| From: STATESUP
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2003 4:53 PM
To: Regional Superintendents and Special Education
Directors District Superintendents
Subject: Weekly Message from State Superintendent
Robert Schiller 10-17-03
Good afternoon,
The State Board will hold its monthly meeting next week in
Rock Island. I hope all of you in the Quad Cities area will
be able to take some time to join us. You will find information
on the meeting and how to access the agenda in an item below.
I would like to extend congratulations to two Illinois’
teachers who were named Milken National Educators this week.
Carolyn Baider, a special education teacher at Walter R. Sundling
Junior High School in Palatine, and Kelly Wamser, a math teacher
at O’Fallon Township High School, were selected as this
year’s recipients. Each will receive a $25,000 unrestricted
financial award. The Milken Family Foundation created the
award to recognize teachers demonstrating exemplary teaching
skills and personal commitment to education. We are very proud
of Kelly and Carolyn and invite you to read more about their
exemplary work in our press releases posted on the ISBE Web
site at www.isbe.net/news/2003/oct10-03.htm
and www.isbe.net/news/2003/oct14-03.htm.
Congratulations also go to Board Member Ron Gidwitz who will
receive NASBE’s Distinguished Service Award at the organization’s
annual conference in Baltimore this weekend. We all take pride
in this national recognition of his many accomplishments which
include establishing www.studentsfirst.us to build an effective
grassroots lobbying effort to protect the future of Illinois
children and commerce through increased funding for education.
He was also instrumental in establishing the PSAE and making
Board materials more accessible to the public. To read the
full release about the award follow our link at http://www.isbe.net/news/2003/oct17-03.htm.
This week’s message includes:
- October Board Meeting Details
- Venice FOP Removes School Board Members
- FY05 Budget
- Report Card Status
- Deciding Which Students Should Take the IMAGE Assessment
- Notice of Completed Rulemaking
- Newsclips
October Board Meeting
For details of the Board agenda, please go to the ISBE website
at: www.isbe.net/board/meetings/oct03meeting/schedule.htm.
SCHEDULE AND AGENDA OF MEETINGS
October 22-23, 2003
Rock Island High School Library
1400 25th Avenue
Rock Island, Illinois 61201
Wednesday’s session begins at 9 a.m. with a meeting
of the board’s Governmental Relations Committee. Thursday’s
session begins at 9:30 a.m.
Venice FOP removes School Board Members
The Financial Oversight Panel for Venice CUSD # 3 (Madison
County) today took the unprecedented step of removing the
incumbent school board members by operation of law. The district
has been struggling financially and the school board had received
two deadline extensions to submit the required balanced budget
to the FOP. Today, the FOP formally rejected the board’s
proposed budget and exercised its authority to remove the
board. My statement on this FOP action can be viewed at http://www.isbe.net/news/2003/oct17-03a.htm.
FY05 Budget
Attached are two documents related to the development of
the FY05 budget for elementary and secondary education. The
first is our normal line item spreadsheet from FY91 through
FY04 to provide a recent historic context. www.isbe.net/messages/FY01_to_FY04_Appropriations.pdf.
The second is a set of funding options for most elementary
and secondary programs from the current appropriation, through
inflation and increasingly larger levels of funding, to what
might be considered the financial needs of the elementary
and secondary education system to improve the current situation
in the future. www.isbe.net/messages/05_needs_budget.pdf.
The goal is to establish a context of need in each program
area that is required by schools to achieve high levels of
academic achievement by all students. These funding needs
are unrelated to where the money comes from – federal,
state or local sources. We invite you to review this, share
it with others and provide comment to help the State Board
determine funding priorities and levels for the entire elementary
and secondary education system that can be incorporated into
the FY05 budget recommendation to the Governor and General
Assembly.
School Report Card Status
We are targeting next week for release of Report Card data.
District superintendents will receive an email message informing
them that they have a specific number of days to go to the
secure site and download the school report cards, the district
report card, and district summary. We will not be providing
hard copies of the cards.Please note that this year’s
Report Card includes a new section on AYP information for
your schools.
The Illinois State Board of Education does not have the authority
to grant extensions to the October 31st dissemination deadline.
However, we encourage you to take every reasonable step to
disseminate the report cards either through your district
website or in paper form at your earliest convenience. We
will release the public report card site four weeks after
we close the secure site. If you have any questions or concerns
please call 217/782-3950.
Clarification on Deciding Who Should Take the IMAGE
Assessment
State legislation enacted this summer (P.A. 93-0426) allows
students who are enrolled in an approved Transitional Bilingual
Education (TBE) or Transitional Program of Instruction (TPI)
to take the accommodated, state test (IMAGE) “if the
student’s lack of English determined by an English language
proficiency test would keep the student from understanding
the regular state test.” This law allows for school districts
to consider students on a case-by-case basis to determine
the state assessment that would likely yield more accurate
information on what the student knows and can do. The law
extends the period of time that an English Language Learner
(ELL) can participate in the IMAGE assessment to up to 5 years.
A school district may determine based on English language
proficiency results, that a student who is enrolled in a TPI/TBE
program is able to understand the regular state test and therefore
may decide to include the student in the ISAT or Prairie State
Achievement Exam (PSAE).
A flowchart to further assist you in making your determinations
for each 4th and 5th year ELL student on a case-by-case basis
is included at the following website: www.isbe.net/assessment.
If you have questions regarding any of the above information,
please contact Student Assessment at 217-782-4823.
Notice of Completed Rulemaking
Please be advised that a rulemaking item recently adopted
by the State Board of Education is now in effect. This set
of rules has been posted on the agency’s web site at
www.isbe.net/rules; choose “Rules Currently in Effect”
and scroll to the relevant Part number. (If you print only
the affected Sections, remember to include the table of contents
for the Part, which changes every time the Part is amended.)
Public Information, Rulemaking and Organization
(Part 5000)
The new rule in this Part responds to Section 5-145 of the
Illinois Administrative Procedure Act, which provides that,
“Any interested person may request an agency to adopt,
amend, or repeal a rule.” Section 5-145 requires that
agencies have in place a procedure for responding to any such
requests. New Section 5000.115 requires that requests be submitted
in writing to the Rules Coordinator and that they set forth
certain information. These requirements will ensure that issues
raised are promptly brought to the attention of the responsible
agency staff, as well as enabling staff to determine the merits
of each request and respond accordingly.
Affected Section: 5000.115
Effective Date: August
25, 2003
Newsclips
Stories of interest may be viewed at http://www.isbe.net/news/2003/newsclips/101703.htm.
Robert Schiller
State Superintendent
of Education
statesup@isbe.net |