EDUCATION OVERSIGHT BOARD MEETING MINUTES June 17, 2009, 9:00 A.M. Conference Room 412A (4th Floor) State Capitol Building Oklahoma City, OK 73105 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Susan Field, Patrick Gilmore, Dr. Sherry Labyer, Edward Petersen, Sen. John Ford, and Rep. Ann Coody BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Abby Holbrook, Ami Shaffer, Penny Williams OTHER REGULAR ATTENDEES: Office of Accountability Staff: Robert Buswell, Jeff Wallace, Dan Craig, Jerry Hsieh, and Dr. Lonnie Melvin VISITORS: Kelly Bounds, eCapitol.net Call to Order: . Field called the meeting to order at 9:08 A.M. Introduction of board members and guests: All board members and office staff were acknowledged and Kelly Fields with eCapitol.net introduced herself. Roll Call: Ms. Field declared a quorum to be present. Approval of Minutes: Ms. Field asked everyone to look over the February 18 board meeting minutes. Mr. Gilmore made a motion to approve the minutes of the February 18, 2009 meeting. Mr. Petersen seconded the motion, and it passed without dissent. Year-to-Date Expenditure Report for FY-2009: Ms. Field called on Mr. Buswell to discuss the FY-2009 expenditures. Mr. Buswell handed out copies of three spreadsheets. The first was the year-to-date FY-2009 cash flow and budget and he wanted to bring a couple of items to the attention to the Board. Mr. Buswell talked about the costs for the Oklahoma School Performance Review program and how the consultants are becoming more competitive with the result being lower costs for the reviews. He then spoke about a budget carryover from FY-2009 to FY-2010. Mr. Buswell mentioned a few of the line items in the budget including contracting for thermal imaging associated with performance reviews, printing and binding, rent of equipment, and printing supplies and materials costs. Mr. Buswell stated that after a 1.42% cut that all state agencies had to take in June, the Office has spent, year-to-date, $691,145 of the budgeted $997,391 and currently had a carryover from FY-2009 to FY-2010 of $306,245. Mr. Petersen made a motion to accept the report. Dr. Labyer seconded the motion, and it passed without dissent. Review, Discussion, and Approval of Revised FY-2010 Budget: Mr. Buswell reported that the requested appropriation increase for FY-2010 had not been approved and that the office would again receive $750,120. This amount along with an estimated final FY-2009 carryover of $268,004 would provide estimated total revenues of $1,018,124 for FY-2010. Mr. Buswell then requested that the Board increase the FY-2010 budget $5,235 to $978,900. The change was needed to cover the longevity pay plan which had been approved earlier in the year by the Board. Mr. Buswell also mentioned that carryover from FY-2010 would be quite a bit less than in the past as the Office plans to schedule additional performance reviews. Mr. Petersen made a motion to accept the revised FY-2010 budget. Mr. Gilmore seconded the motion, and it passed without dissent. Review, Discussion, and Approval of FY-2011 Budget Request: Mr. Buswell then discussed his third handout, the FY-2011 budget request. Buswell proposed that $1,000,000 be the amount requested for FY-2011. He then explained that the number of performance reviews requested per year has increased over time. Dr. Labyer asked if the change in legislation allowing more school districts to be eligible for performance reviews due to free or reduced price lunch data would increase the number of districts requesting performing reviews. Mr. Buswell anticipated that not only more but larger districts might now request to receive reviews. Sen. Ford asked if the Office’s budget is part of the State Regents’ budget or is it separate. Mr. Buswell explained that the Office’s budget is a line item within the State Regents’ annual budget. Mr. Gilmore discussed how the office has slowly grown into the role foreseen by the legislature when it was created. Rep. Coody spoke about how still more would be expected from the Board and Office; and that it is understandable that there may be a need to increase in budget. Mr. Gilmore made a motion to approve the FY-2011 budget. Dr. Labyer seconded the motion, and it passed without dissent. Status Report on the Oklahoma School Performance Review Program (OSPR): Mr. Buswell called on Mr. Craig and Dr. Melvin. Mr. Craig began by mentioning that with the passage of the new legislation (SB473), 127 additional school districts are now eligible for 100% funding for School Performance Reviews. There are now 413 school districts (about 80%) that qualify for 100% funding, and this should help with recruiting efforts. Mr. Craig also mentioned that the cost of a review goes up as the school districts get larger. Mr. Craig also advised the Board of some additional features of the performance reviews, such as thermal imaging and long range planning. Mr. Buswell mentioned that, starting with the current review in Duncan, the review reports would now be printed entirely in color and would also include more photographs. Mr. Craig then spoke about a partnership with the State Regents’ GEAR-UP unit for a training session conducted at Cameron University. Presenting at this training session helped to recruit additional schools for the program. He also mentioned a partnership with the Student Preparation unit of the State Regents for workshops and retreats which should also help recruiting efforts. Mr. Craig commented that the hope was to schedule districts for reviews a year or more into the future and that they be spaced out in such a way so as to keep the work load even. Dr. Melvin then discussed how the program has been fine tuned and that request for proposals (RFPs) have or will be sent out for Hulbert, El Reno, Haworth, and Fletcher school districts. She mentioned other school districts interested in performance reviews including Indiahoma, Darlington, Hinton, Geary, Hugo, Vinita, and Ketcham. Mr. Petersen asked if any 6A school districts have had a performance review. Dr. Melvin explained that Stillwater and Ponca City have both had performance reviews and that Enid now qualifies. Shawnee, a 5A district, also qualifies for a review. Dr. Melvin also spoke about how the office has helped school districts with assorted data requests and special projects. She mentioned that the K-20 Center at OU and Oklahoma Technical Assistance Center also use our data and information in their presentations. NOTE: At approximately 9:40 AM Dr. Labyer left the meeting and a quorum no longer existed. Status Report on the Oklahoma Educational Indicators Program: Mr. Buswell called on Mr. Wallace and Mr. Hsieh. Mr. Wallace reported that the 2008 State Report has been printed and the District Reports are currently being printed. State Reports have been sent to most of our education partners – principals, superintendents, media, and other non-libraries groups. The libraries will be sent their copies over the next few weeks. Mr. Wallace then gave a PowerPoint presentation on highlights from the 2008 Educational Indicators. Mr. Gilmore mentioned how he has used this information with his clients. Mr. Hsieh commented that we have had over 340,000 report card downloads this month alone and that during the time of the board meeting the Office’s web site would experience over 1,000 hits. Mr. Buswell commended Mr. Hsieh for keeping the size of the report cards small and easy to download for even 56K dial-up modems. Legislative Update: Mr. Buswell handed out copies of SB-222 and SB-1168. Mr. Buswell mentioned that SB-1111 was vetoed and SB-222 was the compromise bill that passed as a result of SB-1111. SB-222 creates a council, a taskforce, and a board. The P20 Data Coordinating Council – with a chairman chosen by the Governor – will complete an assessment of the status of the data systems run by the State Department of Education and move toward a seamless data system across common education, vocation education, and higher education. The Council’s report of necessary actions will go to the Governor and Legislature by December 31, 2009. The Quality Assessment and Accountability Taskforce will elect their own chairman. By December 31, 2010, the taskforce will submit a report to improve and reform curriculum and testing. The Educational Quality and Accountability Board will have the Secretary of Education or Governor’s appointee as its chairman. This board will study the administration of the testing program and make recommendations to the State Board of Education and Governor. Areas of studies will include contract administration, cut scores, curriculum, blue prints, and every aspect of the testing program. SB-1168 creates the next round of the Achieving Classroom Excellence (ACE) initiative. The primary emphasis is to better coordinate the services of common education, career tech, and higher education. Mr. Wallace emphasized that the task force will study four major areas and goals within common education, Career Tech, and higher education. These include enhancing high school graduation, increasing college enrollment and completion, reducing high school drop out rates, and adopting alternative assessments for meeting high school graduation requirements. Sen. Ford shared information on why he wrote SB-1168. Some of the reasons include the loss of students between entering high school and college graduation, the difference between state test results and NAEP results, and how the state’s NAEP results compare to other state’s NAEP results. Sen. Ford also believes there are too many state tests for students. He mentioned robotics programs, auto mechanics, and photo shop areas where students can learn in a different form and still be prepared for college or the workforce rather than dropping out. During the meetings higher ed, common ed, and Career Tech will make presentations, and three unions (OEA, AFT, and OPOE) have also been invited. OBEC and the State Chamber along with several state groups are also included as stakeholders. Outside expertise invited are SREB, NCSL, and ECS. ACT and the College Board will also come to show their products. Eight meeting dates have been set with the schedule ending in October. The report is due to be finished by the end of November. Rep. Coody commended Sen. Ford on the excellent job that he is doing. She thinks there will be a lot of good input from all the organizations presenting. Rep. Coody also mentioned there is a taskforce on virtual education. Sen. Ford said he is excited about education and what U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is saying about how education can be improved. Mr. Gilmore mentioned how important regional cultural issues are and that we can not put students in the same box and expect all students to perform the same. Sen. Ford mentioned the ACT “Work Keys” as another tool that business can embrace to expand the workforce. Rep. Coody agreed that diversity is an important issue and that some districts do amazing things with very little. She said leadership is also important when educating students and we are no longer competing within our own state or country but with students throughout the world. She also believes we can raise our scores to the top in the nation. New Business: none Announcements: Mr. Buswell passed out a couple of new newspaper clips: one on unifying national curriculum and testing standards and another on how State Superintendent Garrett will be directing the testing company to revisit cut scores for the End-of-Instruction tests. Mr. Buswell also stated the Penny Williams has notified him that she is resigning from the Education Oversight Board because she has moved out of the Congressional District she was representing. Adjournment: The meeting ended at 10:40 AM. The minutes of the June 17, 2009 meeting of the Education Oversight Board were approved as submitted on September 16, 2009.