Week 24: More on the LEARNS Plan

Happy Friday!

Thank you for what you have been able to accomplish this week! Every week of this school year has resulted in positive results for our students demonstrated by our district goals data. I was very happy to report to the board Tuesday night that our on-grade-level reading percentage has reached 67 percent! This surpasses our goal of 60 and we still have several weeks of instruction to make a final push for our below-level readers and get them ready, and I do not mean ready for the ACT Aspire. I mean ready for what comes next.

Speaking of the Aspire test, the one caveat I would make about our reading scores is that the way we are measuring on-level is much more thorough than the way the ACT Aspire measures it, and I worry about that. I feel much more confident in our methods telling us whether our students can read or not. I want to thank our team of interventionists for the work they are doing to bring us these numbers. It has not been simple.

The rest of this Wrap-up will be about SB294 but I do want to provide one more bit of recognition for our district. I learned today that Holly Harshman has fully implemented 77 percent of Tier I behavioral interventions in our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS) system. This is part of our effort to reduce discipline referrals. You can see what all that entails in this document. All of our campuses are getting great recognition for the progress they are making and this is the latest milestone.

SB294

The bill was released Monday afternoon and I emailed it to all staff on Tuesday. If you have not read the bill yet, here is a link to it along with the fiscal impact on the state. The bill is 144 pages. Breanne Davis of Russellville is the sponsor. Twelve of the 20 members of the House Education Committee and 55 of the 100 members of the House of Representatives are co-sponsors of the bill. You may check the current status and keep up with the progress at this link. The bill was given a ‘do-pass’ recommendation from the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday but with the expectations that there would be amendments made by the House Education Committee.

There are a lot of good things in this bill but there are also a lot of questions about how to accomplish those things and how much funding will schools receive in order to pay for those things. I will touch on a few key points that raise concerns and are being considered for amendments.

Early Childhood

This part of the bill is encouraging except that there may not be a full understanding of the costs associated with the language that is used. For example, Section 51 is an expanded requirement for dyslexia screening in grades K through 2. The time and personnel needed for screening would be an increased cost to a district because of the frequency required in the bill. Also, with current dyslexia laws in the state, this requirement would trigger interventions that we would not have the personnel for because so many kindergartners begin school with dyslexia markers. Not because they have dyslexia, but because they have had no introduction to letters, sounds, and other early literacy practices. Screeners are currently used to inform teachers and help make decisions about how to proceed, but we do not report this data to the state. I believe this is why this screening language is in the bill. We are asking that this portion be amended and clarified.

Teacher Fair Dismissal

We have asked for more specific language on due process and only to reduce the red tape and bureaucracy in the TFD Act. There are false ideas that repealing the TFD Act means that anyone may be fired for any reason, but that is not true. We feel that defining due process will help end that fear but keep enough of the old language out to make non-renewal or termination a simpler process.

Funding

In the last Wrap-up, I explained how the teacher raises would be funded and that until we know how much foundation funding will be received, it is hard to put a price tag on the bill. That has not changed.

I also explained in the last Wrap-up that the minimum salary would move to $50,000 but that the salary schedule law will be repealed meaning that there is no salary schedule. The only new information I have been sharing about this is that if Mena moved our base salary up to $50,000 and tried to keep the current salary schedule, we would be bankrupt within about 3 years.

The Governor intends to accomplish this pay increase by giving schools enough money to get every licensed staff member who does not earn $50K per year that amount. Anyone who is earning more than $50K already will be given a $2,000 raise. This will be new money that is earmarked for salaries and will always be provided. When we are able to determine exact dollar amounts, such as our foundation funds, we will be better able to communicate with all staff what future salaries will be.

Leadership

This is a very large bill with a lot of uncertainty within it; so, the primary fear, especially for small schools, is the impact of unintended consequences. Throughout the state’s history, there have been rules and laws that resulted in school closures. This is the primary concern of this bill since it is so large and there are so many parts of it without clear methods for implementation.

In our Leadership PLC, we just finished a book by Simon Sinek called Leaders Eat Last. He points out that one of the big mistakes that leaders make is to make an abstraction of the people they lead. This means that we forget each person as an individual and only consider them as a part of a larger group, lessening personal connections. I have used this example before when focusing on our efforts to make sure our community is confident by not making our parents or our students an abstraction. I hope that our leaders in Little Rock have not made this mistake and are making an abstraction of schools and the people in them. Each district has its own unique culture and traditions and, in most of Arkansas, each school is the heart of the community and without it, the community would lose its spirit.

Closing

Again, this is a large bill and there is much more than can be covered in this Wrap-up. There are a lot of good things within this bill that will enhance education in Arkansas. We just need clarity and we need to be involved in the rule writing if it becomes law. We are sending amendments to legislators that will be presented by our administrators’ association. I suggest you read it for yourself and ask your own questions. Here is a summarization of each section made by Lucas Harder, ASBA attorney.

Here is the latest from the Thought Exchange and it remains open at this link.

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

Have a great weekend!