First of all, I would like to congratulate the Crawford County Eagles boys’ basketball team for both their Region Championship and their big win over Seminole County on Wednesday, February 17th.  

In Wrestling action, Mathew Barajas placed 6th at the State Competition.

I also want to congratulate Laura Meldrum on receiving the IMPACT Award in Special Education recently at a GLRS luncheon in Macon.  

 

THE A-TEAM

 

A- Administrators

T- Teaching

E-Empowering

A-Assisting

M-Modeling/Monitoring

 

The A-Team met on February 9th to start deciding on true Vision, Mission, and Beliefs.  They also spent most of the afternoon refreshing their knowledge of unpacking the Georgia Standards of Excellence (ELA and Math) and the GPS “for now” (Science and Social Studies). The next meeting with the A-Team will be on March 21^st, and we will continue our training.  I am sure the A-Team members from your school have scheduled, or will schedule, a meeting for each school to work on school level V,M, & B.  Please take pride in this process. These three things should guide your school and this system in all that we do.  It should not be something we just put on the website to be checked off for AdvancED.  The BOE has a work session on March 1st where I will be guiding them through the same process.  I am excited to have everyone in the boat hopefully rowing in the same direction, because according to a Swahili proverb, “A boat doesn’t go forward if each one is rowing their own way”.

 

Now on to some fun items, legislation!!!!!

 

SB 364 made it to the Senate Education and Youth Committee on Wednesday, but no vote was taken.  This bill, as it is presented, will:

 

1. Reduce state tests from 32 to 24.
2. Allow fewer observations for veteran, high-performing teachers.
3. Requires an annual summative assessment for grades 3-12 to be used for student placement, not teacher evaluation.
4. Requires GADOE to produce a readiness assessment for first grade.
5. Requires that standardized tests comprise 30% of a teacher's evaluation; up to 10% of the 30% may be from multiple measures.
6. For teachers of record that do not have a state assessment, growth in student achievement shall comprise 30% based on local formulation.
7. School leaders shall have 40% of their evaluation based on student achievement with a minimum of 30% from state tests.
8. Students must attend 80% of the classes for a course to be counted in the evaluation process.
9. Strongly urges moving first semester tests to the last week of the semester and end of year tests to the last two weeks of the school year.
10. Compels the GADOE to insure that alternative assessments for students with disabilities comply with Federal law without imposing undue burdens on the local school system.

 

These are steps in the right direction, but who knows how they are going to pick this apart.  I still do not like SLOs being used as they are currently.  I think learning targets and 8-10 formative assessments would do a better job of insuring growth (i.e. standard mastery), but I have been voicing that opinion since Race To The Top began.  I do feel like the reduction of observations for veteran teachers is a win.

 

HB 865, the BEST Act, would establish a second income tax exemption program for students leaving public school to attend a private school.  In other words, a parent or a grandparent can donate to this “scholarship” and they will receive an income tax credit.  The BEST act is better than the GOAL scholarship; however, if the legislators will allow for a tax credit for donation to a private school scholarship, they should allow for a tax credit for a donation to public schools.  I’m just saying.

 

HR 1344 is a proposed Constitutional amendment that would allow a school district to call for a second ESPLOST if a county/city discontinued its LOST.  Proceeds of the second ESPLOST, if passed, must be used to lower the millage rate limit.  This amendment goes with HB 1005, relating to that discontinuance.  According to HB 1005, if the LOST or HOST was discontinued due to a failure to file a new or revised distribution certificate with the state revenue commissioner, the question cannot be taken to the voters for five years, and all revenue from the LOST that the state holds remains with the state instead of being distributed to the county and qualified cities.  In the meantime, this Constitutional amendment would allow local boards to ask voters for that 1%. Sounds like a set up for a local fight and an injustice to the cities and counties with the state retaining local funds.  "You snooze, you lose" is probably not the best basis for tax policy. I think the additional 1% is a great idea for relieving some of the burden on the property taxes, but pitting the local agencies against one another is a terrible idea.

 

Once again, there is a more complete list of current bills on the GAEL website.  The link to these Bills is right in the center of the page below the legal issues ad.