November State Board News
The meeting began with 7 members in attendance due to other commitments
for John Bacon, Carol Rupe, and Sue Gamble. Sue Gamble is part of
a Kansas Delegation currently in China and John Bacon arrived in
the afternoon. Connie Morris asked that comments she had made at
the previous meeting be removed from the minutes. her comments accused
a staff member of being insubordinate for not taking her suggestions.
She was allowed to remove those comments and the minutes were approved
as amended.
History/Government Standards
After more than six months of work with the Board the committee writing these
standards presented what they hoped was a final draft to the Board for approval.
This immediately hit a roadblock when board member Steve Abrams objected to
benchmark indicators that discussed the granting of rights by the U.S. Constitution.
Mr. Abrams stated that rights can only be granted by God and are not guaranteed
and granted by the Constitution. Board member Connie Morris also shared concerns
and stated she had 4 pages of concerns to share. She stated she had not been
reading the drafts during the last six months because as a volunteer she did
not have the time to invest. She had waited until receiving the final draft
to spend time reading and finding her concerns. Many of her concerns had to
do with not enough discussion of religious freedoms and the use of national
standards as possible references for Kansas standards.
A Preview of Things to Come?
Connie Morris made a motion to table the approval of the standards
until December which was seconded by Steve Abrams. This motion failed
on a 5-3 vote. This was followed by a motion to adopt the standards
as presented by Wyatt/ Wagnon and this motion failed 4-2. The Committee
writing the standards asked for a subcommittee of the board to be
appointed and help finish this work. (Keep in mind that had already
been done nearly six months ago.) This was moved by Ken Willard
and it died for the lack of a second. An exchange followed on how
Board members should provide their input and what was the input
of the Board as a whole and what was input by an individual Board
member. The Board currently has no policy on how they give committees
input and Chair Janet Waugh asked that the Policy committee of the
Board work on such a policy. Commissioner Andy Tompkins suggested
that Board members send all of their ideas to the committee and
the committee create a comparison chart showing their curriculum
standards and how it relates to suggestions by individual Board
members. The committee was thanked for their work by Chair Janet
Waugh and they return next month.
The rest of Tuesday consisted mainly of reports and approval of various recommendations
by staff and committees. They did receive a draft of the writing standards but
their questions and interest lacked the debate and interest of the History/Government
standards. They did approve a plan from the KSDE Staff to begin to work on a
plan to study and make recommendations to restructure high schools in Kansas.
The Fun Continued on Wednesday
The second day agenda consisted mainly of reports except for two issues:
1. A discussion of the need to develop standards for the teaching
of religion in schools. A motion was made by Wagnon to establish
such a committee and that died for a lack of second. Several Board
members expressed their doubts that such a set of standards is needed.
2. There was a discussion on the implementation of new assessment implementation
guidelines. The staff had recommended the State Board of Education delay the
2005-2006 writing assessment until 2006-2007, delay the science and history
assessment until 2007-2008 and discontinue the required second grade diagnostic
assessment. The Board approved the recommendation with the exception of the
second grade diagnostic which they will require but school districts can use
in any of grades k-2. The motion as amended was divided and both questions passed
7-1.
In Other Action, the State Board:
- Appointed area vocational school administrator to serve on Professional
Standards Board (page 123).
- Approved Visiting Scholar requests from USD 259 Wichita and
Kansas School for the Deaf (page 129).
- Approved an accreditation waiver requests from USD 231 Gardner
(page 131).
- Approved and Ed Flex waiver request from USD 512 Shawnee Mission
(page 135).
- Approved request from USD 367 Osawatomie to hold a bond election
(page 141).
- Approved recommendations from License Waiver Review Committee
for: (pages 119-121)
USD 230, Spring Hill
USD 259, Wichita
USD 261, Haysville
USD 305, Cen. Ks. Coop.
USD 321, Kaw Valley
USD 333, Learning Coop. of NC Ks.
USD 368, Paola
USD 437, Auburn-Washburn
USD 460, Hesston
USD 467, Leoti
USD 490, El Dorado, Butler Co. SEC
USD 497, Lawrence
USD 453, Leavenworth Co. SPED Coop.
USD 602, NW Ks. Ed. Service Ctr.
USD 607, Tri Co. SPED Interlocal
USD 618, Sedgwick Co. Area Ed. Interlocal Coop.
USD 636, No. Cen. KS SPED Coop.
USD 637, SE Ks. Interlocal
October 04 State Board News
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July04 State Board News
June04 State Board News
May 04 State Board News
April 04 State Board News
March 04 State Board News
February 04 State Board News
January 04 State Board News
December 03 State Board News
November 03 State Board News
October 03 State Board News
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