Good afternoon,
This week’s message contains information about the
School Choice list that was released yesterday. To access the press release simply click
on this link http://www.isbe.net/news/2003/aug07-03.htm
On Tuesday, Governor Blagojevich signed legislation into
law that will result in an enhanced statewide testing system. The press release can be reviewed on
this
link http://www.isbe.net/news/2003/aug6-03c.htm This morning we were notified that the
Governor intends to sign separate legislation that will help to implement
NCLB. A story on that bill appears
below.
You will also find information
about:
I have also included some news articles that may be of
interest to you.
Hold Harmless Payments to be Delayed
The General State Aid
formula is dependent on several variables for which the Illinois State Board of
Education (ISBE) must rely on others to provide. These include school district Equalized
Accessed Valuations and Operating Tax Rates. All county clerks are required to submit
this data to the Illinois Department of Revenue (IDOR) which performs an audit
of the information prior to certifying it to ISBE.
For the first time in over thirty-five years, IDOR is
unable to deliver the required files for all 102 counties to ISBE by
To assure continued GSA payments on the statutory
payment schedule, ISBE will use estimated data for Cook and
ISBE will provide final GSA and HH figures for school
districts, including any pro-ration of the poverty component, as soon as IDOR
verifies the final data files from the county clerks in Cook and
Potential changes to waiver
procedure
Senate Bill 206, which is awaiting action by Governor
Blagojevich, would make changes in the way in which eligible entities must apply
for waivers and modifications of law and rules. In particular, the bill would require
that public hearings held by local boards of education to consider applications
be held on days other than regular board meetings.
The Governor has until August 25 to act on the
bill. If the Governor signs the
bill, it will take effect immediately; therefore, it is recommended that school
districts and other eligible entities consider delaying the scheduling of the
public hearings until the status of SB 206 is clear. After the enactment of the bill, any
application considered at a public hearing that was held on a regular board
meeting day will be considered ineligible and returned to the
applicant.
Delaying the public hearing should not affect a
district’s ability to meet the waiver
deadlines, since today is the deadline for the October 2003 report
and the next deadline is not until
Senate Bill 206 would make the following additions to
the waiver process described in Section 2-3.25g of the School Code (105 ILCS
2-3.25g):
The full text of
Senate Bill 206 is available at:
Information on the current waiver/modification process
is available on the State Board’s website at http://www.isbe.net/isbewaivers/default.htm.
Once the Governor has taken action on Senate Bill 206,
we will be sending information to district superintendents and updating our
website and waiver forms. If you
have any questions, please call Winnie Tuthill or
Shelley Helton at (217) 782-5270.
Governor to Sign
SB878
We were notified
this morning the Governor intends to sign SB878 today. The bill makes changes
required to implement NCLB and grew out of recommendations of my Task Force on
Assessment and Accountability. The bill:
· Recognizes and
rewards school districts in the same manner as is done
for schools.
· Clarifies
definition of Academic Early Warning List and Watch status to be consistent with
past practice and compliant in terms of NCLB, and addresses schools as well as
districts.
· Creates an Appeals Advisory Committee to review requests
regarding status determination.
· Expands the list of sanctions for all schools and districts
and makes it clear that the federal sanctions (such as public school choice and
supplemental educational services) apply only to schools receiving
funding under Title 1, Part A, of the No Child Left Behind Act of
2001.
Date and location change for ISBE
meeting
The August meeting of the Illinois State Board of
Education will be held beginning at
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.)
Certification (Part
25)
The main group of changes in this set of amendments
pertains to procedural matters connected with accreditation reviews leading to
the approval of programs that prepare educators. Chief among them are incorporation of
the 2002 version of the NCATE standards, a change in the role of the State Board
staff member who serves with each review panel, and a change from “Fifth-Year
Review” to “Accreditation Review” to accommodate the potential for a different
review cycle in future. The
remaining changes involve necessary updating.
Affected
Sections: 25.67, 25.115,
25.125, 25.127, 25.140, 25.145, 25.155, 25.160, 25.313, 25.442, 25.710, 25.728,
and 25.Appendix D
Effective Date:
Reminder: Additional amendments to Part 25 are
also pending. These
amendments:
Comments may be submitted to rules@isbe.net through
Newsclips
Dissolving
school district was Chenoa's best option
It's
understandable why some Chenoa residents are upset with their school board's
decision to dissolve their school district.
It will now
be up to the Regional Board of School Trustees for DeWitt, Livingston and McLean
counties to determine which unit Chenoa will be placed with. It will likely
become a part of the adjoining Prairie Central district.
Chenoa
residents had a chance to become part of that district last spring, but rejected
it in a referendum.
Unfortunately, Chenoa voters didn't give their school
board a lot of choices. Chenoa's finances are such that it can't continue beyond
this year without a major tax increase.
The board
undoubtedly could have studied more options. But it has already explored merging
with several other school districts. Its Citizens Advisory Council also brought
vast amounts of information to the board on merger possibilities.
Although
there will always be people unsatisfied with the prospect of dissolving a school
district because of the strong emotional ties between a community and its
schools, the Chenoa school board did the right thing in setting a deadline in
which to make a decision and then deciding.
There is a
point at which more studies and more information become points of delay instead
of serving a useful purpose when the result is obvious and the only question is
going to be how to get there.
It is
unfortunate that Chenoa wound up voting to dissolve with a 4-3 split vote, but
that is probably an indication of how losing control of a local school district
affects the emotions of residents. It's a loss of identity for a town. And many
see that as the first major sign of a community's deterioration, especially in
smaller communities where generation after generation of families have such
strong ties and memories tied to the local high school.
To some
residents of Chenoa, dissolution of their district and joining Prairie Central
will be like climbing into bed with the enemy in sports.
But when
pride gets in the way of being able to finance an education that prepares high
school students for that next step into college, it is the students who are
being cheated if the move isn't made.
If
consolidation, merger or whatever you want to call it means Chenoa students will
be exposed to curriculum that can't be afforded at
It is also
a step that we'll be seeing more of in coming years as an estimated 80 percent
of the state's school districts reported financial problems this year.
We can't
look to the state and continue grumbling, "If only the state. ..." We are the
state. The elected representatives in
Schools are
being forced to find more efficient, cost-effective ways of doing business
because their costs continue to climb and taxes are not like a bottomless cup of
coffee. State taxes could be increased for education, but representatives who
have been willing to consider that prospect have wanted to tie such an increase
to a cap on local property taxes. In other words, as a trade-off for a slight
increase in revenue, they would cap a tax that is the primary source of funding
for public schools. They fear a double taxation hit if not for a cap.
As
education costs rise, schools in major financial trouble today would only be
delaying the inevitable with an increase in state revenue.
Bigger is
not necessarily better, but with schools it appears to be the most logical
answer for now.
The
governor has already ordered an eventual reduction from 45 to 22 regional
offices of education. He knows educational institutions must merge and save
money to remain viable. Schools are no different and have to be realistic enough
to spot financial trouble signs and determine the best solution before disaster
hits.
Chenoa's
school system seems to be at that point today. Dissolving to allow the district
to become a part of neighboring Prairie Central seems to be a wise choice under
the circumstances.
WASHINGTON
(Reuters) --
Critics
predict the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act could also
help power a new wave of costly lawsuits against the states challenging the
allocation of state education funds, and in turn by the states against the
federal government.
"We all
want to improve the quality of education and narrow the achievement gap between
students in poverty and other students,"
"But the
federal government has no appreciation whatsoever of the direct and indirect
costs of No Child Left Behind."
Democrats
say President Bush's administration and Congress' Republican leadership has
undermined the act by providing just $24 billion of $29 billion authorized in
2003 to help states meet the law's new requirements.
Chief among
the law's requirements are annual student testing, training and hiring qualified
teachers, and school accountability, which come as states are grappling with
their worst fiscal crisis since World War II.
Republicans
reject charges they have dumped the tab in state lawmakers' laps, saying there
was no specific amount of money promised or authorized and that education
funding has risen by $9 billion over the past two years.
They also
say fears about the cost of implementing the act's reforms have been
overestimated.
Congress'
General Accounting Office estimated earlier this year that states would have to
pay between $1.9 billion and $5.3 billion to implement just the testing
provisions of the act between 2002 and 2008.
A
"The
consequences for a state are real far reaching," said David Shreve, education
lobbyist for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL). He noted that
primary education already accounted for 35 percent to 70 percent of state
budgets.
"If you
have to increase that by 25 percent you're talking about a lot of money," he
added.
While
several states have seriously considered forgoing federal education funds for
needy children to be spared the new law's requirements, officials in
But such is
the states' concern that NCSL this month sent a memo to state legislators and
their staffs on the possibility of challenging the law in federal court based on
the law's own ban on imposing "unfunded mandates" on states.
The
country's biggest teacher's union, the National Education Association, also
announced this month it was putting together a lawsuit over the alleged unfunded
mandates and had begun talks with several states who might join the suit.
NCSL's Shreve and others said they
worried the law has also opened the door to a potential tidal wave of costly new
lawsuits challenging the level and equality of state public school funding.
Such suits
have affected all but five states since the early 1970s, NCSL analyst Steve
Smith said, but the new law's emphasis on measuring schools' success in teaching
students to specific standards could intensify that trend significantly.
"It really
sets the stage for people to file federal lawsuits," Vratil said. "I don't want to exaggerate, but it has the
potential to cost states billions of dollars."
Copyright 2003 Reuters. All rights
reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or
redistributed.
ED
REVIEW
...a
bi-weekly update on
NCLB UPDATE
(http://www.nochildleftbehind.gov/)
In addition
to approved state accountability plans, the Department is posting state-by-state
decision letters (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/CFP/al/index.html)
which document aspects of each plan that still require final action.
Provided the action occurs, whether it entails legislative/regulatory change or
just the submission of documents, the Department will "fully approve that
plan." One frequent comment? The approval
of accountability plans is not the
approval of standards and assessment systems. Twenty-five states, the
On July 28,
the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, and Justice announced
more than $41 million in grants to 23 school districts. These
NEW APPOINTMENTS
Seeking to
fill a couple of critical vacancies in the Department's leadership structure,
the White House has announced its intent to designate the current Undersecretary
of Education, Gene Hickok, to be Acting Deputy
Secretary of Education, and Ron Tomalis, who
currently serves as Hickok's Chief of Staff, to be
Acting Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE).
Since March, Hickok has served as both Undersecretary
and Acting Assistant Secretary for OESE. He remains a policy advisor to
Secretary Paige on all major programs and management issues, including
the No Child Left Behind Act (http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/07-2003/07232003.html).
Tomalis joins OESE at a busy time: the close-out of
fiscal year 2003. Previously, he was executive deputy secretary, second in
charge, of the Pennsylvania Department of Education and served in the Justice
Department (http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/07-2003/07232003a.html).
Also, Phoebe Cottingham has been appointed
Commissioner of the