EDUCATION OVERSIGHT BOARD MEETING MINUTES February 18, 2004 - 8:00 A.M. Room 412A State Capitol Building Oklahoma City, OK 73105 BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Don McCorkell, Kenneth Bridges, Gerald Dickerson, Ron Dryden, Susan Field, Ed Long, Sen. Penny Williams BOARD MEMBERS ABSENT: Patrick Gilmore, Rep. Barbara Staggs OTHER REGULAR ATTENDEES: Office of Accountability Staff: Robert Buswell, Matt Hesser, Jerry Hsieh, Leonard Hall VISITORS: None Call to Order and Roll Call: Mr. McCorkell called the meeting to order at 9:10 am and declared a quorum present. Mr. McCorkell also took the opportunity to welcome Mrs. Susan Field to the board. Mrs. Field was appointed by the Governor to serve the remainder of Pete Churchwell's term. Approval of Minutes: Minutes of the December 17, 2003 meeting were approved as submitted. Report on Transfer of Funds from State Department of Education & Year to Date Expenditures Report for FY-04: After review of an item-by-item accounting of the FY-03 financial transactions, Mr. Buswell found that everything looked reasonable, baring a number of transactions that were coded to the wrong program. Transactions were coded to the Educational Indicators Program when they should have been coded to School Performance Review Program and visa-versa. Buswell recommended that a correcting entry be used to return the accounts to their proper balance. Mr. Dryden made a motion to approve Mr. Buswell's recommendation, Mr. Bridges seconded the motion, and it was unanimously approved. Buswell went on to review the closing-out of FY-03 for the Educational Indicators Program. As posted by the State Department of Education, the Office of Accountability had expenditures of $243, 985, with a total budget of $258, 430, leaving a carryover of less than $14,500. Buswell next covered the program's year-to-date expenditures for FY-04. Buswell directed board members to an expenditure of $12,548 for inter-agency printing. The printing of the Profiles 2002 reports actually took place in FY-03, but the State Department of Education had posted the expenditure against the Office's account in July of FY-04. That single expenditure took up most of the $14,500 carryover, leaving a FY-03 "working carryover" of less than 1%. Buswell, explained that after fixed costs were taken into account, the O of A has roughly $18,000 to cover operating expenses for FY-04. Buswell finished by closing-out the FY-03 budget for the School Performance Review Program, which posted roughly a $426,000 carryover. For FY-04 Buswell anticipated $269,000 in expenditures for performance review operations and the cost of four reviews, with carryover estimated at roughly $153,000. Buswell reminded the board, however, that the School Performance Review Program was still planning to do additional reviews in the latter part of FY-04, and this would further reduce the carryover amount. Mr. McCorkell recognized that the time of other Office of Accountability staff members, besides Dr. Hall, was being utilized by the program. Mr. McCorkell suggested that the office consider prorating the personnel expenses of all Office of Accountability staff so as to better reflect the actual cost of both the Educational Indicators Program and the School Performance Review Program. Other board members agreed. Report on the Oklahoma School Performance Review Program (OSPR): Dr. Hall said that the first draft of the Ponca City review had been delivered and the editing process was underway. Hall said that there had been good community involvement. The report was going to have a number of cost-saving recommendations and would improve the educational process in Ponca City. The district had reviewed a draft of the report and had positive things to say about the review process. Hall said that the on-site work had been completed at Hennessey Public Schools. The OSPR review team had been well received, and again there was good community support for the process. Hall anticipated a first draft of the Hennessey review the first week in March. The on-site process will begin at Frontier on March 1. The Hennessey and Frontier reports will likely be released during the summer. Hall explained that several other districts have shown interest in an OSPR review, Locus Grove being one, and Stillwater another. Hall requested that the board authorize the O of A to release an RFP for either Locus Grove or Stillwater in the event that either volunteered for a review. Mr. Dryden made a motion to approve Dr. Hall's request, Mr. Dickerson seconded the motion, and it passed unanimously. Report on the Oklahoma Educational Indicators Program: Mr. Hesser reported that the Office was in the final stages of data collection. The survey had been completed and 94% of principals had responded. The office was still waiting on data from the Regents' office that was scheduled to arrive later in the month. The Office was also waiting on the End-of-Instruction results, API scores, dropout rates, and graduate counts from the SDE. Hesser explained that the Office was struggling to understand what was being reported in this year's test results. Because of NCLB, there was a new category of test results labeled "High Mobility." High Mobility students are those who have not been in the district a full year before the test was administered. It was the office's understanding that High Mobility students' results would be included in the scores that are reported by the SDE, but would not be included in the API calculations. Hesser estimated that, at best, the Profile reports would be on a timeline similar to last year and could be delayed somewhat by the OSPR reviews currently in progress. The Profile reports were released during the second half of May last year. Mr. Long questioned if the 70% Performance Benchmark that had been set by the board a number of years ago was still necessary. He proposed that in preparation for next year's work, that other methods of evaluating schools' performance on the OSTP be explored by the office. Mr. McCorkell and Mr. Dickerson agreed that the Benchmark should be reviewed. Mr. Dryden offered that the Benchmark was well received within his community and the other members of the board agreed that the Benchmark serves as a good starting point for conversation within the local community and had a historical presence in the Profile reports that was of value. Report on Legislation: Mr. Buswell reported on HB2572 which would allow legislators to request that a school performance review be conducted for a district and that reviews requested in this fashion would be done at no cost to the district. It was hoped that this would make districts more willing to receive a review. The bill would also authorize the Office of Accountability to do more outreach to school districts across the state. New Business: None Announcements: None Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:55 a.m. The minutes of the February 18, 2004 Meeting of the Education Oversight Board were approved as submitted on May 19, 2004