The Colorado State Board of Education met for its regularly scheduled meeting Jan. 9 & 10. Highlights from the meeting include:

Board Swearing In

A swearing in ceremony was held yesterday for newly elected member Pam Mazanec and returning board member Angelika Schroeder. 

Pam Mazanec represents the 4th Congressional District. Angelika Schroeder, who was first appointed to the board by a vacancy committee four years ago, won her bid to represent the 2nd Congressional District two years ago and won this bid for a six-year term. 

Mazanec has more than 15 years of experience running a sod business in Larkspur has been an active proponent of school choice, as shown by her role as director of Great Choice Douglas County, a nonprofit organization supporting educational choice.

Schroeder, a former tax CPA, was a college professor of accounting. She has served on the Boulder Valley School Board and as the parent representative to the Teacher and Special Services Professional Standards Board. She has also served on the boards and executive committees of the Colorado Association of School Boards and the Alliance of Quality Teaching.

Board Officers

One of the first orders of business for the new board was to elect officers. Paul Lundeen (5th Congressional District) was elected chairman and Marcia Neal (3rd Congressional District) was elected vice-chairman.

The remaining members of the Colorado State Board of Education are Elaine Gantz Berman (1st Congressional District), Jane Goff (7th Congressional District) and Debora Scheffel (6th Congressional District). Elaine Gantz Berman and Marcia Neal were appointed board legislative liaisons.

Board Resolution

The state board ratified their resolution to honor of the victims of the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

Rulemaking Hearing

The state board held a rulemaking hearing for the administration of the Colorado Reading to Ensure Academic Development (READ) Act. The board reviewed written comments submitted during the comment period. Another hearing is scheduled in February.  

Notice of Rulemaking Concerning Accountability and Test Security Breaches

Staff discussed a notice of rulemaking that would allow the department to take cheating and test security breaches into consideration when assigning accreditation categories.  The proposed rules can be accessed at http://bit.ly/SmB9pK.

Rules for the Administration of the Exceptional Children's Educational Act

The state board adopted the rules for the administration of the Exceptional Children’s Education Act. Changes were made to update the rules to conform with the Facility Schools Act of 2008; to clarify the definition of administrative unit; to eliminate expired and outdated rules regarding special education due progress hearings; and to comply with H.B. 12-1345, which eliminated the Preschooler with a Disability eligibility category and charged the department with promulgating a new eligibility category definition and criteria entitled Child with a Developmental Delay.

CDE Resource Bank

Staff demonstrated for the board CDE’s online Resource Bank which contains optional assessment resources for districts and BOCES to use to support their instruction in the Colorado Academic Standards and that may be used to support their educator evaluation work.  More information about the Resource Bank of assessments can be found at www.coloradoplc.org/assessment.

Blue Ribbon Award Winners

The State Board recognized five Colorado public schools that were awarded the U.S. Department of Education’s 2012 Blue Ribbon Award winners. They are Avon Elementary in Avon (Eagle County RE 50), Garnet Mesa Elementary in Delta ( Delta County 50),  Pear Park Elementary in Grand Junction ( Mesa County Valley 51), Slavens K-8 School in Denver (Denver Public Schools) and Summit Middle Charter School in Boulder ( Boulder Valley School District). The program recognizes public and non-public elementary, middle, and high schools where students achieve at very high levels or where significant improvements are being made in student achievement. At least one-third of the public schools nominated by each state must be schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds. 

Revenue Forecast

Assistant Commissioner of School Finance Leanne Emm covered the December revenue forecasts from both Legislative Council and the Office of State Planning and Budgeting. These forecasts will help inform budget discussions at the beginning of the legislative session. The March forecasts will be the most important forecasts in terms of finalizing the 2013-14 budget. Neither forecast was significantly different from the September forecast.

Colorado is seeing gains in income and sales tax revenue which increases the amount of the transfer available to the State Education Fund.  This will help fund inflation and growth in 2013-14.  The Department is submitting a supplemental budget request for 2012-13 to fund the growth in funded students that was over the original projection. The supplemental request will cover the costs of an additional 439 funded pupils over the original projection.  The net amount of the supplemental request will be $7 million; however the state share will be $13 million due to a loss of local share of $6 million. This is mainly due to lower than anticipated vehicle ownership tax revenues.

Global Education Leaders Program

Last fall, Colorado was invited to be part of the Global Education Leaders’ Program. Colorado is one of three United States representatives asked to participate in the program, along with the state of Kentucky and New York City. The program sets out to transform education, at local, national and global levels. Teams from around the world partner on important and meaningful projects designed to advance education toward more personalized learning that ignites the potential of all students. To view the PowerPoint presentation, click here.

The Colorado State Board of Education will hold its next meeting in February at the Colorado Department of Education, 201 E. Colfax Ave., in Denver.