North Dakota Commission on Education Improvement
Commission Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, November 18, 2008, 9:00am
State Capitol - Roughrider Room
Commission Chairman, Lieutenant Governor Jack Dalrymple, called a meeting of the North Dakota Commission on Education Improvement to order at 9:03 a.m.
Commission members in attendance included:
Lt. Governor Jack Dalrymple, Chairman
Representative RaeAnn Kelsch, House Education Committee Chair
Representative David Monson, Speaker, ND Houser of Representatives
Paul Stremick, Superintendent, Dickinson Public Schools
Doug Johnson, Executive Director, ND Council of Educational Leaders
Jon Martinson, Executive Director, ND School Boards Association
Greg Burns, Executive Director, ND Education Association;
Wayne Sanstead, Superintendent, ND Department of Public Instruction
Jack Maus, Superintendent, Grafton Public Schools
Martin Schock, Superintendent, Elgin/New Leipzig Public Schools
Scott Privratsky, Business Manager, Devils Lake Public Schools
Commission member in attendance via teleconference call:
Senator Tim Flakoll, Senate Education Committee
After reviewing the October 7, 2008 meeting minutes of the North Dakota Commission on Education Improvement, Dr. Wayne Sanstead moved to accept the minutes and Representative David Monson seconded. The motion was carried.
Lt. Governor Dalrymple informed all present that this meeting would follow a section by section review of the Commission’s draft report. He expressed hope that this session would lead to a consensus of a final draft report to be presented to the Commission for approval at a brief meeting in December.
Sequentially following the report’s Table of Contents, Lt. Governor Dalrymple postponed Committee review of the Introduction and Executive Summary sections and asked for comments or questions on the Terminology and Previous Recommendations and Final Provisions of Senate Bill 2200 sections. Having received none, the Lt. Governor summarized the Adequacy of K-12 Education Funding section including Table 1 - Adequate Funding per Student: Picus Proposal vs. Commission Recommendation and asked for comments and questions. Superintendent Paul Stremick suggested adding a clarification footnote to the table indicating that Transportation and Career and Technical Education funding are not part of the Picus consideration.
Lt. Governor Dalrymple distributed handouts prepared by the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction to aid in upcoming discussions. In consideration of the confidential data in these reports, the Lt. Governor asked members to return their copies following the meeting:
- 2009-2011 Budget Proposal (see attached)
- State Aid to Schools Payment Worksheet for 2009-2010 (see attached)
- State Aid to Schools Payment Worksheet for 2010-2011 (see attached)
- State Aid Formula Report 2009-2010 Payment Year Projection (see attached)
- State Aid Formula Report 2010-2011 Payment Year Projection (see attached)
- 2009-2011 Property Tax Relief Proposal (see attached)
Lt. Governor Dalrymple moved on, reviewing the section K-12 Education: Main Funding Formula. Representative David Monson suggested adding a clarification statement to Recommendation 4, referencing the 100 mill floor in the mill levy reduction program. Discussion of Recommendation 14 concerning how a reorganized district would receive its historic equity payment led Superintendent Jack Maus to ask how the dissolution of a district would affect equity payments. Discussion ensued on the likelihood of the event and its consequences. Lt. Governor Dalrymple announced upon reconvening after the morning break that a district’s dissolution may indeed have an impact.
The review of the Pre-Kindergarten chapter generated debates centering on several issues:
1) Discussion of the number of half-days per week the initial program should offer led to the following agreements:
- Demand for a 5 half-day Pre-K program in North Dakota does likely exist;
- A 2 half-day Pre-K program (rather than a 5 half-day Pre-K program) would have drawbacks, including: staffing, client scheduling inconvenience, and diminished impact on the program’s goal of closing the achievement gap.
Nevertheless, the Committee agreed to prudently start small by initiating funding for a 2 half-day Pre-K program and see how it goes.
- When discussion turned to potential accounting problems that may arise when integrating a state-funded 2 half-day Pre-K program with existing Pre-K programs funded by a variety of entities, Representative RaeAnn Kelsch asked for input from the public audience. JoAnn Brager, Vice President with West River Head Start, Mandan assured the Commission that allocation of teacher time already occurs and does not pose a problem.
3) Next, discussion moved on to the report’s recommended projection of 40% initial participation. This figure was arrived at by considering that a substantial number of working parents with children enrolled in a 5 full-day program would consider it logistically inconvenient to participate. In consideration of the surprisingly high response to North Dakota’s recent full-day kindergarten initiative, many members believed 40% to be too low an estimate. Discussion led to an agreement to raise the estimate to 70%. Representative Kelsch considered it would be helpful to have input from Superintendents with functioning programs. Commission member Doug Johnson offered to look into finding data that might help determine a realistic estimate.
The Commission recommends an appropriation revision to the Regional Education Associations (REAs) chapter. It was agreed that $400,000 be provided as base grants to REAs, assuming $25,000 for each of eight REAs and $2,600,000 appropriated for REAs through the main funding formula. It was also determined that a more accurate REA factor would be .004.
With the Equity Payment chapter unchanged from last session, Lt. Governor Dalrymple advanced the discussion to Special Education Contracts. The Commission discussed Recommendation 2 regarding the legislative provision of an emergency funding clause making it clear that the savings for special education excess contract costs be added to the funds available for state aid formula payments to the extent needed to fully fund the formula.
Lt. Governor Dalrymple summarized the Professional Development chapter and asked for discussion. Jon Martinson, Executive Director of ND School Boards Association, requested clarification of Recommendation 7 dealing with grant support of three pilot instructional coaching programs. It was determined that the matching grant support verbiage should make clear that funds for the three pilot programs will be provided on a one to one ratio.
The Commission broke for lunch at 12:02pm. At 1:04pm Lt. Governor Dalrymple reconvened with the Student Performance Strategies section. Discussion centered on Recommendation 2 concerning the staffing of tutors as a condition for accreditation and expended over and above any Federal Title I funds received for tutoring. Paul Stremick, Superintendent, Dickinson Public School District, suggested that in consideration of individual school districts’ needs, it might be beneficial to include an option to substitute instructional coaches for the required tutor staffing.
Lt. Governor Dalrymple called the Commission’s attention to the report’s Addendum E - North Dakota Curriculum Requirements. This summary chart compares the requirements associated with North Dakota’s current High School Diploma with the proposed Merit Diploma, Merit Diploma with Technical Honors Certificate, Merit Diploma with Academic Honors Certificate and the General High School Diploma. Recognizing the need for more work to be done before the Curriculum chapter is finalized, Lt. Governor Dalrymple invited members to get all issues on the table. Discussion ensued on a number of topics including: specific language and mathematic requirements by diploma; total number of unit requirements by diploma; the importance of both Technical and Academic Honor Certificates carrying equal weight; whether or not it is necessary to articulate a distance education requirement; and how to best maintain rigor in the curriculum without discouraging late-blooming students. Running out of time without arriving at a consensus, Lt. Governor Dalrymple made the decision to move the Commission on to the next chapter, Assessments. Wayne Sanstead, ND Superintendent of Public Instruction clarified that grades 3-8 and grade 11 are required by law to take a test measuring progress.
At this point, Lt. Governor Dalrymple invited North Dakota Information Technology Department’s Chief Information Officer, Lisa Feldner, to present a summary of the Information Technology and Student Data chapter.
Lt. Governor Dalrymple then turned the Commission’s attention to the Transportation Payments chapter and distributed a handout entitled School Transportation prepared by North Dakota Small Organized Schools (NDSOS) (see attached). It was agreed that per mile and per ride rates should be increased proportionately with large bus rates equalized between city and rural.
Moving on to Recommended Budget Summary and Optional Funding Priorities, Lt. Governor Dalrymple pointed out specifically how the Commission’s earlier decisions to increase the Pre-K participation from 40% to 70% and to reduce the Regional Education Associations’ Base ADM by $400,000 in REA Base Grants will affect this table.
Following a review and discussion of the report’s last chapter, Per Student Payments for Mill Levy Reduction, Lt. Governor Dalrymple brought the Commission’s attention to the document handed out earlier, 2009-2010 Property Tax Relief Proposal, and reviewed the printout in detail with the Commission.
Following this review Lt. Governor Dalrymple asked for a Commission consensus, with the exception of the Curriculum section, to approve the report with its revisions in order to move forward to a final report. Senator Tim Flakoll suggested that the Commission continue working in light of the difficulty of getting the entire Commission together for another session before the December meeting. The Commission agreed to take a short break and reconvene to make a final attempt to arrive at a Curriculum consensus that afternoon. Lt. Governor Dalrymple encouraged members to get all issues on the table and the Commission went through them one at a time arriving at a consensus on each. The consensus is summarized in the revised version of Addendum E - North Dakota Curriculum Requirements (see attached).
A motion to proceed with the completion of the report to include the revisions to the draft as discussed was put before the Commission by Representative Kelsch, seconded by Representative David Monson, and passed. It was determined that the final draft report would be reviewed at the next Commission meeting scheduled for 9:00am, Tuesday, December 16, 2008 in the Capitol’s Roughrider Room in Bismarck. Depending on new issues that may arise before then, Lt. Governor Dalrymple hoped this would be a short meeting that may be attended via teleconference.
Lt. Governor Dalrymple thanked the Commission for its work and adjourned the meeting at 5:35pm.