1)  128th General Assembly:  The Ohio House and Senate will hold sessions and committee hearings this week.

*Lawmakers returned to Columbus following the May primary elections to complete work on a number of bills before the summer recess.  Some of the bills that lawmakers are expected to consider over the next weeks include the following:

-legislation to implement the casino constitutional amendment
-tax exemptions for alternative energy, SB232 (Widener) and HB464 (Winburn)
-home foreclosures, HB3 (Foley, Driehaus)
-revisions to payday lending, HB486 (Lundy)
-school nutrition standards, SB210 (Coughlin), HB373 (Carney), and HB60 (Pillich)
-telecommunications regulations, HB276 (Sayre) and SB162 (Buehrer)

-regulatory reform, SB3 (Faber)

*U.S. Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, will present the commencement address at the Clark Montessori Jr. & Sr. High School located in Cincinnati on Thursday, May 27, 2010.  Clark was among the six finalists in the Race to the Top High School competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.  President Obama will present the commencement address at the winner of the competition, Kalamazoo Central High School in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

2) National News

*U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter dated May 13, 2010 to congressional leadership on behalf of President Obama.  The letter asks Congress to support legislation, S. 3206 the Keep Our Educators Working Act (Harkin), and H.R. 2847, the Jobs for Main Street Act (Miller), to provide $23 billion in emergency funding to preserve education jobs, $1 billion to support the Child Care and Development Block Grant, and $2 billion to support jobs in public safety. This legislation would preserve education jobs, and is modeled after the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF) established in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).  According to the letter, approximately 100,000 to 300,000 education jobs might be lost in the upcoming school year if this legislation is not enacted, which means that children will experience reductions in class time; cuts to early childhood education programs; cuts to extracurricular activities and summer school programs; etc. 

According to the letter, "These budget cuts would also undermine the groundbreaking reform efforts underway in states and districts across the country."

The letter requests that this provision be included in the supplemental appropriations bills that Congress will consider. 

For more information please visit http://www.ed.gov/blog/2010/05/obama-administration-supports-emergency-funding-to-save-teacher-jobs/.

*The American Association of School Administrators (AASA), Mark Bieland president, released on May 4, 2010 the results of a new survey of school administrators entitled "Projection of National Education Job Cuts for the 2010-11 School Year." The survey is based on the responses of 1,479 school administrators in 49 states, and finds that 82 percent of school districts will cut or eliminate 27,516 jobs in 2010-11 and 53 percent will freeze hiring.  "Based on these survey results, AASA estimates that the national total for education jobs cuts will be 275,000 in 2010-11, representing 92 percent of the 300,000 jobs saved by ARRA."

According Dr. Lawrence Mishel of the Economic Policy Institute, every 100,000 jobs lost in the education sector translates to 30,000 jobs lost in other sectors, due to reduced spending by schools and educators who are laid off.

The article is available at http://www.aasa.org/PressReleases.aspx?id=13246.

3) This Week at the Statehouse

*The House Education Committee, chaired by Representative Williams, will meet on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 in hearing room 017.  The committee will hear testimony on the following bills:

HB268 (Driehaus) Non-Public Schools:  Reduces the per pupil base-cost payments to community schools in academic watch or emergency, and uses the aggregate of those reductions to make supplemental payments for Auxiliary Services for chartered school students. 

HB494 (Stebelton) Academic Standards: Allows more time for the adoption of standards and model curricula for science, social studies, and financial literacy, and entrepreneurship.
 
HB502 (Grossman) School District Annexation: Prohibits an urban school district that is a party to an annexation agreement from declining to extend the agreement. 
 
HB472 (Lundy) Textbook Affordability:  Enacts the "Textbook Affordability Act" with respect to college textbook sales.
 

HB479 (Weddington) Incarcerated School Age Adults:  Permits the establishment of a community school to serve adults of school age who are incarcerated or who have been released from the custody of the Department of Youth Services, and declares an emergency.

*The Senate Education Committee, chaired by Senator Cates, will meet on Tuesday, May 18, 2010 at 4:00 PM in the North Hearing Room.  The committee will hear testimony on the Ohio Academic Content Standards; SB246 (Sawyer) Incarcerated School Age Adults; and SB255 (Cates) Educational Choice Scholarships, which would gradually increase to 20,000 the number of Educational Choice Scholarships awarded annually.

*The House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Representative Letson, will meet on May 19, 2010 at 9:30 in hearing room 114.  The committee will hear testimony on HB464 (Winburn) Wind/Solar Energy Facilities.  HB464 exempts qualifying wind and solar energy facilities from property taxation for up to 20 years, and requires payments in lieu of taxes (PILOT) on the basis of each megawatt of production capacity of such facilities.

*The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Representative Hagen, will meet on May 19, 2010 at 10:30 AM in room 017.  Among the bills that the committee will consider is HB448 (Chandler) School Bus Safety.  HB448 requires all school buses purchased, leased, or rented after January 1, 2014, that transport students to and from school to be equipped with a seat belt assembly for all passengers.

*The House Health Committee, chaired by Representative Boyd, will meet on Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at 4:00 PM in hearing room 116 to hear testimony on HB373 (Carney), Nutritional Standards for Schools.

4) State Board of Education Meeting (SBE):  The State Board of Education, Debbie Cain president, met on May 10-11, 2010, at the Ohio School for the Deaf, 500 Morse Road, Columbus, Ohio.

MEETING ON MAY 10, 2010

The Executive Committee, chaired by President Cain, discussed the plans for the 2010 Board Retreat on June 6-8, 2010, and approved a motion regarding public participation at the June Board Retreat.  According to the draft plan, the SBE will work to achieve the following outcomes for its retreat:

-Identify key focus areas for board policy and advocacy work over the next two years. 
Policy drivers include - vision document; HB1; strategic plan for P-12 education; Race to the Top; SB311- Ohio Core; 21st Century Learning Subcommittee recommendations; and the re-authorization of ESEA
-Identify strategies for measuring progress against key goals
-Identify strategies for increasing effectiveness of board meetings and meeting structure.

SBE member Dennis Reardon also distributed documents that include a framework for an accountability system that could be used by the SBE to examine its goals and work.

STAKEHOLDER PRESENTATIONS

The State Board received presentations from two stakeholder groups:  The Catholic Conference of Ohio and the Ohio Youth Voices.

*Catholic Conference of Ohio:  Larry Keough, Assistant Director of Education for the Catholic Conference of Ohio, presented information about nonpublic schools, challenges facing Catholic schools, and legislative recommendations.  According to the presentation, cuts in funding included in Am. Sub. HB1 for line items in the state budget that support private schools, auxiliary services and administrative cost reimbursements, reduced overall state funding for nonpublic schools by $59 million, and ended the parity in the percent of funding increases (decreases) between public and nonpublic schools that had existed since 1984. HB318, approved in December 2009, included conditional language to restore some of the cuts for nonpublic schools, but meeting those conditions is highly unlikely in this weak economy.

*Ohio Youth Voices:  Michael Charney, Executive Director of Ohio Youth Voices, presented information about Ohio Youth Voices, which provides opportunities for high school students from across the state to work together on education and economic issues that have a direct effect on the future of Ohio. 

Over the past four years members of Ohio Youth Voices have participated in a number of projects that engage youth in civic activities and build civic awareness.  Currently over one-hundred students from across the state are participating in Ohio Youth Voices projects.  In 2007 members of Ohio Youth Voices created the first Ohio Youth Agenda, and testified on the state biennial budget proposals before the Ohio General Assembly.  The Agenda is updated each year, and recently students developed a recommendation that all teacher training programs at colleges and universities establish an advisory group of high school students to give advice to professors and future teachers. 

Several students from Ft. Hayes Metropolitan Education Center and East High School in Columbus attended the SBE meeting, and made the following comments regarding the qualities that make effective teachers:
Effective teachers love students and are open to their problems;
-have high respect for students
-understand that what they say has a great impression on students

-take the time to know students, teach life lessons to students, and recognize the ethnicity and background of students

-understand diversity and do not stereotype students

ACHIEVEMENT AND CAPACITY COMMITTEES

*The Achievement Committee, chaired by Mike Collins, discussed and received a report on the results of the stakeholder regional meetings regarding the revised academic standards, and recommended that the full Board approve the following resolutions:

-a resolution to adopt information security rules (September adoption)

-two resolutions to adopt academic content standards for English language arts and mathematics, and science and social studies (June adoption) 

*The Capacity Committee, chaired by Rob Hovis, received an update on standards for school district treasurers and school business managers, and recommended for full Board approval the following resolutions:

-a resolution to adopt the amended SBE policy on bullying, harassment, and intimidation;
-a resolution to adopt Ohio School/District Operational Waiver Standards;
-a resolution to adopt amended Rule 3301-37-01, Child Day Care Program Definitions;
-a resolution to adopt amended Rules 3301-53-01 and -03, and 3301-55-01, special education;
-a resolution to adopt amended Rule 3301-24-05; School Nurse Wellness Coordinator endorsement

Dennis Reardon also requested that the committee examine the process that the ODE uses to assess and evaluate community school sponsors and re-authorize community school sponsors. 

STATE BOARD RECOGNITION

Representatives from three Middle Schools, Ankeney Middle School, Beavercreek City School District in Greene County; Nagel Middle School, Forest Hills Local School District in Hamilton County; and Wadsworth Middle School, Wadsworth City School District in Medina County, were recognized as "Middle Schools to Watch".

KIRWAN INSTITUTE INTERIM REPORT

Following lunch the Board received a report from the Kirwan Institute for Race and Ethnicity at OSU entitled "Interim Report on Diversity Strategies for Successful Schools" presented by Stephen Menendian, Becky Reno, and john a. powell, executive director of the Kirwan Institute.

The SBE received a grant from the Martha Holden Jennings Foundation to update its policy on diversity and integration and bring it into compliance with current law.  The SBE/ODE partnered with the Kirwan Institute to develop the Diversity Strategies Project.  The interim report reflects the work completed on this project so far. 

The Kirwan Institute agreed to 1) conduct a technical appraisal of the SBE's policy on diversity (based on the ODE diversity guidebook); 2) conduct four regional meetings to obtain feedback from school districts on their experiences with diversity, and develop principles and strategies that could guide new state policy; 3) present the findings to the SBE for feedback; 4) prepare policy recommendations; and 5) develop a webinar with ODE staff based on the findings and feedback from the SBE. 

The findings, strategies, and overarching concerns included in the interim report are based on the answers to a series of questions presented to 164 representatives from school districts at four regional meetings. The representatives were selected based on geographic and demographic criteria (including rate of poverty), various typologies (urban and suburban), and districts with diversity options.  A summary of the findings, strategies, and concerns included in the interim report follows:

Questions and Findings: 

-How do you define diversity?  Respondents defined diversity broadly, but generally included race, ethnicity, gender, religion, economic status, culture, etc.  Suburban districts also defined diversity as ability level, (physical and learning disability), while urban districts included sexual orientation as a criteria, type of family unit, and language spoken at home. 

-What are the characteristics of a diverse school? Respondents identified four major themes as characteristics of a diverse school:  diversity among staff; professional development opportunities to ensure that the staff is culturally responsive; school climate; and curricular and extra curricular opportunities to celebrate diversity.

-Are diversity and integration important values in the 21st century?  Respondents affirmed the importance of diversity to succeed in the 21st society.  Also. respondents thought that diversity promotes critical thinking and problem solving skills, and reduces prejudice.

-What does your district do to promote diversity and reduce racial isolation? School districts described a number of strategies that they use to promote diversity including staff recruitment; professional development; home and community visits; community councils; redistricting to redraw boundaries; reassigning teachers and staff; and magnet school programs.

-What are the challenges to diversity and reducing racial isolation? All districts mentioned the challenges that they have encountered in recruiting a diverse staff and providing sustainable professional development opportunities that support diversity.

-What should the SBE do about it? Respondents recommended that the SBE/ODE replicate the most successful programs that promote diversity; provide a clearing house of information on how to promote diversity and integration, including diversity training sessions; fund model diversity training programs; track disparities in discipline action; and tailor efforts to district needs.

Strategy Analysis:  Participants at the regional meetings were divided into workgroups, and asked to identify strategies that support diversity and an integrated environment either from the strategies presented or strategies that they use in their school districts, and discuss the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges that a district would face if it implemented and tried to sustain the strategies.  The interim report includes these strategies categorized into two types: in-place strategies and "mobility" strategies.  In-place strategies are defined as strategies that would be implemented within schools, while mobility strategies would require the movement of students to another school location or another school district.  The researchers noted that one of the issues facing Ohio is that some school districts truly cannot achieve numerical diversity within their own district, because of their demographic and socio-economic composition. 

-Eliminate ability grouping:  50 percent of respondents identified this strategy as a way to increase diversity in schools, but also noted that it was only possible if there are students in a given school with diverse levels of ability.  Providing a rigorous curriculum for all students increases overall student achievement, raises teacher expectations, and decreases discipline issues. Drawbacks include training teachers to teach in heterogeneous classrooms; fiscal support; getting teacher, community, and parent buy-in; and losing the academic momentum of the school.

-Establish magnet schools:  Respondents supported this strategy because it provides choice within the public school system and increases parent involvement.  However, respondents also mentioned that there are concerns about transportation; access for students with special needs; fair enrollment policies; and scale ability to serve all students.

-Open access across schools:  This strategy includes opening more schools to choice; distance learning/virtual environments; strategic school site selection; grade level schools; adjusting feeder-patterns; inter-district busing, etc.  Participants believed that these strategies were the best options for creating sustainable integrated schools. The concerns included community buy-in; teacher/staff buy-in; monitoring and making adjustments to the programs because of changes in demographics; and cost.

-Provide a multi-cultural rigorous curriculum:  Respondents believed that a multi-cultural curriculum prepares students for the 21st century, empowers students with knowledge of other cultures so that they appreciate differences, and allows students from different backgrounds to see themselves in the curriculum.  Respondents noted that there is not much research about the impact of a multi-cultural curriculum on student achievement, and implementing this type of curriculum requires intense teacher development.

-Additional strategies:  Other strategies identified by respondents include the comprehensive school counselor program to attend to the psychological needs of students; high quality early childhood education; and community dialogues across several strategies to engage the parents and community members about the importance of diversity.

Overarching Concerns and Suggestions
-Funding and resources
-Access
-Assessing the strategies that are currently in place in the state, and developing ways to share effective strategies
-Securing the commitment of all stakeholders
-Providing the appropriate infra-structure and support
-Ensuring flexibility to meet the needs of school districts
-Recognizing the strengths and challenges of these strategies

Next Steps

-Develop an interactive webinar to provide resources and share knowledge and ideas about supporting diversity
-Develop a user-friendly search engine
-Develop a set of recommendations and assist the SBE develop a diversity policy that is responsive to SBE interests and based on research, demographic data about the state, and national perspectives.  Include in the recommendations an analysis about how various strategies could be implemented in Ohio.

Board members asked the following questions:
-How can cultural diversity professional development be embedded and sustained?  Are the strategies that are listed ranked? (Answer: No)
-Was age a consideration?  What about the cost for implementation?  Should private companies who are doing diversity training be used?
-Hard to staff schools are referenced often and will you address this issue in this report?
-"Tolerance" is a negative term and should be removed from the report.  Honor, respect, appreciation are better terms.
-There needs to be more focus on teacher training.
-How do you counteract prejudice and preconceptions?

ADVOCACY AND OUTREACH

The Advocacy and Outreach Subcommittee, chaired by John Bender, discussed SB210/HB373 (Child Nutrition) and HB464/SB232 (Alternative Energy/Tax Exemption), and some of the changes that will be included in a substitute bill for HB407 (Zehringer) e-Learning Options.  The subcommittee approved a motion to recommend that the full Board take a proponent position on HB407.  

The committee also discussed Ohio's Race to the Top application.  SBE members were thanked for contacting members of Congress and the Ohio General Assembly and requesting a letter of support for Ohio's application.  So far twelve members of Congress and twelve members of the Ohio General Assembly have submitted letters of support.  The deadline to submit letters of support is May 17, 2010. 

The subcommittee then reviewed a draft State Legislative Platform.  Following a delay in the meeting, the committee reconvened, and approved a recommendation to the full Board that it adopt the State Legislative Platform.  The following are some of the recommendations that are included in the draft platform, which was revised during the subcommittee's discussion, and will be presented to the full Board in July:

DRAFT -- 2011-2012 State Board of Education State Legislative Platform

-Require the SBE to make recommendations to the General Assembly regarding an accountability system for Educational Service Centers (ESCs)

-Expand the Kindergarten Readiness Assessment-Literacy to include other domains

-Authorize the SBE to adopt health education standards
-Require the SBE to adopt research-based school climate standards based upon the National School Climate Council's recommendations and a corresponding assessment for staff and students.
-Ensure that the autism scholarships are used to implement the child's entire Individualized Education Program (IEP) and not isolated services, and prohibit parents from receiving scholarships to cover services for which they are already receiving payment from other state agencies.
-Allow foster children access to continued school district enrollment where appropriate.
-Assess all students in non-public schools accepting scholarship students.

-Delete the closure exemption provision for community schools that have a majority of special education students.  (Additional changes were recommended for this proposal.)

-Limit community school expansion of grade levels to only community schools that are in continuous improvement status.
-Modify the sponsor cap reduction relative to permanent closure of a school.
-Clarify community school responsibility for truant students.
-Revise ORC to allow smaller school districts to implement site-based management councils.
-Require a majority vote of the electors of an entire school district to approve a territory transfer as opposed to only the electors within the proposed property to be transferred.
-Charge the SBE with considering the impact of any annexation of territory from one ESC to another.
-Establish a minimum school year for school districts and chartered nonpublic schools based on hours, rather than days, of instruction.
-Change the make-up of ESC boards.
-Require districts in Academic Distress to provide financial support for the services provided by the Academic Distress Commission.

CHAPTER 119 HEARING 

A Chapter 119 Hearing was conducted regarding the following rules:
-Rule 3301-13-11, Assessments;
-Rules 3301-19-01 to 03, School District Expenditure Flow Reports;
-Rules 3301-35-01-06, revision of the Operating Standards;
-Rule 3301-51-09, caseload and ratio recommendations; and
-Rules 3301-102-01 - 07, community school sponsors. 

The following individuals testified during the hearing:

-Terry Ryan and Kathryn Mullen Upton from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, presented testimony regarding the community school sponsor rules and spoke in favor of OAC section 3301-102-03(E)(6), which mandates competitive bidding for administrative services provided by the sponsor beyond its statutory responsibilities.  Fordham sponsors six charter schools that serve 1,900 students in Ohio.  It focuses its sponsorship efforts on overseeing and evaluating the performance of the schools based on the standards of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers.

According to the testimony, Fordham does not believe that it is appropriate for a sponsor to also be a vendor and receive additional fees for services from the schools that it sponsors.  Providing such services creates a conflict of interest and "blurs the line between operator and sponsor in other ways".

However, the current fee rate that sponsors can charge community schools, (up to three percent of their per pupil funding) is not adequate to provide quality services.

That is why Fordham and the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio (ESCCO) are proposing the creation of a new statewide charter school sponsor.  Both Fordham and ESCCO will provide this new sponsoring entity with tools, expertise, and resources.  This entity would need to be approved by the State Board of Education, and might require separate legislation to enact.

-Frank Stoy from the Lucas County Educational Service Center, representing the Ohio Association of Charter School Authorizers, submitted a document to the SBE regarding the sponsor rules, and why the rules are problematic.  For example, according to the presentation, the rules go well beyond the SBE's rule making authority based on the provisions included in HB1 and other provisions of the Ohio Revised Code; and the ODE has failed to conduct a complete fiscal analysis of the rules and their effect on schools.  This document has also been presented to the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR).

-Kelley Schubert, representing the Ohio School Counseling Association, presented comments regarding the Operating Standards and the impact on school counselors.  

Following the 119 Hearing, the SBE received reports from committees and subcommittees, held a discussion session regarding the revised academic content standards, and adjourned.

MEETING ON MAY 11, 2010

PRESENTATION ON ACADEMIC CONTENT STANDARDS

The Board received a presentation from Stan Heffner, Associate Superintendent, Center for Curriculum and Assessment, about the academic content standards for language arts, math, science, and social studies.  Phase 1 of the standards revision process includes standards for language arts, math, science, and social studies (to be approved in June 2010), and Phase 2 includes the revision of standards for fine arts, foreign languages, computer literacy, financial literacy and entrepreneurship, and business education (to be approved in June 2012).  The presentation included the following information:

-A description of the new standards:  The standards are statements of what students are expected to know and be able to do with subject matter at a grade level or course level; the standards are organized by strand, theme, topic, and content statements; the revisions were initiated by HB1; the standards are skills-infused, internationally benchmarked, college and career ready, and will be web-based; the prek-8 standards build learning progressions while the high school standards support course syllabi; the standards stress coherence, focus, and rigor.

The standards were revised because stakeholders reported that the current standards had too many standards; were not easily managed; there was no time to teach the standards in-depth; the standards needed clarity; and there were a number of technical corrections that needed to be made.

-Information about the revision process:  The presentation included a history of the development of academic content standards in Ohio; information about benchmarking the standards to international standards and 21st Century Skills; stakeholder involvement, including comments and concerns collected through a variety of strategies; and Ohio's decision to join the Common Core initiative with 48 other states to develop standards in mathematics and language arts.

-Information about the content of the standards, including examples.

-Information about the concerns raised by stakeholders for each content area, and how those concerns were addressed in subsequent versions of the standards.

-An explanation about how the standards support an integrated curriculum and cross curricular support demonstrated through the Eye of Integration.

-Next steps and implementation:  The ODE is currently developing model curricula aligned with the standards.  The model curricula will ensure that the content and skills are taught.  The model will include the content elaborations, learning expectations, instructional strategies, and resources. The SBE is scheduled to adopt the model curricula for language arts, science, math, and social studies in March 2011, and the model curricula for fine arts, foreign languages, computer literacy, financial literacy and entrepreneurship, and business education in June 2013.

Board members asked the following questions:

-Is academic content included in the international standards that is not included in Ohio standards?
-What are the issues regarding the standards for middle schools?
-Is consumer law included?  (Yes)
-How will the standards be shared with boards of education?
-How will the standards be incorporated into teacher education programs?
-How was the Board of Regents involved?  Do they approve of the standards?
-Were the concerns of the Academy of Sciences, veterans, and social studies teachers addressed in the standards?

STAKEHOLDER PRESENTATIONS

The full Board received presentations from three charter school stakeholder groups.

*The Ohio Association of Charter School Authorizers (OACSA):  David Cash, representing the Ohio Association of Charter School Authorizers, provided the Board with an overview of this organization, which was founded in 2006 and includes fifteen sponsors of community schools.  The OACSA supports the quality standards for authorizers developed by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers, and helps sponsors understand their role and responsibilities.

Mr. Cash shared the following concerns with the Board:

-The funding formula for charter schools is inadequate and there is no support for facilities.
-The 50 school cap for sponsors should be eliminated.
-Sponsors do not have access to information and data regarding certain charter school operations.  The auditor of the state should notify the sponsors of charter schools if the auditor determines that the charter school's finances are not auditable.

-Charter schools need to be included in stakeholder dialogue at an early stage as decisions are being made.

*The Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools:  Bill Sims, President and CEO of the Ohio Alliance for Public Charter Schools, told the SBE that the Alliance is a 501(c) (3) non-profit organization with 153 members and 35 associate members.  The Alliance started in Ohio in 2005.  It is affiliated with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, and is supported by its members and the Grantmakers Forum, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and other foundations.

According to the presentation, the following are the top issues concerning the Alliance:
-Educating the public about community schools in Ohio.  The public does not understand that community schools are public schools.
-Providing adequate funding for community schools in Ohio.
-Ensuring that community schools receive a fair share of funding for categorical programs, including gifted, special education, and career-technical education.

-Supporting high quality charter schools, and closing low performing schools to make-room for the high performing schools.

-Accessing the state data systems effectively.

The Alliance is sponsoring a conference on September 27-28, 2010 entitled "National Best Cooperative Practices Between Charter and Traditional Public Schools" at the Hyatt on Capital Square, Columbus, OH.  The purpose of the conference is to identify, exhibit, and share the 50 best examples of charter schools and traditional public schools working together to improve student achievement from across the country.

*The Ohio Coalition for Quality Education:  Ron Adler, representing the Ohio Coalition for Quality Education, explained to the SBE that the Coalition was formed in August 2005, and is a grassroots organization that works with charter schools.  It has 140 members that include governing boards, operating managers, companies, and sponsors of community schools.  The Coalition works with the General Assembly on legislation, and does not accept funding from foundations, such as Gates or Walton.  The Coalition provides information to community schools about the laws that affect community schools, and has established a quarterly meeting for fiscal officers of community schools. 

BUSINESS MEETING MAY 11, 2010

Following lunch the Board convened its business meeting and received the report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Deb Delisle.  The report included information about outreach efforts with LEAs, legislators, and stakeholders regarding the goals of Ohio's Race to the Top round 2 application; School Improvement Grants ($132 million approved for schools in the lowest achieving 5 percent of schools in Ohio); the School Funding Advisory Council; the results of the local school district ballot issues for the May Primary Election; and the symposium sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the Asia Society on the "International Perspective on U.S. Education Policy and Practice:  What can we learn from high performing nations?"

Board members asked questions about the following:

-Will Ohio have more LEAs, and will enough LEAs join the RttT application to make Ohio's application competitive; do state educational organizations support Ohio's RttT application:  will Youngstown join the RttT application?

-How will the information learned from the symposium on International Perspectives be shared? 

-How will the recommendations/concerns of the SBE be shared with the School Funding Advisory Council?
-What is the status of the Youngstown Academic Commission?
-How can the SBE/ODE/Superintendent increase capacity to bring all education stakeholders together to collaborate under a new set of conditions (Race to the Top)?  What conversations need to happen?

-Collective bargaining might be a hurdle, but Ohio can still submit a strong application for RttT.  This process will encourage stakeholders to work together.

The Board then called an executive session. 

Following the executive session the Board received public participation from George Viebranz, executive director of the Mathematics and Science Coalition, who commented about the revised academic content standards for science.  His organization supports the latest draft that reflects changes that science organizations have recommended. 

The Board then voted on the report and the recommendations of the Superintendent (please see resolutions below); considered old business and new business; accepted public participation on non-agenda items regarding Reading Recovery; received Board member reports; and adjourned.

Resolutions considered by the State Board of Education at their business meeting on May 11, 2010:

*Approved eleven personnel resolutions and the following:

#4 Approved a Resolution of intent to adopt Rules 3301-2-14 and 3301-2-18 of the OAC regarding confidential personal information.

#5 Approved a Resolution of intent to adopt Rules 3301-24-16 and 3301-24-17 of the OAC entitled Senior professional educator license and lead professional educator license, respectively, and to amend Rule 3301-24-08 of the OAC entitled professional or associate license renewal.

#6 Approved a Resolution of intent to amend Rule 3301-37-01 of the OAC entitled definitions.

#7 Approved a Resolution of intent to adopt the common core academic content standards in mathematics, and English Language Arts.

#8 Approved a Resolution of intent to adopt academic content standards in science and social studies.

#9 Approved a Resolution to approve the agreement of the Boards of Education of the Girard City School District and the Liberty Local School District to transfer school district territory.

#18 Approved a Resolution to amend Rules 3301-3-01, 02, 04 to 07 of the OAC and to rescind and adopt Rule 3301-3-03 of the OAC regarding information technology centers.

#19 Approved a Resolution to revoke the charter of the Hartville Christian School.

#20 Approved a Resolution to appoint members to the Educator Standards Board: Mary Ellis, Heather Warren, Karen Winston, Debra McDonald, Michael Tefs, and Jerry Oberhouse.

#21 Approved a Resolution regarding public participation at the June 2010 State Board of business meeting.  The resolution was amended to provide that the State Board of Education accept public testimony on a resolution to approve academic content standards in math, science, social studies, and language arts for up to twenty minutes during the business meeting of the Board.

#22 Approved a Resolution to confirm the Reynoldsburg City School district board of education's determination of impractical the transportation of certain students attending the Oakstone Academy, a chartered non-public school, Franklin County.

#23 Approved a Resolution to approve the resolution of the Southern Local School District board of education to sever the district from the territory of the Perry-Hocking Educational Service Center and to annex to the territory of the Athens-Meigs Educational Service Center.

#24 Approved a Resolution to adopt standards for Ohio School/District Operational Waivers.

#25 Approved a Resolution commending Steven Puckett, Assistant Superintendent, for his service with the Ohio Department of Education.

#26 Pulled a Motion to adopt a position on HB407 (Zehringer/Okey).  This motion will be sent back to the Advocacy and Outreach subcommittee for further discussion.

The next meeting of the State Board of Education will be held on June 6-8, 2010 at the Central Ohio Educational Service Center.

5) Update on SB210/HB373:  The Senate Health, Human Services and Aging Committee, chaired by Senator Coughlin, accepted Sub. SB210 (Couglin/Kearney) School Nutrition Standards and four additional amendments before reporting-out the bill favorably on May 12, 2010.  SB210 is similar to HB373 (Carney/ Wachtmann) being heard in the House Health Committee, chaired by Representative Boyd.

As introduced SB210 would have established nutritional standards for certain foods and beverages sold in public and chartered nonpublic schools; required public school students to have periodic body mass index measurements (BMI), and report the results; required thirty minutes of rigorous daily physical activity for all public school students in grades K-12; changed graduation requirements for physical education; strengthened licensure requirements for teachers who teach physical education; established the Healthy Choices in Healthy Children Council; delegated new responsibilities to the Ohio Department of Education; added new components to the Local Report Card; and more.

The substitute bill and amendments made in committee change many of the bill's provisions.  The substitute bill does the following:

-includes HB60 (Pillich), which outlines nutrition standards for snacks and beverages in schools;
-removes the additional .5 credit graduation requirement in physical education;
-requires school districts to revise their health curriculum to include information about nutrition and physical fitness;
-grandfathers current teachers of physical education from new licensure requirements;
-requires the ODE to develop an indicator for physical fitness on the local report card, and states that the indicator will not be used in the accountability system for schools;
-requires that the body mass index data be reported in the aggregate;
-removes some ODE requirements regarding monitoring of the nutrition standards;
-increases the members of the Healthy Choices Council;
-exempts from the physical education requirement students enrolled in career-technical education programs;
-exempts students enrolled in digital schools from BMI data collection; and
-allows a board of education or charter school governing authority to apply on an annual basis to the superintendent of public instruction for a waiver of the physical activity requirement for financial reasons.  The applicant must demonstrate to the superintendent's satisfaction that compliance with the requirement will create an undue financial hardship on the school district or chartered nonpublic school.

Hearings will be held this week on HB373 (Carney) in the House Health Committee.

6) New Report on Imagine Schools in Ohio:  Policy Matters Ohio, Amy Hanauer executive director, released on May 12, 2010 a new study entitled "Public Good vs. Private Profit:  Imagine Schools, Inc. in Ohio" by Piet van Lier.  The report examines the academic performance of schools managed by Imagine Schools; operating agreements between Imagine Schools, Inc, and the schools that it manages; lease agreements between individual schools and Schoolhouse Finance, the Imagine subsidiary that handles real estate; minutes from governing board meetings; school budgets, and other documents available. 

Imagine is the largest for-profit charter school management company in the nation, with 71 schools in the U.S., including eleven schools in Ohio.  Imagine Schools, Inc., is privately owned by Dennis Bakke, a former chairman of AES Corporation, a global energy generation and distribution company, and his wife Eileen Bakke, a former teacher. 

On April 23, 2010 the New York Times reported that New York and Georgia, have ended their business relationships with Imagine, and concerns about Imagine have been raised in Florida and Texas, stopping the expansion of Imagine into those states for now.  ("For School Company, Issues of Money and Control" by Stephanie Strom. The article is available at

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/education/24imagine.html?pagewanted=1)

The Policy Matter's study includes the following findings:

-Low academic performance:  Six schools in Ohio operated by Imagine Schools have not received a rating above Academic Watch since the 2005-2006 school year, and five schools have not received a rating because they are too new.  Five of the six schools Imagine managed received a rating of Academic Emergency and were rated lower than nearby traditional public schools. The report also notes that, "Using a newer "value-added" approach to grading schools, which measures growth in student achievement, these Imagine schools showed results largely similar to nearby district schools."

-Weak oversight and conflicts of interest:  Seven schools managed by Imagine Schools are sponsored by St. Aloysius Orphanage, which contracts its sponsorship duties to Charter School Specialists (CCS), including fiscal management services for all eleven Imagine Schools in Ohio.  According to the study, "This represents a potential conflict of interest for CSS..."

-Real estate deals require scrutiny:  Imagine Schools has created elaborate school real estate transactions in which some charter schools managed by Imagine Schools, lease their school buildings from real estate investment trusts (REIT), originally owned by Schoolhouse Finance, a subsidiary of Imagine Schools.  According to the study, "The Imagine subsidiary sold five of the properties to real estate investment trusts (REITs), then leased the properties back from the REITs and continued renting them to its schools, allowing opportunities for profit both at resale and as it collects rent."

-Large schools and low salaries:  According to the study, the median enrollment for schools managed by Imagine Schools is more than double the median enrollment of non-digital charter enrollment in Ohio, and salary levels for teachers in Imagine Schools are also lower.

The study recommends that the ODE and sponsors strengthen how they monitor community schools through the following:
-Prohibit for-profit management companies from running Ohio charter schools
-Require charter operators to demonstrate a meaningful record of academic success before being allowed to open or contract with schools in Ohio
-Strengthen the independence and proper role of charter school governing boards, and ensure that members are empowered and held accountable as stewards of public trust and monies
-Forbid sponsors from conducting business with companies that have ties to schools monitored by the sponsor
-Require that the operations of charter sponsors be completely transparent and subject to full public disclosure.
-Investigate the elaborate real estate transactions, management, development and other fees and mechanisms employed by Imagine Schools, Inc., and other management companies to assure that public monies are being appropriately spent on the education of children.

The full report is available at http://www.policymattersohio.org/pdf/ImagineSchools2010.pdf.
 
7)  Bills Introduced:

SB258 (Grendell) Income Tax:  Reduces the maximum effective income tax rate applicable to unearned income of persons age 70 1/2 years or older to 1 percent.

SB261 (Cates) Public College-Preparatory Boarding Schools:  Permits the establishment of public college-preparatory boarding schools for at-risk students to be operated by private nonprofit entities.

SB255 (Cates) Educational Choice Scholarships:  Gradually increases to 20,000 the number of Educational Choice Scholarships awarded annually.

HB506 (Goyal) Campaign Finance Regulations:  Regulates independent expenditures by corporations, labor organizations, and entities the primary purpose of which are to accept corporate or labor organization funds for use in making independent expenditures and prohibits contributions made for the purpose of influencing a ballot issue from being made to or accepted by an entity that is not subject to campaign finance reporting requirements.