EDUCATION OVERSIGHT BOARD MEETING MINUTES September 16, 2003 9:00 A.M. 655 Research Parkway 3rd Floor Conference Room Oklahoma City, OK 73104 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Pete Churchwell, Gerald Dickerson, Ron Dryden Ed Long, Don McCorkell, Sen. Penny Williams BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Kenneth Bridges, Patrick Gilmore, Rep. Barbara Staggs OTHER REGULAR ATTENDEES: Office of Accountability Staff: Robert Buswell, Matt Hesser, Jerry Hsieh, Leonard Hall VISITORS: none Call to Order and Roll Call: Mr. Churchwell called the meeting to order at 9:00 am and declared a quorum present. Announcement of Recent Changes to the Board: Mr. Buswell announced that Mr. Patrick Gilmore had been appointed to the EOB, replacing Ms. Karen Yarbrough. Mr. Gilmore is a lawyer from Chandler, Oklahoma and has served on local boards of education for a number of years. Buswell also explained that Mr. Don McCorkell had been reappointed to the board for a full five-year term. Mr. McCorkell had been appointed to complete Grant Hall's term, which expired July 31, 2003. Mr. Churchwell made a motion to give Ms. Yarbrough an EOB Proclamation for her many years of dedicated service. The motion passed unanimously. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the April 16, 2003 meeting were approved as submitted. Report on the Oklahoma Educational Indicators Program: Mr. Buswell started with a wrap-up of Profiles 2002. He explained that the reports again had good coverage in newspapers across the state and offered up a large stack of newspaper clippings for board members to review. Buswell went on to explain that all of the data requests for Profiles 2003 had gone out and that the office is already receiving data from the State Department of Education. Mr. Hsieh then gave a report on internet activity. He stated that there were generally 7 to 8 thousand Profiles reports downloaded each month and that parents were still the largest user group and their percentage of all downloads is increasing. There was discussion about how valuable the web-based information was to families relocating to Oklahoma. Mr. Buswell then handed out a copy of the latest version of the State Department of Education's API report and a lengthy discussion followed. Report on the Oklahoma School Performance Review Program: Dr. Hall gave an update on the progress of the school performance review for Billings Public Schools. He stated that the report was complete and that printing of the reports would begin later in the week. Hall also talked about prospects for future reviews, with Ponca City being of immediate interest. The Ponca City board has requested a review but specified that it be conducted at no cost to the district. It is hoped that the cost to the district can be covered by outside sources. The Ponca City's share of the cost is estimated at roughly $25,000, with the entire cost being about $100,000. Don McCorkell made a motion that the board accept Ponca City's request for a review and call for the release of the RFP. Mr. Churchwell seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. An RFP for the Ponca City review will be put out in late September, the bid will be awarded at the end of October, site work should begin early in November, and an early spring completion is expected. Other districts considering volunteering for reviews are Yukon, Stillwater, Okmulgee, Weatherford, Owasso, Enid, Moore and Jenks. Most of these schools are hesitating because of having to share in the cost of voluntary reviews in conjunction with the budget crisis that occurred over the past two school terms. Knowing that funds would limit the number of reviews possible, Don McCorkell made a motion that OSPR prepare a set of criteria for the selection of future schools. Mr. Dickerson seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. Report on Legislation: Mr. Buswell passed out several bills for discussion. First was HB-1767, which called for the State Department of Education to review HR-1 and HB-1017 for duplication of effort. Senator Williams said that she had seen the report released by the State Department of Education and it found "essentially no duplication of effort between the two [laws]." HB-1767 also contained the transfer of the Office of Accountability's line item appropriation from the State Department of Education's budget to the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education's budget. An additional bill also moved the OSPR's line item to OSRHE's budget. Mr. Churchwell mentioned that HB-1767 also created a task force to look at the consolidation of school administrative functions. Mr. Churchwell indicated that he is to co-chair the taskforce and State Superintendent Sandy Garrett would be serving as a taskforce member. The next bill presented was HB-1414 which revamped the testing program by consolidating history and geography into one "Social Studies" test, removing the test for the Arts, and changing the 3rd grade norm-referenced test into a criterion-referenced test. The bill also continued the expansion of the subject areas tested by the high school end-of-instruction tests and filling in the gaps on grades being tested so that all grades, 3 through 8, will eventually be tested as required under HR-1. End-of-Year Report for FY 2003 Expenditures: A report, which covered all of the budgetary agenda items, was distributed to board members, with discussion from Mr. Buswell. Mr. Buswell explained that the Office had still not received an exact accounting from the State Department of Education on the close of FY-03, but it was his best estimate that the year closed with $1,500 in carryover on a $271,000 budget. The SDE, however, had given an initial indication that they will be showing a $0.00 carryover for FY-2003. Mr. Buswell then moved on to the OSPR budget. He estimated a $383,000 ending balance for OSPR. Revised Budget for FY 2004: Mr. Buswell said that last year the board had approved and requested a budget of $319,000 for the Oklahoma Educational Indicators Program for FY-04, however, only $250,120 had been appropriated by the Legislature. The revised budget that he was now proposing reflected this new figure. Since the budget's original approval, costs related to rent had increased, further complicating the budget picture. In order to balance the budget, Buswell said that printing expenditures would have to be cut to almost zero and that the office was looking at other ways to distribute its work. Mr. Dickerson made a motion to approve the revised budget and commended Mr. Buswell for the work that he had done. Mr. McCorkell seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved. Mr. Buswell moved on to the proposed revised Oklahoma School Performance Review budget for FY-04. He explained that no new monies had been appropriated to OSPR, and the estimated $383,000 carryover would be the budget amount for FY-04. Mr. McCorkell made a motion to approve the revised FY-04 budget for OSPR. Mr. Dickerson seconded the motion, which passed unanimously. Proposed Budget for FY 2005: Mr. Buswell explained that the FY-05 budget for the Oklahoma Educational Indicators Program included funds to replace the Informational Representative position that had been left vacant several years ago. The bulk of the increase in the budget was related to the reinstatement of this position along with provisions to update the office's computers, which are becoming outdated. Mr. McCorkell made a motion to approve the FY-05 budget of $326,000 for the Educational Indicators Program. Ron Dryden seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously. Mr. Buswell proposed to the board that they request $598,000 for the Oklahoma School Performance Review Program for FY-05. There was discussion about increasing that proposed amount because it is anticipated that more schools will request reviews than can be covered by the $598,000. However, it was decided that a supplemental request could be submitted later if it appeared that demand for the reviews might exceed the requested funds. Mr. McCorkell made a motion to approve the budget as it was submitted. The motion passed unanimously. Election of New Officers: Mr. Long nominated Mr. McCorkell to serve as Chairman for the upcoming year. Mr. Dryden seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Mr. McCorkell nominated Mr. Long as Vice-Chairman for the upcoming year, and Mr. Churchwell seconded that motion. The motion passed unanimously. New Business: There was no new business. Announcements: Mr. McCorkell thanked Mr. Churchwell for his leadership and expressed how important it was that Mr. Churchwell had "raised the bar" for the Education Oversight Board during his tenure as Chairman. Mr. McCorkell made a motion that the EOB express its appreciation to Mr. Churchwell for all that he had done. Mr. Dickerson seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously and with great enthusiasm. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 11:10 a.m. The minutes of the September 16, 2003 Meeting of the Education Oversight Board were approved as submitted on December 17, 2003