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January State Board News

New Year, New State Board

The 2005 State Board of Education met for the first time on Tuesday and Wednesday, January 11 and 12, 2005. New board officers are Steve Abrams, district 10, Arkansas City, chairman and John Bacon, district 3, Olathe, vice chairman. Ken Willard, district 7, Hutchinson was elected legislative coordinator and Kathy Martin, district 6, Clay Center, will be assistant legislative coordinator. These officers will serve for two years.

The State Board meets the second Tuesday and Wednesday of each month. In March, the Wednesday meeting will be held at the Kansas State School for the Deaf and the Kansas State School for the Blind in the Kansas City area. In April, the Board will meet in District 7 and in October the Board will meet in District 4. All other meetings are in Topeka, at KSDE.

On the KSDE website, http://www.ksde.org/commiss/board.html you can find biographical information about Board members, contact information, agendas, meeting materials and minutes.

If you live near the boundary of a Board district, it may be difficult to tell which member represents you. There is an easy way to know: State Board districts match up with State Senate districts, as follows:

• District 1 = Senate 3 (Pine), 4 (Haley), 5 (Gilstrap), 6 (Steineger)
  
• District 2 = Senate 7 (Wysong), 8 (Allen), 10 (Jordan), 11 (Vratil)
  
• District 3 = Senate 9 (O'Connor), 12 (Apple), 23 (Brownlee), 37 (Wilson)
  
• District 4 = Senate 2 (Francisco), 18 (Kelly), 19 (Hensley), 20 (V. Schmidt)
  
• District 5 = Senate 36 (Lee), 38 (Huelskamp), 39 (Morris), 40 (Ostmeyer)
  
• District 6 = Senate 1 (Pyle), 21 (Taddiken), 22 (Reitz), 24 (Brungardt)
  
• District 7 = Senate 31 (McGinn), 33 (Teichman), 34 (Bruce), 35 (Emler)
  
• District 8 = Senate 25 (Schodorf), 28 (Petersen), 29 (Betts), 30 (Wagle)
  
• District 9 = Senate 13 (Barone), 14 (Umbarger), 15 (D. Schmidt), 17 (Barnett)
  
• District 10 = Senate 16 (Palmer), 26 (Journey), 27 (Donovan), 32 (Goodwin)
  
  Reminder: Since Board materials are available on the KSDE website, page references to specific materials are listed with each item in State Board News.

Board Discusses First Two "White Papers"

Since 2003, the Board has engaged in discussions regarding their goal of "designing Kansas schools and learning environments for a new century." During this last year, they agreed on seven core principles of redesign. To further the discussion, they commissioned "white papers" on each of the seven core principles. The first two were presented and discussed this month. Dr. Marceta Reilly wrote on core principle 1, standards, and Dr. Mary Devin wrote on core principle 2, instruction. The remaining 5 papers will be presented to the Board over the next several months.

You can read additional information on this set of discussions and the papers themselves on pages 85 - 122 of the January Board materials.

In other action, the State Board

• Discussed the Supreme Court ruling on school finance
  
• Approved recommendations from the Professional Practices Commission to revoke 4 licenses and deny applications for 4 licenses (pp. 51-83)
  
• Approved recommendations from the Licensure Review Committee to approve 9 license/endorsement requests and deny 2 requests (pp. 135-137)
  
• Approved recommendations from the Evaluation Review Committee (pp. 139-149)
  o Bethany - new program approved with stipulation (normal status for new programs)
  o Baker - new program approved with stipulation
  o KU - new program approved with stipulation
  o WSU - approved 5 programs; new program approved with stipulation
  o Sterling - approved 4 programs
  o MANU - approved 11 programs
  o Friends - continuing accreditation
  
• Approved recommendations from Waiver Review Committee (pp. 151-153)
  o USD 240, teacher out of field, FACS
  o USD 259, teacher out of field, special education
  o USD 260, teacher out of field, special education
  o USD 273, teacher out of field, special education
  o USD 362, extend days on substitute license
  o USD 368, teacher out of field, special education
  o USD 379, 3 teachers out of field, special education
  o USD 490, teacher out of field, special education
  o USD 603, teacher out of field, special education
  o USD 605, 2 teachers out of field, special education
  o USD 615, teacher out of field, special education
  o USD 619, teacher out of field, special education
  o USD 620, 2 teachers out of field, special education
  
• Approved QPA waiver for USD 250, Meadowlark elementary (p. 157)
  
• Recognized Kansas superintendent and principals of the year
  o Ray Daniels, superintendent, USD 500
  o Sally Lundblad, Louisburg High School
  o Robb Ross, Colby Middle School
  o Suzanne Smith, Gertrude Walker elementary, Garden City
  
• Heard presentations from Career and Technical Student Organizations officers

KNEA Legislative Contacts

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

The KNEA Lobby Team consists of elected leaders and staff. The Lobby Team welcomes member feedback on issues before the Legislature and on this site.