Committee Meeting Information

September 20 and 21, 2006

Cody Holiday Inn

Cody, Wyoming

 

Committee Members Present

Senator Henry H.R. “Hank” Coe, Co-Chairman

Representative Jeff Wasserburger, Co-Chairman

Senator Tex Boggs

Senator Kit Jennings

Senator Charles Townsend

Representative Debbie Hammons

Representative Patrick Goggles

Representative Del McOmie

Representative Lorraine Quarberg

Representative Dave Zwonitzer

 

Committee Members Absent

Senator Robert Peck

Representative Steve Harshman

Representative Becket Hinckley

Representative Kurt Bucholz

 

other Legislators Present

Representative Elaine Harvey

Senator Mike Massie

 

Legislative Service Office Staff

Dave Nelson, School Finance Manager, Brenda Long, School Finance Analyst, Matthew Sackett, Associate Research Analyst, Joseph A. Rodriguez, Staff Attorney

 

Others Present at Meeting

Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the Committee Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.

Executive Summary

The Committee met for two days in Cody, Wyoming.  On the first day of the meeting the Co-chairman appointed 4 four members of the Committee to a Subcommittee on Charter Schools.  The Committee heard testimony from the Wyoming Community College Commission and various community college presidents regarding funding and revenues.  The Committee was given a presentation by the Wyoming School – University Partnership and heard presentations from the WDE regarding career-technical education, alternative/virtual schools and the school data system.  In addition the Committee adjourned to executive session to discuss issues surrounding the ongoing school finance litigation. On the second day the Committee heard testimony from the School Facilities Commission on their guidelines and full day kindergarten.  The Committee heard presentations regarding the Wind River Job Corps and National Board Teacher Certification.  The WDE presented updates to the Committee regarding block grant model administration, funding model technical corrections, at-risk students, the PAWS student assessment, the summer school and extended day programs. school district rebate and recapture, and school finance litigation expenditures.  The Committee also heard testimony from its consultants, Dr. Picus and Dr. Odden, regarding the expenditure study of district resourcing of educational programs.  The next meeting of the Committee will be October 25, 2006 in Casper.

 

Call To Order/Opening Remarks (September 20, 2006)

Co-Chairman Coe called the meeting to order at 8:37a.m.  Co-Chairman Coe welcomed everyone to Cody.    The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by topic.  Please refer to Appendix 2 to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.

 

Appointment of Charter School Subcommittee

Co-Chairman Coe announced that he and Co-Chairman Wasserburger have decided to appoint Representative McOmie, Senator Boggs, Senator Jennings and Representative Hammons to the Charter School Subcommittee. 

 

Approval of Minutes

Upon motion by Senator Jennings and seconded by Representative McOmie the minutes of the June 9, 2006 meeting of the Joint Education Interim Committee were approved as presented.

 

Community college funding & revenues

Dr. Jim Rose, Wyoming Community College Commission addressed the Committee and supplied the Committee with Appendix 3.  Dr. Rose gave a history of the Wyoming community college system and its funding model.  The Current funding model has a number of steps and is very complex.  There is very little linkage of the funding model to the Commission's strategic plan.  The Commission is proposing that in early 2007 a draft funding model is presented to the Committee and then the Commission would meet with various constituent groups culminating in early May of 2007 when new rules and regulations could be put in place before making their biennial budget request in the fall of 2007.   The Committee wants the Commission to explore, in addition to the funding model, the issues of a revenue source in the form a statewide mill levy and corresponding changes in the governance regarding community colleges.    

 

Various Community College Presidents spoke to the committee regarding salaries.  Walt Nolte the president of Casper College gave the Committee Appendix 4.  The Commission is requesting salary increase as follows:  20% for faculty; 18% for classified staff; and 10% for administrative staff.  The total supplemental request for salaries is about 16.5 million.  Salaries are such that they cannot fill positions within the colleges.  President Nolte also stated that there will be future problems with an A&I ruling that suggests after the current biennium the community colleges will receive reimbursement on medical insurance at 62%, instead of the current 85%, for only those employees they have that are state supported.  This is a potential 8.7 million dollar hit to the community college budgets.  The Commission is requesting some type of legislation to clarify this issue on behalf of the colleges.  The 3% carryover rule does not allow the colleges to prepare adequately for the insurance hit.  Co-Chairman Coe requested that LSO look at this issue and bring something back to the committee at the November meeting to address the insurance problem. 

 

Joanne McFarland President of Central Wyoming College indicated that there is another A&I interpretation indicating that the state should only pick up 62% of any increase in salaries.  The colleges only received 62% of the 3.5%  cost of living increase for state employees which cost the community colleges about $400,000 dollars to make sure employees received the full increase.  Dr. Rose indicated that the Commission is having trouble getting a clarification from A&I regarding these issues.    

 

A motion was made by Senator Jennings to have the Committee chairs write a letter to A&I to explain their rationale and statutory interpretations regarding the insurance.  The motion was seconded by Representative Goggles.  After further discussion the motion carried.

 

Wyoming School/University Partnership

Audrey Kleinsasser director of the Wyoming School – University Partnership presented the Committee with Appendix 5.   Most educators have a profound moral calling to become a teacher.  Often this calling gets dirtied up in everyday life.  The question is how do you engage the youth?   How do you prepare them to operate in a social and democratic setting?  The mission of the Partnership is to implement the collaborative efforts of the University of Wyoming, member school districts, the Department of Education, the Wyoming Education Association, and the community colleges in carrying out simultaneously the improvement of teacher education and the renewal of schools.

 

School Finance Court Issues/Litigation Update.

Mike O'Donnell, State's Counsel, provided the Committee with a litigation update regarding the school finance case during executive session. 

 

School Facilities Guidelines and Accommodation of Full-Day Kindergarten Programs.

Donna Murry of the SFC presented the Committee with Appendix 19 and 20.  Appendix 19 shows a list of schools providing full day Kindergarten and where there is over capacity or under capacity.  They are looking for solutions such as reconfiguring schools, to deal with lack of capacity issues. A utilization study needs to be done to accommodate full day kindergarten.  Do not know what the price tag will be for the long term solutions.  Some of the remedies will have to be new money. 

 

Wyoming Department of Education Reports.

 

          Block Grant Model

 

                        Foundation Program Rules & Regulations

Fred Hansen of the WDE provided the Committee with Appendix 21.  These rules and regulations were the result of changes to statute. 

 

                       

 

Model Technical Corrections, Version 1c

Fred Hansen, WDE and Brenda Long of LSO provided the Committee with a listing of all the changes made to the model between versions 1b passed by the legislature and 1c the most current version. See Appendix 22.  Contemplating a change in the law in regard to certain technical corrections.  The technical corrections resulted in an estimated 4.1 million dollar change from the 2006 session estimate or about .4% of change in funding statewide. 

 

                        Rebated Recapture Fiscal Updates

Fred Hansen of the WDE and Brenda Long of LSO gave the Committee Appendix 23 and 24.  There are about 70 million dollars in rebated/recapture funds.  Constitutional Amendment B deals with this issue.  The new estimates are significantly higher for rebate and recapture.

 

                        District Litigation Expenditures- Update

Fred Hansen of the WDE gave the Committee Appendix 25.  For the period beginning on March 1, 2003 through March 1, 2006 slightly over 2 million dollars has been expended in litigation expenses. 

 

          Career-Technical Education

Teri Wigert of the WDE briefed the Committee regarding this issue and gave the Committee Appendix 6.  The term career-technical education(CTE) is synonymous with the term vocational education.  Ms. Wigert presented a brief history of CTE in Wyoming.  Ms. Wigert said that the early studies were about determining the cost of CTE while the study currently being undertaken is focused on the development of a strategic plan for the delivery of CTE.  Ms. Wigert indicated that the notion of career clusters is being established in this area through a process of course sequencing.  To assist in career planning the Department has prepared guides to give all students in grades 8-12 information on the programs.  Ms. Wigert indicated that there are 478 CTE programs being offered across the state.  98% of Wyoming students take a vocational course at some point in their high school career.  To date just over 4 million dollars has been spent in adjusting the programs.  Ms. Wigert indicated that with recalibration the state will distribute approximately 5.2 million dollars this year for CTE.   

 

          At-Risk Programs

Mary Kay Hill of the WDE presented the Committee with Appendix 28.  They were faced with two issues.  The first was to refine the definitions of mobile students which they have done through rule and regulation.  The second was an extensive study of the effectiveness of at risk programs.  There is a lot of overlap in regard to the expenditure – allocation study and the at risk effectiveness study. 

 

          Alternative Schools/Virtual Schools

Jim Woodward of the WDE addressed the Committee and gave them Appendix 7, 8 and 9.  Mr. Woodward indicated that 21 school districts have alternative schools and 23 alternative schools operate in Wyoming.   The WDE has decided not to combine the rules and regulations for alternative and virtual schools.  Alternative schools may be virtual schools but not all virtual schools will be alternative schools.  The WDE can approve an alternative school within a school so long as they are separate entities.  Dr. Picus indicated that when they considered alternative schools they were thinking about children with multiple social and emotional difficulties.  Dr. Picus is proposing for alternative schools larger than 49 students is to actually use the funding model as written but treat all of the students as meeting the at risk criteria.  This would result in a small net loss for the larger alternative schools but the effect would be minimal.   Following the Picus proposal would require a legislative change. 

 

Terri Wigert and Chuck Mitchell of the WDE addressed the Committee regarding virtual schools.  The WDE has crafted rules and regulations for virtual education which is a type of distance education.  The Department uses the terms virtual education interchangeably with distance education.  Wyoming is one of only a few states that do not have in place a written policy dealing with virtual education. Currently there are no statutes dealing with virtual education nor are there any funding mechanisms available for the funding of virtual schools.  The WDE will come back to the Committee with funding proposals.    

 

Boyd Brown, Don Dihle, Ed Weber and Roger Larson of Campbell County School District 1 and Gene Meier and Richard Ferris Sr. of Fremont County School District 21 addressed the Committee regarding their virtual schools.  Campbell County presented the Committee with Appendix 11 and Fremont County presented the Committee with Appendix 12.  Campbell County is doing a pilot program..  They are working with K-6 students and a company called K-12 Incorporated.    Virtual Schools provide an educational option to school aged children in Wyoming who perhaps did not fit or function well in a traditional school.  The cost of a virtual education is about 30% less than a brick and mortar education.  Fremont County School District 21 started their virtual school 3 years ago to address their high rate of dropouts. 

 

          Statewide Data System

Teri Wigert and Meredith Bickell of the WDE updated the Committee on the statewide data education system.  The system was to allow different software applications in a district to share data and ultimately for the WDE to be able to collect the data at an individualized student level.  In 2005 the WDE created the WISER ID statewide student record identifier which enables the WDE to assign a statewide unique identifier to each student in the state which helps the WDE to fulfill the requirements of NCLB.  To date the cost of implementing the system has been about 4.5 million over 5 years.  The system works with both PAWS and with the Hathaway plan.   

 

          PAWS Student Assessment/CLB-YP Results

Jim Woodward of the WDE provided the Committee with Appendix 26 and 27.  There is not a fair comparison between WYCASS and PAWS.  The testing showed that there are 5 high priority districts.    On the whole schools did better in math than they did in language arts. 

 

          Summer School-Extended Day Program

Ruth Sommers, and the Summer School Design Team of Natrona County presented the Committee with Appendix 16, 17 and 18.  All but 3 districts applied for and received funding for summer school and extended day programs.  Adding of the enrichment program was a big benefit incentive for participation in the program.  Provided the committee with the changes in the rules.  Natrona County had schools work with their own kids instead of centralizing the services for the programs

 

Wind River Job Corps

Sandy Barton of Fremont County BOCES presented the Committee Appendix 15.  Job Corps is the nation’s largest residential education and vocational training program for economically disadvantaged youth between 16-24.  Wind River Job Corps will train students in several areas like automotive mechanics and repair, business clerical, computer occupations, construction, culinary arts, health occupations, energy and CDL/Heavy Equipment.  Job Corps programs have an 87% success rate.  The city of Riverton has donated 150 acres of land for placement of the program.  Ms. Barton is asking for the support of the Education Committee. 

 

Representative Goggles made a motion to support, by resolution, the application of the Wind River Job Corps.  Motion seconded by Representative Quarberg.  After discussion the motion carried.

 

National Board Teacher Certification

Mary Garland Elbogen spoke to the Committee regarding the National Board Teacher Certification.  In 2004-2005 58 teachers were national board certified.  The program currently has 96 teachers who have taken the test.  In this class they have 158 applicants.  There are teachers from 22 of 23 counties participating in the program.  They have a total budget of $781,000 of which $328,000 was appropriated by the legislature.  The remainder of their budget is made up primarily of private donations.  

 

Allocation-Expenditure Study of District Resourcing of Education Programs.

Dr. Larry Picus and Dr. Allan Odden presented the Committee with Appendix 13 and 14.  Dr. Odden gave a summary of the studies that they are going to be doing in Wyoming.  Picus and Odden will be doing two studies that have never been done before to determine how much money is in the educational system and where it is going.  They will be working with advanced doctoral students from the University of Wyoming and will be using some of the information gathered by the WDE. 

 

Public Comment

Representative Harvey and Sherry Monk Principal of the Lovell Middle School addressed the Committee concerning the Hathaway plan.  They are both concerned that the success curriculum does not allow a lot of time for students to explore their educational options which would close out opportunities for students.  Ms. Monk is also concerned that the success curriculum will not play well with small schools as they really do not have the resources to provide the success curriculum. 

 

Other Business/Future Committee Meetings

 

            Next meeting will be October 25, 2006 in Casper. 

 

Meeting Adjournment

There being no further business, Co-Chairman Wasserburger adjourned the meeting at 12:21  p.m.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Senator Coe, Co-Chairman