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March State Board News

In this month's State Board News...
Charters Renewed, Approved, Funded
ELL Standards Vote Postponed
Wagnon Questions Board Behavior
Board Approves Guidelines for On-line Programs
April Meeting in Western Kansas
In other action, the State Board
Schools Receive Accredited Status

Charters Renewed, Approved, Funded

Deciding "who" was easy. Deciding "how much" proved more difficult. Seven USDs were granted renewals of charters and fourteen received new charters at the March meeting. The new charters were eligible for $1.5m in federal charter school money. Dividing it up was the issue.

Requesting renewals were USD 287, West Franklin Learning Center; USD 312, Pleasant View Academy and Yoder Charter School; USD 361, The Learning Center of Harper; Productivity Academy; USD 382, USD 499, Cornerstone Alternative HS; and USD 501, Hope Street Academy.

New charters were granted to USD 200, Greeley County JH Charter School; USD 218, Point Rock Academy; USD 253, Turning Point Learning Center; USD 263, Mulvane Charter School; USD 261, Haysville Charter School; USD 267, Colwich Grade School; USD 315, Thomas County Academy; USD 332, Zenda Grade School; USD 373, E-3; USD 400, Smoky Valley Charter School; USD 465, Community Learning Center; USD 490, E-CATS; USD 497, Lawrence Virtual Charter School; and USD 501, Hope Street Academy Middle School Charter.

To receive a charter, a USD was required (among other things) to submit a charter petition addressing the 15 mandatory elements included in the Kansas charter school statute. Those petitions were reviewed and scored using a common rubric, which all petitioners had in advance. Petitions had to score at least 100/160 points to be eligible to receive a charter.

Of the 17 petitions received, 14 scored above 100 points. Scores ranged from 154.2 points to 100.0 points.

In distributing past charter money, the petitions were listed high score to low and the money was distributed until it was gone. This year, that would have funded the 5 ½ top petitions. A motion to approve that funding was defeated, 4-5. Board members Sue Gamble, Carol Rupe, Bill Wagnon and Bruce Wyatt voted yes. Steve Abrams, John Bacon, Connie Morris, Ken Willard, and Iris Van Meter voted no. Janet Waugh was absent due to illness.

Willard, who represents district 7, expressed concern last month, during a preliminary review of the charter petitions, that it wasn't fair to leave out schools that qualified by virtue of being a charter. As requested, KSDE prepared 3 other funding options, which distributed the money totally equally, on a per-student basis, and on a proportional basis.

Willard offered a fifth option, which distributed 2/3 of the money equally and 1/3 based on the petition's score. If any school declines their money, it is to be added to the money distributed based on score.

In discussing his option, Willard stated, "Schools are already operating on less than what it takes; I feel better if we can help more than help fewer fully."

Willard's option, if all schools accept their funds, gave the highest scoring charter petition only about 70% of its budget. A cursory survey indicated that up to 7 of the charter schools would probably not accept the money offered under this option.

Other board members expressed concern that it wasn't fair to change from past practice, which schools were expecting and which is used for all other competitive grant programs.

After much discussion, the board adopted Willard's formula, for use this year only, on a 6-3 vote. Voting for the formula were Abrams, Bacon, Morris, Rupe, Willard and Van Meter. Voting against were Gamble, Wagnon and Wyatt.

ELL Standards Vote Postponed

After accusing top agency staff of not providing her with requested information and of playing favorites among which board members to respond to and which to ignore, Connie Morris, who represents district 5, succeeded in getting the vote on the standards for English Language Learners postponed until April, when, coincidentally, the board meeting will be held in her district.

While saying she had switched her view and no longer believed it best to mandate 1 year immersion programs in Kansas, Morris said she still had questions and concerns about the standards, which will be used to develop the ELL assessment mandated by ESEA/NCLB.

When questioned by Ken Willard about whether the proposed standards preclude the methodology of immersion, Morris finally answered "no," but indicated that she thought they might discourage it.

Sue Gamble, serving as chair due to Janet Waugh's absence, encouraged Morris to review the information provided her (and all other board members) and to express her concerns to the agency before the April meeting so that they can be addressed if possible.

Wagnon Questions Board Behavior

Following the discussion of the ELL standards, Bill Wagnon, who represents district 4, challenged the day's behavior by the board.

"Twice today we have called into question the integrity of groups preparing information for us (the charter review and the ELL standards)," he stated.

"We have raised serious questions about the department and the way it functions. That is uncalled for. It is not justified."

"We shouldn't ask the field, with all the pressures they are under, to spend time making recommendations and then dump on them. This is a serious problem for us."

"I do not attempt to substitute my experience for theirs. We've second-guessed, micro-managed and backtracked. This behavior does not serve the interests of education in this state."

Board Approves Guidelines for On-line Programs

Schools or districts wishing to use online courses to deliver programs have a new set of guidelines to follow. The guidelines, developed by Kansas educators involved with current programs in Basehor/Linwood, Elkhart, and Wichita, were adopted by the State Board on March 9. According to Dr. Alexa Pochowski, assistant commissioner for learning services, the guidelines will be used as a pilot during the 2004-2005 year for existing and for new programs.

The guidelines include criteria in four areas, which must all be addressed in a plan that will require prior approval for students to be eligible for state aid. The criteria are:

KNEA Legislative Contacts

Blake West, President
Peg Dunlap, Director, Instructional Advocacy
Mark Desetti, Director, Legislative and Political Advocacy
Terry Forsyth, Director, Political Action

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