“Journalism is literature in a hurry.” – Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), British poet and cultural critic.

Fewer legislators hope to get more done

By Jim Wallace

Sometimes 10 is a better number than 134. That’s not revised math but education reform. And it’s politics.

Ten members of the Legislature are now trying to do what all of them had been doing: work out compromises on the education bills submitted to them by Gov. Manchin for their special session.

By Wednesday, lawmakers had worked for seven straight days on the special session bills, but they were nowhere close to agreement on any of them. Instead of letting the education agenda fail, Manchin and legislative leaders decided to let most of the Legislature take a break while five senators and five delegates in a working group try to reach agreement on the issues. The hope is that they’ll be able to do that by June 7, when the special session is set to resume.

The working group held its first meeting Thursday. State Supt. Steve Paine and other officials from the Department of Education are participating in the discussions. So are leaders of the West Virginia Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia.

“As governor, I’m as pleased as I can be. I think we’re going to have some tremendous results.” – Gov. Manchin

“As governor, I’m as pleased as I can be,” Manchin said. “I think we’re going to have some tremendous results.”

House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour, who is leading the House delegation, said she hopes the group also hears from representatives of county school boards, because of the effects the legislation could have on their operations. She was particularly concerned about the original version of a bill to permit Charter Innovation Zone schools.

“I believe there is very little knowledge of it out there in the field. I don’t think the public knows the issues, and when they learn them, they would have problems with the legislation.” – Delegate Mary Poling

“It did not require approval by county boards of a charter application,” Poling said. “I am glad to say that the Senate did get that in there in their version. It would have been in mine had we progressed far with it. I had a list of several issues.”

Any reforms that come out of the Legislature need local support, she said, but she’s not sure many people around the state understand what is being considered.

“I believe there is very little knowledge of it out there in the field,” Poling said. “I don’t think the public knows the issues, and when they learn them, they would have problems with the legislation.”

 

Time came to try a different way.

Lawmakers themselves had a lot of problems with the issues. By Wednesday, only two education bills had gotten fully through the House. The Senate had passed all but one of the seven bills, but most weren’t getting much traction in the House. That’s when Manchin, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin and House Speaker Rick Thompson decided it was fruitless to keep the whole Legislature going in special session. They thought the 10-member working group could be more effective.

“In the context of a special session, it’s hard to get consensus.” – Speaker Rick Thompson

“In the context of a special session, it’s hard to get consensus,” Thompson, D-Wayne, said. “When we come back here in June, we will have that consensus, so we can go right through the special session.”

One reason Manchin called the special session this month was that he wanted West Virginia to be able to apply for the second round of the federal Race to the Top competition. The state could have gotten as much as $75 million, but applications must be in by June 1.

Among the 40 states and District of Columbia in the first round of competition, West Virginia placed 36th. That showed Manchin and other state officials they had to make a lot of changes to be more competitive in the second round, but the deadline proved to be too tight.

“We’re not going to be able to compete for the second round in a timely fashion to have the quality of education we need in the reforms we need,” Manchin said Wednesday. That was after he, Tomblin and Thompson discussed their situation with U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who told them the Obama administration intends to have a third round of Race to the Top competition.

“I think we’ll be in a much stronger position to compete, and I truly mean compete, for that third round,” Manchin said. “I think you’re going to see some positive movement.”

 

Session will pick up where it left off.

An advantage of putting the special session on hold until June 7 is that lawmakers will not have to start from scratch on the education reform bills.

“Obviously, these are complicated issues,” Tomblin, D-Logan, said. “Let them start where they’re at now with all the work they’ve already put into it and continue to try to reach compromise bills. I think it’s so important. We need to keep in the back of our minds that the money for Race to the Top will still be out there, but the first and foremost thing we need to do is think about our children and how we can move our education system forward together.”

“I believe we’re in a crisis in education, not only in West Virginia but across this country, and that we must make meaningful reform.” – Judy Hale, AFT-WV

Despite the difficulty of special session, all of the key parties said it was worth it for legislators to focus so much attention on education reform.

“This is the first time that we have had an opportunity to really concentrate on education and what’s best for our children,” Judy Hale, president of AFT-WV. “I believe we’re in a crisis in education, not only in West Virginia but across this country, and that we must make meaningful reform.”

Although Hale and WVEA President Dale Lee both criticized the bills the Manchin administration introduced, they both expressed optimism the reform effort is now on the right track.

“We’re very pleased to have a seat at the table now, to have these discussions begin, so we can move education forward in West Virginia.” – Dale Lee, WVEA

“Although our goal is to have a competitive application for Race to the Top, this is more than just a chase for dollars. It was more than just a chase for dollars for us,” Lee said. “It was an opportunity to have proven education reform that will better enhance our students across West Virginia. We’re very pleased to have a seat at the table now, to have these discussions begin, so we can move education forward in West Virginia.”

Supt. Paine called it “a good day” for education. “I have never in my career dreamed that we would be discussing some of the items that we’re discussing on the agenda,” he said. “They are good items that will move education forward…I’m confident that on June 7 you will see an agenda that will move public education forward.”

 

Nothing has been wasted.

About the special session, Poling said, “It was not time wasted.” Several others, including Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, emphasized the same point.

“In the last few days, this is the best dialogue that I’ve heard, and many of the members in the Senate have said the same thing,” Plymale said. “We’ve gotten down to meaningful things. We’ve had long discussions. When have you known the Senate to come in on Saturday morning and start working the terms of a bill and going through it to great lengths? I think there’s been nothing wasted. It’s been the best dialogue, and we are moving toward a consensus.”

“I think this is the biggest chance I’ve seen in almost my 50 years in education to move education forward.” – State board President Priscilla Haden

Priscilla Haden, president of the state school board, said she feel the same enthusiasm now that she did the first time she walked into a classroom as a teacher. “I think this is the biggest chance I’ve seen in almost my 50 years in education to move education forward,” she said.

The eight education reform bills incorporate 11 of the 28 reforms the state board proposed in its “It’s All About the Kids” report. (To see those recommendations, go to: http://wvde.state.wv.us/aboutthekids/.) Paine said the state board could enact the other 17 recommendations without legislation. Haden expects the board to take them up soon.

“We’re already working on policy that would help move all of them forward,” she said. “The focus here though, unfortunately, was Race to the Top, so those were the bills that were put into the call. But now, we can move immediately, starting at our next meeting, to move forward with the policy parts of a lot of these bills that require other codification.”

 

Republicans have doubts.

“I think it’s going to be an uphill battle.” – House Minority Leader Tim Armstead

But not everyone is as optimistic about the prospects for effective reform coming out of the special session when it resumes in June.

“I think it’s going to be an uphill battle,” House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, said. “I really do think it will be, because I believe the bills that were already introduced were somewhat compromised. Then if further compromise takes place, are we really going to have substantive legislation that does what it was intended to do.”

Armstead wants more emphasis on accountability in the system and improving classroom performance. He doesn’t like it that the proposed reforms avoid changes to personnel law.

“There was a sort of carve-out of the personnel issues,” Armstead said. “If you’re going to actually give a local system the ability to think outside the box and be creative, then you’re going to give them creativity in all those areas. You can’t carve out small areas and say those are off the table.”

“We need to be able to move people more fluidly around, not that we just jerk people around.” – Sen. Mike Hall

Sen. Mike Hall, R-Putnam, also would like to change personnel law. “You need a more efficient way to reallocate your resources in terms of your human resources,” he said. “We need to be able to move people more fluidly around, not that we just jerk people around.”

Hall, who is expected to be the next Senate minority leader, said that is one of the recommendations he has gotten from his wife, who is a school principal. The other two reforms he said she recommends are an attendance policy that works and a discipline policy that works.

“We need to be able to have building supervisors be able to manage a small number of disruptive students who can be there,” Hall said.

The House members of the working group include the following delegates: Poling; Ron Fragale, D-Harrison; Tom Campbell, D-Greenbrier; Josh Stowers, D-Lincoln; and Ray Canterbury, D-Greenbrier.

Senators in the group include: Plymale; Erik Wells, D-Kanawha; Richard Browning, D-Wyoming; Dan Foster, D-Kanawha; and Jesse Guills, R-Greenbrier.

 

Charter Innovation bill was making its way through

By Jim Wallace

One of the bills on the move before the special session went on spring break was Senate Bill 1007, which would authorize a limited form of charter school in West Virginia. It had passed the Senate after several changes and was being considered in the House Education Committee.

Among the changes was to switch the original name, “Charter Innovation Zones 2.0 Schools,” to simply “Charter Innovation Schools.” That was the suggestion Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, made when the bill was before the Senate Education Committee. At his suggestion, the Senate also added a provision for “Charter Innovation Transition Schools,” an intermediate category to handle changes involving all or part of a school with an expedited application process.

On a proposal from Sen. Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, the committee reduced the requirement for 80 percent of a school’s staff to agree to a Charter Innovation proposal to just 60 percent approval. He said it would be a shame if 78 percent of the staff at a school wanted to make the change but wouldn’t be allowed to do it.

Unger expressed concern that 60 percent support would not carry the same amount of excitement for innovation that 80 percent support would. “I just don’t want to set it up for failure,” he said. But Wells said requiring support as high as 80 percent would more likely jeopardize innovation proposals. Sen. Clark Barnes, R-Randolph, added that with the 80 percent level, 100 percent of a school’s teachers could support an application but it could be rejected if the school service personnel opposed it.

With such a scenario in mind, Wells proposed limiting the votes on charter proposals to just classroom teachers and other personnel who are directly involved in classroom work.

“It should up to the people with direct classroom responsibilities.” – Sen. Erik Wells

“Let’s say that the teachers at a school wanted to go year-round,” he said. “They thought that would be in the best interests of that community and that school. Well, you could have bus drivers who don’t want to work year-round vote against it. You could have custodians who don’t want to work year-round vote against it. You could have cooks who don’t want to work year-round vote against it. It should up to the people with direct classroom responsibilities.”

But Unger objected to that. “It is a team,” he said. “If we exclude individuals, shame on us.” The committee defeated that proposed change.

Another change made by the Senate Education Committee was to take out a requirement that the planning period to prepare for a Charter Transition School must be one year long. With that change, there is no specified time for planning for such a school.

The Senate also specified that a county school board must provide transportation and maintenance for a Charter Innovation School the same as if it did not have that designation.

In addition, a nine-member commission to review applications before they would go to the state school board was dropped. Both senators and delegates had questioned the need for the commission, suggesting it would just add a layer of bureaucracy. Senators divided its duties among the state school board, the state superintendent and county school boards.

A task force of the 21st Century Jobs Cabinet came up with the concept for the commission after studying charter schools. It was meant to provide oversight for Charter Innovation Schools, more information to the public and various reports about the successes or difficulties of those schools. Further, it was to be a conduit of communication between traditional public schools and Charter Innovation Schools.

The commission was compared to the Secondary Schools Activities Commission, which regulates athletics and extracurricular activities for both county school boards and the state board with the state board having final say over the commission’s rules. As the Charter Innovation Zones 2.0 legislation originally was written, the commission would have been responsible for reviewing charter proposals recommended by county boards. Howard O’Cull, executive director of the West Virginia School Board Association, was chairman of the task force that developed the proposal for the commission. He said several people, including officials from the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association, who made presentations to the task force had suggested such a commission to provide greater oversight for charter schools. Colorado uses such a model.

“The fact that the duties were spread among other entities means these important points of oversight won’t be forgotten,” O’Cull said.

“Do we have to reinvent the wheel here or has the state department identified strategies that work and we can implement?” – Sen. Richard Browning

But even with all the changes, Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, still wasn’t sure the bill was needed. “Do we have to reinvent the wheel here or has the state department identified strategies that work and we can implement?” he asked. “Why do we need to worry about charter schools if there’s already a methodology out there that has proven results?”

Browning suggested that increased parental involvement and professional development for teachers would be more beneficial than the Charter Innovation Schools bill.

A House Education subcommittee discussed the Senate changes to the bill, but before the full House Education Committee could get to it, the governor and legislative leaders decided to put the special session on hold until June 7.

 

Alternative certification troubles delegates

By Jim Wallace

Members of a House Education subcommittee had many questions about a bill to authorize alternative training and certification for principals and teachers. But work on Senate Bill 1006, which the Senate already passed, broke off when the Legislature suspended the special session until next month.

Delegate Stan Shaver, D-Preston, wondered why alternative certification was needed at all. Lori Wiggins of the Education Department said the number of vacancies in teaching positions is higher than the number of new teachers coming out of colleges and universities in West Virginia.

Delegate David Perry, D-Fayette, asked why the teaching profession is not attracting more people.

“I think there are multiple reasons maybe why folks don’t consider the teaching profession. It could be currently there are more options available to women,” Wiggins said. “I think that it’s a tough job…and sometimes the pay for the job may not correspond to individuals’ needs.”

Teresa Eagle of Marshall University said teachers don’t get as much respect as they once did. She added, “They don’t get paid as well as they might in another job.”  Also, she said, there are plenty of applicants for elementary education jobs but not enough for math, science, special education and Spanish teaching jobs.

Perry asked whether educators who received the alternative certification provided for in the bill would be as good as those who go through regular higher education programs. Eagle said she was concerned about that. So did Paul Chapman of West Virginia University.

“There is a running debate about the quality of person who goes an alternative route to certification both in teaching and administrative positions. There’s mixed evidence about how well they do when they actually get into those positions.” – Paul Chapman of WVU

“There is a running debate about the quality of person who goes an alternative route to certification both in teaching and administrative positions,” he said. “There’s mixed evidence about how well they do when they actually get into those positions.”

Other delegates shared concerns about that.

“Will the quality of these programs suffer just for the sheer fact that we feel we need to put more bodies in classrooms?” Delegate Josh Stowers, D-Lincoln, asked. “Do you feel that we would be dumbing down the curriculum just to try to fill positions?”

Wiggins called that “a valid concern.” She said some alternative certification programs in the past did not prepare teachers or administrators well enough, but she believes there is a good enough evaluation process now to guard against that. However, that assurance did not ease all of the delegates’ concerns.

“I have this worst nightmare feeling that we’re going to have an administrator in a school who is going to go through the alternative certification,” Shaver said. “You could have an individual who’s an administrator of that school who is hired under an alternative certificate who has a teacher who is under an alternative certificate [and the administrator] doesn’t have a clue whatsoever what he’s looking for in the skill development of that teacher, because he’s never been exposed to a classroom setting.”

 

Bill gets too generous for Senate to accept

By Jim Wallace

When the Legislature resumes its special session on June 7 all of the education reform bills on the agenda will still be in play except for Senate Bill 1012 to provide additional pay for teachers at high-poverty or high-minority schools and for teachers filling designated shortage in math and science.

That was the only bill defeated in either chamber. As proposed by Gov. Manchin, the bill would have provided an extra $1,000 in pay to teachers in high-poverty or high-minority schools and another $500 to certified science and math teachers in such schools. But the Senate Education Committee boosted those levels to $2,000 and $5,000 (although it would not be in addition to the other bonus). Members figured it would take that much money to entice teachers to fill those positions.

But when the bill reached the Senate floor, other senators worried that the cost of the incentive program, which was estimated at about $40 million a year, was too much. So the Senate rejected the bill on a 9-18 vote.

“I think they loved it to death over there,” Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, said.

However, the incentive proposal is not dead. House Bill 105, which started out identical to Senate Bill 1012, could still be passed if lawmakers want to provide incentives to attract teachers to hard-to-fill positions.

Other than Senate Bill 1012, all of the other education reform bills passed the Senate in some form. Only two bills had passed the full House of Delegates before the special session went on hiatus. However, no bill has cleared the Legislature in a form agree upon by both chambers.

 

Shott will replace Caruth in the Senate

 

Delegate John Shott will fill the vacancy in the West Virginia Senate left by the death of Don Caruth.

Gov. Manchin chose Shott from a list of three names submitted by the 10th Senatorial District Republican Executive Committee. Shott had the blessing of Caruth’s widow, Laura, who turned down an offer from Manchin to appoint her to the position.

“Don had the utmost respect for John Shott both as a legislator and as an attorney,” Mrs. Caruth wrote in a letter to the governor. “I am sure Don would have approved of his seat in the Senate being designated to him.”

Like Caruth, Shott is a Republican from Mercer County. He will resign from the House of Delegates so he can take the position in the Senate. Manchin will appoint a replacement for Shott in the House.

“It is both an honor and a challenge to be selected to serve in place of my friend, Don Caruth, as a member of the Senate,” Shott said in news release from the governor’s office. “Don was an exceptional person who tirelessly and effectively served the citizens of the 10th Senatorial District. The manner in which Don served will be my model, and I am totally committed to providing the same high quality representation that characterized Don’s service. I am grateful to the members of the Republican Senatorial Committee for including my name among the three names submitted to the governor and to Gov. Manchin for entrusting me to fill Don’s seat in the Senate.”

Caruth was minority leader in the Senate before he died of brain cancer on May 1. Both the Senate and the House honored him with memorial resolutions on Wednesday.

 

 

Editor’s Note: -- Jim Wallace is a former government reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail and former news director of West Virginia Public Radio. He now works for TSG Consulting in Charleston and writes for several national and West Virginia publications.

 

 

 

WVSBA Direct

Orientation ’10 scheduled for June in Morgantown

The West Virginia School Board Association’s Orientation ’10 will be held June 21-23 in Morgantown (Waterfront Place Hotel).

This is the 10th biennial Orientation as required by legislation adopted in 1990 during an August special legislative session devoted to education reform.

Providing the basics concerning county board service, the program features workshops, general sessions, breakout sessions and small group discussion periods relating to school law, school finance, boardsmanship, ethics, governance and policymaking.

All county board members-elect are required to attend the program unless they are “excused” from such attendance for “good cause.” Under state Board of Education policy, only the state superintendent of schools can make that determination.

Based on information provided WVSBA, the state superintendent has received one request for excusal from training. According to that communication, one employer has refused to grant a member-elect leave to attend the June session.

For information relating to Orientation, contact WVSBA Executive Director Howard M. O’Cull, Ed.D. or association administrative assistant Shirley Davidson. The preferred e-mail addresses are hocull@wvsba.org and sdavidson@wvsba.org  The association telephone number is 304-346-0571.

 

Vacancies in association offices will be filled at September Delegate Assembly

 

Several leadership positions in the West Virginia School Board Association are vacant. They will be filled by the association’s Executive Board at the June 22, 2010, meeting held in conjunction with Orientation ’10 in Morgantown at the Waterfront Place Hotel.

The positions and the names of persons nominated for them are:

Co-regional director nominees.

Region I Co-Director – Greg Prudich (Mercer)/Executive Committee nominee

Region III Co-Director – Mark Sumpter (Boone)/Executive Committee nominee.

Region VI Co-Director – Gerald L. “Jerry” Durante (Hancock)/Executive Committee Nominee.

If members in these regions would like to nominate other individuals, please contact WVSBA president Rick Olcott (Wood). His preferred contact information is olcottrl@suddenlink.net.

Executive Committee.

Based on action at the association’s Fiscal Year 2011 Annual Business meeting, the following executive officers will assume office July 1:

Mike Mitchem (McDowell), president

Sis Murray (Marion), president-elect

Jimmy Wyatt (Tyler), vice president

Gary Kable (Jefferson), financial officer

Olcott, as  immediate past president, is a member of the executive committee.

For more information regarding how to become an association officer or to serve in other WVSBA leadership positions, please contact Olcott or Executive Director Howard M. O’Cull, Ed.D., who serves as an ex-officio, non-voting member of the board.

 

 

Resources

 

 

Lutheran organization has funds for disaster recovery work in southern West Virginia

 

Community Lutheran Partners has announced it has about $10,000 available for use in recovery work in southern West Virginia areas affected by flooding in May 2009. Most of this work involves replacing mobile home skirting, rebuilding decks, replacing insulation, floor repairs, and similar projects, according to Sherri Schafer, executive director.

Schafer also announced the organization recently received $15,000 for recovery work in southern West Virginia areas hit with the floods in March. She said the organization is active in communities throughout the state but wants to have a stronger presence in southern West Virginia.

Community Lutheran Partners, based in Wheeling, is a social ministry of the West Virginia/Western Maryland Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Anyone with questions about how community agencies may receive these funds should contact Schafer at:

Community Lutheran Partners
P.O. Box 3054
Wheeling, WV 26003
(304) 312-4222
Or e-mail: clp@clp-online.org

 

 

 

Commentary

 

 

Evaluations

On the surface, a proposal to require annual evaluations of educators seems like a good idea. We should hold teachers and school administrators accountable for the roles they play in educating our children.

The Senate voted 28-4 to require the annual reviews, but the measure encountered opposition from the House Education Committee, which voted it down.

Proponents of the bill say it’s designed to identify and turn around struggling public schools. Amended by the House, the legislation calls for the state Board of Education to measure the workload of school principals, form a task force to study the evaluation topic and recommend possible policy changes to lawmakers.

The amended bill also bars evaluations from playing any role in setting pay levels or incentives.

The Senate approved its version of the low-performing schools bill Monday, 31-1. It also unanimously advanced to the House an agenda item that would allow non-traditional routes for people to become certified as teachers or principals.

On the surface, that, too, sounds reasonable.

However, adding a task force into the mix will add a time-consuming process that can delay progress. Principals already know they are held to strict accountability for dealing with poor performance of teachers on their staffs. They know firsthand which teachers interact well with students and which ones don’t. On site every day, they are aware of performance issues, and they certainly know how well their school is — or isn’t — doing on test scores and other measures for defining schools that are successful.

Periodic evaluations should be done to ensure teachers are keeping up with their professional knowledge and skills. However, annual evaluations are likely to become just one more layer of bureaucracy.

Holding teachers’ feet to the fire without dealing with other issues such as high transient student populations, student backgrounds and family income factors will do little to improve the overall performance of schools.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to solving the multi-faceted snags in our educational system.

Reprinted by permission of The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia. This editorial was printed May 19, 2010.

 

 

Legislative Record

“The less people know about how sausage and laws are made, the better they'll sleep at night” – Attributed to Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), Prussian prime minister.

 

 

Bill Derby - And They're Off!

"Remember, Lady Godiva put all she had on a horse and she lost her shirt!" - W. C. Fields (William Claude Dukenfield (January 29, 1880 – December 25, 1946), known as W. C. Fields, was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer.)

Bill	Links	Status	Committee	Step	Date
HB 104 Creation of Charter Innovation Zone 2.0 Schools	text | history	Pending	House Education	Committee	05/13/10
HB 105 Salary supplements for teachers and principals in schools with high poverty or high minority student populations	text | history	Pending	House Education	Committee	05/13/10
HB 106 Compulsory comprehensive health screening for students entering public school for the first time in this state and students entering third, sixth and ninth grades	text | history	Pending	House Finance	Committee	05/19/10
HB 107 Updating certain provisions governing the hiring of professional personnel in the public schools	text | history	Pending	House Education	Committee	05/13/10
HB 108 Improving school performance	text | history	Pending	House Education	Committee	05/13/10
HB 109 Providing for teacher empowerment teams	text | history	Pending		Communicated to Senate; House refused to concur; requested Senate to recede (Voice);	05/18/10
HB 110 Authorizing alternative training and certification of principals, assistant principals and teachers	text | history	Pending	House Education	Committee	05/13/10
HB 111 Providing for annual evaluations of professional personnel in the public schools	text | history	Pending		3rd Reading	05/19/10
SB 1001 Relating to school committees	text | history	Pending	Senate Education	Committee	05/18/10
SB 1002 Relating to annual professional personnel evaluations in public schools	text | history	Pending		Communicated to Senate ; Amended to include the provisions of Com. Sub. for House Bill 111	05/19/10
SB 1006 Relating to alternative training and certification of principals and teachers	text | history	Pending	House Education	Committee	05/17/10
SB 1007 Creating Charter Innovation Zone 2.0 Schools	text | history	Pending	House Education	Committee	05/18/10
SB 1008 Relating to compulsory comprehensive health screenings for students	text | history	Pending	House Finance	Passed Senate; Committed to House  Education on 2nd reading	05/18/10
SB 1009 Relating to improving performance of schools and school districts	text | history	Pending	House Education	Committee	05/17/10
SB 1012 Relating to additional compensation for certain professional school personnel	text | history	Pending	Rejected	Committee	05/19/10
SB 1013 Relating to hiring professional school personnel	text | history	Pending	House Education		05/18/10

Source: West Virginia Legislautre

http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/Bills_all_bills.cfm?year=2010&sessiontype=1X&btype=bill

 

 

ETC.

 

 

 

Meanwhile in Minnesota...

Governor Tim Pawlenty said that Minnesota will not apply for up to $175 million in Race to the Top money. Pawlenty has said all along that he wouldn't authorize another state application if the legislature didn't approve a number of proposals for school change, including alternative ways to become teachers, altering a tenure system that makes it hard to fire teachers, and aligning teacher pay and evaluations to student performance. Over the past weeks, it became clear that such proposals had a slim chance of becoming law. (Minneapolis Star Tribune, 05/19/10)

 

Wisdom

Oh Lord, won't you buy me
a Mercedes Benz
My friends all drive Porsches
I must make amends
Worked hard all my lifetime
no help from my friends
So Lord, won't you buy me
a Mercedes Benz

Oh Lord, won't you buy me
a color TV
"DIALING FOR Dollars"
is trying to find me
I wait for delivery
each day until three
So oh Lord, won't you buy me
a color TV

Oh Lord, won't you buy me
a night on the town
I'm counting on you, lord
please don't let me down
Prove that you love me
and buy the next round
Oh Lord, won't you buy me
a night on the town

Everybody
Oh Lord, won't you buy me
a Mercedes Benz
My friends all drive Porsches
I must make amends
I Worked all my lifetime
no help from my friends
So Lord, won't you buy me
a Mercedes Benz

“Mercedes Benz” is the eighth track on Joplin’s (1943-1970) posthumously released 1971 album, Pearl

 

 

Soundbites

“A minimum of sound to a maximum of sense.” – Quotation attributed to Mark Twain describing the term “sound bites.”

 

“As governor, I’m as pleased as I can be. I think we’re going to have some tremendous results.” – Gov. Manchin

“In the context of a special session, it’s hard to get consensus.” – House Speaker Rick Thompson

“We need to keep in the back of our minds that the money for Race to the Top will still be out there, but the first and foremost thing we need to do is think about our children and how we can move our education system forward together.” – Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin

“I believe we’re in a crisis in education, not only in West Virginia but across this country, and that we must make meaningful reform.” – Judy Hale, AFT-WV

“We’re very pleased to have a seat at the table now, to have these discussions begin, so we can move education forward in West Virginia.” – Dale Lee, WVEA

“I think there’s been nothing wasted. It’s been the best dialogue, and we are moving toward a consensus.” – Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale

“I think this is the biggest chance I’ve seen in almost my 50 years in education to move education forward.” – State board President Priscilla Haden

“I think it’s going to be an uphill battle.” – House Minority Leader Tim Armstead

“We need to be able to move people more fluidly around, not that we just jerk people around.” – Sen. Mike Hall

“There is a running debate about the quality of person who goes an alternative route to certification both in teaching and administrative positions. There’s mixed evidence about how well they do when they actually get into those positions.” – Paul Chapman of WVU

“I think they loved it to death over there,” Judy Hale, AFT-WV, on Senate defeat of an incentive pay bill

 

 

Last Word

“The wide world is all about you; you can fence yourselves in, but you cannot fence it out.” – J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973), British writer and author of the richly inventive epic fantasy, The Lord of the Rings.

Don’t stall school reform in West Virginia

A vote Wednesday in the West Virginia House of Delegates sums up our state's lack of meaningful school reform initiatives. By a vote of 77-3, delegates rejected a proposal by Gov. Joe Manchin to evaluate public school teachers annually.

They replaced the proposal with one calling for a study of such evaluations.

Sometimes legislators remind us of career college students, the people who spend many years, sometimes decades, studying - but never seem to be able to accomplish anything.

Manchin had several school reform proposals for lawmakers, who have been in special session for a week. At last report, nearly all of the governor's ideas had been torpedoed by one or both houses of the Legislature.

We understand the need to be cautious in proceeding with school reform. The many education fads that have come and gone - often achieving little or nothing - during the past few decades is proof that change solely for its own sake often is not good.

Just as clear is the evidence that hoping for better results from an inadequate system is unrealistic.

We believe several of the governor's proposals were good ideas. The plan to evaluate teachers annually was one of them.

But for the most part, lawmakers seem eager to put off a meaningful campaign for education reform. They have not been willing to even grant him the courtesy of a study, as the House prescribed for the evaluation plan, on some of his ideas.

That might be acceptable if legislators were offering substantive alternatives to Manchin's proposals. They do not seem to be doing that, however.

It has been evident for several years that the state needs to address flaws in its public school system. West Virginians should be asking why their legislators are so unwilling to do so.

Reprinted by permission of the Wheeling News-Register. This editorial was printed May 20, 2010.

 

 

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The Legislature is published by the West Virginia School Board Association. It provides county board of education members, state policymakers, school administrators and the education community information and opinions regarding West Virginia legislative issues. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect official opinion or policies of the WVSBA, unless specifically stated.

West Virginia School Board Association
PO Box 1008
Charleston, WV 25324
Phone (304) 346-0571 • Fax (304) 346-0572 WVSBA.ORG

Rick Olcott (Wood), President

Howard M. O’Cull, Ed. D., Executive Director, Editor
hocull@wvsba.org
Shirley M. Davidson, Administrative Assistant,
Production and Circulation
sdavidson@wvsba.org

Vincit omnia veritas
“Truth conquers all”