MINUTES OF MEETING
State Board of Education
September 16-17, 2004
The September meeting of the Board of Education was held in the State Board Conference Room, Grimes State Office Building, Des Moines. The following Board members were present: Gene Vincent, Sally Frudden, Jim Billings, Charles Edwards, Sister Jude Fitzpatrick, Rosie Hussey, Wayne Kobberdahl, Greg McClain, Mary Jean Montgomery and Megan Srinivas. Also present were Interim Director Judy Jeffrey and Department staff members Gail Sullivan, Lee Tack, Carol Greta, Janice Friedel, Kathi Slaughter, Lois Irwin, Bill Silag, Beverly Bunker, Paul Cahill, Lou Howell, Teresa McCune, Jim Reese, Dale Gruis, Max Christensen, Jeff Berger, Warren Weber, Fidelis Ubadigbo and Beverlee Adams. Also present were Governor Thomas J. Vilsack and Kris Bell, Governor’s Office; Kay Forsythe, Prairie Lakes AEA; Robin Madison, Legislative Services Agency; Dave Bunting, Kirkwood Community College; Tucki Folkers, North Iowa Area Community College; Bob Paxton, Iowa Central Community College; Barb Vredeveld, Iowa Western Community College; Judy Cook, Iowa Lakes Community College; Dr. Ruth White, John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas and Virginia Arigucoi, Iowa Department of Human Rights; Madelaine Jerousek, Des Moines Register; Todd Dorman, LeeNewspapers; and Rod Boshart, Cedar Rapids Gazette.
President Gene Vincent called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.
It was moved by Rosie Hussey and seconded by Charles Edwards to approve the agenda as written.
The Honorable Thomas J. Vilsack was present to discuss the Iowa Learns Council recommendations. He outlined the following:
Governor Vilsack stated the need for a more effective education system is created not by a decline in productivity, but by the need for radical improvements in productivity to keep pace with the changing needs of our students and our world. Board members discussed with the Governor suggestions on the most effective process for working together to enhance education through the recommendations of the Iowa Learns Council.
There was no public comment.
Rosie Hussey updated the Board on the 2005 State Board Retreat indicating it would be held at DMACC.
Charles Edwards – No report
Sally Frudden reported that regional academies had been identified as one of the Board’s priorities and she indicated that Charles City High School had started a new career academy.
Greg McClain stated the NASBE Commission on High School Athletics in an Era of Reform would be releasing their final report at the NASBE Annual Conference in Orlando, Florida in October.
Sister Jude Fitzpatrick – No report
Jim Billings – No report
Megan Srinivas – No report
Wayne Kobberdahl – No report
Gene Vincent indicated he had participated in the initial phase of the Director of Education selection process. He also reported that Board members had been invited to submit input about qualifications desired for this position. Vincent asked Gail Sullivan to give a brief summary of the selection process.
President Vincent stated that Board member appointments needed to be made to the Iowa High School Coordinating Council and the Board of Regents Braille and Sight Saving School Task Force.
Interim Director Judy Jeffrey reported on the following items:
Adult Basic Education Exit review with U.S. Department of Education -- Outstanding report with the entire discussion spent on commendations. Jeffrey thanked John Hartwig and Sally Schroeder and the community college staff for the diligent work that had been recognized in this review. They were extremely pleased with the match that community colleges make to Adult Basic Education. USDE indicated this system was indeed a national model.
U.S. Office of Inspector General inspection being conducted in Iowa –looking diligently at how the Unsafe School Option is being implemented in this state. Iowa is a part of a small sample group being examined along with California, Texas, New York and Philadephia. They are examining all suspension/ expulsion reports.
Pam Pfitzenmaier has been selected as Deputy Administrator of the Division of Early Childhood, Elementary, and Secondary Education.
Declining number of Department of Education staff – Ms. Jeffrey complimented the staff for their continuing efforts with limited resources.
Title V funds – may be eliminated by Congress
No Child Left Behind Report Card Released
Templeton Foundation National Report on Acceleration, “A Nation Deceived: How Schools Hold Back America’s Brightest Students – released Monday, September 20 in Iowa City.
Department of Education in cooperation with School Administrators of Iowa has received a NASSSP grant to host a statewide conference addressing High School Reform.
Recipient of $3.2M grant for school improvement and students with disabilities to be used over a three-year period. Dollars will be used to offer staff development to community-based early childhood program staffing communities to provide quality preschool; expand Reading First and Every Child Counts programs; licensing of special education teachers including recruitment/retention study; hiring culturally diverse staff members in the parent training institute to assist with culturally diverse and non-English speaking parents of children with disabilities to serve as partners in education.
Team-based variable pay awards released for the 2003-04 school year.
AEA mergers – in progress
Iowa Learns Council Update
The minutes of the August 12, 2004 State Board of Education meeting were approved.
Judy Jeffrey, Interim Director stated that the Superintendents Advisory Council had met and had encouraged this rule change to cover costs of bus inspections and operation costs.
Carol Greta, legal consultant and Max Christensen, school transportation consultant presented this agenda item. Greta reviewed the rule changes. She indicated an additional amendment was being proposed to introduce fee changes for a graduated scale of $20-2005; $25-2007; and $28-2009.
Motion: It was moved by Sister Jude Fitzpatrick and seconded by Charlie Edwards to approve the proposed amendment to change fees to Chapter 43.
Vote: Aye: Frudden, Billings, Edwards, Fitzpatrick, Hussey, Kobberdahl, and Montgomery. Nay: McClain
Motion: It was moved by Sister Jude Fitzpatrick and seconded by Mary Jean Montgomery to approve the proposed Chapter 43 amendments for notice of intended action as presented to the Board.
Vote: Aye: Frudden, Billings, Edwards, Fitzpatrick, Hussey, Kobberdahl, and Montgomery. Nay: McClain
Credit Enrollment of High School Students at Iowa Community Colleges 2002 and 2003
Janice Friedel,
Administrator, Division of Community Colleges and Workforce Preparation
introduced persons present for this discussion. They were Dave Bunting, Kirkwood Community College; Tucki
Folkers, North Iowa Community College; Robert Paxton, Iowa Central Community
College and Bill Silag, Consultant, Bureau of Community Colleges and Career and
Technical Education.
Friedel said this report
was in response to one of the State Board’s policy development priorities
identified at last year’s State Board retreat.
She explained that the report documents the initial efforts of the
Department to collect and analyze data pertaining to the role of community
colleges in enhancing the high school experience of Iowa students.
Robert Paxton, Iowa
Central Community College, discussed the high school partnerships staff
development program being used in their area.
He also shared information on the career programs offered through Iowa
Central Community College.
Dave Bunting, Executive
Director, Secondary Programs, Kirkwood Community College presented information
on Kirkwood’s Career Edge Academy and the Workplace Learning Connection
currently operated by Kirkwood.
Tucki Folkers, Vice
President for Academic Affairs, North Iowa Area Community College gave a
progress report on An Evolutionary Path Toward a More Seamless Delivery
System -- Making the Senior Year Count: A Focus on Outcomes.
Bill Silag, Academic
Consultant, Community Colleges and Career and Technical Education gave an
overview of the credit enrollment of high school students at Iowa community
colleges, 2002 and 2003.
Iowa Community College Quality Faculty Plans
Bill Silag and Beverly
Bunker, Bureau of Community Colleges and Career and Technical Education
reported on Iowa community college quality faculty plans. A revision in the 2002 Iowa Code Section
260C.36 , replaced permanent professional licensure by Iowa’s Board of
Educational Examiners with Quality Faculty Plans (QFP) to ensure the competence
of Iowa’s community college instructors.
Silag indicated that QFPs were based on the idea that appropriate
professional development activities for faculty are best determined by faculty
themselves, in consultation with the deans, directors, or chief academic
officers who supervise their work.
Ms. Bunker stated that
the new law also prescribed that each of Iowa’s 15 community colleges was to
involve faculty and administrators in the creation of its own college-based
QFP; gain approval of the plan by its board of directors; and submit its QFP by
July 1, 2003, to the Iowa Department of Education for review and approval. QFPs are now in place at all of the state’s
community colleges. Beginning July 1,
2006 accreditation teams were to include the QFP among the criteria used to
assess community college practices and procedures for purposes of accreditation
by the state of Iowa.
Guidelines for Community College Program Review and
Evaluation System
Janice Friedel, Administrator,
Division of Community College and Workforce Preparation introduced this agenda
item and thanked staff and presenters for the hard work given to this project.
Barbara Vredeveld, Dean,
Planning and Institutional Research, Iowa Western Community College; Tucki
Folkers, Vice President for Academic Affairs, North Iowa Area Community
College; and Judith Cook, Executive Director, Planning/Development, Iowa Lakes
Community College were present to review the rationale for change of the
evaluation system and discussed the proposed major components brought to the
State Board for approval. The
components of the community college program review and evaluation system are as
follows:
·
Continued compliance
with Iowa Code subsection 258.6(7), 281 Iowa Administrative Code 46.7(4).
·
Community colleges
will continue to annually review at least 20 percent of the approved career and
career option programs in accordance with Iowa Code subsection 258.6(7), 281
Iowa Administrative Code 46.7(4), and federal reporting requirements.
·
The Department of
Education will continue to annually extract data from the Management
Information System (MIS) on all programs and forward them to the colleges. Regular reports utilizing MIS data are
issued to the State Board of Education.
Community college performance on the Perkins performance measures will
be disaggregated by community college and by program.
·
The Department of
Education will continue to annually collect the required Perkins data on all
programs and will provide reports to the colleges for program improvement
purposes.
·
The community college
state accreditation protocol will validate that the college program review
process meets the Iowa Code and Iowa Administrative Code requirements.
·
The community colleges
may choose to expand to a broader definition of programs to include other
instructional and functional areas of the institution, i.e., arts and
sciences/college transfer, adult and continuing education, student services,
economic development, developmental education, et. al.
Motion: It was moved by Jim Billings
and seconded by Sally Frudden that the guidelines for community college program
review and evaluation system be approved as presented.
Vote: The motion carried
unanimously.
Policy Development/Leadership Agenda and Master Calendar
Gail Sullivan, Chief of
Staff, reviewed the policy development/leadership agenda and master
calendar. The Board had identified
priorities for policy development, priorities for advocacy, and priorities for
board development at their June 2004 Board Retreat. Sullivan indicated this framework was designed to provide the
Board with information for making policy decisions in the identified
areas. The master calendar mapped out
the policy discussions and actions and formed the basis for State Board meeting
agendas for the coming year.
Board members discussed
multiple suggestions for the proposed policy development/leadership agenda and
the plan for addressing the priorities.
Motion: It was moved by Sally Frudden
and seconded by Wayne Kobberdahl to approve the Policy Development/Leadership
Agenda with recommended changes.
Vote: The motion carried unanimously.
Improving Academic Achievement for all Students –
Supporting Schools in Need of Assistance
Interim Director Judy
Jeffrey gave a brief background statement on this agenda item. Paul Cahill, Administrative Consultant,
Title I, Lou Howell, Consultant, Schools in Need of Assistance and Teresa
McCune, Consultant, Title I reviewed the support system for Schools in Need of
Assistance. They also discussed how
Schools in Need of Assistance were identified.
The federal No Child Left
Behind legislation had required each state to establish a statewide system of
intensive and sustained support and improvement for local educational agencies
and schools receiving funds from Title I.
AEA Accreditation
Jeff Berger, AEA Site
Visit Team Co-leader, stated that the AEA visits occurring this year marked the
third year of the second round of accreditation visits. The visitation team had visited AEAs 8, 15,
and 267 during the spring/summer of 2004.
Berger presented the
on-site visitation team findings for AEA 15.
He reviewed the areas of strength and recommended areas of improvement.
Motion: It was moved by Mary Jean
Montgomery and seconded by Jim Billings to grant approval for continued
accreditation to AEA 15.
Vote: The motion carried
unanimously.
Jeff Berger reviewed the
team findings for the on-site visitation to AEA 267. He discussed the agency-wide areas of strength and the suggested
areas of improvement.
Motion: It was moved by Sister Jude
Fitzpatrick and seconded by Wayne Kobberdahl to grant approval for continued
accreditation to AEA 267.
Vote: The motion carried unanimously.
The findings of the
visitation team for AEA 8 were reviewed by Jeff Berger. The areas of strength and suggested areas of
improvement were discussed as well as noncompliance issues facing the AEA. Kay Forsythe, Administrator, AEA 8 was present for the discussion of this
item.
Motion: It was moved by Sally Frudden
and seconded by Sister Jude Fitzpatrick to approve Area Education Agency 8 for
conditional approval as presented.
Vote: The motion carried
unanimously.
President Gene Vincent
indicated that he was appointing Sister Jude Fitzpatrick to the Board of
Regents Braille and Sight Saving School Task Force and Gene Vincent would be
the alternate.
Vincent also wanted to
recognize Gail Sullivan for the outstanding job she had done in the transition
since Director Stilwill’s retirement. He
also offered compliments to Judy Jeffrey and all staff for moving ahead and
keeping things running smoothly.
President Vincent
adjourned the meeting at 9:50 a.m.
Work Session:
Cultural Competence-Continued Orientation and Proposal for Board
Development
Dr. Ruth White, Director
and John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas, Division Administrator, Department of Human
Rights were present to conduct the cultural competence work session. At the retreat in June, the State Board had
identified Cultural Competence as a priority for Board development. This work session continues the orientation
on cultural competence that had been started last May and provided the Board
with a proposal for continued development.
______________________ ____________________________
Gene E. Vincent Judy
A. Jeffrey, Interim Director
President and Executive Officer