heard reports from staff on funding issues, activities of the Charter Advisory Committee, and recommended items for submission to the Committee of the Whole for action. There was discussion of recent actions of the Charter Schools Commission and the role of the State Board in approving or denying approval of such action. Extended discussion related to the request of Odyssey Charter to be allowed to submit a petition for Charter Commission status.

Rules Committee: The Committee reviewed proposed rules and amendments to rules for recommendation to the Committee of the Whole. Again this month, a significant number of requests by local school districts for waivers of State Board rules were reviewed and given a positive recommendation for approval. The Committee discussed proposed Local School Board Governance Standards which have been under development for several months.

Public Hearing: A public hearing was held on replacement of the rule, State-Funded K-8 Subjects and 9-12 Courses for Students Entering Ninth Grade in 2008 and Subsequent Years with a new rule with a similar title. No one spoke to the rule.

Committee of the Whole: The State Board met as a Committee of the Whole to consider recommendations on action items from board committees that met earlier in the day. A consent agenda for the Thursday meeting was adopted. The Board was given an update on the status of the development of the Longitudinal Data System.

Thursday, July 8

The State Board met in a lengthy executive session to consider personnel items, requests for waivers of graduation rules, and other items.

The Georgia Teacher of the Year, Pam Williams, brought an inspirational message and led the Pledge of Allegiance.

No recognition program was held this month.

Action Items
The Board:

Confirmed actions approved during a conference call meeting held on June 24.
Authorized the acceptance of $125,200 in federal funds for a pilot student fitness assessment to be conducted in five school districts.
Approved local facilities plans for these school districts: Clayton, Echols, Franklin, McDuffie, Newton, Peach, Putnam, Wilcox.
Adopted K-12 Common Core State Standards in English language arts, mathematics, and literacy in science, history/social studies, and technical subjects.
Approved new member appointments to the State Advisory Panel for Special Education.
Approved appointments to the Charter School Commission.
Authorized posting of Georgia Performance Standards for Advanced Mathematical Decision Making in Industry and Government and Advanced Mathematical Decision Making in Finance for public review.
Authorized posting of Georgia Local School Board Standards and a model ethics policy for Local School Board Governance for public review and comment.
Named board member Dr. Mary Sue Murray Vice Chair for Appeals.
Approved minutes of the June 10 and June 24 meetings.
Requested assurance from Atlanta City that the report on the district's investigation into test erasures will be ready by August 2.

Contracts and Grants
The Board approved the following:

Grants, Fresh Fruits and Vegetable Programs (July 10-June 11), $687,000 total, to eligible school districts.
Grants, Title IA, to 15 RESAs, $3,835,000 total, for school improvement services to Title I schools in needs improvement levels 1-3.
Grants, 21st Century Community Learning Centers, to 27 new programs, $9,127,823 total, for work with at-risk students.
Grants, Education for Homeless Children and Youth, to 14 school districts, $562,745 total, for work with homeless children and youth.
Grants, Title IA, Title IC, and Title IC, to eligible school districts, $495,556,567 total, for programs for underachieving students.
Grants, Mathematics and Science Partnership, funds reallocation to 25 local school districts, $1,244,702 total, for professional development for teachers in the areas of math and science.
Contract, Columbus State University, $133,989.38, for the development of an astronomy course and corresponding professional development for astronomy teachers.
Contract, University of Wisconsin, $1,932,000, for administration of the ACCESS for English Language Learners assessment.
Contract amendment, Riverside Publishing, $972,372, for improvements in reporting structures within the Online Assessment System.
Contract amendment, NCS Pearson, $5,830,193, for development of mathematics items for inclusion in the Online Assessment System.
Contract, Battelle for Kids, $250,000, for work related to building a value-added model for assessing student achievement as proposed in Georgia's Race to the Top application.
Contract amendment, Rockdale, Forsyth, and Cherokee school districts, $3,354.98 total, for reimbursement for Teachers on Assignment to assist in developing strategies for improving instruction in math and English/Language Arts.
Contract, University System Board of Regents, $1,515,934, for development and support of an alternative CRCT assessment for students with disabilities.
Contract, Utah State University, $95,000, for providing training and assessment of educational interpreters.
Contract, Kennesaw State University, $150,000, for activities of the Georgia Youth Science and Technology Centers.
Contract, learning.com, $617,208, for use of the company's assessment of students in technology literacy.
Contract, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, $286,430, for access to math and language arts digital content.
Grant amendments, CTAE, selected school districts, $684,600, to support CTAE student leadership programs.
Grants, 21st Century STEM Labs, to four school districts, $2,764,430 total, for implementation of STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) labs.
Grants, to 16 RESAs, $1,787,328 total, to fund 16 math mentor positions.
Grants, to 16 RESAs, $1,500,000 total, to fund Educational Technology Center services.
Grant amendment, Title IA School Improvement and ARRA, to identified schools, $10,245,976 total increase.
Grant amendment, Title VIB, Rural and Low Income Schools, to 89 districts, $6,812,138 total.
Grant, to eligible school districts, $76,513,778 total, for strengthening teacher quality through professional development.
Grant, charter school improvement, to Atlanta Heights Charter School.

The Board denied approval of a $1.8M contract (vendor TBA) for validation of a federal grant program related to the student information system.

Charter Schools
The Board:

Approved renewal of charters for Baconton Community Charter (Mitchell), Berrien Academy Performance Center, DeKalb PATH Academy, Fulton Science Academy Charter High School, Kennesaw Charter School (Cobb), Kingsley Charter School (DeKalb), Peachtree Charter Middle (DeKalb)
Approved charter status for Judia Jackson Harris Charter (Clarke).
Took no action related to recent decisions of the Charter Schools Commission: Atlanta Heights request not to participate in the Teacher Retirement System; approval of charter status for Provost Academy and Kaplan Academy (both virtual charters); denial of charter status for GA Virtual Academy Charter High and Mercury Online Academy (both virtual charters).
Denied the request that Odyssey Charter School be released from its current charter and be allowed to submit a petition to the Charter School Commission. However Odyssey may petition the Board for permission to add grade eight.

Rules
The Board approved the following:

Amendments to rule Educational Facility Site, Construction and Reimbursement, updating the rule.
Adoption of rule Seclusion and Restraint for All Students.
Replacement of rule Waivers and Variances of High School Graduation Assessments with a new rule with the same title.
Initiation of replacement of rule Student Enrollment and Withdrawal with a new rule with the same title.
Waiver of rule Scheduling for Instruction (Block Scheduling) for one year to allow scheduling of high school students for less than five class periods per day.
Authorization for GNETS to depart from the 180 day or equivalent rule.
Authorization for local systems to depart from a strict interpretation of the 180 day school year rule for salaries of bus drivers.
Waiver of rule Alternative Education Program for 57 school districts, allowing a decrease in the minimum daily average instructional time.
Request by Baldwin County to waive rule Minimum Direct Classroom Expenditures.
Requests by Appling, Barrow, Brooks and Toombs school districts to waive rule Guidance Counselors.
Requests by Barrow, Brooks, Sumter, and Taylor school districts to waive rule Personnel Required.
Requests by Columbia, Taylor, and Webster school districts to waive rule School Bus Drivers.
Requests by Appling, Cook, Franklin, Upson, Toombs, and Webster school districts to waive rule School Year, allowing school districts to establish a school year less than 176 days.

Items for Information
The Board received written or verbal information on the following:

Contracts approved by the State Superintendent of $50,000 and under.
Upcoming contracts and grants.
Upcoming charter petitions.
Office of Student Achievement's ongoing investigation into CRCT erasures.
Department of Education summer leadership programs.
The Common Core Curriculum Georgia Performance Standards.

The next regular meeting of the State Board is scheduled for August 18-19 (one week later than the usual schedule)

This report is intended for information only and is not an official record of State Board of Education actions.