Hutchinson Elementary teacher Corey Lynn at the front of the line of Hutchinson teachers supporting their instructional coach at Thursday's school board meeting in Lakewood.

“If this position is taken away, then our team dissolves,” pleaded a dozen or so staff members from Parmalee Elementary in Indian Hills, echoing numerous others. “Remember our voices. We are Jeffco.”

With 90 people signed up to speak and predictions of a pending blizzard, school board president Lesley Dahlkemper resorted to negotiations to keep an efficient flow to the microphones.

“Can you do five, five and five?” she said, encouraging three groups representing instructional coaches to keep their comments to five minutes each.

Instructional coaches are among the groups threatened by the $50 million to $60 million in cuts facing the state’s largest school district over the next two years.

So are school librarians, guidance counselors and elementary music teachers, along with the district’s gifted and talented program and its outdoor lab. Those and numerous others are contained in a prioritized list of suggestions for cuts created in December by a citizens’ advisory group.

Thursday was the school board’s second public comment session since the list was released and the second to draw hundreds of people to a meeting to urge board members not to follow its contents.

After an audience packed the board’s meeting in January, where the possible elimination of elementary instrumental music teachers was the focus, district leaders decided to move Thursday’s meeting to the more spacious auditorium.

Another sign of public interest in the process came Saturday, when about 600 people participated in five community budget forums at high schools across the county, said district spokeswoman Lynn Setzer.

Board members, who will make the final budget decision in May or June, have emphasized that the prioritized list is not binding. So they’ve become the targets of emotional appeals.

School librarians appeared to be the biggest group at Thursday’s meeting, with many audience members wearing stickers on their shirts that read “Support School Libraries.” The prioritized list calls for reducing all 92 elementary librarians to half-time and eliminating middle school librarians altogether.

But guidance counselors and instructional coaches, along with their supporters, also were out in large numbers.

Sandy Austin, a counselor at Green Mountain High School in Lakewood, said district counselors have handled 88 suicide risk assessments this year.

“It’s a matter of life and death,” she said. “Please save our counselors’ jobs so we can save our kids.”

The list of suggested reductions includes cutting up to 17 middle and high school counselors and as many as 20 instructional coaches.

Several schools, such as Parmalee, Powderhorn and Hutchinson elementaries and Carmody Middle School, turned out in force to give moving testimony to the power of their coaches.

Corey Lynn, a sixth-grade teacher at Hutchinson, said the school’s instructional coach, Christina Larson, helps him with a class of 34 students.

“With the class sizes so huge, these kids are like flowers competing for the sun and many of them get lost,” Lynn said. “I can’t reach every single kid without someone there to look at the data and to pinpoint the needs of the kids and to reach those kids who are overshadowed.

“I can’t do it alone. I am overwhelmed.”

Audience members quickly dwindled throughout the evening as speakers made their comments and left, eager to avoid the coming snowstorm.

Tomorrow, two school board members and two district officials will meet with representatives of employee groups for Jeffco’s second annual employee summit, where they’re expected to talk about pay and benefits for next year.

Jeffco employees, along with many others in Colorado school districts, are in year three without cost-of-living raises. This year, all employees also took a 3 percent pay cut and two furlough days.

Shortly before public comment began Thursday, board members voted 4-1 to close employee negotiations to the public. Board member Laura Boggs was the only “no” vote.

A principal explains why his school needs an instructional coach

In outlining highlights and challenges for the coming year’s roughly $750 million operating budget, Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg emphasized that the district will not be seeing teacher layoffs, furlough days or increased class sizes.

And he underscored that the district’s economic balancing act, particularly with cuts at the state level, is not an easy one.

“Over the last four years, we have lost $1,000 per kid” in state funding, Boasberg told board members. “It’s an extraordinary challenge that districts are facing.”

Board member Nate Easley said he appreciated Boasberg’s use of the word “investment” in presenting his overview of where district dollars should go in the coming year.

“We’ve really got to start using in the state of Colorado the word ‘investment,’ which implies that there’s going to be a payout,” said Easley.

District staff is forecasting state K-12 funding cuts of about $48 million will reduce the district’s per-pupil funding by 2 percent, or $140 per pupil, to $6,733.

The expected drop in state per-pupil funding will be offset for DPS by the fact enrollment is expected to jump by 2.1 percent, or by 1,500 students, in the coming school year.

However, still to be factored into the budget mix is the March state revenue forecast, as well as legislative debate over retaining or eliminating the senior homestead exemption, a $100 million property tax break for senior citizens.

Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper’s budget proposal calls for the continued suspension of that exemption while House Republican leaders have said they want to restore it. Restoring it could force K-12 cuts in exchange.

The budget that was outlined for board members Thursday night highlighted these major operating budget changes on the horizon in the next fiscal year, totaling about $25.6 million.

• $10 million – Backfill the loss of state per-pupil funding
• $9.9 million – Pay for $400-per-pupil funding for beginning and intermediate English language learners, plus $3.2 million for increases in ELL support
• $2.5 million – To “provide extended learning opportunities,” primarily through adding an hour to the school day on a pilot basis at up to 15 elementary, middle, innovation and 6-12 schools
• $1.7 million – Instructional support service priorities
• $1.5 million – Increased pension costs

The bulk of the money to pay for this new spending, about $20 million, is proposed to be drawn from district reserves. Another $4 million will come in a decrease to student-based budgeting (from $3,931 to $3,872 per student), with another $1.5 million paid for by a reduction in operating costs.

Boasberg has said that drawing $20 million from DPS reserves for 2012-13 will leave $52 million in unallocated reserves heading into 2013-14.

‘Cuts are disproportionately hurting our higher poverty kids’

The district is contending with a decrease in both federal and state contributions to the DPS budget. Federal Title I funds, which are directed toward low-income students, are decreasing by $2.7 million.

Accordingly, schools with poverty rates of 66 to 89 percent will see the Title I contribution drop from $433 per pupil to $400 per student. Schools with poverty rates of 90 percent or more will see the contribution drop from $525 to $450.

The budget preview also highlighted that DPS faces a $7.2 million annual funding shortfall to maintain early childhood education and full-day kindergarten programs at their current levels.

“Cuts are hurting everyone badly,” said Boasberg. “But the cuts are disproportionately hurting our higher poverty kids.”

Board members responded favorably to the proposal that nearly $10 million is proposed to be devoted to students who are not native English speakers – $6.7 million would fund the extra $400-per-pupil “weighted” funding for English language learners, with another $3.2 million in increased support for English language acquisition programs.

“You’re doing a lot of good work around both sides,” said board member Arturo Jimenez, speaking to DPS chief academic officer Susana Cordova. “This really does make sense, and this is a weight that we’ve been needing … I’m very happy and glad to hear that kids are going to get these services, which will bring up expectations and achievements for all of these kids.”

Board member Jeannie Kaplan said, “I just want to make sure that we’re going in the right direction in teaching these kids. They deserve better. I hope that it’s not just about the money, but about running a good program.”

Some board members unhappy with extended day plan for some schools

The potential extended school year for roughly a dozen more schools next year carries not only a $2.5 million price tag, a figure Boasberg conceded is not etched in stone. It has also stirred controversy, on the part of some parents who feel their opinions on the proposal have not been adequately heeded.

Also, the Denver Classroom Teachers Association has filed a class-action grievance, claiming a “mishandling of a process.” DCTA president Henry Roman contends the extra time is being considered without properly applying the “due process of collective bargaining” called for under the union’s collective bargaining agreement with the district.

Kaplan was critical of the proposal in its current form.

“This to me is not such a pleasant conversation,” said Kaplan, who said she’d heard nothing of the plan until two days ago. “It seems very top-down, not collaborative and an issue that really should be a negotiated issue.”

As for the schools that may be included in the extended-day program, Kaplan added, “I’ve heard that ‘invited’ is a very nice way of saying, they were told to do this … I have a whole list of parents I need to call, who have contacted me about, why weren’t they involved?”

Jimenez, although terming the extended school day as “good-intentioned,” was troubled at the prospect of committing to a possible $2.5 million expenditure when it isn’t known yet how many schools will be adopting the longer school day. Boasberg is expecting proposals from 12 to 15 schools; the DCTA, in filing its grievance on the issue, cited 14.

“You’re asking us to allocate a significant amount of money for proposals we haven’t seen yet, and maybe just a handful of those schools will come forward with appropriate proposals,” said Jimenez.

“I’ll let you deal with the DCTA over whether this is a contract issue or not,” he added. “The real issue is about the budget, and details like transportation and the parents, in this process. For me, it’s kind of a blank check to do our own little Race to the Top and I can’t support that allocation.”

Others call the longer day a “win” for families and schools

Easley was one of several board members who were more supportive, calling it a “win” for parents, students, teachers and principals.

“It’s saying to students, at a time when a lot of the country is cutting back, and districts are going to four-day school weeks, this district is saying we’ve got bad times but you know what, we don’t want to cut our commitment to students,” Easley said.

The discussion about an extended day on a pilot basis overlapped with the district’s announcement that all DPS offices and schools will be closed today due to predictions of heavy snow. Boasberg said many questions raised by board members will be answered by the schools’ proposals, which are due today.

“We’ll be getting those by snowshoe and sled dog tomorrow,” Boasberg said Thursday night. “This is a learning experience, much as we have seen with innovation schools and other innovations. It’s a learning curve.

“I’m extremely excited about where we are, and as those proposals get mushed in, we will get them sent out, by electronic sled dog, to you.”

Board member Andrea Merida was absent from the session. According to board president Mary Seawell, Merida was attending a meeting at a school in her southwest Denver district.

The finalized budget is due to be presented to the board on April 19, and to be formally adopted at its meeting the following month.

What’s churning:

Don Elliman, an executive at the Anschutz Medical Campus and a top advisor to former Gov. Bill Ritter, has been named interim chancellor of the University of Colorado Denver and the Anschutz campus.

CU President Bruce Benson said there’s no timetable for finding a permanent chancellor.

Elliman succeeds Jerry Wartgow, who’s retiring next month. Wartgow was pretty much of an interim himself, having been appointed in March 2010. Wartgow’s long resume includes stints as acting dean of the DU education school, DPS superintendent, head of the state community college system and director of the Auraria Higher Education Center.

Elliman, currently director of a stem cell center at Anschutz, was Ritter’s chief operating officer and also was a key advisor to the citizen group that crafted a higher education strategic plan in 2010. A former Time Inc. executive, Elliman also served as president of Ascent Sports. See CU news release

A bill designed to improve third-grade literacy is expected to finally surface in the legislature next week. Ahead of that, the Bell Policy Institute has released a report breaking down some of the data on the issue, concluding there are large gaps in the reading abilities of Colorado third-graders. Report

Those who’d hoped sale of state-chartered Pinnacol Assurance, the big workers’ comp insurance company, would provide a cash infusion for state higher ed scholarships will have to wait. Gov. John Hickenlooper’s office announced Thursday that he is slowing work on a possible restructuring of the company and won’t make any proposals to the legislature this year.

The governor has mentioned college financial aid as one possible use for the proceeds of a Pinnacol sale. State financial aid and work-study funding totals about $100 million this year, and the administration is proposing the same amount in 2012-13.

What’s not on tap:

Blizzard forecasts prompted the legislature to cancel Friday sessions and the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to scratch its afternoon meeting at the Capitol.

If you’re curious about school district plans, check the closures list maintained by our partners at 9News.com.

The EdNews’ Churn is a daily roundup of briefs, notes and meetings in the world of Colorado education. To submit an item for consideration in this listing, please email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org.

Auraria Higher Education Center, home of Metro State

The proposal now goes to the legislature, which must approve changes in college and university names, because those names are sprinkled throughout state law. Denver Democrats Sen. Lucia Guzman and Rep. Crisanta Duran are expected to sponsor the bill.

“What was most important to me was to increase the value of degrees for students today and all alumni and students into the future,” said Metro President Stephen Jordan. “It reinforces our heritage; it makes a clear stake in the ground who we are. We are Metro State. We are the Roadrunners.”

Metro has been working for a couple of years on a name change, which trustees felt was important to clarify the college’s image as a full-service academic institution. (Metro now offers some master’s degrees.)

There was wide agreement about changing “college” to “university.” But there was vigorous campus debate about keeping “Metropolitan” in the name, where the word “Denver” should appear and how long the name should be.

Last year the trustees proposed the name Denver State University, but that plan never surfaced in the legislature because of opposition from the private University of Denver.

It was back to the drawing board, and back to negotiations with DU, partially brokered by Democratic Sens. Mike Johnston of Denver and Rollie Heath of Boulder.

The proposed new name is accompanied by a “coexistence agreement” with DU that will govern how the two institutions brand and present their names. Under the agreement, hammered out over five negotiating sessions, Metro agrees not to infringe on DU’s established trademarks or use terms in future marketing and branding efforts.

DU agrees to Metro’s use of the new name and that it won’t oppose Metro’s efforts to win legislative approval or seek trademark protection for the new name.

Two trustees, Melody Harris and Michelle Lucero, said they voted no because they felt the coexistence agreement wasn’t in Metro’s best interests and was too limiting. Board chair Rob Cohen also voted no, expressing concerns that the board had backed down on its full set of goals for the new name.

But, after the vote, Cohen urged the trustees to unite behind the new name and promised to work for its approval by the legislature.

Other names that had been considered earlier were Denver Metropolitan State University, Denver State Metropolitan University and Metropolitan Denver State University. (Get more information on the name change effort.)

Last year the legislature turned Mesa State College into Colorado Mesa University, and legislation is already pending this year to covert Adams State College to Adams State University. Western State College also is studying a possible new name (more information). The issue is listed as a discussion item for the trustees’ Feb. 10 meeting.

If Metro, Adams and Western win name change approval, the only four-year “college” left in the state system will be Fort Lewis in Durango.

Meanwhile at the Capitol

Thursday in the legislature was most notable for what didn’t happen with education legislation.

Senate Bill 12-068, the proposal to ban use of trans fats in any foods served at schools, was pulled off the calendar of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

The Senate Education Committee approved a couple of minor bills, including Senate Bill 12-051, which would encourage school districts to consider new kinds of guidelines for outside contracts. The always-talkative members of Senate Ed managed to chew on that bill for an hour.

The Senate Finance Committee voted 4-3 (Democrats opposing, Republicans supporting) to kill Senate Bill 12-061, which would have diverted some state severance tax revenues to create a fund for rural colleges.

The new name includes a “coexistence agreement” with the private University of Denver that apparently will govern how the two institutions brand and present their names. A copy of the agreement wasn’t immediately available, but two trustees specifically mentioned the agreement as the reason for their no vote.

Other names that had been considered earlier were Denver Metropolitan State University, Denver State Metropolitan University and Metropolitan Denver State University.

Last year, Metro floated the name Denver State University but backed off after objections from DU.

The trustees have been working on the issue for two years, motivated by a felt need to “demonstrate the quality of the College’s degree; eliminate confusion that Metro State is a community college, when it is a four-year baccalaureate and graduate institution; clarify the College’s location in Denver; and make the name more concise,” in the words of a college statement last year.

College and university name changes have to be approved by the state legislature. Last year the legislature turned Mesa State College into Colorado Mesa University, and legislation is already pending this year to covert Adams State College to Adams State University. Western State College also is studying a possible new name (more information). The issue is listed as a discussion item for the trustees’ Feb. 10 meeting.

What’s churning:

Douglas County’s school board has scheduled a three-hour closed session tonight but a group of parents, armed with questions about the district budget, are demanding the meeting be open to the public.

Susan Meek, a Dougco parent and the district’s former communications director, said more than 50 parents signed a letter protesting the closure of tonight’s meeting and what they see as “a pattern of increasing closure” of board meetings. The letter was hand-delivered Wednesday to the district.

Meek and a number of other parents and community members have been closely questioning district finances, particularly the growth of reserves in recent years as board members approved cuts and raised fees for families, including charging to ride the school bus.

The board’s last community meeting drew a particularly raucous and critical crowd as teachers union president Brenda Smith presented a survey showing plummeting employee morale. See EdNews’ story and video.

Dougco leaders responded by posting a Q & A from that meeting and launching a superintendent’s blog and a “Budget Facts” webpage.

Meek said she and other parents plan to attend tonight’s 6 p.m. meeting at district headquarters, 620 Wilcox St. in Castle Rock, to demand it be opened. Agenda

Meanwhile, in case you missed it, Dougco board members made news Wednesday when they announced their endorsement of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.

Jeffco school board members decided last week to move tonight’s meeting to a high school auditorium to accommodate what’s expected to be a large crowd for public comment.

The state’s largest school district is anticipating budget cuts of $50 million to $60 million over the next two years and many speakers are expected at tonight’s session to address proposed cuts from a citizens’ advisory group.

On Jan. 28, school board members held community budget sessions across the county. A video from those sessions is available on the district website.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Lakewood High School, 9700 West 8th Ave. Agenda

Denver school board members also are meeting tonight in a four-hour work session that’s expected to include their first detailed look at the district’s 2012-13 budget proposal.

Superintendent Tom Boasberg presented a thumbnail sketch of his budget plans Wednesday, and used that opportunity to launch a “community conversation” about a proposed tax hike to go before voters this fall.

Afterward, Boasberg spoke further about the challenges of selling an increase in school taxes so quickly on the heels of the failed statewide education funding measure Proposition 103, which voters turned down 2-to-1 on Nov. 1.

“These are very, very challenging economic times, and we’ve been through the worst recession in over half a century, and so it’s very clear that voters have a very high bar,” he admitted. “Voters will need to be convinced that any investment in the schools that we would propose would have to have a real benefit to schools and to the community.”

He’s buoyed by his belief that people are already voting for DPS – with their feet. “If you look now, with the very strong enrollment increases in DPS, over the last four years, an additional 9,000 students, then it is clear we are capturing more and more and more of Denver’s families,” said Boasberg. “I think that’s a very promising sign.”

Today’s meeting begins at 4:30 p.m. at 900 Grant St. It is open to the public. Agenda

Good reads from elsewhere:

Greeley school board member Brett Reese, who made headlines for asking to bring a gun to board meetings, resigned two years into his four-year term on Wednesday, according to stories in the Greeley Tribune and the Greeley Gazette, an online news site. His full resignation letter is on the Gazette site.

Reese has been controversial since his election in November 2009, as noted in this EdNews‘ story, but he became the topic of heated debate after he broadcast statements critical of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his radio station shortly before the King national holiday in 2011 and then asked to carry a gun to board meetings to protect himself from critics.

In May, Reese was censured by his fellow board members following allegations that he inappropriately touched a teacher and appeared intoxicated at a board meeting – allegations he denies. The Tribune reports he has missed nearly a quarter of board meetings since he was elected.

Reese’s term was set to expire in 2013, according to the district website, which continued this morning to show his photo and bio.

The EdNews’ Churn is a daily roundup of briefs, notes and meetings in the world of Colorado education. To submit an item for consideration in this listing, please email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org.

Grant Beacon Middle School teacher Kevin Croghan and DPS Superintendent Tom Boasberg at today's press conference.

The extra time would add spending of about $2.5 million in 2012-13. Boasberg said the district also would spend roughly $8.5 million on additional per-pupil funding for English language learners – a boost of about $400 per student.

Despite generally tough economic times, Boasberg said the DPS community needs to think about what more can be done instead of talk about “less, and less, and less, and less” investment in students’ futures.

“In this next budget year, the 12-13 school year, we will be increasing money for our schools and our classrooms,” Boasberg said during a morning press conference at Grant Beacon Middle School in southeast Denver.

“That is the most important thing we can do, to maximize our dollars in schools and in the classroom, to allow us to hire more teachers, to offer more opportunity for more kids, more enrichment, more activities, more elective courses, more tutoring, more intervention, all of the kinds of things that we can do by putting more money in our schools, and in our classrooms.”

He added, “Money in our classrooms. That is the name of the game.”

Boasberg said he expects proposals within the next two weeks from 12 to 15 schools, demonstrating how they would make use of an added hour to the school day.

At the middle school level – from which a majority of the proposals are expected – the day currently runs from 7:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Grant is one of the schools seeking to add the hour. Social studies teacher Kevin Croghan said staff members have been developing plans for a longer day since last year.

“Within our school, I’d say we have a lot of support for this idea, and of course we have been looking at this for nine months, well before it became a bit of a hotter topic for the district,” said Croghan, who is particularly excited about the potential for adding electives.

“Everyone in our school has already been committed to staying added time. This will just be adding a structure to make it more effective.”

Some parents at other DPS middle schools have said an extended school day is being thrust upon them against their wishes. But Nick Bottinelli, whose daughter is a seventh-grader at Grant, insisted he has not heard that sentiment from parents there.

“We’ve been working with (Principal) Alex Magaña and his staff there, and we are very comfortable with the initiatives that they think are best for our students,” said Bottinelli, a member of the steering committee for the Grant Parents Group.

The press conference was attended by DPS school board president Mary Seawell and board member Anne Rowe, who represents the area. Neither participated in the presentation and, afterward, Seawell was measured in her response to what she heard.

“We haven’t had a chance to talk about this as a board,” she said. “There are some potentially complicated issues. We need more from the superintendent, whether it’s related to the labor contract, are there issues with the cost and what that is, realistically, and how is a school going to be eligible for this?”

DPS board members will get their first detailed 2012-13 budget presentation Thursday. They’re expected to approve the budget in May or June.

“Generally, I am very much in favor of extending the school day and the school year,” Seawell added, “if it can be shown how it’s going to have a positive effect on students.”

State K-12 funding cuts have cost DPS about $80 million in recent years, Boasberg said, and the anticipated loss of another $140 in per-pupil funding in the next fiscal year would mean DPS has lost nearly $1,000 per student over a three-year period.

But he said tapping the district’s reserves and cuts in administration leave DPS able to spend $40 million over the next two years on initiatives such as the extended school day and increased funding for English language learners.

State K-12 funding cuts have cost DPS about $80 million over the past three years, or roughly $1,000 per student, Boasberg said. But he said tapping the district’s reserves and cuts in administration leave DPS able to spend $40 million over the next two years on initiatives such as the extended school day and increased funding for English language learners.

As other districts have done in recent years, DPS has pulled money from its reserves – $20 million this year and an expected $20 million in 2012-13. That would leave about $52 million remaining in reserves, Boasberg said.

He said the district will be launching a “community conversation” in coming months about a proposed tax increase for operating dollars on the November ballot. District leaders already have said they may propose a tax increase for building dollars.

“There are still unacceptable achievement gaps in our city,” Boasberg said, “and we need to invest more resources in the programs that will eliminate those gaps – early childhood education, extended time, enrichment opportunities, new technology, and more teachers to lower class sizes.

“We look forward to discussing with the community how we can end this cycle of cuts and make these vital investments in our kids.”

Denver teachers’ union leaders on Tuesday filed a grievance over the proposed extra time and released a list of 14 schools they say may have a longer school day starting this fall.

The schools on that list are Barrett Elementary, Cole Arts & Science Academy, Bruce Randolph Middle, Denver Center for International Studies Middle, Grant Beacon Middle, Hamilton Middle, Henry World School, Hill Middle School of Arts & Sciences, Johnson Elementary, Manual High School, Merrill Middle, Morey Middle, Skinner Middle and Smiley Middle.

Boasberg today said the total number of schools with longer days this fall could be as high as 15. But he said the number will ultimately depend on how many submit applications and are approved.

Members of the Joint Budget Committee were at the center of the discussion on testing costs. Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, is third from left.

Members of the House and Senate education committees sat down with the Joint Budget Committee Wednesday morning to talk about testing costs. The session was held under the new SMART Government Act and legislative rules that encourage other committees to give the JBC formal advice on departmental budgets.

“There are some significant decision items pending here,” said JBC member Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver. “I would feel better if you would help us on the policy decisions,” he added a few minutes later.

Education policymakers have been wrestling with testing costs since November, when CDE formally filed a request for $25.9 million in 2012-13 to pay for development of new statewide tests to replace the CSAPs, to launch social studies tests and to help create interim and formative tests to be given to students throughout the school year.

But Gov. John Hickelooper didn’t include the $25.9 million in his overall budget request, leading to legislative questions about just what the executive branch wants. Administration officials – and some key legislators like Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver – have said Colorado should wait for multistate reading and math tests expected to be ready in 2014-15.

The consortia “really are building the Ferrari version of this assessment,” Johnston said Wednesday. “Our own version is probably not going to have all the bells and whistles.”

“I understand you had some interesting discussions among yourselves,” Steadman said, referring to recent separate meetings of the education committees at which members vented and expressed confusion about testing costs and some other CDE budget items.

Wednesday’s joint session was more orderly than the two recent meetings, and members seemed to have a better grasp of the issues.

Rep. Robert Ramirez, R-Westminster, led the criticism of both testing costs and educator evaluation costs during a House Education session on Monday. “I went a little rabid on CDE a little earlier in the week,” Ramirez said Wednesday. Saying he was “eating a little crow,” Ramirez said, “I feel they [CDE] have given a lot of valid information” about cost issues.

As the discussion wound down, Steadman said, “We don’t have consensus and we have a lot of choices,” but he added, “This has been a very helpful discussion.”

Several members did seem to be in general agreement that Colorado should participate in the multistate tests but that some money should be set aside to start development on new social studies and science tests, which aren’t part of the systems being developed by the multistate consortia.

Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen and chair of the JBC, said the committee is hoping to find $7 million for that.

Some lawmakers sounded cautionary notes. Rep. Judy Solano, D-Brighton and the legislature’s foremost critic of standardized testing, said, “We are going down a very expensive road here.” Rep. Sue Schafer, D-Wheat Ridge, wondered if the state could save some money by taking a one-year test moratorium on all exams except reading and math.

Count date bill advances

House Education did a little real business later in the morning, voting 13-0 to pass House Bill 12-1090, which would move the Oct. 1 student count date in years that it falls on a religious holiday.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, was prompted by a problem last year when Oct. 1 fell on a Saturday, pushing the count date back to Sept. 30. That was the Jewish observance of Rosh Hashanah.

“There are concerns when we’re doing count day on a major religious holiday,” Pace told the committee. The bill would move count day to the next regular school day after Oct. 1 if a religious holiday coincides with that date.

The state allows a window of five school days on either side of Oct. 1 to count children who are absent on count day. Some committee members asked if that provided a way to avoid the problem without changing the law, but by the end of the hearing everyone agreed the bill was needed.

For the record

The House gave unanimous final approval Wednesday to House Bill 12-1013, which encourages school districts to provide help for middle school students who show risk factors for dropping out, and to House Bill 12-1018, which gives the Auraria Higher Education Center exemption from some state financial and administrative procedures.

“I’m truly grateful to earn the support of the members of the Douglas County Board of Education for my education reform agenda,” Romney states in the release. “They share my vision of taking control of our children’s curriculum out of the hands of the federal government. Our kids are served best when these crucial decisions are made at the local level.”

Randy Barber, spokesman for the Douglas County School District, said the board members did not publicly vote on supporting Romney and are not supporting him in their official capacity. Rather, all seven members are supporting him as private individuals.

“We are very proud to be supporting Mitt Romney,” board president John Carson states in the release, which lists the names and board titles of all seven members. “He is committed to making our education system more effective by reducing needless federal intrusion, empowering local officials, and promoting choice and competition.”

It is unusual for a local school board to weigh in on a national political race. However, Douglas County board members have drawn national attention for their voucher pilot plan, which was halted by a Denver judge and is now being appealed. In addition, the county Republican Party openly endorsed board members in board races in 2009 and 2011.

For more on Romney’s positions on education, as well as those of other Republican contenders, see this story by our partners at Education Week.

Greeley School Board Member Brett Reese, who sparked headlines after asking to carry a gun to board meetings, has resigned two years into his four-year term, according to stories in the Greeley Tribune and the Greeley Gazette, an online news site. His full resignation letter is on the Gazette site.

Reese has been controversial since his election in November 2009, as noted in this EdNews‘ story, but he became the topic of heated debate after he broadcast statements critical of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on his radio station shortly before the King national holiday in 2011 and then asked to carry a gun to board meetings to protect himself from critics.

In May, Reese was censured by his fellow board members following allegations that he inappropriately touched a teacher and appeared intoxicated at a board meeting – allegations he denies. The Tribune reports he has missed nearly a quarter of board meetings since he was elected.

Reese’s term was set to expire in 2013, according to the district website, which continues to show his photo and bio.

What’s churning:

The University of Colorado Regents today will get their first look at possible hikes in student fees for the 2012-13 school year.

The regents, meeting at CU’s Colorado Springs campus, won’t vote on tuition and fees until April, but this month’s agenda includes a list of possible fee hikes for next year. The Boulder student activities fee could rise “not more” than 5 percent while the fee at the Denver campus could rise 9.6 percent. Various room and board fees might rise at rates around 4 percent. (See full list.)

Proposed resident tuition rates that could top 15 percent were discussed at the regents’ January meeting and raised some eyebrows (see Boulder Daily Camera story), and members of Occupy CU-Boulder held a teach-in on campus Tuesday to protest rising tuition.

All state colleges and universities have relied on tuition and fee hikes to backfill declining state tax support in recent years. (See the Department of Higher Education’s most recent tuition and fees report.)

Denver Public Schools Superintendent Tom Boasberg, joined by teachers and parents, will preview the proposed 2012-13 budget today in a media briefing at Grant Middle School, 1751 S. Washington St. An advisory from the school district states that funding to schools will increase “despite further anticipated state cuts” and that Boasberg will also discuss “potential funding for school-based proposals to lengthen the school day and a proposed district funding increase to support English language learners.”

EdNews reported earlier this week that the district is considering adding one hour to the school day for up to 14 schools this fall, and the teachers’ union Tuesday filed a grievance over the proposal. That extension to the schedule would require added funding, which would need approval from the DPS school board. The board is to have its first presentation on next year’s at its session scheduled for 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Agenda

Onward and upward for Mesa: First the school got approval to offer doctorates, then it got upgraded to university status and now Colorado Mesa University is getting another accoutrement of big-time status – a marching band. “As Colorado Mesa University transitions into a new era of growth and expansion, the time is ripe to begin another new tradition – the CMU Marching Band,” said President Tim Foster in a statement. The band is expected to be fully up and marching in time for the 2013 football season.

Under Foster, a former legislator and Department of Higher Education chief, Mesa has increasingly charted its own path. Foster has been a vocal advocate of maximum institutional flexibility and a critic of central state regulation of higher education.

What’s on tap:

Adams 12-Five Star school board members meet today at the Educational Support Center, 1500 E. 128th Ave. There’s a work session at 5:15 p.m. and regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. Agenda

The Metro State trustees open two days of committee sessions today and a full board meeting Thursday. Agenda

Good reads from elsewhere:

Thompson School District is studying possible adjustments to its school year calendar, the Loveland Herald reports, but a committee at least isn’t siding with those who favored starting after Labor Day.

Trinidad School District is weighing budget and personnel cuts in light of the district’s shortage in cash reserves. According to the Trinidad Times, an independent financial consultant says the district only has enough money in reserves to cover one month’s operating expenses.

Tennessee, New York and many other states are working to implement new approaches to measuring educator effectiveness, The Christian Science Monitor reports, and the workload for principals has increased dramatically.

The Colorado Mountain College board of trustees postponed until March a decision regarding possible increases in student tuition and fees for the 2012-13 school year, according to the Glenwood Springs Post-Independent. The board also asked to review more detailed information about a proposed 3 percent increase in CMC’s current $52 million operating budget for 2012-13.

The EdNews’ Churn is a daily roundup of briefs, notes and meetings in the world of Colorado education. To submit an item for consideration in this listing, please email us at EdNews@EdNewsColorado.org.

A screenshot from ColoradoSchoolGrades.com.

The CASE letter to principals, assistant principals and superintendents went out late last week, about six weeks after the debut of ColoradoSchoolGrades.com. The website, funded by a coalition of foundations and advocacy groups, grades the state’s public schools from A to F.

It was developed by Colorado Succeeds with help from the Center for Education Policy Analysis at CU-Denver’s School of Public Affairs. Tim Taylor, who heads Colorado Succeeds, said it’s an attempt to make it easy for parents and others to see how schools are performing.

A screenshot from the state's SchoolView.org.

But CASE gives the site less than a passing grade.

In his letter, CASE executive director Bruce Caughey wrote, “Schools were graded on a curve that arbitrarily determined that 10 percent would receive A’s no matter how well the schools performed.

“In addition, they decided that 5 percent of schools must receive F’s regardless of how well they did. And their process will always make that happen even if all schools perform well.”

Caughey added the site’s approach “shifts attention toward a single measure, away from the broader, and much more accepted, presentation of information” offered by the state. And he directs CASE members to encourage parents to instead use the Colorado Department of Education’s SchoolView.org webpage.

The state system divides schools into four broad categories of Performance, Improvement, Priority Improvement and Turnaround. It places 60 percent of schools in the top Performance category.

Taylor, who described parts of the letter as “a little misguided,” said the website already has received 200,000 visitors.

“We would have appreciated an opportunity to comment and even correct,” he said.

Taylor takes issue with the CASE critique about slicing the state’s schools into narrower bands for ranking. Only 10 percent of the schools – the 186 that earn 90 percent of the points possible – earn an A rating. And only 38 schools, those with 98 percent or above, receive an A+.

“We did that because we wanted to recognize the top performers, whereas the state wants to recognize the top 60 percent,” said Taylor.

Giving 60 percent of schools the top rating “means that a school in the 42nd percentile and a school in the 98th percentile are called the same thing,” he pointed out.

“That seems outrageous to us,” Taylor said. “Are they saying it’s better that we recognize the top 60 percent as the ‘top performers’?”

Caughey said last week’s letter results from principals turning to CASE for more information about the school grades website.

“We had gotten a request from our board of our principals’ group saying, ‘Could you provide some context and information about School Grades? Because we didn’t receive anything, and we are the ones getting the questions about this.’

“There was no communication with school principals about what this was intended to do,” Caughey added.

Taylor provided Education News Colorado with an email about the new ranking system sent to CASE and others on Nov. 16, about four weeks before the site launched.

“There was no ‘gotcha’ here,” he said. “There was advance notice we were doing this, and we explained our rationale for doing it.”

Both SchoolView.org and ColoradoSchoolGrades.com are just the latest in a long line of public and private efforts to help parents and others navigate the state’s 1,500-plus schools. Prior to SchoolView, former Gov. Bill Owens initiated letter grades for schools from E to U, or excellent to unsatisfactory, and the state sent out annual School Accountability Reports or SARs.

Caughey said the state’s most recent initiative, SchoolView.org, is “comprehensive” with “lots of different points of information.” But he conceded, “If you’re looking for a single label, it’s not quite as easy to find a single label. You have to look in there, and look at more than one indicator. That’s its beauty and also its drawback.”

He said it would have been more helpful for Colorado Succeeds and its partners “to focus efforts on improving that system, than on creating an alternative system.”

Denver school board member Andrea Merida, who has criticized the school grades website for failing to properly account for schools with more English language learners, expressed a slight preference for the state’s webpage.

But she believes parents generally place lower emphasis on statistical rankings and more on a school’s commitment to “the whole child approach” and its ability to prepare children for college.

“Most parents aren’t really interested in overall think-tank speak,” said Merida. “They want to know how the school is going to prepare the child according to their own values and to what they think is important.”

Here are snapshots of the latest proposals:

Senate Bill 12-130 – The measure would create an Office of Early Childhood and Youth Development in the state Department of Human Services, consolidating oversight of several programs now part of various agencies.

An initiative of the Hickenlooper administration and a legislative study group, the bill is seen as a first step in improving the quality of early childhood programs and making better use of existing funding. The administration had hoped to pay for faster improvements with a Race to the Top – Early Learning Challenge grant, but Colorado didn’t make the cut in that competition.

A report on early childhood initiatives, compiled from a statewide “listening tour” late last year, is expected this month from the office of Lt. Gov. Joe Garcia.

Senate Bill 12-145 – This plan, sponsored by the Joint Budget Committee, would clamp down on the recent practice of funneling revenue from state school trust lands into the annual School Finance Act, rather than letting the money flow into what’s called the permanent fund. (Only interest from the permanent fund can be spent.) Because school land revenue has helped soften, at least slightly, recent school budget cuts, this bill may raise concerns for some lawmakers and lobbyists.

Senate Bill 12-106 – Sponsored by Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, the bill would add college remediation rates to the performance indicators used to rate school districts and high schools. The measure also would add early colleges to the list of institutions that have a guaranteed transfer of core course credits to public colleges. Accredited early colleges would be given the authority to award degrees.

Colorado has only a few early college programs, which are kind of a hybrid high school and community college. King is the administrator of Colorado Springs Early Colleges, a charter school overseen by the state Charter School Institute. King, who’s not running for reelection this year, is a tireless evangelist for the concept and says he wants to replicate it in Douglas County and Fort Collins.

(Of concern to some lobbyists is the fact that the bill has an extremely broad title – “Concerning Education.” That would allow any number of amendments on any number of subjects to be added. King’s nickname in the legislature is “the Amendment King.”)

Sen. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs

The bill also proposes multiple changes in law regarding the charter institute schools, including a provision allowing the institute to authorize charter schools within school districts that are accredited with turnaround plans. (Current law only allows the institute to approve schools in districts that do not have exclusive chartering authority.) The bill also would give the institute greater financial flexibility.

Senate Bill 12-103 – Sponsored by Sen. Bacon, D-Fort Collins and chair of the Senate Education Committee, the bill would change some of the accounting procedures between school districts and their charters that involve numbers of at-risk students. Charters get different reimbursement rates now based on when they opened. The bill would create a a uniform rate. Bacon is the sole sponsor for now, and the bill will be opposed by charter advocates.

Senate Bill 12-119 – This is the seventh bill relating to the Public Employees’ Retirement Association that has been introduced by various Republican sponsors. It would require the PERA board to adjust retiree benefits to ensure that each of PERA’s divisions remain on 30-year amortization schedules. (Benefits could be adjusted by individual division.)

The legislature would be barred from increasing employee and employer contributions in order to meet amortization schedules. PERA, which covers all Colorado teachers and many higher education employees, and how it operates are major targets for legislative Republicans.

But not radical changes are expected to survive in the Democratic controlled Senate. On Monday Senate Bill 12-016, which would have allowed some local governments to decrease their PERA contributions while requiring employees to kick in more, was killed by a Senate committee.

There was a large dump of bills in the House on Monday, including House Bill 12-1201, a JBC bill that increases 2011-12 school funding by about $18 million to cover the costs of higher-than-predicted enrollment. The increase would be covered by local tax revenues, which didn’t decline as much as predicted, and state support actually will be cut back slightly.

Use the Education Bill Tracker for links to bill texts and status information. As of Tuesday the Tracker included 57 bills affecting schools and colleges or of interest to the education community.

What’s still to come

Last Friday was the deadline for introduction of bills in the Senate (obviously that got extended), and Wednesday is the House deadline.

Deadlines are flexible things in the Colorado legislature, given what’s known as “late bill status,” a designation awarded by legislative leadership for a variety of reasons, some practical and some political.

Bills have yet to be introduced on such key issues as regulation of online schools, school finance reform, revenue adjustments for the BEST program, updating the Innovation Schools Act, improving third-grade literacy, modernizing regulation of for-profit colleges and mandatory parent notification when school employees are arrested.

It’s possible some of those bills will surface on Wednesday’s House deadline.

Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs / File photo

Early drafts of the legislation suggested mandatory retention of third graders who were functionally illiterate, an idea that caused a lot of heartburn among educators. The bill reportedly will require parents, teachers and principals to consider whether struggling third graders should be held back, and for superintendents to approve a student being retained in grade.

Other bills may not surface for weeks. For instance, Johnston says his school finance reform measure won’t be ready until mid to late February at the earliest.

Mostly slow going for minor bills

The House on Tuesday spent half an hour on three low-level education bills and approved two of them.

House Bill 12-1013 is a purely advisory measure that urges school districts to provide intervention services for middle school students that show risk factors for dropping out. But discussion got drawn out a bit over an amendment that proposed to add “restorative justice” to the list of suggested interventions. The amendment was defeated, and the bill got preliminary approval.

Things got stickier with House Bill 12-1061, which would require the Department of Higher Education to work with other state agencies to produce an annual report on state workforce needs and how they match up with the kinds of degrees and certificates produced by the state higher education system.

Sponsor Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Englewood, is promoting the bill as a jobs measure, and House Democrats have touted it as part of their economic development package.

Rep. Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock

And Rep. Don Beezley, R-Broomfield, said, “We’re doing something that sounds kind of good … but ultimately will it achieve anything?”

The bill ended up being laid over because of confusion over whether it would cost anything and thereby require the dreaded “fiscal note,” a legislative staff analysis of potential costs. Bills with fiscal notes attached end up being assigning to the appropriations committee, where they can languish for weeks.

The House did take only about a minute to give a preliminary OK to House Bill 12-1081, a catch-up measure that would give the Auraria Higher Education Center the same financial and administrative flexibility that has been granted to state colleges and universities in recent years.