Brought to you by the Vermont School Boards Association, Vermont
Principals’ Association and Vermont Superintendents Association
January 18 -
Issue #2
Gov. Shumlin took the oath of office and addressed both chambers of the legislature on the afternoon of January 6. His inaugural address outlined broad themes for his administration:
This agenda consists of
five goals: expanding broadband, containing health care costs, educating our
work force, providing tax fairness and credit for emerging businesses, and
supporting a renaissance in Vermont agriculture.
Gov. Shumlin also offered some insight into his perspective regarding public education:
That I stand before you
today as Vermont's 81st Governor was improbable, and no one can attest to that
better than my mom and dad, who are here today. My mom reminded me again on
election night that it often seemed more likely in my grade school years that I
would struggle to find a job than to run for office…
I had a single teacher
who believed in me. Her name was Claire Ogelsby; she
later became Vermont's teacher of the year…
What I remember best about Claire was no matter how difficult the
challenge; no matter how innovative she had to be or how hard she had to work, she never gave up on me and therefore
neither did I…
In a democratic society,
educating our citizens is our single greatest obligation. I hereby call for an
end to the war of words launched from Montpelier that pits property tax payers
against our children, teachers, principals, and school board members, and
invite instead a respectful conversation on how to create the best education
system for our future; how to produce the best workforce for the jobs we’ve
just discussed. We take pride in Vermont's quality education system that is the
envy of the rest of the country. Let’s build upon our success by doing even
better…
Part of achieving that
success is ensuring that our children don’t grow up in poverty. Almost one in
three Vermont children live in low-income households.
Without proper nutrition, quality early education, or a stable home, these
children too often enter kindergarten far behind their peers, and the spiral
begins. They are more likely to drop out of school, abuse substances, and become
statistics later in life…
We can also do better
at ensuring the success of all of our students in school. While we are
rightfully proud of our outstanding education system, we are not delivering
what is required for every student. Time spent in class does not measure
acquisition of skills. For those who quickly demonstrate clear levels of
achievement, let's accelerate their path to enriched programs in that area of
study. For students who do not learn in traditional ways, let’s support
creative approaches that may be outside the four walls of our classrooms…
It should be the policy
of the state of Vermont that learning never ends. Working together in a
partnership with our educational community we will close the gap between those
Vermonters who want work and our job creators who have work to do.
Gov. Shumlin is scheduled to present his state budget proposal, including greater policy detail, on January 25. (Prior to his inauguration, Shumlin indicated that he would recommend that the Act 146 Challenges for Change school district budget targets not be made mandatory. We reported on this development in our prior Education Legislative Report).
One of the
first bills to be ushered through the Legislature annually is the Budget
Adjustment Act (BAA), a bill that amends the prior session's budget act to
reflect pressing expenditure needs and recent revenue updates.
Last week,
Department of Education Chief Financial Officer Bill Talbott
appeared before both the Senate Appropriations Committee and the House
Appropriations Committee to support the appropriation of the additional funding
necessary to meet state obligations for Act 153 reimbursement provisions. The Committees have not yet taken formal
action on the bill, but both conveyed their commitment to ensuring that
sufficient funding for Act 153 reimbursements will be available to all
districts that qualify.
Act 153 promised
up to $20,000 for expenses resulting from study committees formed to plan for
RED district mergers. The law also specified that when two or more supervisory
unions agree to jointly provide a service, the supervisory unions would be
eligible for up to $10,000 in reimbursement for legal and consulting fees
related to establishing the joint service.
The legal basis for these agreements is found in 16 V.S.A. § 267.
After the presentation from the Department of Education regarding the need for funding to support the Act 153 reimbursement grants, the Senate Appropriations Committee turned its attention to the Education Fund and the implementation of Challenges for Change.
The Committee acknowledged that budgets reported as of December appeared to save only $4 million of the requested $23 million reduction. Although they were grateful for the $19 million Vermont received in federal Education Jobs Fund revenue, they expressed their interest that this be used only as a bridge to provide local districts ample time to restructure programs and administration in a manner that will achieve long-term savings. The Committee emphasized the need for creativity in continuing efforts towards strong educational outcomes, for collaboration between the state and local districts, and for conservative budgeting at both the state and district levels.
The House and Senate Education Committees spent the majority of the week hearing presentations on the current issues in public education. Directors of our Associations and other interested parties were invited in to introduce themselves to the committees and offer perspective on the current state of education issues and legislation. The Committees also each heard presentations on Act 153.
Under the direction of the Speaker of the House, the House Education Committee determined an early list of priorities that it hopes to pursue as committee work in 2011. The Committee members brainstormed a list of six broad focus topics and subsequently took a straw poll to identify which among the six where of most interest to the members. The topics the Committee ranked as of the highest priority were addressing the socioeconomic achievement gap, and examining education governance in the state (both district-level governance systems and state-level systems). Other topic areas the committee brainstormed included the cost of education, the pre-K to 16 education continuum, early education, and workforce development.
Rep. Johannah Donovan of Burlington, Chair
Rep. Howard Crawford of Burke, Vice Chair
Rep. Peter Peltz of Woodbury, Ranking Member
Rep. Sarah Buxton of Royalton, Clerk
Rep. Brian Campion of Bennington
Rep. Kevin Christie of Hartford
Rep. Greg Clark of Vergennes
Rep. Gary Gilbert of Fairfax
Rep. Patti Lewis of Berlin
Rep. Peter Perley of Enosburgh
Rep. Valerie Stuart of Brattleboro
Sen. Kevin Mullin of Rutland County, Chair
Sen. Virginia Lyons of Chittenden County, Vice Chair
Sen. Philip Baruth of Chittenden
County, Clerk
Sen. William Doyle of Washington County
Sen. Sara Kittell of Franklin County
Our Associations have compiled a list of senators and representatives organized by supervisory union. It includes phone and email contact information. Names highlighted in bold indicate that the legislator was newly elected to his or her seat this biennium. Here is a link to the list:
http://www.vtvsba.org/legcontact.html
The following education-related bills have been introduced by one or more members of the Legislature as of January 18. To read any bill’s full text or see its current status in the legislative process, go to http://www.leg.state.vt.us/database/status/status.cfm.
Introduced by Representatives Obuchowski of Rockingham and Partridge of Windham
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to permit a person to be charged with a violation of Vermont’s disturbing the peace statute if the person, with the intent to terrify, intimidate, threaten, harass, or annoy another person, knowingly and intentionally uses false and defamatory Internet website postings to disturb the other person’s peace, quiet, or right of privacy.
Introduced by Representatives Hubert of Milton, Crawford of Burke, Pearce of Richford, Perley of Enosburgh, Reis of St. Johnsbury and Wright of Burlington
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to:
(1) Require that as current collective bargaining agreements for teachers expire, all public school teachers enter into a statewide employment contract …
(2) Require the state board of education to develop and impose a statewide calendar for all public schools …
(3) Prohibit teachers and administrators from striking and school boards from imposing contracts and require that all disputes be determined by binding arbitration through the Vermont labor relations board.
(4) Require that the state’s contributions to the state teachers’ retirement system of Vermont, including contributions for health and medical benefits, be paid entirely from the education fund…
(7) Require a study and proposals for ways in which districts can better utilize school buildings…
(8) Transform the department of education into an agency of education under the direction of the secretary of education. The secretary would be appointed by the governor with the advice and consent of the senate and would sit on the governor’s cabinet.
(9) Require a study and an evaluation of secondary school athletic activities, to include consideration of:
(A) The current role the Vermont principals’ association plays in the governance of athletics, including financial involvement, if any…
(10) Require a study of and recommendations for incentives to encourage school district consolidation.
Editor’s Note: The
statement of purpose for H.33 was excerpted.
Introduced by Rep. Ancel and 50 other
Representatives
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to direct the department of education to create an index comparing current expenditures per pupil to cohort graduation rates for secondary students in Vermont and in at least ten other states and to create a similar index for district-to-district comparison in Vermont.
Introduced by Representative Olsen of Jamaica
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to lend the sum of $600,000.00 from the education fund to the Winhall school district, to exclude certain portions of its education spending from the calculation of excess spending, and to require the school district to ensure that its budgets accurately reflect the number of students for which it will pay tuition in each budgeted year.
Introduced by Representative Gilbert of Fairfax
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to exempt up to $25,000.00 in income earned by a child under the age of 26 from the calculation of household income for purposes of income sensitivity.
H.60 AN ACT RELATING TO THE
ELIMINATION OF PROPERTY TAX ADJUSTMENTS BASED ON INCOME
Introduced by Representative Lewis of Derby
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to eliminate property tax adjustments based on income.
H.61 AN ACT RELATING TO THE
CONSOLIDATION OF SUPERVISORY UNIONS
Representatives McAllister of Highgate, Degree of St. Albans City, Dickinson of St. Albans Town, Larocque of Barnet, Lewis of Derby, McNeil of Rutland Town, Savage of Swanton and Shaw of Pittsford
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to direct the state board of education to consolidate all existing supervisory unions into 14–16 supervisory unions and to require that supervisory union boards be composed of members elected by member school boards.
H.62 AN ACT RELATING TO REQUIRING
A STANDARDS-BASED PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT PRIOR TO GRADUATION FROM SECONDARY
SCHOOL
Introduced by Representatives Sharpe of Bristol, Christie of Hartford and Peltz of Woodbury
Statement of purpose: This bill proposes to require satisfactory completion of a standards-based performance assessment prior to graduation from secondary school, to permit graduation beginning in January of a student’s junior year, and to allow a student who graduates prior to senior year to continue to attend technical education and college preparatory classes until age 25.
END