Update on School Takeover Amendment

As we told you  here, Del Habeeb's school takeover constitutional amendment was amended last week to be far broader - allowing for the takeover of any school accredited with warning.  We asked you to contact your Senators to oppose this constitutional amendment and your efforts paid off!  HJ693 was re-referred from the floor of the Senate to the Privileges and Elections committee, where it is expected to die quietly (because that committee will not meet again before the end of the session).   

School Takeover Constitutional Amendment Amended and Reported by Senate Committee

Delegate Habeeb's HJ693 is a constitutional amendment that gives the General Assembly the authority to establish a statewide school division to take over failing schools.  This constitutional amendment is a Governor's bill and is an apparent recognition that the Governor's school takeover bills (HB2096 and SB1324) are unconstitutional. 

HJ693 was amended by the Senate Courts of Justice Committee today.  The original bill allowed the General Assembly to establish a statewide school division for the takeover of schools that have been denied accreditation for a number of consecutive school years. 

Delegate Habeeb appeared to realize today that his takeover bill, HB2096, was broader that his constitutional amendment (because the bill requires takeover when a school is denied accreditation for the first year and permits a takeover when a school has been accredited with warning for three years).  He offered an amendment to HJ693 that would allow the takeover of any school that is denied accreditation or accredited with warning, without any requirement that the school be accredited with warning for multiple years.  Under this amendment, the number of schools that could be taken over by the state increases dramatically. 

We strenuously opposed HJ693 and the amendment to it.  The Committee adopted the amendment on a 8-7 party line vote and the reported the bill on the same vote.   



  

Update from Senate Subcommittee on Public Education

The Public Education Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Education and Health took up HB 1926, a bill introduced by Delegate Morris which would have abolished the school board selection commission in the three counties still using that process to name school board members.  The subcommittee was made aware that just this past year a referendum held in Richmond County to change the method of appointing school board members failed with 68% of the vote supporting the school board selection commission.  The subcommittee first adopted a substitute carving Accomack and Richmond Counties from the bill and leaving only Southampton County, which Delegate Morris represents, in the bill.  However, after excellent testimony from the Superintendent and School Board Chairman from Southampton, the subcommittee refused to recommend that the bill be reported by the full committee.  The bill will come before the full committee on Thursday, where we hope it will die.  

Educator Fairness Act Advances

This morning the House Education Committee considered the Senate version of the Educator Fairness Act (SB1223) which is identical to the HB2151.  A teacher’s union based in Northern Virginia asked the House committee to amend the bill, which it refused to do.  The committee then voted to report the Senate bill to the full House of Delegates.  Later in the day the full Senate took up the House version of the Teacher Fairness Act.  There was an attempt on the floor to amend the bill.  The amendment failed 18-22.  The bill then passed the full Senate.  The next step for the House version is to be presented to the Governor for his signature in a couple of weeks.

Post-Crossover Summary

This session VSBA has been working with nearly 200 bills that are directly or indirectly related to K-12 education.  We have had a number of significant successes in defeating or amending unfavorable legislation and in passing favorable legislation.  Below is a summary of some of the VSBA’s most significant successes thus far this session.  As you will read below, however, there is much work still to do. 

Defeated Legislation

Sen. Obenshain and Del. Lingamfelter introduced constitutional amendments, HJ684 and SJ302, respectively, to give the Board of Education the authority to establish charter schools.  Currently, only local school boards can establish charter schools.  VSBA opposes taking that authority away from local school boards and vesting it in any other body.  These constitutional amendments were supported by the Governor and we strongly opposed them on behalf of the VSBA.  The House version failed in subcommittee on a vote of 11-11.  The Senate version failed on the floor of the Senate on a vote of 20-19-1 (constitutional amendments require 21 votes in the Senate).   

There were virtual schools bills sponsored by Del. Dickie Bell (HB1555) and Sen. Barker (SB1300) that were very problematic.  HB1555 would have established a statewide virtual school and would have required the state and local SOQ funds for any student enrolled in the school to be transferred to the state virtual school.  The bill was supported by virtual education providers.  We actively opposed the bill and it ultimately died in House Appropriations.  SB1300 did not establish a statewide virtual school but it would have required a school division that did not offer a virtual program to transfer the state and local SOQ funding for any student who enrolled in another division’s virtual program to that other division.  We opposed the bill and worked with the patron, who ultimately requested that the bill be stricken. 

Senator Miller’s SB993 would have required school divisions to provide 30 minutes of physical activity per day for students in grades K-8.  While well intentioned, the bill would have placed a significant burden on school divisions in terms of staff and facilities.  In addition, it would have been difficult to include the additional 30 minutes into the school day without eliminating other programs.  We opposed the bill on behalf of the VSBA.  It was reported out of Senate Education and Health, but it died in Senate Finance.

Delegate McQuinn’s HB2171 was another well intentioned bill that would have imposed a significant and unfunded burden on school divisions.  The bill would have required school safety audits, which are currently required annually, to be performed bimonthly.  It would have also required school divisions to conduct bimonthly reviews of the written school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plans for each school.  We opposed the bill because of the significant administrative burden that it would have imposed on already overburdened staff and the bill died in subcommittee.

Amended Legislation

Often problematic legislation has so much support or momentum that we cannot defeat it.  This is especially true when, as now, the same party controls both houses.  This also happens most often with hot issues, such as bullying and school safety.  Below are some of the bills on which we worked for significant amendments because we did not believe they could be defeated.

The Governor’s Educator Fairness Act (HB2151 and SB1223) sponsored by Del. Dickie Bell and Sen. Norment is something that we have worked on the last two years.  As you may recall, last year the Governor introduced legislation that would have eliminated continuing contracts for all teachers.  That legislation also had some good provisions relating to teacher evaluations and nonrenewals.  While we did not support the legislation as originally drafted last year, we worked with the Administration to improve it.  That legislation failed and the Governor brought back many of the same concepts in this year’s Educator Fairness Act.  We have continued to work with the Administration to improve the bills.  One significant piece of the bill that we proposed and support is the streamlining of the grievance procedure.  Another favorable provision in the bill that we proposed is defining incompetence to include one or more unsatisfactory evaluations.  Both bills passed their respective houses with widespread, bipartisan support.      

Del. Dickie Bell and Sen. Hanger brought, for the second year in a row, legislation that would require IEP teams to consider certain factors when developing IEPs for deaf and hard of hearing students.  (HB1344/SB1097)  We opposed the legislation last year and again this session because, among other reasons, it would have caused a conflict with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.  Because there was widespread, bipartisan support for the legislation this year, we decided to seek an amendment to make the changes permissive rather than mandatory.  Our efforts were successful and both bills were amended to change the “shalls” to “mays.”

Del. McClellan’s HB1871 is a bullying bill that included some very problematic provisions.  As originally drafted the bill included provisions requiring the school board to prohibit employee-on-employee bullying.  We believe this part of the bill was unnecessary because harassment and discrimination among employees is already prohibited and school boards are required to have procedures for reporting and investigating harassment and discrimination.  This portion of the bill was duplicative at best and, at worst, could have been used by employees to elevate petty disputes among co-workers or disagreements with supervisors to incidents that would have to be investigated.  This would bog down already over-burdened administrators with needless investigations.  Because the bill contained some other provisions regarding bullying among students and was likely to pass, we worked extensively with Del. McClellan and Sen. Favola (the patron of an identical Senate bill that was ultimately stricken) as well as other stakeholders to get significant amendments to the bill.  All of the troubling language regarding bullying among employees was stricken from the bill and replaced with a simple requirement that school boards educate employees for the need to create a bully-free environment.  The amended bill is far less problematic than the original bill.   

Del. Greason’s HB1941 and Sen. Stanley’s SB1207 are the Governor’s bills that establish an A-F grading system for schools.  These bills were hotly opposed by VSBA and other organizations, including VASS.  The bills were amended a number of times by the Administration in an attempt to assuage the opposition.  The original bills directed BOE to develop an A-F grading scale.  As explained by the Deputy Secretary of Education, the original plan would have resulted in a “bell-curve,” with most schools receiving a C.  The amended bills direct the Board of Education to develop a grading scale that includes student growth.  This will allow a school that is making improvements to receive a higher grade than it would have received under the original bills.  The Senate version was further amended to remove provisions requiring immediate grading of schools, postponing the assignment of grades until 2015, to allow the BOE time to develop the grading system and include student growth.   While we will continue to oppose these bills, the amended versions are far improved over the original bills. (We understand, however, that the Governor may try to apply an A-F grading system in the interim through administrative action.)       

Passed Legislation

While it seems as if most of our time is spent opposing legislation, there were a number of bills that VSBA actively supported.  Here are a few such bills that were passed by the house of origin and are headed to the other house.

Del. Habeeb’s HB1388 changes the deadline for notifying principals, assistant principals, and supervisors of reassignment from April 15 to June 15.  VSBA actively supported this bill, which conforms the process for principals, assistant principals, and supervisors to what was done for teachers last year and is more consistent with the new evaluation systems which are dependent upon student academic achievement data, which is not available until after April 15.  This bill passed the House with no opposition.     

Del. Greason’s HB1467 would allow school boards to set the school calendar and would eliminate to post-Labor Day opening requirement.  We actively supported the bill and it was passed by the House 72-28. 

HB1866, sponsored by Del. Robinson, restores discretion to school boards and administrators in student discipline matters involving weapons.  Currently, school administrators are required to recommend expulsion for any offense involving a firearm.  The term firearm is defined to include many weapons (such as slingshots and knives) that are not truly firearms.  The current law requires a recommendation of expulsion even in cases in which the circumstances may not warrant such an extreme sanction.  This bill simplifies the definition of firearm so that only offenses involving a true firearm (e.g. a weapon intended to expel a projectile through an explosion) carry a mandatory recommendation of expulsion.  School boards are still free to prohibit other weapons and to expel students for bringing other, non-firearm weapons to school.  We worked with the patron and other stakeholders on the language of the bill before it was filed and we actively supported it.  The bill was passed by the House 99-0.  

Still to Do

We have accomplished much this session, but there is still work to be done.  Of the nearly 200 bills we were working, about 85 remain in play following crossover.  Below are a few of the most significant bills remaining.

The Governor’s school takeover legislation, which establishes the Opportunity Educational Institution, passed both the House and the Senate in slightly differing versions.  Sen. McDougle sponsored SB 1324 and Del. Habeeb sponsored HB2096.  We have advised the General Assembly in strong terms that both bills are unconstitutional.  In addition, both bills would require any local school division that has a school taken over by the Institution to transfer to the Institution the state and local per pupil funding for each student in the school.  This would include not only local SOQ required funding, but all local aspirational funds as well.  Both bills also permit the Institution to take over and use school buildings and facilities, but require the local school board or local governing body to pay for all capital repairs and renovations that the Institution deems appropriate.  The Senate version of the bill includes what is known as “The Clause,” an appropriations clause that provides that the legislation shall not become effective unless there is a corresponding appropriation of funds.  The Senate Finance Committee removed the Governor’s budget amendment that provided funding for the legislation.  It remains to be seen whether the funding will be in the final budget bill.  We have strongly opposed these bills on behalf of the VSBA and we opposed funding to effectuate these bills.  We will continue to work to defeat this school takeover legislation and to ensure that, if passed, the legislation is not funded.       

In an apparent recognition of the fact that his school takeover bills were unconstitutional, the Governor also introduced constitutional amendments that authorize the General Assembly to establish a statewide school division to take over schools that have been denied accreditation.  We strongly opposed these constitutional amendments.  After his SB1324 passed on the Senate floor, Sen. McDougle asked to have his constitutional amendment passed by and, therefore, it failed without a vote by the full Senate.  Del. Habeeb’s constitutional amendment, HJ693, was passed by the House 58-37.  We will continue to oppose HJ693 and will work to defeat it in the Senate.  

House Bills Sail Through Senate Education and Health

The Senate Education and Health Committee reported a number of relatively non-controversial bills this morning.  Below is a summary.

HB1344 (Bell) permits - but does not require - IEP teams for students who are deaf and heard of hearing to consider certain factors when developing the IEP.  The bill was amended on the House side to make it permissive rather than mandatory.  The bill was reported unanimously.

HB1388 (Habeeb) changes the deadline for notifying principals, assistant principals, and supervisors of reassignment from April 15 to June 15.  The bill was reported unanimously.

HB1406 (Bell) requires school boards to provide information regarding eating disorders to parents of students in grades 5-12.  The information can be provided in paper or electronically, including by posting on the school system's website.  The bill was reported unanimously. 

HB1864 (Robinson) clarifies that while principals are required to report certain offenses to law enforcement, law enforcement is not required to file delinquency charges in all such cases.  It also directs the BOE and the Department of Criminal Justice Services to develop a model cooperative agreement between schools and local law-enforcement agencies for dealing with school-based offenses.  The bill was reported unanimously. 

HB1866 (Robinson) simplifies the code sections dealing with mandatory expulsions for firearms offenses.  Currently, the definition of "firearm" includes many weapons  and items (like knives and slingshots) that are not actually firearms.  The bill those other weapons and items from the definition of firearm.  School boards can still have weapons policies prohibiting these items and can still expel students for such violations.  Under this bill, however, those violations would no longer carry a mandatory recommendation of expulsion, thus restoring discretion to administrators and school boards to determine what offenses merit expulsion.  The bill was reported unanimously.

HB1889 (LeMunyon) makes teacher performance indicators and other data used by the school boards to judge the growth or quality of a teacher confidential.  Currently, this information may be disclosed pursuant to FOIA.  The bill was reported unanimously. 

HB2066 (Peace) would allow school boards flexibility to assign librarians, guidance counselors, and school-based clerical personnel according to local need, so long as the school board employs the total number of each type of employee required by the SOQ on a division-wide basis.  Currently, school boards must assign these personnel based on the number of students and level of school (elementary, middle or secondary) regardless of the actual needs of the schools.  The bill was reported unanimously.  

HB2068 (LeMunyon) requires early intervention services in reading and math to certain students.  The bill was reported unanimously.

HB2076 (Stolle) provides that a local school board that initiates a charter school application is not required to first seek comment and review from the Board of Education.  The bill was reported 10-2. 

HB2083 (Cox) which creates a Strategic Compensation Grant Initiative Fund to provide incentive grants to improve teacher and student performance.  The bill was reported and referred to Finance on a unanimous vote. 

HB2084 (Cox) will allow the Teach for America program to operate in Virginia.  The bill was reported unanimously.

HB2098 (Tata) allows BOE to grant waivers from state regulations for up to five years in order to allow a school board to increase the quality of instruction and to improve student achievement.  The bill specifically allows BOE to grant waivers from the staffing standards in a particular school, so long as the staffing standards are met division-wide.  In other words, the bill would allow a waiver giving the school board flexibility to place staff according to need rather than solely according to the staffing standards.  The bill was reported and referred to Finance on a vote of 11-2.

HB2101 (Ramadan) requires BOE to develop guidelines from High School to Work Partnerships.  The bill reported unanimously. 

HB2144 (Landes) would allow BOE to grant a two year waiver from the third grade science and/or history SOL assessment for schools with an adjusted pass rate of less than 75% on the third grade reading SOL assessment.  If such a waiver is granted, science and history would still be taught but the SOL assessment would not be required.  The bill was reported 11-4.

HB2151 (Bell)  is the Governor's Educator Fairness Act.  The bill was reported 11-2. 

Governor's School Takeover Bill Passes the Senate

SB1324 (McDougle), the so-called Opportunity Educational Institution bill, which would allow the state to take over failing schools was passed by the Senate this afternoon.  The bill initially failed on a vote of 19-21, with Senator Blevins voting against the bill.  The bill was reconsidered within minutes, Blevins changes his vote, the Lt. Gov. broke the 20-20 tie, and the bill passed. 

A-F Grading Bill Passes Senate on Party Line Vote

SB1207 (Stanley), the Governor's A-F school grading bill, was passed by the Senate this morning on a vote of 20-20 with the Lt. Gov. breaking the tie.  The bill was amended on the floor yesterday to remove the provisions requiring immediate grading of schools.  You can read the amended bill here.

Updates from the Money Committees

Earlier this afternoon the House Appropriations and the Senate Finance Committees reported their respective versions of the amendments to the current budget.  Among the highlights of those actions are the following:  The House Committee recommended $53.7 Million for the state share of the 2% salary increase for instructional personnel calculated on an effective date of August 1, 2013.  School boards can take advantage of this pay increase so long as they provide their share of the pay increase no later than January 1, 2014.  The House Committee also recommended $9.1 Million as the state share of a 2% pay increase for support personnel effective January 1, 2014.  The House Committee would prohibit the use of the mandated VRS salary increases as the local match to get the state share.

The Senate Committee recommended $76 Million for the state share of the 2% salary increase for instructional and support personnel effective July 1, 2013.  In order to be eligible for the state share a school board will have to certify no later than June 15, 2013, that salary increases of 2% on average have been provided for the 2013-2014 school year.  School Board’s that give increases of at least 1% but less than 2% will get a prorate reduction of the state share.  The Senate also prohibits using the mandated VRS salary increases as the local share.

The House Committee recommended $6.1 to restore one-half of the COCA for support positions that was eliminated in the Governor’s budget.  The Senate would only restore COCA by 9.83%.

The House supported the $600,000 in the Governor’s budget for the Opportunity Educational Institution, which is the Governor’s proposal to take over failing schools.  The Senate Committee deleted the $600,000 in the Governor’s budget and did not recommend any language relating to the Opportunity Educational Institution.  However, the Senate did instruct JLARC to study what other cities and states have done with regard to low performing schools, including the takeover of such schools and converting them to charter schools.  If passed, JLARC would have to issue its report in November, 2013.

Governor's School Takeover Legislation Advancing

Yesterday morning the Senate Committee on Education and Health reported and referred the Senate version of the Governor’s takeover legislation to the Senate Finance Committee.  Last evening that committee reported the bill with “the clause” tacked on it.  The “clause” is a provision that makes legislation effective only if there are funds to pay for it.  Several members of both the Education and Health and Finance Committees expressed some concern over the sweeping nature of the bill and placed the “clause” on it to ensure that it would still be revised.  This morning the House version of the bill was before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Public Education.  Yet another version (the fourth at last count with a promise of more versions to come) was introduced.  It made clear that if the state takes over poorly performing schools, not only will the federal and state funds follow the student, but all local funds, including aspirational funding, would follow the student as well.  The full Appropriations Committee is expected to report the bill at its meeting this afternoon.  This takeover bill is perhaps the most intrusive piece of legislation K-12 education has ever faced.   

ALERT - Urge Your Senator to Vote NO on SJ327

LEGISLATIVE ALERT

We need you to contact your Senator today to urge him or her to vote AGAINST SJ327 (McDougle).  SJ327 is a constitutional amendment that would allow for state takeover of public schools that are denied accreditation.  The constitutional amendment does not set forth specifics for such a state takeover, thus giving the General Assembly broad authority to devise a state takeover in future years.  Most importantly, the constitutional amendment would allow the state to take not only the state share of per pupil funding  but to also take the local share of per pupil funding for each student in a school that is taken over.  In other words, this constitutional amendment would force localities to send local dollars to a state-run entity without any control over what the state does with those local dollars. 

Urge your Senator to vote NO on SJ327.    

Constitutional Amendment to Allow BOE to Approve Charters Defeated on Senate Floor

Senator Obenshain's constitutional amendment to allow the BOE to approve charter schools, SJ302, was defeated on the floor of the Senate today.  The bill died on a vote of 20-19-1.  Constitutional amendments require the vote of a majority of the members elected - in other words, 21 votes. The VSBA opposed this measure. 

Wrap Up from Last Week

Here is a wrap up from the end of last week:

SB899 (Reeves) would allow but, due to an amendment, would not require, school board to place a decal on school buses stating that buses stop at railroad crossings.  The bill was reported out of the Senate Education and Health Committee. 

SB993 (Miller) would require school divisions to provide at least 30 minutes of pyhsical activity per day for students in grades K-8.  The bill was reported and referred to Senate Finance 8-6.  The VSBA opposes this bill.

Senator Barker had a number of bills up in Senate Education and Health.  His kinship care bill, SB960 was reported.  His SB1156, which states that it is the Commonwealth's goal that its public school teachers be compensated at a rate competitive with the national average was reported and referred to Senate Finance.  Similarly, his SB1157, establishing the Commonwealth Teaching Fellows Program was also reported and referred to Senate Finance.  SB1162, which would allow for expedited retakes of certain SOLs was also reported. 

Senator Blevins' SB1171, relating to early intervention for reading and math was reported and his SB1172, providing flexibility for certain staffing SOQs was reported and referred to Senate Finance. 

SB1175 (Ruff) which allows the Teach for America program to operate in Virginia was reported by the Senate Education and Health Committee. 

SB1248 (Black) establishing High School to Work Partnerships was also reported by the Senate Education and Health Committee.

SB1240 (Deeds) would require every school board to have one SRO at each school.  The bill was referred to Senate Finance. 

SB 1223 (Norment), known as the Educator Fairness Act, was reported from the Senate Education and Health Committee 14-0. 

HB1369 (Marshall) which would have required school boards to develop policies for minimizing school bus stops within 500 feet of the residence of a sex offender and to notify parents of any bus stop within 500 feet of a sex offender's residence was tabled by the Teachers and Administration subcommittee of the House Education Committee. 

HB1504 (Krupika), establishing a Commonwealth Teaching Fellows Program was reported from the Teachers and Administration subcommittee. 

Delegate Bell's virtual school bill, HB1555, was referred to Appropriations. 

HB2164 (Morris) which would have defined unexpended funds to exclude funds that had been encumbered failed to report on a vote of 3-3. 

Delegate Dickie Bell's bill relating to what must be considered by the IEP teams for deaf and hard of hearing students, HB1344, was amended to make the requirements permissive.  The amended bill was recommended for reporting by the Students and Early Education subcommittee of the House Education Committee. 

Delegate Rob Bell's bill to allow homeschool students to participate in public school athletics was reported from subcommittee.

Other bills reported from the Students and Early Education subcommittee include: HB1871 (McClellan) defining bullying, HB1498 (Kory) relating to expulsions, HB1858 (Orrock) relating to immunity for CTE providers, HB1497 (Stolle) allowing certain military students to participate in interscholastic activities, and HB2060 (Yancey) relating to truancy were all reported from the Students and Early Education subcommittee of the House Education Committee.

Educator Fairness Act Reported Out of Senate Education and Health

The Governor's Educator Fairness Act, SB1223 (Norment), was reported out of the Senate Education and Health Committee unanimously this morning.

Constitutional Amendment on Charter Schools Makes it Out of Committee

This evening the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee voted 8-4 to report SJR 302 (Obenshein) a constitutional amendment that would permit the Board of Education to establish charter schools. This is one of several such proposals. It is important to note that bills proposing constitutional amendments must pass both this and next year before they can go on the ballot.

House SOQ Subcommittee

The Standards of Quality subcommittee of the House Education Committee met at 7:30 this morning and took action on several bills of interest. The subcommittee voted to recommend reporting HB 1312 (Habeeb) that would allow school boards to elect to participate in additional SOL testing prior to March 1 and allow any student who does not pass the test in that additional testing period to retake the test during a subsequent testing period. The subcommittee recommended reporting HB 1350 (Albo) with an amendment that would prohibit a student who fails the non-calculator portion of the end of course mathematics SOL test in the ninth grade from taking the calculator portion of the test.　 We expect this bill to come back to the subcommittee for further work. The subcommittee recommended on a 4-3 vote that HB 1827 (Lingamfelter) be reported. The bill creates the Citizens Standards of Learning Review Board that will review the SOLs and recommend changes to the Board of Education. The subcommittee recommended reporting HB 2199 (Filler-Corn) that directs the BOE to pass regulations to increase the number of students and grade levels that are eligible for an expedited retake of an end of course SOL test.

Senate Public Education Subcommittee

We had a very busy evening in the Senate Education and Health Committee’s subcommittee on Public Education. The purpose of a subcommittee in the Senate is to determine whether to recommend that the full committee either pass or kill a bill. In other words the subcommittee simply makes a recommendation to the full committee. Subcommittees in the House work entirely differently. If a subcommittee in the House does not recommend a bill, it never comes before the full committee.

The Senate subcommittee recommended that the following bills be passed by the full committee:

SB 960 (Barker) – The bill would permit students living with non-parents in a kinship care arrangement to attend the schools in the school division in which the non-parents live. The school system can require the natural parents to execute a power of attorney giving the non-parents the right to make educational decisions for their children.

SB 986 (Stuart) – This bill would require CPR training and an AED in each school. The patron of the bill agreed to work with us to correct certain problems with the bill.

SB 1157 (Barker) – This bill creates the Commonwealth Teaching Fellows Program which has the goal of preparing career-switchers and recent college graduates to teach in areas including STEM and critical teaching shortage areas.

SB 1162 (Barker) – Directs the Board of Education to promulgate regulations providing for expedited retakes of SOL tests at every grade level.

SB 1171 (Blevins) – The is one of the Governor’s bills that adds additional grades to the requirement that school systems provide early intervention services based on a student’s performance on reading and math tests.

SB 1172 (Blevins) – Another Governor’s bill that provides school systems flexibility in meeting Standard 2 personnel staffing standards.

SB 1248 (Black) – This bill directs the Board of Education to develop guidelines for a new High School to Work Partnership to foster partnerships between high schools and local businesses to create apprenticeships, internships, and job shadow programs.

Report from the House Education Committee

Today a number of bills sailed out of the House Education Committee. 

HB2151 (Bell), known as the Teacher Fairness bill, was reported on a vote of 16-0.  Delegate Cox's HB2083, creating the Strategic Compensation Grant Initiative Fund, was reported and referred to Appropriations on at 140 vote and his HB2084, which would allow the Teach for America program to operate in Virginia, reported 14-0.

HB1468 (Greason) which adds employees of local governing bodies and local health departments to the list of individuals who may possess and administer epinephrine, was reported 17-0.

HB1388 (Habeeb), which changes the date by which assistant principals, principals, and supervisors must be notified of reassignment from April 15 to June 15, was reported 16-0.

Delegate Pogge's HB1420, which requires the Board of Education to define the term "intervener," was reported and referred to Appropriations 17-0.

HB2101 (Ramadan), which requires BOE to develop guidelines for High School to Work Partnerships was reported 14-0.

Delegate Stolle's HB2076, which exempts local school board's from the requirement that charter school applications be submitted to the Board of Education for review, was reported 14-0.

HB2094 (Watson), which creates the Virginia Longitudinal Data System, was reported and referred to Appropriations on a vote of 13-0.

The only K-12 bill that did not make it out of Committee today was Delegate Bell's HB1406, which would require school boards to either screen students for eating disorders or to provide information to parents on eating disorders  The bill was sent back to subcommittee.  Members of the Committee showed interest in amending the bill to delete references to screenings and to simply require school boards to provide information. 

Report from Teachers and Administrative Action Subcommittee

In addition to reporting out the Teacher Fairness Bill on a vote of 8-0, the subcommittee also took the following actions yesterday evening:

HB 2083 (Cox) is one of the Governor's initiatives and it creates Strategic Compensation Grant Initiative and Fund, which provides for grants to be used as incentives to improve teacher and school performance. The bill was reported unanimously.

HB 2101 (Ramadan) requires BOE to develop guidelines to establish High School to Work Partnerships in which a local school division's career and technical education administrator works with the guidance counselor office of each public high school to partner with local businesses to create apprenticeships, internships, and job shadow programs in a variety of trades and skilled labor positions.  The bill was reported unanimously.

HB 2084 (Cox), another of the Governor's initiatives, will allow the Teach for America program to operate in Virginia.  The bill was reported unanimously.

HB 1388 (Habeeb) changes the date by which a school board must notify continuing contract principals, assistant principals, and supervisors of a reassignment to a classroom teaching position from April 15 to June 15. This bill is intended to parallel similar changes that were made last session to the Code sections relating to the nonrenewal of a teacher's contract.  The bill was reported unanimously.

HB 2094 (Watson) would requires the Board of Education to establish the Virginia Longitudinal Data System to track and examine student progress from early childhood to postsecondary education to the student entering the workforce. The bill was reported unanimously.

HB 2171 (McQuinn) would have required school boards to conduct school safety audits in each school and review school crisis, emergency management, and medical emergency response plan bimonthly instead of annually, which is the current requirement.  The bill was left in the subcommittee and the chair will write a letter referring the matter to the Task Force on School Safety.

HB 2076 (Stolle) exempts charter school applications that are initiated by a local school board from the requirement that all charter school applications be submitted to the Board of Education for an initial review.  The bill was reported unanimously. 

Teacher Fairness Bill Reported Out of House Subcommittee

HB 2151 (Bell), referred to as the Teacher Fairness Act, was one of the Governor’s top education priorities this session. Key elements of the bill include extending the probationary period for teachers and streamlining the grievance process. The bill was reported out of the Teachers and Administrative Action subcommittee of the House Education Committee today.

The Governor and the VEA announced today that the VEA is supporting the revised bill. We, on behalf of the VSBA, were heavily involved in drafting the legislation and in negotiating and drafting subsequent revisions. While the version of the bill that was reported by the subcommittee was a compromise, it contains many elements that will be beneficial to school boards. One feature of the amended bill is that it will allow a school board to extend the probationary period for teachers from 3 years to as long as 5 years, which will give school systems additional time to evaluate a teacher and decide whether to extend a continuing contract. The amended bill also streamlines the grievance process for the dismissal of a teacher. It eliminates the time consuming and costly fact-finding panel and it expedites the process so that dismissal cases can be promptly concluded.

Report from Senate Education and Health

During its meeting today, the Senate Committee on Education and Health reported a number of bills of interest to school boards. Among the bills the Committee adopted was a substitute for Senator Martin’s SB 1189 which authorizes the Board of Education to grant waivers to school boards from regulatory requirements to increase the quality of instruction and improve student achievement. The bill would also authorize the BOE to grant waivers from the certain SOQ staffing requirements so long as the school board employs a sufficient number of personnel division-wide to meet the SOQ requirements. This bills are an attempt to give school boards additional flexibility. The Committee also reported SB 1131 (McWaters) that exempted charter school applications initiated by one or more school boards from having to go through the Board of Education review process. The Committee reported SB 1158 (Barker) which directs the BOE to adopt regulations authorizing school boards to determine the date for administering the SOLs. This is a very significant flexibility bill.

House Education Subcommittee - Students and Early Education

This morning, the Students and Early Education Subcommittee of the House Education Committee took the following action:

HB 1406 (Bell) would require school boards annually to provide educational information about or screenings for eating disorders in students in grades 5 - 12.  The bill also established a work group to update the Virginia School Health Guidelines to assist school boards in providing the information or screenings.  Del. Bell confirmed that school boards can comply with the requirements of this bill by distributing information about eating disorders electronically, such as by posting it on the division website.  The bill was recommended for reporting. 

HB 1377 (Cole) would have, among other things, required school boards to provide training on diabetes care to all employees.  It would also allow the parents of a student with diabetes to develop a diabetes care plan in which the parents could dictate what care and services the school system must provide to the student.  This bill would have imposed a significant cost on school boards.  The bill died in subcommittee for lack of a motion. 

HB 1420 (Pogge) directs the BOE to promulgate regulations defining the term "intervener" as an individual with knowledge and skill in the mode of communication of a deaf-blind student and who can communicate to the deaf-blind student what is occurring in the student's educational setting.  The bill was reported and referred to Appropriations. 

HB 1468 (Greason) fixes an omission from the legislation last year that allowed school board employees to possess and administer epinephrine to students.  The bill adds employees of a local governing and employees of a local health department to the list of individuals who can possess and administer epinephrine in schools.  The reason for the bill is that some school divisions do not employ school nurses directly.  Rather, the nurses are employed by wither the health department or the local governing body.  The bill was recommended for reporting.     

Update from House Education

HB 2066 (Peace), which would amend Standard 2 to allow school boards to meet the staffing requirements for librarians, guidance counselors, and clerical staff on a division-wide basis, rather than meeting the standard for elementary, middle and high schools separately was reported and referred to Appropriations.

HB 2068 (LeMunyon), which would require school boards to provide early reading intervention to certain students in grades K-2 and algebra readiness intervention to certain students in grades 6-9, was reported and referred to Appropriations.

HB 2098 (Tata) would allow the BOE to waive staffing standard 2 to allow a school division flexibility in determining whether to hire librarians, guidance counselors, or other staff members to meet staffing standards. A school board that is granted a waiver would have to employ the requisite total number of staff members but would have the ability to determine how many to hire in each category. The bill was reported and referred to Appropriations. 

HB 2144 (Landes), which creates a pilot program that will allow certain schools to seek waivers from the third grade science, social science, or history SOL assessments in order to focus on reading, was reported.

Recap of House Education SOQ Subcommittee

Here is a recap of what happened in the House Education SOQ subcommittee today:

HB 2144 (Landes) creates a pilot program that will allow certain schools to seek waivers from the third grade science, social science, or history SOL assessments in order to focus on reading. The bill was recommended for reporting.

HB 1502 (Krupika) would expand the Virginia Index of Performance incentive program to recognize and reward schools and school divisions that make progress towards narrowing achievement gaps.  The patron explained that the purpose of the bill was to recognize and reward teachers and schools who are making significant achievements in challenging circumstances.  The bill was passed by indefinitely.

HB 1503 (Krupika) would, among other things, prohibit a school from receiving the highest accreditation rating is any one subgroup failed  to demonstrate proficiency on any SOL assessments.  The patron explained that schools in which one or more subgroups were failing did not "deserve an A."  Members of the subcommittee observed that this goal ran counter to the purpose that Del. Krupika was trying to achieve with HB 1502.  The bill was tabled on a unanimous vote.

HB 2098 (Tata) would allow BOE to waive staffing standard 2 to allow a school division flexibility in determining whether to hire librarians, guidance counselors, or other staff members to meet staffing standards.  A school board that is granted a waiver would have to employ the requisite total number of staff members but would have the ability to determine how many to hire in each category.  The subcommittee voted unanimously to recommend that the bill be reported and referred to Appropriations.

HB 2066 (Peace) would amend Standard 2 to allow school boards to meet the staffing requirements for librarians, guidance counselors, and clerical staff on a division-wide basis, rather than meeting the standard for elementary, middle and high schools separately.  The subcommittee voted to recommend that the bill be reported.

HB 1350 (Albo) is targeted to end the use of calculators on math SOLs.  Del. Albo brought a similar bill last year.  The bill was amended in subcommittee so that it provides that no student in the seventh or eight grade who fails the non-calculator portion of the end-of-grade mathematics assessments shall be placed in Algebra I or higher. (The original version of the bill would have prohibited the use of calculators on the SOL assessment.) After much discussion and amendment, the bill was passed by for the day so that Del. Albo could bring back another amendment to the bill. 

HB 2068 (LeMunyon) would require school boards to provide early reading intervention to certain students in grades K-2 and algebra readiness intervention to certain students in grades 6-9.  The bill was recommended to be reported and referred to Appropriations. 

HB 1730 (Cole) would require every school board to establish a collaborative agreement with local law-enforcement agencies to employ one full time SRO in every school.  The bill was passed by for the day to allow time for the Governor's recently appointed school safety task force to make a recommendation. 

Update from Public Education subcommittee of the Senate Education and Health Committee

SB900 would allow allow school boards to sell space on school buses and school property for advertising and, if a school board did so, would require school boards to use the proceeds for pay for pupil transportation and for maintenance and construction of school buildings, respectively.  School boards already can, and do, sell advertising space on school property (e.g. on athletic fields) but, under the current law, school boards are not limited in how they can use the proceeds from such advertising.  The bill was recommended to be passed by indefinitely by the Public Education subcommittee of the Senate Education and Health Committee today.

SB936 changes the date by which a school board must notify continuing contract principals, assistant principals, and supervisors of a reassignment to a classroom teaching position from April 15 to June 15. This bill is intended to parallel similar changes that were made last session to the Code sections relating to the nonrenewal of a teacher's contract.  The bill was recommended for reporting today by the Public Education subcommittee of the Senate Education and Health Committee.

SB940 would require school boards to have an SRO in every elementary, middle, and high school.  The bill also provides that the cost associated with the bill would be paid from the general appropriation act rather than by any locality or school board.  The bill was recommended for referral to the Senate Finance Committee by the Public Education subcommittee of the Senate Education and Health Committee today.

Governor McDonnell Highlights Education Agenda in State of the Commonwealth Address

In tonight's State of the Commonwealth Address, Governor McDonnell unveiled several new parts of his education agenda, including the Virginia "Opportuniuty Education Institution", which we anticipated last week. 

An excerpt of the Governor's comments about his K-12 agenda is below.  Click here to access the full speech.

If a young person does not graduate from high school, or does not graduate career or college ready, you have failed, I have failed, and, worse, they have failed.

All children, regardless of their zip code, must have world-class educational opportunities. It's the only way Virginia will continue to recruit world-class companies like Hilton, Northrop Grumman, Bechtel and Intelsat that require highly-educated, highly-motivated employees.

The brutal fact is, when it comes to educating our young people, America is slipping.

While Virginia's schools rate well nationally, according to the Program for International Student Assessment, the United States now ranks 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th in mathematics. This is unacceptable. Those are not grades that we want to put on the national refrigerator.

The time for action is now.

Great teachers in great schools make great students and citizens. A great teacher, like my sister Nancy in Amherst County, makes all the difference in the life of a young person. We need to recruit, incentivize, retain and reward excellent teachers and treat them like the professionals that they are. I'm proposing giving teachers their first state supported pay raise since 2007, and my budget amendments provide over $58 million for a 2% pay raise for all SOQ funded instructional personnel.

The Educator Fairness Act will streamline the bureaucratic grievance procedure to benefit teachers and principals. It will extend the probationary period for new teachers from three to five years, and require a satisfactory performance rating as demonstrated through the new performance evaluation system to keep a continuing contract. Good teachers will advance and flourish; poor ones will not.

Students are falling behind in mastering the STEM-H disciplines essential for the global economy.

I'm asking you to approve funding to support new teachers who teach science, technology, engineering, or mathematics in our middle and high schools.

I want our very best teachers in every subject to have incentives to excel. I'm proposing $15 million for school districts to reward their well-performing educators. This strategic compensation plan based on a model developed in the Salem school system will be implemented through local guidelines that best fit each school division's unique characteristics.

We need some of our best teachers in our hard to staff and underperforming schools. Therefore, I am proposing legislation to start the Teach for America program in the Commonwealth.

Since 1990, Teach for America has placed 28,000 exceptional graduates from top universities into some of our nation's most challenging school systems. All over America this program works, but not here. There are almost 300 Teach for America participants from Virginia who should be teaching right here at home.

I'm also asking you to approve a budget amendment to place one reading specialist in each school that scores below 75% in the 3rd grade Standard of Learning test, and to fully fund the state share for staffing standards for blind and visually impaired students.

I also propose a new method to obtain waivers from bureaucratic red tape, putting the algebra readiness and early reading intervention initiatives into the SOQ, and expanding character education and youth development programs.

Parents need to know how well their child's school is working. We should grade schools like we grade students' papers and tests. I'm proposing an A-F school ranking scale to empower parents and students to demand excellence.

This new grading transparency will allow us to hold schools more accountable. Even in a state like ours with a very good public education system, some students are trapped in underperforming and unaccredited schools. This must end!

We now equip low performing schools with turnaround specialists and additional resources from the state and private sector. If they haven't improved that's unacceptable. We must have a zero tolerance policy for failing schools.

Therefore, I'm asking you to approve a bold initiative to establish a statewide Opportunity Educational Institution to provide a high quality education alternative for children attending any chronically underperforming public elementary or secondary school. The Opportunity Educational Institution will be a new statewide school division to turnaround failing schools. If a school is consistently failing, the Opportunity Educational Institution will step in to manage it. If the school has failed for two years, the Institution can take it over and provide a brand new approach to a broken system.

This model is proven nationally. Louisiana and Tennessee have created Recovery and Achievement districts, and the results are positive. For the very small subset of schools that are failing Virginia's students, we have no other option.

As the parent of five children who graduated from good Virginia public schools, I know we must raise the bar and end failure.

We must continue to bring more innovation and choices to our public education system. Excellent education demands having the courage to try new approaches.

Public charter schools have done well nationally to help bring options to our most underserved communities. They can increase flexibility and innovation and offer a wider range of educational experiences. We've approved new charter laws, but we haven't done nearly enough.

Massachusetts has 72 charter schools. Pennsylvania 164. Florida 520. Virginia has just four!

We still have one of the weakest public charter schools laws in the country. The best public charter school operators in the nation will not come here because we make it nearly impossible for them. We need new charter school laws that demand excellence, set clear standards, and welcome the best charter schools into our communities. This session I'm asking you to join me to pass a Constitutional amendment to allow the state Board of Education to authorize charter applicants. And I am asking your support of legislation to eliminate the requirement that local school boards who originate a charter school application must first apply for authorization from the state Board of Education. These ideas will make it much easier for proven charter schools to open up.

Better schools mean better jobs and a stronger Virginia.

Governor's Education Agenda - Part 2

We have received an invitation to attend a press conference by the Governor to announce Part 2 of his education legislative agenda, billed as “ALL STUDENTS: Accountability + Innovation.”  We are not privy to this agenda, but we suspect that it may include a few bills with which we may not be in agreement.  One bill we anticipate would establish the “Virginia Opportunity School District.”  (Leave aside the fact that we have “school divisions” - not “school districts” - in Virginia.”)  We suspect that this concept will be borrowed from Louisiana’s “Recovery School District,” which is described on the official website as “a special school district administered by the Louisiana Department of Education.”  We have a high confidence level in a bill along these lines being announced since a budget sheet appearing on the Department of Planning and Budget website describes $600,000 for funding in 2014 to support “the Virginia Opportunity School District.”  It will be interesting to see how this concept can be drafted to conform to the Virginia Constitution’s mandate that school boards supervise the schools in a school division.  Perhaps the use of the word “district” is intentional after all.

A second possible bill may be one that institutes a grading system for public schools.  Currently, public schools receive designations under the Standards of Accreditation, e.g. accredited, accredited with warning, etc.  Grading schools is a concept started in Florida, and most recently adopted in Ohio, which assigns schools an A, B, C, D. F or I grade depending on how the students in the school perform on the state assessment tests (SOLs in Virginia) in elementary and middle schools and on state assessment tests and other factors for high schools.  If such a bill is introduced, we anticipate that it will supplement, not supplant, the accreditation designations we now have. 

A third possible bill may be a virtual school bill that would require a school board that does not offer a full-time virtual program (versus courses) to transfer its state ADM and local funds to another school system that enrolls one of its students in a full-time program.  Perhaps such a concept is viewed by some as an incentive for school boards to offer full-time programs.  Of course, many school systems do not have the wherewithal to develop such programs internally, so they will have to contract with a private provider.  Is there any wonder that the private provider community has been a staunch supporter of this concept!  Of course, the state has yet to develop standards for online schools.  If this bill is introduced it will be the proverbial cart before the horse.