2007 Spring Alabama School Boards Magazine

AASB’S NEW GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Striving Readers Act Targets Adolescent Literacy

Official Publication of the Alabama Association of School Boards

MAKING THE GRADE: Alabama Honors its Two Distinguished Title I Schools

Spring 2007

FACE TO FACE: Dr. David Bronner

WHAT MAKES A GREAT SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER?

OFFICERS Jim Methvin . . . . . . . . . . . . . President Alabama School of Fine Arts Sue Helms . . . . . . . . . . President-Elect Madison City Florence Bellamy . . . . . Vice President Phenix City Tommy McDaniel . . . . . Past President Alabama School of Math and Science STAFF Sandra Sims-deGraffenried, Ed.D. Executive Director Sally Brewer Howell, J.D. Assistant Executive Director Denise L. Berkhalter Director of Public Relations Editor, Alabama School Boards Susan Rountree Salter Director of Membership Services Lissa Astilla Tucker Director of Governmental Relations Debora Hendricks Administrative Assistant Donna Norris Administrative Assistant Kay Shaw Bookkeeper Lashana Summerlin Receptionist Tammy Wright Executive Assistant Aeryca Ezell Clerical Assistant BOARD OF DIRECTORS Patsy Black . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 1 Monroe County Steven Foster . . . . . . . . . . . . District 2 Lowndes County Jeff Bailey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 3 Covington County Katy S. Campbell . . . . . . . . . District 4 Macon County Jennifer Parsons . . . . . . . . . . District 5 Jefferson County Sue Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 6 Jacksonville Susan Harris . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 7 Winfield Dr. Charles Elliott . . . . . . . . . District 8 Decatur Laura Casey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . District 9 Albertville Sandra Ray . . . . . . . . . . . . State Board Tuscaloosa Robert A. Lane.. NSBA Board of Directors Lowndes County

Spring 2007 Vol. 28, No. 1

IN THIS ISSUE COVER STORY

AASB'S 2007 LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 The Alabama Association of School Boards collected member feedback about legislative priorities for the 2007 Regular Legislative Session. The priorities reflected emerging issues the association is discussing in the Capitol hallways to raise awareness and earn passage of legislation that benefits Alabama's schoolchildren.

FEATURES

What Makes a Great School Board Member? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 From Good to Great: AASB's New Goals and Objectives . . . . . . . 9 Face to Face with Dr. David Bronner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 AASB Team Successfully Lobbies Congressmen to Support America's Schoolchildren . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Striving Readers Act Targets Adolescent Literacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Build a New Pool of Teacher Talent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

No Child Left Behind Reauthorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Making the Grade: Alabama Honors its Two Distinguished Title I Schools . . . . . . . . .

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DEPARTMENTS

Alabama Education News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Executive Director’s Perspective Fix Flaws in Teacher Tenure/Fair Dismissal Laws . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Education & the Law . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

At the Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Calendar of Events . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Potpourri . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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PUBLICATION POLICY Alabama School Boards is published by the Alabama Association of School Boards as a service to its member school boards. The articles published in each issue represent the ideas or beliefs of the writers and are not necessarily the views of the Alabama Association of School Boards. Subscriptions sent to members of school boards are included in membership dues, and complimentary copies are sent to public school principals throughout the state. Additional subscriptions can be obtained by contacting AASB. Entered as third-class mail at Montgomery, AL. Permit No. 34.

Alabama School Boards is designed by J. Durham Design, L.L.C., Montgomery, AL. Address all editorial and advertising inquiries to: Alabama School Boards, Editor, P.O. Drawer 230488, Montgomery, AL 36123-0488. Phone: 334/277-9700.

Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 3

Alabama Education News $17 Million Released for OCE Gov. Bob Riley and state Finance Director Jim Main recently released the $17 million conditional appropriation for Other Current Expenses (OCE) for the current fiscal year. The funds can be used during the current school year for the most basic needs. Sen. Rodger Smitherman added $17 million as a conditional appropriation to the FY’07 Education Trust Fund budget in anticipation that revenues would be higher than originallly expected this year.

“Because our economy is strong, we’re experiencing record growth in the Education Trust Fund and can help schools all across Alabama,” Riley said.

“We must always remember that more funding for education isn’t possible unless we have a growing economy.

And the economic growth plan we’ll consider in special session next week and the tax incentives I’ll be proposing in the regular session will help sustain our economy and result in additional funding for schools.”

School systems tap the OCE category of the education budget to cover basic expenses not otherwise earmarked in the budget. The additional $17 million brings total funding for OCE to $751.8 million.

Alabama Boasts 168 Nationally Board Certified Teachers Of Alabama’s teachers, 168 have joined the ranks of those awarded the National Board Certificate, the teaching profession’s highest standards. This 4 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

Harper Lee Honors Students With Pulitzer Prize-winning author Harper Lee looking on, drama students from Fairfield High Preparatory School and Mountain Brook High School presented an encore theatrical performance of Lee’s classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The 60 students had presented their rendition of the 1960 bestseller in performances across the state and were featured on NBC Nightly News, the Today Show and National Public Radio.

Mountain Brook High Alabama’s First Lady Patsy Riley and Pulitzer Prize winner School drama teacher Pat Harper Lee pose with a resolution presented to the “To Yates was the play’s director Kill a Mockingbird”author by the state Board of Education. and worked in collaboration Photo: Charles V. Creel with Patsy Howze, choral director for “To Kill a Mockingbird” and Fairfield High Preparatory School.

A capacity crowd that included legislators and other dignitaries watched the students perform in Montgomery at Troy University’s Davis Theatre for the Performing Arts on Jan. 10. At the next day’s state Board of Education meeting, the students and Lee received resolutions for their nationally recognized artistry.

The state board also commended the 12 Alabama Black Belt Arts Education Initiative Pilot Schools at its first K-12 meeting of the year. The pilot schools will develop a comprehensive arts education model that includes students, staff and administrators and involves parents and the community. The initiative partners the pilot schools with higher education, arts organizations and youth development agencies.

There 2006-07 pilot schools are: South Highlands Middle School, Bullock County; Southern Choctaw High School, Choctaw County; Martin Middle School, Dallas County; Demopolis High School, Demopolis; Akron Community School East, Hale County; Lowndes Middle School, Lowndes County; George Washington Carver Elementary School, Macon County; Amelia Love Johnson High School, Marengo County; Uniontown Elementary School, Perry County; Gordo Elementary School, Pickens County; Byrd Elementary School, Selma; and Camden School of Arts and Technology, Wilcox County.

The Alabama Black Belt Arts Education Initiative Advisory Committee will mentor and advise the schools. The initiative’s partners — Alabama Alliance for Arts Education, Alabama Institute for Education in the Arts, Alabama State Council on the Arts, and VSA Arts (formerly Very Special Arts) of Alabama — will provide the schools with professional development, support and guidance.

For more information about the Alabama Black Belt Arts Education Initiative, contact Sara Wright at 334/242-8059 or swright@alsde.edu.

2006 class brings the total number of Alabama teachers who are certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards stands to 1,097.

“Achieving National Board certification demonstrates a true dedication to the profession of teaching and most importantly dedication to students,” said state Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton. “NBCTs are making positive changes in the classroom, which result in better students that improve our school systems and education communities.”

Nationally certified teachers in Alabama schools earn an additional $5,000 annually for 10 years and get a one-time $5,000 bonus for use in their classroom. Because national certification promotes professional teaching excellence and complements state licensing, teachers interested in applying for the certification can also apply for a $2,500 scholarship.

For a list of Alabama’s 2006 National Board of Certified Teachers, visit the NBPTS Web site at www.nbpts.org. For more information, contact Dr. Eddie Johnson of the state Department of Education at 334/242-9960.

Alabama Partners with OSHA to Teach Safety In a move designed to prepare students for the workplace, Alabama has become the fifth state to offer Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety courses to high school students. The program is a partnership effort of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the American Society of Safety Engineers, the University of Alabama and the state Department of Education.

Career/tech students interested in working in construction, manufacturing or related fields will be able to earn the 10-hour OSHA safety credential, which is usually earned through on-the-job training. Twelve school systems have teachers qualified to teach the safety courses, and there are plans to increase that number.

Housing Now Open for AASB Summer Conference The 2007 Summer Conference housing options are now available online at www.theaasb.org. AASB members can now make housing reservations for the July 29-31 summer conference in Orange Beach at the Perdido Beach Resort.

The conference begins at 4 p.m. Sunday afternoon, July 29, and will be followed at 6:30 p.m. with a welcome reception.

The program will run a full day on Monday and conclude at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. It will be followed Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning by Leadership I, the first segment of AASB’s new board member/new superintendent orientation for those with two years of service or less.

This year’s housing options include both hotel rooms at the Perdido Beach Resort and condos at nearby Phoenix condominiums.

At the Perdido Beach Resort, the room block extends from Sunday, July 29, through Wednesday, August 1. The rate for a standard room is $183/night plus tax; for a pool view, the rate is $213/night plus tax. There are a few rooms blocked for Saturday night, July 28. However, the discounted rate does not apply to rooms booked for nights other than those in AASB’s block.

To reserve a room, call 800/634-8001 and mention the Alabama Association of School Boards to get the conference room rate. Or, register online at www.PerdidoBeachResort.com and use group code 3342.

For those who prefer a condominium, AASB has secured the following rates (for 3 nights and include all taxes and fees): Phoenix East & Phoenix East II: (includes all taxes and fees) • 1 bedroom/1 bath (sleeps 2) - $737.04 for 3 nights (additional nights 206.46) • 2 bedroom/2 bath (sleeps 4) - $969.03 for 3 nights (additional nights 269.73) • 3 bedroom/2 bath (sleeps 6) - $1,186.59 for 3 nights (additional nights 338.55) Phoenix VII: (includes all taxes and fees) • 1 bedroom/1 bath (sleeps 2) - $753.69 for 3 nights (additional nights 212.01) • 2 bedroom/2 bath (sleeps 4) - $1,005.66 for 3 nights (additional nights 281.94) • 3 bedroom/2 bath (sleeps 6) - $1,216.56 for 3 nights (additional nights 348.54) Reservations for the Phoenix condos can be made by calling 800/221-0258 (use group number 905872) to get the discounted rate. Registration for the conference itself will begin later this spring.

(Continued on page 7) Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 5

What Makes a Great School Board Member?

By Lisa Rosenthal, GreatSchools.net Staff

An effective school board plays an important watchdog role in keeping local schools on track and setting policies that affect children and schools. he school board sets the vision and goals for the school system and holds it accountable for results. A successful school board balances the seemingly tedious business of running the system with paying close attention to the system’s priorities for academic achievement.

One school board member cannot do the job alone. Effective school board members contribute their unique talents while collaborating and working as a team with other board members.

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The school board’s primary responsibilities are to: ◆ Set the vision and goals for the system; ◆ Adopt policies that give the system direction to set priorities and achieve its goals; ◆ Hire and evaluate the superintendent; ◆ Adopt and oversee the annual budget; and ◆ Manage the collective bargaining process for employees of the system.

Are You an Effective School Board Member?

A good school board member does not have a single-issue focus but rather is focused on moving the school

6 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

system forward and educating all students in the system to meet high standards. How do you know if you’re an effective school board member? Ask yourself these questions: ◆ What actions have you taken to improve student achievement? ◆ What policies would you initiate to improve student achievement? ◆ What are your visions for your school system five to 10 years from now and what systemic changes will you work toward to achieve that vision? ◆ Have you and your board determined how to measure the success of the system and superintendent against the vision and goals the board has set?

◆ How do you measure success for a superintendent? ◆ What are the characteristics of a superintendent you most admire? ◆ What level of skills should high school students have upon graduation? ◆ Do you have strong analytical, leadership and collaborative skills to move the system forward? ◆ Do you communicate your actions to the community through public discourse and written reports to keep the public informed of the system’s

progress and challenges? ◆ Do you and your fellow school board members work as a team? Do you collaborate well with others, and are you respectful of the other board members and superintendent? ◆ Are you committed to adopting a fiscally sound system budget, and do you pay attention to finances and regularly monitor the fiscal health of the system? ◆ Do you advocate at the local, state and national levels for public education and take advantage of opportunities to

Alabama Education News Continued from page 5

• “Employers in Alabama now have additional proof that our state’s students are fully prepared to enter America’s highly competitive work force,” said Sherry Key, state director of career/technical education.

Voters Weigh-in on Taxes for Schools Several tax referenda and school tax issues have been mentioned in the news recently, including: • Seventy-two percent of voters in Orange Beach and 68 percent in Gulf Shores recently rejected a property tax increase that would have created a joint, independent school system for the beach cities.

• A tax referendum to rebuild Opelika High School could be in Opelika’s future. By resolution, the Opelika Board of Education asked the City Council to assist in the effort to take the 7-mill increase to the Alabama Legislature in hope that Opelika voters could make their decision in August. The high school project could cost $39 million, according the Opelika-Auburn News.

• Hartselle could have a special 12.5-mill property tax referendum in October if a bill is passed in the state Legislature to give the election the green light. The Hartselle Enquirer reported a local bill authorizing the election has been prefiled. The revenue would likely be used

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to build a new $25 million Hartselle High School.

Voters in Sumter County rejected an amendment that would have meant a 15mill increase in property taxes to finance a new consolidated high school. More than 59 percent or 3,033 voters voted no on the measure. Yes votes numbered 2,121 at the time of the news report.

Morgan County voters overwhelmingly supported renewal of a 7.3-mill property tax in a Jan. 16 referendum, which means about $4.6 million annually for county schools. Supporters accounted for 88.3 percent of the 4,006 votes that included 468 no votes. Officials didn’t notice the tax’s expiration until too late to get the measure on the November ballot. The tax expired Sept. 30.

A special election on Jan. 23 renewed an 8-mill property tax earmarked for schools in Greene County. According to the Greene County Independent, the vote was 90.94 percent, or 1,667 voters, in favor of the renewal and 9.06 percent, or 166 voters, against.

Voters had already approved a tax eight years ago for education in Bullock County, but school board officials say they aren’t getting the money. The Bullock County Board of Education said the Bullock County Development Authority and the Bullock County Commission owe it over $1 million. In 1999, a one-cent sales tax was passed with a half-cent going for education and the other half for the county jail and recreation. A state auditor discov-

communicate the needs of public schools to all levels of government? ◆ Do you come to meetings prepared? ◆ Do you ask the hard questions about the superintendent’s proposals? ◆ Is your attention focused on systemwide policies rather than micro▲ managing?

This article excerpt was reprinted courtesy of GreatSchools.net, an independent nonprofit organization that helps parents choose, support and improve schools.

ered that for seven years the tax revenue was put into the industrial sales tax fund instead of going to the school board. ▲

▲ April 30: Financial services

company ING wants to help K12 educators and their schools fund innovative classroom projects that improve student learning. Each year, 100 winners are selected to receive $2,000 grants, and three of those will be selected to win the top awards of $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000. The deadline for proposals is April 30. Visit the Unsung Heroes awards program site at www.ingusa.com. ▲ September: AASB PresidentElect and Madison City Board Member Sue Helms is Alabama’s first representative in the 100 District Leaders for Civic Engagement and Service-Learning network. Another application process is anticipated in September and will be announced at www.ecs.org/nclc, the Web site for the National Center for Learning and Citizenship, part of the Education Commission of the States. Call 303/299-3606 for details. ▲ Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 7

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S

By Sandra Sims-deGraffenried, Ed.D.

Perspective

Fix Flaws in Teacher Tenure/ Fair Dismissal Laws You’ve probably heard by now that AASB is lobbying the Legislature this year for changes to the teacher tenure and fair dismissal laws that were revised in 2004. wo years ago, a move to “improve the teacher dismissal process” also replaced the Tenure Commission with binding arbitration — a solution proving to be a misfit for solving public education personnel issues.

Arbiters — many with little familiarity with Alabama law — tend to seek a comSims-deGraffenried promise rather than appear to be too promanagement or pro-union for fear of not being chosen to arbitrate future cases.

Rather than the “cheaper, easier and faster” dismissal process we were promised, we’re dealing with a more difficult, time-consuming procedure that gives employees a financial incentive to appeal and that has inflated state costs from about $18,000 per year to a staggering $300,000 annually.

Inherent costs include the pay and expenses for arbiters from across the nation to hear cases in Alabama and pay for substitutes or other temporary help while dismissal cases linger.

School systems with cases in arbitration often end up paying three- to four-months’ additional salary to an employee with dismal performance or misconduct until the arbiter rules.

Prior to 2004, a school board would hear a case and make its decision. If it voted to terminate, the teacher’s salary stopped. But, because the new law eliminates the board hearing, teachers now remain on the payroll until the arbiters rule — which generally takes months longer than the previous process. An example of the revised laws’ costliness is found in the tenured teacher who received more than $37,500 during arbitration proceedings, while a substitute was being paid about $3,750.

In addition, arbitrators have upheld only 47 percent of teacher termination decisions made by school boards, while the Tenure Commission upheld 81 percent.

School boards must have a fairer forum, more standardized

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decision-making by arbiters, a return to board hearings so pay can be stopped in a timely manner, limited appeals and the elimination of stays. School boards belong back in the process.

Let’s use arbiters who know Alabama and education law, and let’s limit the arbiter’s ability to mitigate a school board’s recommended penalties.

Adjustments to the teacher tenure and fair dismissal laws are just part of the solution. School boards and administrators also bear a burden in this process. We must change the mindset that underperformers cannot be dismissed.

Dismissing tenured teachers correctly through a documented progressive discipline process is necessary. Terminating ineffective employees isn't pleasant, but it is essential to raising student achievement and building public confidence in schools.

We must demand our school administrators more effectively document poor performance. We also must require better screening of employees before they earn tenure. In addition, we must ask the board’s superintendent if evaluations and training are occurring regularly.

Dismissing tenured teachers correctly through a documented progressive discipline process is necessary. Terminating ineffective employees isn’t pleasant, but it is essential to raising student achievement and building public confidence in schools. ▲

From Good to Great: AASB's New Goals and Objectives

By Jim Methvin, AASB President o prepare for writing the new goals and objectives, the directors studied the Good to Great leadership principles of Jim Collins. There is no doubt that Collins’ findings and work are directly applicable to the leadership of our association.

In introducing the goals, I will relate them to Collins’ five leadership issues.

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Leadership Issue One: A great organization is one that delivers superior performance and makes a distinctive impact over a long period of time For our association, AASB’s performance and the way it defines greatness must be assessed relative to its mission. So, how can we focus on our mission to move our association from good to great?”

We can accomplish our goals of establishing AASB as a leading source of K-12 information; use technology in dynamic ways to improve membership services; and govern in a way that promotes student achievement.

Resou rce s

Leadership Issue Two: Getting things done within a “diffuse power structure”

On Dec. 7, 2006, the AASB Board of Directors established new goals and objectives for our association. These goals and objectives, I believe, consider the needs of all board of education members across the state. They provide for ... ✔ advocacy for Alabama's public school students; ✔ leadership development and training; and ✔ resources for education governance.

AASB has a governance structure similar to school boards with its board of directors, executive director and administrative staff. In Collins’ companion piece to his bestseller, Good to Great and the Social Sectors, he points out that there is power in an association’s leadership and in its members’ shared interest. Our question is now, “How can we move our association from good to great within a board governance structure?” We can do so by ensuring AASB has the resources it needs to realize its vision, and we can emphasize fiscal accountability and transparency to members and the public.

Leadership Issue Three: Getting the right people on the bus Collins believes that an organization’s number one resource in creating great organizations is having enough of the right people willing to commit themselves to the mission. “How can we keep the right people on the bus, so we can move our association from good to great?” Capable and quality people may stay on the bus if we position AASB and local school boards as leading advocates in the K-12 arena. By accomplishing two of our goals — increased participation in AASB services and more voter support for public schools — we give members the training and support they need to feel confident in their roles.

(Continued on page 15) Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 9

Education&the Law Be Aware of the Obligations Imposed

by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

By Rodney C. Lewis, Lanier Ford Shaver & Payne P.C. ection 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Pub. L. No. 93112) is a broad civil rights statute applicable to public school systems. It is important that board members, administrators, and teachers be familiar with the obligations imposed by Section 504, since a violation of the act could subject a system to a loss of federal funding, as well as civil lawsuits.

This article discusses the origin of Section 504 and provides an overview of the key components of Section 504’s implementing regulations.

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Historical Origins The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first federal statute that prohibited discrimination on the basis of disability. Its enactment followed other anti-discrimination statutes of the era, such as those directed toward race and gender. The act is not exclusively a special education law, nor is it limited in its application to public schools.

The act’s initial purpose was to provide job opportunity and rehabilitation to disabled adults. However, the last paragraph of the act extended an anti-discrimination mandate to all programs and activities receiving federal funding. That particular paragraph, now commonly referred to as “Section 504,” provided as follows: No otherwise qualified individual with a disability . . . shall solely by reason of her or his disability, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity 10 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

receiving federal financial assistance . . . .(29 U.S.C. § 794(a) (1973)).

As a recipient of federal funds, public schools necessarily became subject to the anti-discrimination mandate of Section 504.

The U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, in its attempt to effectuate the anti-discrimination mandate of Section 504 in the nation’s public schools, construed Section 504 broadly to require public schools to create special programs and educational placements for disabled students. Despite this affirmative mandate, no additional federal funding has ever been provided to assist schools in complying with the statute. Instead, the U.S. Department of Education conditions federal funding upon a school’s continued compliance with Section 504.

As presently applied in the public school context, Section 504 of the act contains a “free appropriate public education” component somewhat similar to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as well as an anti-discrimination component similar to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Over-identification not only violates the rights of the student at issue, but it also presents significant and costly consequences for schools. For every student deemed eligible under Section 504, a school subjects itself to burdensome paperwork and documentation, expensive accommodations and services, due-process hearings, litigation expenses, lawsuits and so forth. Schools are also significantly limited in their ability to apply disciplinary and other school rules to these students. For these reasons, schools should use their limited resources to provide Section 504 services and protections to only those students who truly qualify for eligibility.

There is no doubt some disabled students, while not qualifying for Section 504 or IDEA, would still benefit from reasonable classroom accommodations and services. Schools must make clear to parents that such accommodations and services can just as easily be provided by a school’s building-based student support team and that good general education teachers provide needed classroom accommodations all the time without the necessity of a formal Section 504 plan.

Eligibility Criteria Over-identification Over-identification of Section 504 students is a substantial problem in our schools. Many times it is the result of educators failing to apply the appropriate legal standard for eligibility under Section 504. Other times, well-meaning educators give in to aggressive parents with hidden agendas for seeking Section 504 eligibility for their child, such as securing disability benefits or accommodations on a college entrance exam.

Not every student with a recognized disability is eligible under Section 504. Many private physicians and psychologists liberally provide disability labels to students with little supporting evidence of an adverse educational impact. Schools must remember that they are not beholden to a physician’s opinion regarding eligibility.

Section 504 provides its own criteria for what constitutes a qualifying disability. A disabled student must fit into one of the three following categories:

(1) A student who has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities.

(2) A student who has a record of such an impairment.

(3) A student who is regarded as having such an impairment.

The presence of (a) a physical or mental impairment, (b) a substantial limitation, and (c) a major life activity each must be independently evaluated and confirmed by a school prior to a finding of Section 504 eligibility.

A. Physical or Mental Impairment Almost any physiological or psychological condition can satisfy the initial requirement of an “impairment.” But, homosexuality, bisexuality, compulsive gambling, kleptomania, pyromania, and current drug addiction are excluded as impairments under Section 504. Likewise, pregnancy is generally not considered an impairment; however, complications from pregnancy may qualify.

Although Section 504 allows for broad leeway, schools must ensure that an actual impairment is responsible for a student’s educational deficits. A student with an educational deficit caused by economic, cultural or environmental disadvantages should not be considered to have an impairment under Section 504, nor should a student with educational deficits due to limited English proficiency.

B. Substantially Limits The decisive inquiry in most Section 504 eligibility determinations is whether the impairment at issue is substantially limiting. Unfortunately, neither Section 504 nor its interpretive regulations define this phrase. OCR has stated that the meaning should be determined by each local school system and not by OCR. Recent federal case law, utilizing the ADA definition of substantial limitation, has held that students earning average grades and exhibiting age-appropriate behavior do not qualify for Section 504 eligibility, unless the underlying impairment is medical. Such case law establishes that eligibility is improper for at-risk students or for students with only mild to moderate

limitations secondary to an impairment. A student not reaching his perceived academic potential is not a sufficient basis for Section 504 eligibility.

A school may properly consider whether mitigating factors such as pre-referral interventions, medication, eye glasses, parent support or hard work has eliminated the existence of a substantially limiting impair-

The initial purpose of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was to provide job opportunity and rehabilitation to disabled adults. However, the last paragraph of the act extended an anti-discrimination mandate to all programs and activities receiving federal funding.

That particular paragraph is now commonly referred to as “Section 504.” ment. Moreover, there is no need to qualify a student merely to provide an accommodation that the school already provides for all regular education students. For example, Section 504 eligibility is likely not necessary for a disabled student whose only needed accommodation at school is the routine dispensing of medication. That can easily be done under the schoolwide medication policy or by providing the student with an individual health plan.

C. Major Life Activities For purposes of Section 504 eligibility, “major life activities” may include walking, talking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working. Section

504 does not provide an exhaustive list of major life activities. However, a major life activity must be interpreted globally and broadly. For example, a student with a deficit in one isolated academic sub-area would likely not have a substantial limitation in the major life activity of learning.

Free Appropriate Public Education Public schools are obligated to provide a free and appropriate public education to those Section 504 eligible students with a current impairment. Such a student is entitled to an evaluation at no cost to the parent. A Section 504 plan must be developed by individuals knowledgeable about the student, the meaning of evaluation data and the placement options available to the student. At a minimum, the plan is to document the accommodations and educational services being provided. If needed, behavior intervention and strategies are to be incorporated. The Section 504 plan is to be developed and implemented consistent with the procedural framework of Section 504. An impartial due-process hearing is to be provided for a parent who wishes to challenge the plans or evaluation’s appropriateness.

Disciplinary Procedural Protections Students eligible under Section 504 are also entitled to significant disciplinary procedural protections, similar to those provided to IDEA students. Generally, Section 504 students may not be subjected to a disciplinary change in placement for more than 10 school days in a school year, unless the student’s Section 504 team concludes that the behavior at issue is not a manifestation of the student’s disability. A series of short-term removals over the course of a school year that exceed 10 school days may constitute an impermissible pattern of exclusion. Unlike the IDEA, the Section 504 regulations do not provide a stay-put provision maintaining the student’s current placement pending the resolution of due process disputes between parents and schools. (However, OCR has stated that (Continued on page 15) Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 11

FACETO FACE with Dr. David Bronner

AASB Executive Director Dr. Sandra Sims de-Graffenried came face to face with Retirement Systems of Alabama Chief Executive Officer Dr. David Bronner in a recent interview. This conversation is the latest installment in an ongoing series of features recapping one-on-one dialogue between members of AASB's grassroots Leader to Leader program and key leaders and power brokers in the state. Leader to Leader members are trusted resources on education policy and issues and advocates for Alabama schoolchildren and K-12 public education. ▲ Sims-deGraffenried: How did you come to be in Alabama,

▲ Sims-deGraffenried: Ultimately, when the dust all settles and

and how did you connect with the Retirement Systems of Alabama?

■ Bronner: I was finishing my master’s degree at what was then called Mankto State University and is today called Minnesota State University. I was working at the university, and I decided to go to law school. I got accepted into a couple of law schools.

I was dating a girl out of the president’s office when a vice president for Minnesota was coming to Tuscaloosa. So, the long and short of it was that the vice president and I became friends over a couple of years. He said, ‘So, I really want you to be a university president some day because you’ve been playing around in universities all the time on the administrative side.’ I didn’t really have a burning desire to do that. I wanted to go to law school. So, he said, ‘Come to Tuscaloosa, and we’ll use you as a guinea pig. You could go to law school and work on your Ph.D. at the same time.’ And, that’s what I did.

One of my friends at the university at that time was acting president, and he made me the youngest assistant dean in the law school (University of Alabama) when I was about 27 years old. Then the dean of the school of business where I was teaching the three years I was there - Dean Paul Garner, who is deceased now - probably looked at his pension fund and started getting nervous. He said, ‘David, look at this job down here in Montgomery.’ So, I came down and looked at it, and it seemed to be interesting. I really didn’t know how bad it was until I got here because the pension fund had 25 cents for every dollar owed. Thirty-three years later, I’m still sitting in the same place. The last 13 years have been extremely exciting and pleasant to see that you really can have an influence on fourplus million people.

you finish your job or think you’re close to finishing, what do you hope to see the state accomplish?

■ Bronner: The goal for this state has been for a couple of decades now to get it to the national average. It has so many resources and so much potential. Talk to the old guard in the state, they’ll say, ‘Yeah, all we’ve talked about is our state’s potential.’ But, in the last 13 years we’ve jimmied up that ladder of potential to reality. It changes so many lives — whether it’s in Tuscaloosa, whether it’s in Lincoln or whether it’s in Montgomery (locations of recruited automotive manufacturers) — to take people who, in today’s dollars if we didn’t have the automotive industry would be making $20,000 to $25,000, now have the opportunity to make $45,000 or $50,000. It makes all the difference in their ability to help their kids get in school and be educated and have better opportunities in life.

12 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

▲ Sims-deGraffenried: What do you think about the governor’s

plan to cut taxes?

■ Bronner: Alabama is the lowest taxed state in America. If we

really need to do for people what we did last time — to think we were taxing people who are below the poverty level — I can see adjusting it from $15,000 or $16,000 or $17,000 or $18,000 or even up to $25,000, which will help a chunk of people. But, you can’t do much when you’re the lowest taxed state.

It’s almost as ridiculous a statement as, ‘I really want semiannual or three-year appraisals on my house compared to annual.’ It’s a political shell game, folks, and if you think about it, it actually hurts you if the value (of your property) goes down. If it (the property value) goes way up, you’re a hell of a lot better off paying it once a year than you are in three years.

▲ Sims-deGraffenried: By the year 2010, we’re looking at $3.2

billion of capital needs in our schools. How would you talk about it if it were your challenge?

■ Bronner: I wouldn’t talk about 2010. I’d talk about right now.

What do we need in ‘07? Three years to a politician is a lifetime. I would say this is part of the loaf that I need right now to survive, so I won’t have a catastrophe. ▲ Sims-deGraffenried: How important is K-12 education in

The difficult thing is when a mom or dad grows up with a lack of respect for education. My dad only went to the eighth grade, but he loved education. And he would tell me he wished he had stayed in school and could have become a lawyer some day. That showed me the respect he had for education.

The startling thing we saw a number of years ago were a lot of very uneducated people who were perfectly content to have their children do the same menial job at the same menial wage that they did. It’s just a sad state of affairs, and we’ve got to motivate those people to break that chain.

Education plays a critical role. You can’t move a state ahead without it. We have never really paid good attention to it. We have never really supported it. We continually hang below the Southeastern average, which is the worst average in the United States. So, if we were at the leadership role of the Southeastern average, we would still just be slightly probably above normal. We’ve got a long row to hoe there, and a lot of people have dedicated their lives to solving this problem. But, it’s a problem that is sort of like the health care problem. It’s been with us so long and it is so old that we think we can’t do much to change it.

Alabama in marketing and selling our state to industry and casting a good image?

■ Bronner: Education is going to come up on every survey of every industrial recruiter. Some will be interested in high school. More are interested in the technology colleges and junior colleges. But, you can’t be so far out of line with the rest of the country that you call attention to yourself. In many things, if you just get near the norm —even if you are below the norm a little bit — it’s not frightening. What you don’t want to be is in that lowly position of the worst five or the worst three, or God help you if you’re in the worst two. You’ve got to work towards the norm and stay away from the bullet that kills you.

The bullet that kills you is when you are in the bottom two or three in things that are important to people.

▲ Sims-deGraffenried: What message would you give school

▲ Sims-deGraffenried: Do you think we’re heading in the right

■ Bronner: My sister was a school board member in New Jer-

direction in terms of what we’re doing to improve science, technology and math education?

■ Bronner: We’ve got a couple of really unique things. The Alabama Math and Science School in Mobile is just phenomenal, and it’s available to everybody in the state. The real problem is in some of the rural schools where you don’t have the teachers, the textbooks, the labs. We’ve got to help those smaller rural schools.

sey, so I would tell you as I would tell anybody. Think of yourself as the frog in the alligator’s mouth. Never give up. If you give up, then you become part of the system.

Don’t be afraid. Leadership has a caveat, and that caveat is that failure is not a crime; aiming low is. You can’t change huge things without failing. Failing to me means that you’re trying to do things that are way beyond expectations, knowing that if you fail once in a while, you’ve just got to get up in the arena, dust yourself off and take after it again. Whether you’re a mayor trying to change a town or you’re a school board trying to improve education, if you’re afraid of failure, you’re never going to take the risk to make a change. You’re always going to be at the back of the pack. Failure is not a crime, but being a crook is. So, don’t mix the two up.

The easy thing to do on a school board or as a mayor or any public official is just to sit there in your position and pontificate. If you’re afraid to make people upset or mad at you, you can never be a leader because you’re out there spending all your time building consensus. When you’re ready to go, the moon will have set and then the opportunity’s long gone. Leaders are boat rockers. If you’re not rocking the boat, you’re sitting there pontificating.

Take a little risk and see if you can improve the place. Try to make the place better than when you came. That would be my message.

board members?

About Dr. David Bronner As Chief Executive Officer of the Retirement Systems of Alabama, Dr. David Bronner manages the pension investments of state employees and teachers in the state — investments in excess of $30 billion. Bronner took the helm of the Montgomery-based RSA, taking it from 25 percent funding to 103 percent in 2000 to its current funding level of 83 percent. The most noteworthy investments were those in local Alabama industries and a $175 million statewide tourism development project, the 432-hole Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail. Bronner, who has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Time magazine and Forbes magazine, has two degrees from the University of Alabama, a Ph.D. and a law degree, has taught in graduate schools of business and education and is a former assistant dean of the University of Alabama’s law school. He resides in Montgomery.

▲ Sims-deGraffenried: Thank you for your time today.

■ Bronner: Thank you.

(See additional comments on page 14) Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 13

Dr. Bronner on the Unfunded Liability of the Retirement System ▲ Sims-deGraffenried: What about health care?

Since this original face to face interview was conducted, Gov. Bob Riley called the Alabama Legislature into special session on Feb. 26 for one week to tackle the issue of the unfunded liability in our retirement system as well as to increase industrial recruitment incentives for Alabama. In five days, the minimum number of days it takes to pass legislation, a special trust fund was created to address RSA’s nearly $20 billion unfunded future liability. In early June, voters will have the opportunity to make that trust fund irrevocable by voting on a constitutional amendment.

Below is an excerpt from AASB Executive Director Dr. Sandra Sims-deGraffenried’s Face to Face interview with RSA CEO Dr. David Bronner that explains the importance of this legislation.

▲ Sims-deGraffenried: Please explain the unfunded liability in

our retirement system.

■ Bronner: There are two unfunded liabilities, you’ve got to

remember. You’ve got to separate them. There’s the pension fund and health care. The pension fund when I got here had $500 million and owed $1.5 billion, so it was 25 percent funded. Roughly in the year 2000, we struggled and fought our way to 100 percent funded. Two years in the marketplace hurt us like it did all the rest of the United States. We were still 90-plus percent funded.

The (cost-of-living adjustments) are a killer for us. You can’t have $2 billion or $3 billion worth of cost-of-livings because that goes to the bottom line. Now, all of a sudden I have $4 billion or $5 billion of unfunded accrued liability, and my funding is down to 83 percent.

Talk to some of the retiree organizations, and the retiree organizations say, ‘Well, we don’t care. How do we still get our cost-of-living raise?’ Well, the only ways you get your cost-oflivings is you go out and either raise more taxes or do something and fund it up front. ... What the Texas teachers did after they had two years of down markets was to say: ‘OK, we’re now below 100 percent funded. We will not give a cost-of-living raise until we’re 100 percent funded.’

You don’t really have to get to 100 percent, but somewhere in the 95 to100 percent range makes sense. But, giving cost-ofliving raises, like some people have proposed for next year, at 83 percent funded is just plain out stupid because you are going to get yourself in a whale of hurt. You’re going to hurt yourself.

You’re going to hurt the actives (current employees), and you’re going to hurt your retirees. So, you either fund it up front or you don’t have a cost-of-living because that’s where we are. We’re not in super danger, but we’ve slid very badly the last couple of years and certainly don’t want to go any further.

14 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

■ Bronner: A bigger problem is what to do with the health

care unfunded accrued liability. Well, that’s a very complicated issue. We’ve made a huge number of adjustments, and we probably will show somewhere in the $200 million range that we’ve saved (in health care funding) over the last year. Our thought process to the public, the governor and finance director was to set up a trust fund. Obviously, I think since we saved it, you’ve got to put it all in the trust fund because you owe a ton. The more you put in, the better off you are.

My opinion all the time was to get the member to pay more because I felt that if you’re going to have a real benefit and still be protected, then you need to contribute. The administration sort of figured me out there — a credit to them — because if a member starts paying then they have more of a legal right. So, if they don’t ask the member to pay anything, it sounds like they’re doing a favor to the member when in reality they’re preserving their right to take that benefit away.

Our state is sort of on the leading edge of this issue right now, because I’ve been yelling at them for two or three years about it. Whereas the other states are just figuring it out. But, the other states are saying, ‘OK, we’ve got a problem here, and if we’re going to fund it, we’ve either got to do away with it (health care benefits), cut it down or we’ve got to start paying for it.’ And that’s what governors are facing across the country. The problems are different, but they are connected from a point of view. That is, we have an ugly, ugly situation here — the ugly duck called insurance.

We did damned good over here in pensions — not as good as we would’ve liked because of the markets and all these cost-of-livings, but 83 percent is pretty good compared to when I started at 25 percent. When you add these two together (the pension and health care accrued liabilities), you’re talking a $25 billion obligation — $5 billion over here in pensions and $20 billion over in health care.

We had to do something for Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s (bond rating services) because they will ask that question: What is the funding mechanism and what is set up on your cost for health care? And see, some states that really didn’t get in trouble are sitting there smiling right now, because they said years ago, ‘We can’t afford it, so we’ll give you, the teacher, and you, the public employee, $200 a month to go get what health care you want. See you later.’ So, their only obligation is that $200 a month, not the thousand a month that it is costing us for insurance.

This problem is real. It’s big, and it’s big numbers. One of our charts shows right now we have 60,000 of us who are active and 60,000 retirees. In five years, that’ll be up to 90,000 retirees. In less than or right at 10 years, I’m doubled.

I’ll have 120,000 retirees and 60,000 actives. ▲

Education and the Law...

Continued from page 11

Section 504 contains an implicit stay-put mandate.) A Section 504 student disciplined for drug use loses all procedural protections under Section 504 and may be disciplined pursuant to the school’s normal disciplinary code of conduct.

Non-Discrimination Mandate Public school systems must provide Section 504 students with an equal opportunity for participation in extracurricular and non-academic activities. In situations where a disabled student cannot meet all the essential eligibility requirements, the school must to consider whether a reason-

able accommodation can be provided in order to qualify the student. Reviewing courts have found accommodations such as the provision of an aide, interpreter and nurse, a waiver of sports eligibility rules, and exceptions from disciplinary bars upon participation in extra-curricular activities as reasonable accommodations.

However, in those situations where initial eligibility for an activity is based on competitive standards, there is no obligation for a school to waive those standards for a disabled student.

Accessibility Requirements Section 504 regulations mandate that students with physical disabilities be provided an equal opportunity for access to school facilities. Facilities constructed

before June 3, 1977, when viewed in their entirety, must be readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. So long as the service, program, or activity as a whole is accessible, school systems are not required to make every older building fully accessible to disabled students.

However, for facilities constructed after June 3, 1977, a school’s facilities as a whole, as well as each part of each facility, must be readily accessible to and usable by disabled individuals.

Compliance with Section 504 can be challenging and costly to a public school system. However, by making appropriate eligibility decisions and being cognizant of the obligations it imposes, schools can fully implement the protections and avoid costly lawsuits. ▲

From Good to Great: AASB’s New Goals and Objectives Continued from page 7

Leadership Issue Four: Understanding what you are all about An association’s greatness can easily be achieved when its members understand their contribution, know their association’s core values and mission, and realize that they are the association’s resource engine. “How can we determine what our association does best in order to move our association from good to great?” What we do best is outlined in two of our key goals. We are not only a resource, but we’re an influential source of K-12 public school facts, data, and experiences. In addition, school boards’ use of sound and proactive governance practices directly impacts student achievement. Board governance is what we do, and we should do it to the best of our ability.

Leadership Issue Five: Turning the flywheel The flywheel analogy best describes organization members’ power to push and achieve little by little. As members build support for their organization and make a commitment to doing the best job they can do, the flywheel turns a little faster. More and more support builds momentum in making the organization achieve greatness, and the flywheel turns faster and faster. Therefore, our final question is this: “How can we move our association from good to great by building momentum?” Let’s all dedicate ourselves to participating fully in AASB services, and let’s inform, educate, and inspire voters in a way that wins their support for public schools.

In Summary: The common threads of the new goals are its members and our association’s leadership. It is the board’s vision that these will not only guide AASB in its decision-making and actions, but will certainly move our association from good to great. ▲

AASB Goals ✔ Promote student achievement through sound, proactive school board governance. ✔ Increase participation in AASB services. ✔ Improve membership services through the use of technology. ✔ Establish AASB as a key resource for information on K-12 education. ✔ Position AASB and local school board members as predominant advocates for K-12 education issues at the local, state and national level. ✔ Work to improve voter support for public schools. ✔ Provide infrastructure and resources to ensure capacity to reach mission. ✔ Emphasize fiscal accountability and transparency (internally and externally).

Established Dec. 7, 2006

Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 15

T

he Alabama Association of School Boards collected member feedback about legislative priorities for the 2007 Regular Legislative Session. The priorities reflect emerging issues the association is discussing in the Capitol hallways in an effort to raise awareness and earn passage of legislation that benefits Alabama’s schoolchildren.

AASB is actively participating in education policy discussions on Alabama public records, bullying, plans for the pandemic flu, incentives for high poverty/high achieving schools and partnering with other K-12 associations and entities. However, this article summarizes AASB’s key legislative priorities and other useful information for the association’s grassroots advocates.

These priorities are in line with the association’s resolutions, which were revised and again adopted by the Delegate Assembly in December 2006. If you have questions or comments regarding these policies and priorities, contact AASB Governmental Relations Director Lissa Tucker at 334/277-9700 or visit the legislative page at www.theaasb.org.

16 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

THE PRIORITIES AASB is committed to funding the basics in K-12. ▲

AASB promises to oppose any efforts to raid the Education Trust Fund. Legislators should resist funding of non-state entities from Education Trust Fund. To its credit, the Legislature has cut most non-state agencies from the ETF budget. Years of funding those entities had kept much-needed revenues from reaching basic public education needs. Now, we need to protect the ETF and ensure its use for the benefit of Alabama schoolchildren. ▲ AASB urges lawmakers to resist unfunded mandates. Local school boards are the only entity not constitutionally protected from unfunded mandates. That shortcoming will negatively impact our schoolchildren until the time it is cured in Alabama’s constitution.

▲

AASB supports additional funding for school nurses.

The ‘06-07 ETF budget took a strong first step by appropriating an additional $26.6 million for school nurses with a promise of more this year. Students’ health and special needs are costly, particularly when the cost of special education requirements — an unfunded mandate from federal legislation and regulations — are added. ▲ AASB supports full funding of the Alabama Reading Initiative and Alabama Math, Science & Technology Initiative, programs aimed specifically at student achievement. ▲ AASB supports a reasonable pay increase for education employees. Alabama’s teachers remain a target for recruiters from our neighboring states who are tempting them with attractive salaries while Alabama salaries lag behind the regional average. Local boards support reasonable salary increases for education employees while also moving steadily forward to increase spending on Alabama’s students. ▲ AASB urges lawmakers to ensure local schools receive sufficient state dollars to pay the basic operating expenses through Other Current Expense.

OCE has finally been fully restored to 2001 levels, including the recently released $17 million conditional appropriation. Operations and maintenance costs overwhelm local schools. Not one penny of state money actually pays utility bills, and local boards cover 98 percent of the costs for phone service, for example.

State funding also is needed to fully cover costs for principals and assistant principals, school nurses and substitute teachers. There may be efforts in this legislative session to provide additional money to cover these basics of running schools for operations and maintenance.

AASB is committed to preserving local control. ▲

AASB urges lawmakers to respect local lay control of public education and recognize school boards as the primary local policy-making body. Curriculum and textbook selection, personnel, local policy and school calendars are examples of issues

best addressed by local boards focused on the needs of their students and community. Local boards are the voice of the community. ▲ AASB opposes uniform school calendar and mandatory school start date proposals. Only student achievement goals and unique local community needs are relevant to setting a local school system calendar.

Local school boards work closely with their community and staff to develop calendars that work for their students, staff and parents, while being faithful to their student instructional goals. Outside pressure form tourism, summer camps and out-of-state groups are not based on academic or local interests. For your copy of the “Save Our Voice” advocacy kit opposing a mandatory start date, contact AASB at 334/277-9700. ▲ AASB opposes efforts to arbitrarily mandate that a certain percentage of funding be spent on “classroom instruction” via the so-called 65 percent or 100 percent solution proposals.

AASB is committed to fixing the Tenure & Fair Dismissal laws. ▲

The recent revamp has not made it faster, cheaper or easier to terminate, transfer or discipline tenured employees.

Preliminary data indicates school systems are spending far more in termination procedures because of the new laws, and the results are not consistent.

AASB is committed to preserving annual reappraisals. ▲

AASB supports annual reappraisals. Annual reappraisal eliminates inequities that are created over time and ensures taxes are based on the fair market value of property. Many local boards and local governments have made long-range plans with the projected revenue from annual reappraisals. Returning to reappraisal every four years would undercut capital improvement projects and hurt local planning decisions based on projected revenue.

(Continued on page 18)

Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 17

AASB is committed to protecting the Proration Prevention Account.

AASB is committed to adequate funding for school facilities needs.

▲

▲

Local boards support establishing a set percentage of the ETF as a funding goal for the education savings account, known as the Proration Prevention Account, as a sound fiscal accountability provision. This account can give schools a fully-funded savings nest egg to protect them in years that state revenues fall short of projections. It should have sufficient safeguards so that it is not raided to fund other “projects” in the future. Recent economic growth and budget accommodations allowing excess growth to be deposited in the account have provided an historic opportunity to have a well-funded savings account. Local boards urge actual savings, along with the line of credit offered by the Rainy Day Fund, to be maintained as buffers to future potential economic fluctuations.

THE PROMISE AASB is partnering with other education advocates to launch the non-partisan Promise Campaign.

Our goal is to protect the future for Alabama’s schoolchildren by protecting the Education Trust Fund.

The people of Alabama made a promise to public schools in 1947 when they voted to impose an income tax and dedicate the proceeds to education.

The Legislature also enacted state sales taxes to pay for public education.

We need your help to ask leaders and those in the Legislature to join us in our campaign to protect our children’s future by protecting the Education Trust Fund from diversions, tax exemptions or reductions. We are asking that we all make the promise.

Share this information with local leaders, superintendents, local elected officials, and especially, your representatives and senators and urge them to support the Promise Campaign to protect the Education Trust Fund.

The campaign lists five goals that must be reached for our children through the Education Trust Fund: ▲

We must provide safe and clean schools for every child: K-12 schools need $1.4 billion today to meet the need for repairs, new schools, new classrooms, and other facilities to give students a safe and clean learning environment. By 2011, unmet needs will be $4.3 billion.

Today, it takes $118 million just to turn the lights on and keep the heat on for a year in K-12 schools and the state

18 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

AASB supports a capital needs bond issue. Whether it’s $750 million or more than $1 billion, the proposed capital bond issue will fulfill great needs for K-12. It should be divided with 75 percent going to K-12 and 25 percent to higher education. For the K-12 portion, AASB suggests using the funding formula of the Public School Fund (50 percent distributed on a per pupil basis and the remaining 50 percent distributed using a formula that factors in community wealth to ensure the poorest school systems receive greater funding.) The bond issue will help all of our school systems, and it could and should address disparities and help those with the greatest needs.

doesn’t pay any of these costs. (Source: State Department of Education) ▲

We must raise per-pupil expenditures: Alabama is 44th in the nation on the amount of money we spent on each child in our schools. Today, a class of 28 students in Georgia has $62,580 more than the same size class in Alabama.

(Source: NEA statistics)

▲

We must provide competitive salaries for teachers: Alabama continues to lose ground to other Southern states in teacher pay. This year alone there are over 400 teacher vacancies in state schools. Male teachers now comprise less than 20 percent of Alabama’s teaching force. Special education classes are a critical need yet unmet because of lack of funds. (Source: AEA Research Department)

▲

We must provide smaller class sizes: To give every child every chance to succeed, class sizes must be reduced. We must create enough teacher positions to meet class sizes adopted by the State Board of Education in 1997. Class sizes set by board resolution are grades K-3 — 18 students, grades 4-6 — 26 students, grades 7-12 — 29 students. (Source: State Department of Education)

▲

We must provide up-to-date textbooks and technology: Students cannot learn without modern textbooks and up-to-date technology. Because of lack of funds, textbooks are rotated only once every six years. There is no rotation plan for technology. (Source: State Department of Education)

For your copy of the Promise Campaign advocacy kit, contact AASB at 334/277-9700.

THE PLAYERS “I call upon the members of the Alabama Legislature to draw a line in the sand around our children and to resist any effort to take funding away from them.”

— Senate President Pro-tem Hinton Mitchem, Mobile Press-Register ▲

Sen. Hinton Mitchem serves in the top leadership role of Senate as president pro-tem. Mitchem, of Union Grove, replaced Sen. Lowell Barron of Fyffe, who served in the position for the last eight years and now serves as rules chair. The president pro-tem controls the flow of legislation, sets the Senate calendar and makes committee assignments.

“We’re going to have as a priority not to take money from the classroom.”

— House Speaker Seth Hammett Associated Press

Bobby Denton, vice chair; Quinton Ross, vice chair; Roger Bedford; Tom Butler; Bradley Byrne; Linda Coleman; Larry Dixon; Vivian Figures; Jimmy Holley; Ted Little; Del Marsh; Larry Means and Rodger Smitherman. ▲

Senate Education Committee: Sens. Vivian Figures, chair; Kim Benefield; Bradley Byrne; Bobby Denton; Hank Erwin; Rusty Glover; Dr. Parker Griffith; Myron Penn; Quinton Ross; and Hank Sanders.

▲

House Rules: Reps. Ken Guin, chair; James Buskey, vice chair, Ron Johnson; Barbara Boyd; Craig Ford; Blaine Galliher; Todd Greeson; Richard Laird; Neal Morrison; Jack Page; Arthur Payne; John Robinson; Rod Scott; Pebblin Warren; and Cam Ward.

▲

House Education Policy Committee: Reps. Dr. Yvonne Kennedy, chair; Terry Spicer, vice chair; Mike Ball; Alan Baker; Dr. Barbara Boyd; Priscilla Dunn; Lea Fite; Mac McCutcheon; Dr. Joseph Mitchell; John Robinson; Tommy Sherer; Harry Shiver; Allen Treadaway; Cam Ward; and Henry White.

▲

House Education Finance: Reps. Richard Lindsey, Chair; John Rogers; vice chair; Mac Gipson; Dr. Robert Bentley; Alan Boothe; James Buskey; Dr. Betty Carol Graham; Todd Greeson; Dr. Yvonne Kennedy; Mary Sue McClurkin; Jeff McLaughlin; Jeremy Oden; Sue Schmitz; Terry Spicer and James Thomas. ▲

WHAT’S NEXT ▲

Rep. Seth Hammett of Andalusia was reelected in November to a third term as speaker of the House of Representatives. The speaker is the presiding officer of the House.

▲

Sen. Zeb Little of Cullman is the Senate Majority Leader.

▲

Standing Committee Members: Senate Majority Leader Zeb Little, Deputy Pro-tem Wendell Mitchell and Minority Leader Jabo Waggoner will each serve as a voting member on all Senate standing committees except local legislation committees.

▲

Senate Rules Committee: Sens. Lowell Barron, chair; Pat Lindsey, deputy chair; Ted Little, vice chair; Roger Bedford; Tom Butler; Bobby Denton; Vivian Figures; Steve French; Dr. Parker Griffith; Hinton Mitchem; Quinton Ross; Harri Anne Smith; and Rodger Smitherman.

▲

Senate Finance and Taxation Education Committee: Sens. Hank Sanders, chair; Phil Poole, deputy chair;

▲

Stay Up-to-Date: Throughout the 2007 legislative session, track education-related bills and actions online at www.theaasb.org. AASB’s Director of Governmental Relations is Lissa Astilla Tucker.

▲

For Copies of Acts: Call AASB at 334/2779700 or visit www.sos.state.al.us

▲

State Your Position: Provide feedback to AASB’s Executive/Legislative Committee, which assists the Resolutions Committee in developing a legislative program for the association. AASB’s resolutions drive the association’s legislative program. Delegates decide on amendments and changes suggested by the Resolutions Committee during the association’s winter conference.

Call AASB for copies of the Resolutions and Bylaws booklet.

Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 19

AASB Team Successfully Lobbies Congressmen to Support America’s Schoolchildren

Left to Right - AASB President Jim Methvin (Alabama School of Fine Arts/Homewood), President-Elect Sue Helms (Madison City), NSBA board member Robert A. Lane, AASB Executive Director Dr. Sandra Sims-deGraffenried, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, AASB Vice President Florence Bellamy (Phenix City), Immediate Past President Tommy McDaniel (Alabama School of Math and Science), and Executive Committee Member Dr. Charles Elliott (Decatur).

AASB’s leadership team met with Alabama’s Congressional delegation to urge them to increase federal funding for public schools, make improvements in the No Child Left Behind law, support voluntary preschool programs and help school systems attract and retain excellent teachers. The school board members were in Washington, D.C., to take part in the National School

Left to Right - AASB Executive Committee Member Dr. Charles Elliott (Decatur), Vice President Florence Bellamy (Phenix City), Executive Director Dr. Sandra Sims-deGraffenried, Alabama Congressman Jo Bonner, Immediate Past President Tommy McDaniel (Alabama School of Math and Science), President-Elect Sue Helms (Madison City), NSBA board member Robert A. Lane, and President Jim Methvin (Alabama School of Fine Arts/Homewood).

Boards Association’s recent Federal Relations Network Conference.

AASB’s leadership team consisted of AASB Executive Director Dr. Sandra Sims-deGraffenried, President Jim Methvin (Alabama School of Fine Arts/Homewood), President-Elect Sue Helms (Madison City), Vice President Florence Bellamy (Phenix City), Immediate Past President Tommy McDaniel of Cherokee County (Alabama School of Math and Science), Executive Committee Member Dr. Charles Elliott (Decatur), NSBA board member Robert A. Lane, and Lissa Tucker, AASB director of governmental relations.

(Continued on page 27) 20 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

Left to Right - AASB’s Immediate Past President Tommy McDaniel of Cherokee County, member of the Alabama School of Math and Science school board, and Alabama Congressman Robert Aderholt.

Left to Right - Alabama Congressman Mike Rogers, AASB Vice President Florence Bellamy (Phenix City), and Immediate Past President Tommy McDaniel (Alabama School of Math and Science).

Striving Readers Act Targets Adolescent Literacy U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions aims to improve adolescent literacy with the Striving Readers Act.

S

essions, the bill’s co-sponsor, recently joined Gov. Bob Riley, state Superintendent of Education Dr. Joe Morton and Assistant Superintendent for Reading Dr. Katherine Mitchell in a news conference to announce a proposed national reading program for grades 4-12.

The pilot Striving Readers program would cost $200 million nationally when it launches in 2008, with funding increasing until 2012. Once the phase-in to every state is complete, the annual program cost is expected to be $1 billion, and Alabama would receive about $22 million.

The legislation, which Sessions believes will receive bipartisan support, would give grants to states and school systems to create literacy programs specifically for middle and high school students.

“Everyone has seen the outstanding impact of Alabama’s Reading Initiative and the federal Reading First program for younger children in Alabama,” Sessions said. “It is time for us to join together to meet the needs of students in the upper grades who are below grade level. Many of them drop out, or they graduate without the skills they need to succeed in the work force.”

Co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, the bill would: • Help states create statewide literacy initiatives for students in grades 4 -12, share data on student progress to parents and the public, and improve teacher training and professional development in literacy so all students receive high quality instruction.

• Help systems and schools create plans to improve literacy for adolescents, develop top notch assessments, train teachers from every subject area in literacy strategies and use data to improve teaching and learning.

• Allow systems and schools to hire and place literacy coaches, train parents to

U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions announces his plan to introduce the Striving Readers Act, which would provide grants to states and school systems to create adolescent literacy programs.

support the literacy development of their child and connect learning inside the classroom with learning that takes place outside the classroom.

• Require states, school systems and schools to participate in a rigorous evaluation that demonstrates student progress.

• Require the federal government to complete an overall evaluation of the program to determine its impact on the nation’s middle and high schools.

Riley said Alabama is already working to expand the Alabama Reading Initiative into middle and high schools. Alabama’s model for literacy initiatives has been under way in secondary schools since 1998 and has benefited 112 intermediate and secondary schools. Funding, however, has been concentrated in grades K-3.

The statewide Alabama Reading Initiative seeks to significantly improve reading instruction and, ultimately, to achieve 100 percent literacy among K-12 public school students. The state-funded ARI, which is part of the curriculum in 793 K-3 schools, started with 16 pilot schools in 1998.

The Alabama Reading First Initiative, a result of the No Child Left Behind Act, is

the federally funded K-3 effort that advocates the use of research-based reading programs and materials. It launched in 2002.

The two initiatives have resulted in a 17 percent increase from 2004 to 2006 in the number of students reading at grade level.

The state’s notable reading improvements are the subject of a new U.S. Department of Education publication titled “Alabama: How Reading First Helps a State Make the Grade.”

“We’re the only state in the nation featured this way,” Mitchell said, waving the publication. “This talks about how Alabama is the model for the country in putting the federal money of Reading First with our state’s reading initiative money to make Alabama the model of how to attack literacy in the early grades.”

Mitchell agreed that there is an urgent need to repeat that success in the upper grades.

“The students in our middle grades and our high schools missed the Alabama Reading Initiative because we’ve been funded for three years, so we just have second graders who really received the benefit,” she said.

(Continued on page 23) Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 21

Build a New Pool of Teacher Talent

By David Saba

Educators across Alabama are well aware of the challenges faced by state board members, superintendents and principals who are working to ensure that all students have a highly effective classroom teacher who can truly meet student needs and close the achievement gap.

As in years past, the 2006-07 school year started with teacher vacancies that were filled by substitutes or teachers with emergency certification. This is especially true for rural and urban schools and in the critical need areas of math, science and special education.

22 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

labama provides multiple routes to teacher certification and requires a systematic structure of support once new teachers arrive in the classroom. But even with multiple routes to certification and efforts to retain teachers, the state still faces significant shortages. As a result, schools need to find additional methods for attracting professionals into teaching who specialize in math and have learned the pedagogy of teaching. Without additional teacher recruitment strategies, systems will have to continue to rely on emergency certifications.

It is likely that the educators in the state will face the same issues in the 2007-08 school year.

Why? • Like teachers across the nation, many Alabama teachers leave the profession shortly after entering it. In a recent annual poll on teacher attitudes sponsored by MetLife, 27 percent of those surveyed plan to leave the field within five years. For rural and urban areas, the data show that most teachers exit the field within three years.

• Due to looming retirements, over 50 percent of the current teaching force in Alabama (47,317 teachers) will need to be replaced in the next decade. According to the National Association of State Directors of Teacher Education and Certification, in 2003-04 the state produced 3,598 new teachers through traditional routes. In addition, 1,027 new teachers were certified through alternative routes. The current process will not even provide enough new teachers to replace those lost through retirement, let alone attrition.

• Attitudes toward careers are rapidly chang-

A

ing in America. People change careers much more frequently than at any time in our history. The teaching profession is just as affected as all other professions. School systems are essentially competing with all other industries to get the best people. Factors that increase competition for top professionals are workplace conditions such as higher salaries, job sharing and flex time, as well as technological advances that promote telecommuting.

These factors will continue to affect long-term retention.

• There is a significant “distribution gap” of teachers that mirrors the achievement gap. In spite of the increased efforts of state and local government and community groups, we are not much nearer to closing this gap. Fully leveraging all programs available is the only way to truly make a difference in teacher distribution.

These conditions may sound daunting.

There is no single solution to the problem, but like other states, Alabama can take advantage of the many options available to address the issue of teacher shortages.

Efforts have been made to retain current teachers, to reach out to those teachers who have left the classroom and to recruit new teachers to the field through traditional and alternative routes to certification.

However, another part of the solution should be the adoption of a program such as Passport to Teaching offered by the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE.) This program, which now is only accepted by parochial and private schools in Alabama, would be a supplement to existing alternative certification programs. ABCTE works to attract highly qualified professionals to create a new pool of talented teachers for schools.

Our research at ABCTE tells us that for many knowledgeable professionals with bachelor’s or advanced degrees, finding the time and resources to undertake heavy loads of pre- or post-service college coursework is the reason that they aren’t entering the teaching profession. Our program is successful because many individuals who work full time prefer an independent preparation program that is cost effective, develops their teaching skills and confirms their content knowledge. New teachers tell us that nighttime or weekend coursework is counterproductive for first-year teachers, who are focused on developing lesson plans, honing their skills, helping students and working with parents. Instead, these teachers (and their supervisors) prefer serious, meaningful mentoring during their first year in the classroom, as provided under the ABCTE program.

Passport to Teaching requires prospective teachers to have a bachelor’s degree and pass two demanding examinations that include subject area knowledge and pedagogy. They must also pass federal background checks and provide college transcripts as proof of their bachelor’s degrees.

Because the program uses a self-directed, individualized course of study, coupled with advising by a veteran teacher, no additional coursework is required and candidates can prepare on their own time without

leaving their current employment. In addition, the program provides a mentoring component to assist in the induction of new teachers. Research has shown that such programs increase the quality of teaching and improve the retention of new teachers.

The ABCTE program provides many benefits to schools and school systems. All teachers who earn their state certification through Passport to Teaching are considered highly qualified under NCLB. In addition, the program focuses on attracting individuals who want to make the transition to teaching while remaining in their own communities. This increases the likelihood that an ABCTE teacher will remain in the school over time. ABCTE attracts career changers by holding recruitment events in the high-needs school systems. Because ABCTE is federally funded, these events and the entire program come at no cost to the state or the school system.

In the states where the program has been approved, some 3,000 people are using Passport to Teaching to earn their teaching certificates, with more than 1,000 of those potential teachers working on math and science certifications. People from rural areas have enrolled in the program. Residents of rural areas find themselves presented with additional barriers to becoming teachers because they lack efficient and affordable access to institutions of higher education.

The flexibility offered in the Passport to Teaching process eliminates the barriers for these individuals to become teachers.

Too often in urban and rural schools, teacher shortages force educators with general knowledge to teach in specialized areas in which they may not be certified. The rigorous exams at the end of the Passport to Teaching program ensure that the newly certified teachers are highly knowledgeable in their subject areas and have strong knowledge of research-based pedagogy. Studies have shown that students tend to do better in a classroom taught by a teacher who has expertise in the subject being taught, especially in areas such as math and science. ▲ David Saba is president of the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence and can be reached at pbrennangac@abcte.org or 202/261-2628.

Striving Readers Act...

Continued from page 21

The Striving Readers funding would help provide resources for literacy initiatives to reach students in Alabama’s neediest middle and high schools, Riley said.

“Everyone has seen the outstanding impact of Alabama's Reading Initiative and the federal Reading First program for younger children in Alabama.

It is time for us to join together to meet the needs of students in the upper grades who are below grade level.”

—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions

“Alabama has been one of the nation’s leaders in implementing an effective literacy program. Striving Readers can make adolescent literacy programs a reality for all states,” Riley said.

Sessions considers the project the next step in a worthy investment.

“We must not risk squandering the investments Congress has already made through the important Reading First program for younger students,” he said.

“With 70 percent of our middle and high school students reading below grade level, we know we must continue our support with ongoing programs that reflect the needs of the older student for more advanced vocabulary and comprehension skills.”

Sessions and Murray planned to introduce the legislation this spring. ▲ Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 23

No Child Left Behind Reauthorization

By Denise L. Berkhalter

School boards want a say in how the No Child Left Behind Act passed by Congress more than five years ago is revised.

The law, now up for reauthorization, is meant to improve teacher quality, help students in struggling schools and bring all students up to level proficiency in reading and math by the 2013-14 school year.

Officials at the National School Boards Association have said the organization welcomes the goals of NCLB — including increased accountability for student performance, local school boards are concerned about the law’s implementation.

NSBA officials also say some of the current NCLB provisions simply don’t recognize the complex factors that influence student performance and are causing unintended consequences for schools, such as over labeling schools as “in need of improvement.”

In an effort to improve the implementation of the law, NSBA is backing the No Child Left Behind Improvements Act or the H.R. 648 bill sponsored by Rep. Don Young of Alaska and co-sponsored by Alabama Congressmen Jo Bonner and Mike Rogers. The bill, first unveiled by NSBA in 2005 and introduced in Congress first in 2006 and again in 2007, includes more than 40 provisions to improve implementation of the current NCLB law.

The provisions of H.R. 648 focus on five areas: assessments, measuring adequate yearly progress (AYP), sanctions, state flexibility by the U.S. Department of Education and non-public schools. H.R. 648 would: ▲ Increase the flexibility for states to use additional types of assessments for measuring AYP — including growth models. ▲ Grant states more flexibility in assessing students with disabilities and students not proficient in English for AYP purposes. ▲ Create a student testing participation range, providing flexibility for uncontrollable variations in student attendance. ▲ Allow schools to target resources to those student populations who need the most attention by applying sanctions only when the same student group fails to make adequate yearly progress in the same subject for two consecutive years. ▲ Ensure that students are counted properly in assessment and reporting systems. ▲ Allow supplemental services to be offered in the first year of “improvement.” ▲ Strengthen federal responsibility for funding. ▲ Require NCLB testing and reporting for non-public schools for students receiving Title I services.

24 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

NSBA officials say the major reforms would address many of the unintended consequences of the federal legislation while still holding states and school systems accountable.

The Bush administration says the federal education law is helping to raise student achievement and insists the law shouldn’t be watered down by lowered standards or rolled back accountability.

“The accountability systems ... ought to be flexible, we understand that,” Bush said in a recent speech at an Indiana elementary school. “Flexibility does not mean watering down standards. ... I believe we can make sure that we accommodate school needs without watering down this important piece of legislation.

Watering down the No Child Left Behind Act would be doing thousands of children a disservice, and we can’t let it happen.”

Bush also said he believes in NCLB’s school choice provision.

“There has to be a consequence,” he said. “Something has to happen if schools refuse to change and a child stays trapped in mediocrity. And one such consequence is to give parents the ability to send their child to a different school — public or private, as far as I’m concerned.”

NSBA Executive Director Dr. Anne L. Bryant has said school boards welcome accountability but want annual yearly progress to measure real student achievement.

“NSBA supports the intent of the law to ensure that every child has a quality education. But, we also must work collaboratively to address effectively many of the critical issues related to the implementation of these new federal requirements,” she said.

Bryant urges Congress to increase federal funding for education, so the mandates of the 5-year-old federal law can be met. She also objects to the law’s negative labeling.

“Recognizing the challenges and the commitment of state and local leaders to improve student achievement, the fact remains that the design of the accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind will result in a majority of the nation’s schools ultimately being identified as in need of improvement,” Bryant said.

“Such across-the-board labeling of the nation’s public schools is misleading and threatens the American public’s trust and commitment to the nation’s public school system.”

Bryant wants member associations to lobby their state’s congressmen for changes local school boards would like to see as the federal law comes up for renewal this year.

“You, as school board members, can be the truth tellers. Tell members of Congress about the challenges of No Child Left Behind. Tell them where and how you are making progress — on the real issue — raising student achievement. In many ways, you are their eyes and ears. They need data, real successes and real problems,” Bryant said.

AASB’s executive leadership team took another step in their efforts to convince Alabama’s Congressmen to improve implementation of NCLB when they took part in NSBA’s annual Federal Relations Network Conference in late January in Washington, D.C. U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings spoke to the National School Boards Association at the association’s 2007 legislative conference in the nation’s capital. She discussed successes of NCLB and the administration’s proposal for reauthorizing the law — “Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act.” Spellings argued the testing and accountability components of NCLB should be broadened with additional subjects and to extend further into high schools.

(Continued on page 31)

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings spoke to the National School Boards Association at the association’s 2007 legislative conference in Washington, D.C. She discussed reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind law.

About No Child Left Behind The No Child Left Behind Act was signed into law Jan. 8, 2002, as a means of holding states, school systems and schools more accountable for improving the academic performance of each student regardless of economic status, race, ethnicity, proficiency in English or disability. The law requires states to: ▲ Establish rigorous academic standards; ▲ Conduct annual assessments at specific grade levels with at least a 95 percent participation rate; ▲ Implement a comprehensive accountability system that includes extensive data collection and public reporting on student and school performance; ▲ Direct formal sanctions against Title I schools and their school systems for failing to meet proficiency targets in reading and math; and ▲ Establish new qualification requirements for teachers and paraprofessionals beyond the standards previously established by many states.

In establishing this federal framework for accountability, NCLB provides states discretion to: 1) establish content and performance standards; 2) select and operate assessment programs; and 3) establish requirements to monitor and report academic performance of groups of students who have traditionally not been performing at the desired levels.

Source: National School Boards Association

Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 25

Alabama Honors its Two Distinguished Title I Schools The state Board of Education recently praised Alabama’s two superior Title I school programs for their positive educational achievements.

vergreen Elementary School in Conecuh County and Escambia County’s Huxford Elementary are among the 64 National Title I Distinguished Schools for 2006 from 35 states plus the District of Columbia. Each state chose no more than two schools to honor. The state board issued Alabama’s two schools resolutions at its February regular K-12 meeting.

Dr. Joe Morton, state superintendent of education, said, “These two schools have distinguished themselves and have made a very positive impression on the nation regarding what they do on a daily basis for young people.”

Ella Bell, a member of the state board, commended and congratulated the schools for making adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind standards for two or more years consecutively despite their high poverty levels.

A rural pre-K-2 school of 370 students, Evergreen Elementary earned the distinction for closing the achievement gap between student groups. Ninety-one percent of Evergreen’s 82 percent African-American and 18 percent white student population qualifies for free or reduced-price meals.

Title I funds two pre-kindergarten classes at Evergreen for at-

E

State Superintendent Dr. Joe Morton (second from left), and state board member Ella Bell (third from left), present a Resolution of Recognition to representatives of Evergreen Elementary School as one of 64 National Title I Distinguished Schools for 2006.

26 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

risk students who need help adjusting to a structured classroom setting. Principal Joey Varner praises the hard work of a dedicated and caring staff, and community involvement from law enforcement, the public library, church groups and business.

Reading, he says, is the focus of every school day at Evergreen Elementary. The school uses every reading tool and program at its disposal, including the Alabama Reading Initiative, Alabama Reading First Initiative, a 90-minute uninterrupted daily reading block, Reading Mastery Plus, DIBELS, Peabody Picture Vocabulary and Degrees of Reading Power. Evergreen also goes beyond the mathematics textbook and adds manipulatives, math centers and a system-developed test to enhance math instruction.

Huxford Elementary, which was recognized as an Alabama Torchbearer School in 2005 and 2006, demonstrated exceptional student performance for two or more consecutive years to earn its national Title I award. The K-6 school’s student body of 300 is about 48 percent Native American due to its community’s rich Poarch Creek Indian culture. In addition, 91 percent of the rural school’s students receive free or reduced-price meals.

Principal Betty J. Warren attributes much of Huxford’s academic success to high expectations and high commitment to education by staff, students, families and the community. She describes the school nestled among South Alabama cotton fields as a nurturing environment that fosters a school-home connection.

Huxford has earned Alabama’s Honor Roll School award and has used Title I funds to secure highly qualified paraprofession-

als and curriculum resources to support student learning. The school participates in the Alabama Reading Initiative and uses the research-based Harcourt mathematics program and intensive reading intervention programs to accelerate learning.

The federally funded Title I program has helped more than 150 million low-income students since 1965 get extra academic support in reading, writing and math.

The National Association of State Title I Directors celebrated the Distinguished Title I School Recognition Program winners at

a January conference themed “Avenues to Excellence” in Long Beach, Calif.

The highlighted schools were honored for demonstrating significant sustained academic improvement in spite of having a 35 percent or higher poverty rate. The distinguished schools also exhibited strong professional development, coordination with other programs, curriculum and instruction to support achievement of high standards, and partnerships among schools, parents and communities. ▲

Dr. Joe Morton ( left) and Ella Bell (second from left) recognize representatives of Huxford Elementary in Escambia County Elementary School as a National Title I Distinguished School for 2006.

No Child Left Behind......

Continued from page 25

The Pledge to America’s Schoolchildren — signed by more than 140 political leaders — is a nationwide grassroots campaign designed to encourage all members of Congress to publicly show their support for America’s schoolchildren. So far, the pledge has also been signed by Alabama Congressmen Robert Aderholt, Mike Rogers and Artur Davis. AASB’s team also urged members of Alabama’s congressional delegation to cosponsor legislation to improve the No Child Left Behind Act and help local schools better implement the law. Congressmen Jo Bonner and Mike Rogers have so far agreed to cosponsor that bill, H.R. 648.

“Local school board members must serve our public schoolchildren each day,

with or without the funding promised by Congress,” said Sims-deGraffenried.

“They can best demonstrate to Congress students’ needs and what flaws must be fixed in the law.”

NSBA’s 34th Annual Federal Relations Network Conference hosted nearly 1,000 school board members, representing every congressional district in the country.

Though FRN gives school board members an opportunity to make a difference in the

education of our nation’s public schoolchildren, the network’s ultimate advocacy goal is to make public education a top priority of the federal government.

“Local school board members are on the front lines every day and understand firsthand what our public schoolchildren need to succeed,” said Dr. Anne L. Bryant, NSBA executive director. “They are the best advocates in telling their own stories to Congress.” ▲

▲ Visit www.nsba.org/frn to read the Federal Relations Network conference notebook, speeches and powerpoint presentations online. ▲ Visit www.risdonfoto.com to view conference photos.

Choose “client galleries” and “NSBA 2007.” ▲ Visit www.pledgetoamericasschoolchildren.org to read the Pledge to America’s Schoolchildren.

Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 27

Alabama Association of School Boards

Professional Sustaining Members

AASB appreciates these professional members for supporting association activities and you all year long.

Alabama Beverage Association Montgomery, Alabama 334/263-6621 Alabama Gas Corporation Birmingham, Alabama 205/326-8425 Alabama Supercomputer Authority Montgomery, Alabama 334/832-2405 Barganier Davis Sims Architects Montgomery, Alabama 334/834-2038

Fuqua & Partners Architects PC Huntsville, Alabama 256/534-3516

Lathan Associates Architects PC Birmingham, Alabama 205/879-9110

Gallet & Associates Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/942-1289

McCauley Associates Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/969-0303

Goodwyn, Mills and Cawood Inc. Montgomery, Alabama 334/271-3200 Birmingham, Alabama 205/879-4462 Mobile 251/460-4006

McKee & Associates Architecture and Design Montgomery, Alabama 334/834-9933

Hoar Program Management Birmingham, Alabama 205/803-2121

Payne & Associates Architects Montgomery, Alabama 334/272-2180 PH&J Architects Inc. Montgomery, Alabama 334/265-8781

BlueCross BlueShield of Alabama Birmingham, Alabama 205/220-5771

Jenkins Munroe Jenkins Architecture Anniston, Alabama 256/820-6844

Sain Associates Birmingham, Alabama 205/940-6420

Christian Testing Labs Montgomery, Alabama 334/264-4422

JH Partners Architecture/Interiors Huntsville, Alabama 256/539-0764

Sherlock Smith & Adams Inc. Montgomery, Alabama 334/263-6481

Council of Alabama Coca-Cola Bottlers, Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/841-2653

Kelly Services, Inc. Dothan Alabama 334/673-7136

Southland International Bus Sales Birmingham, Alabama 888/844-1821

Davis Architects Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/322-7482

KHAFRA Engineers, Architects and Construction Managers Birmingham, Alabama 205/252-8353

Exford Architects Birmingham, Alabama 205/314-3411

Paul B. Krebs & Associates, Inc. Birmingham, Alabama 205/987-7411

28 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

Evan Terry Associates PC Birmingham, Alabama 205/972-9100 Volkert & Associates Inc. Mobile, Alabama 251/432-6735

At the Table Henry A. Spears School Board Montgomery County Board of Education

April 2007

Hometown Montgomery

14- NSBA Annual Conference 17 and Exposition San Francisco, California

A Board Member for I’m in my 31st year.

June 2007 Board/Superintendent Secretaries' Workshop 13 Montgomery 15 Birmingham

Books at Bedside “Good to Great” by Jim Collins Inspiration My inspiration as a board member is to be the very best board member I can be and to provide the best academic program possible within the resources we have for the students we serve. We have a very diverse student body, and not all are performing at the same level. So, we have a great challenge to raise the achievement level of the students not doing as well as we would like up to a higher level of achievement.

July 2007 11- NSBA/Southern Region 14 Conference San Antonio, Texas 29- AASB Summer Conference 31 Perdido Beach Resort,Orange Beach July 31- Leadership I Aug. 1 Perdido Beach Resort, Orange Beach

Motto as a Board Member Every child can achieve.

Walter Mitty Fantasy The success of my children in their careers and in their health.

Advice to New Board Members Many new board members think that as an individual they can get in and change the world, which is very much untrue. So, they have difficulty in adjusting because of that. They don’t seem to realize that the board acts as a whole, and they don’t have individual power to make change. They also tend to take upon themselves to resolve problems individually as a board member rather than referring the issues to the superintendent and superintendent’s staff for resolution.

Greatest Accomplishment as a Board Member My contribution to improving the educational opportunities of the minority students who are enrolled in the Montgomery public schools. I started out when our system was segregated and have gone through the process of desegregation.

Pet Peeve as a Board Member Talk radio shows that put education down at every opportunity they get and that emphasize the negative rather than the positive.

Reason I Like Being an AASB Member For the professional assistance and development it provides for me and other board members and for public education as a whole in Alabama.

My Epitaph He served the students well as a board member.

HELP! What communication-related qualities should a board look for in a superintendent?

Q A

Leadership, vision, the ability to motivate others and strong communications skills are the top qualities superintendent candidates should have.

Poor superintendent/school board relations can often be traced to communication failure. That’s why it’s important that expectations be communicated clearly between the board and superintendent.

Boards should also choose a superintendent who will keep the board informed; communicate expectations to staff; listen to and engage the community; builds partnerships and strong support for your schools; and builds trust through honesty, integrity and sincerity.

— Denise L. Berkhalter

▲ Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 29

Potpourri PEOPLE ▲ Applause to every school board member in the state. AASB has recognized all board members with certificates, and the state Board of Education approved a resolution in support of January as School Board Member Recognition Month. ▲ Congratulations to

AASB Immediate Past President Tommy McDaniel of Centre, who has been appointed to the Alabama School of McDaniel Mathematics and Science Board of Directors by Gov. Bob Riley. His term representing the Third Congressional District runs through May 1, 2012. ▲ Welcome aboard Mont-

gomery County Board of Education Superintendent John Dilworth, who begins March 1.

Dilworth is the former vice president for uni- Dilworth versity affairs at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, La.

A pat on the back goes to AASB President Jim Methvin, who was a presenter in January on a panel discussing "Leadership Lessons from the Disney Institute," which was part of the 2007 National School Boards Association Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. Methvin is a member of the Alabama School of Fine Arts Board.

30 Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007

Kudos to the state’s 2006 Presidential Award finalists: Michelle Gay of Foley Intermediate School in Baldwin County, science award; Shane Callans of Greystone Elementary School in Hoover, mathematics award; Hope Sawyer of Fairhope K-1 Center in Baldwin County, mathematics award; and Kathy Ann Self of Trace Crossings Elementary School in Hoover, science award. Each was honored with a resolution from the state Board of Education. Pictured are state Superintendent Dr. Joe Morton, Gay, state board member Dr. Ethel Hall, Self and state board member David Byers.

Photo: Charles V. Creel

▲ A welcome goes to Madison City

▲ Cheers to Dr. Phil Raley, the recently

Board of Education’s new superintendent, Dr. Dee Fowler. The former assistant Madison schools superintendent started in his new position Dec. 21, 2006. He replaced Dr. Henry Clark, who retired.

retired Opelika Board of Education superintendent, who was honored in February by the Alabama School Communicators Association for his commitment to using communication and public relations to support student learning.

▲ Kudos to the two Alabama school

▲ Kudos to Auburn Early Education

boards that were selected to participate in the 2007 National School Boards Association’s “Share the Success Workshops” April 14 during the annual conference in San Francisco. The participating school boards are Madison City Board of Education with Board President and AASB President-Elect Sue Helms, Curriculum Specialist Sue Hall and Distance Learning Grant Administrator Anne Davidson presenting “Going the Distance for Learning;” and Mobile County Board of School Commissioners with Deputy Superintendent for Academic Affairs Samantha Ingram and Superintendent Dr. Harold Dodge presenting “Transformed Schools Initiative: Turning around Historically Underperforming Schools.”

Way to go to go Dr. Wesley Hill (left), Demopolis Board of Education superintendent and recipient of the Demopolis Chamber of Commerce 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award for his community service and accomplishments during his 27-year education career in Demopolis.

Hill plans to retire in May.

Center of the Auburn Board of Education. The George Lucas Educational

Foundation included the center in an upcoming documentary about projectbased learning and technology. ▲ Well wishes to state Board of Education

member Dr. Mary Jane Caylor, who was appointed by Gov. Bob Riley to serve on the School Bus Seat Belt Study Group. ▲ Congratulations

to Vincent High School biology teacher Debbie Barnes of Shelby County. She is the winner of the U.S. Department of Education’s American Stars of Teaching Award, which honors one teacher from each state who uses innovative strategies to raise student achievement.

▲ Cheers to Alabama’s 2007 Prudential

Spirit of Community Awards winners for their excellent volunteerism. They were Zachary Woolley of Oak Mountain High School in Shelby County; Lindsey Jones of Central School in Madison County; and state honorees Paris Davis of Shades Valley High School in Jefferson County; Shannon Edsall of Thompson High School in Shelby County; Joy Lampkin of Homewood High School in Homewood; and Gregory Stanhope of Florence High School in Florence. ▲ Good job Jessica Farquhar, a student

at Montgomery County Board of Education’s Booker T. Washington Magnet High School. Farquhar’s photograph, “No Need to Hate,” was chosen as one of only 27 pieces of artwork included in an exhibit at the U.S. Department of Education headquarters in Washington, D.C. ▲ Sympathies to the family of Dr.

William H. “Zeke” Kimbrough of Montgomery. He died Jan. 25 at age 93.

Kimbrough’s long education career included coaching and teaching at Sylacauga High School, and he was superintendent of Piedmont Board of Education from 1942-1967. The former Alabama Education Association and Alabama Association of School Administrators president was assistant state superintendent of education from 19671978 and formerly served as state finance director. ▲

No Child Left Behind......

Continued from page 25

The law now requires states to annually assess students in grades 3-8. High school students must be assessed by the state at least once. The results are reported by income level, race and ethnicity, disability and limited English proficiency.

Spellings also has touted charter schools and the expansion of school choice options for students in low-performing schools. Bush has proposed $300 million in scholarships to expand school choice.

“Under (this) plan, parents of students in struggling schools would have the option of sending their children to a better-performing school of their choice,” Spellings said.

NCLB mandates school systems offer students at low-performing schools the option of transferring to a higher-performing school within the system, though few eligible students have actually taken advantage of that option. Only 5.5 percent of eligible students transferred through school choice in 2003-04, according to the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights’ report, “Choosing Better Schools: A Report on Student Transfers Under the No Child Left Behind Act.” In recent testimony before a U.S. House of Representatives appropriations subcommittee, Spellings outlined education budget focuses related to NCLB and reported the law’s successes. The three primary budget priorities include: ▲ Improving chronically underperforming schools; ▲ Increasing resources and rigor in our

high schools, especially in math and science; and ▲ Making college accessible and afford-

able for every student who wants to attend.

Though preliminary data suggests 2,000 chronically underperforming schools have missed AYP goals for five or more years, the law has resulted in strong gains, Spellings said. Among them: ▲ Younger students have made more reading progress over five years than in the previous 28 combined. ▲ African-American and Hispanic stu-

dents are reaching all-time highs in reading and math. Achievement gaps between poor and minority students and their peers are beginning to close. ▲ More than 60,000 schools — over 70

percent overall — are meeting No Child Left Behind’s annual performance goals.

“No Child Left Behind is working, and going forward, we must preserve the key principles of the law: high standards, accountability and the goal of every child on grade level by 2014,” she said. “At the same time, we can use the knowledge we’ve gained to strengthen and improve the law ... continuing the workable, common sense approach that we’ve developed together with states.”

Among the flexibilities Spellings supports such NCLB revisions as allowing states more flexibility in using federal funds, alternative standards for measuring special education students’ achievement and greater use of growth models that measure individual student progress over time. ▲

▲ For more information about the No Child Left Behind Act, visit http://www.ed.gov/nclb/ ▲ To read NSBA’s recommendations and the No Child Left Behind Improvements Act, or the H.R. 648 bill, visit http://www.nsba.org/site/page.asp? ▲ To read the full text of the U.S. Department of Education’s “Building on Results: A Blueprint for Strengthening the No Child Left Behind Act,” visit http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/nclb/buildingonresults.html ▲ For research and analysis studies on No Child Left Behind, visit http://www.elladvocates.org/nclb/nclbstudies.html Alabama School Boards • Spring 2007 31

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