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June 9, 2006
Room 302, State Capitol Building
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Senator Henry H.R. “Hank” Coe, Cochairman
Representative Jeff Wasserburger, Cochairman
Senator Tex Boggs
Senator Kit Jennings
Senator Robert Peck
Senator Charles Townsend
Representative Debbie Hammons
Representative Steve Harshman
Representative Becket Hinckley
Representative Del McOmie
Representative Lorraine Quarberg
Representative Dave Zwonitzer
Representative Patrick Goggles
Representative Kurt Bucholz
Senator Kathryn Sessions
Representative Pete Illoway
Dave Nelson, School Finance Manager, Brenda Long, School Finance Analyst, Matthew Sackett, Associate Research Analyst, Joseph A. Rodriguez, Staff Attorney
Please refer to
Appendix 1 to review the Committee Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.
Co-Chairman Coe called the meeting to order at 8:41 a.m., with twelve members present and two excused. This constitutes the first meeting of the Committee for the interim, to focus on organization of interim topics. Cochairman Wasserberger welcomed Representative Dave Zwonitzer to the Committee, appointed to replace the reassigned Representative Semlek. The following sections summarize Committee proceedings by topic. Please refer to Appendix 2 to review the Committee Meeting Agenda.
Dave Nelson, LSO, distributed Appendix 3 and Appendix 10. Appendix 3 references the study of the allocation and use of resources under the recalibrated Wyoming education resource block grant funding model in Wyoming public schools, as contained within the scope of work attachment to the study contract with educational consultants as approved by Management Council in early May. Appendix 10 lists studies and the budget approved by Management Council for the Joint Interim Education Committee. Nelson indicated the studies will be coming together later in the fall, with some of the study topics developed to the extent discussion would be possible at the next Committee meeting tentatively scheduled for September.
Dr. Jim Rose, Wyoming Community College Commission. Dr. Rose gave the committee Appendix 4 which is a spreadsheet summarizing the revenue information for the Wyoming Community Colleges for the 2005-2006 biennium. Dr. Rose gave the committee a brief history of the funding and allocation model currently being used by the Wyoming Community Colleges. The current funding model has proven to be undesirably complex. It is difficult to administer. Data is collected from over 140 sources. The data is not available until late in the process and is dependent on local resources. One of the problems is that data used to determine funding for the community colleges is volatile. Colleges do not know from year to year if funding will stabilize. Part of the challenge involves recapture and the differences in each community college district. Under current law, taxes to fund community colleges can only be collected in the counties which house the community college. The remaining 16 counties in the state are not taxed to support community colleges although they receive the benefit of college services. The consensus of the college presidents is a departure from the current funding model because it is not getting them where they want to go.
The presidents and the Commission envision a new funding model based on two parts. Part one would involve fundamental issues occurring on a regular basis. Base funding based upon operational costs that are predictable such as the differential in costs between institutions and the cost of maintaining a physical plant. The second part would be incentivized or innovation type of components to encourage innovative programming and capital development. There needs to be a linking of college strategic plans with the funding model.
Also of note, the community colleges will be confronted in the next budget cycle with a major decrease in funding for employee health insurance. The amount of money they are getting from the state is going to decrease substantially. It is estimated that the decrease will reduce the ability to pay health insurance by 40% or roughly 8 million dollars. Health insurance needs to be a more significant piece of the new funding model. Another issue faced by community colleges is recruitment and retention of faculty. With the salary increases going into effect for teachers at the K-12 level, it is harder to recruit and retain faculty. Regionally, Wyoming community colleges are in the middle or lower ranking regarding salary and benefits. However, Wyoming colleges do rank in the 80th percentile regionally regarding overall funding. President LaRowe of Northwest Community College indicated that this is causing a problem in Northwest Community College. Beginning teachers in Park County #1 are to be paid $41,000 per year while faculty at the college are making $44,000. Generally, benefits for the college and the school district are about the same. President LaRowe also stated that community colleges need to be in a position regionally and statewide to address the needs of the workforce. This may require one time funding to establish these types of programs, as most funding to date has come from industry.
Continuing, Dr. Rose suggested the 16 counties not within a community college district are getting college services without contributing financially to the support of the colleges, and the counties comprising college districts are getting spread pretty thin. The entire state needs to chip in for funding its community colleges. The issue appears to be taxation without representation, and if counties outside of college districts are to be taxed, representation on community college district governance must be considered to some extent. The consensus of committee members, as expressed by Cochairman Coe, was to have the commission and the colleges provide the committee with recommendations for organizing and governing the community college system, including statewide participation in college financial support and the provision of services throughout the state, together with revenue distributions. Recognizing the task is large, committee members agreed recommendations would likely not be developed until prior to the 2008 budget session. Dr. Rose agreed a comprehensive review would extent beyond the next legislative session, acknowledged the committee directive and expressed support for continuing this dialogue with the committee in developing the recommendations. Dr. Rose indicated the colleges would provide a great deal of initial information by the proposed September committee meeting date.
As a final note, the Hathaway scholarship program has stimulated considerable interest and activity in the community colleges but it may be too early to ascertain an affect. Northwest college has experienced 100 additional students that are going to take advantage of the scholarships and the college expects to see more. Casper College already has 230 scholarship students. Both schools have added additional staff to manage the program.
Mike O'Donnell and Tania Hytrek, State's Counsel, gave a brief report regarding the status of school finance litigation. The school finance case is currently on appeal to the Wyoming supreme court. The challengers appealed the January 31, 2006, order of the district court, and the state filed a cross appeal. Both parties are asking the court to define the playing field more clearly. Oral arguments will likely be held this fall and once completed, it is anticipated the court will take some time to draft an opinion. It is not likely the Legislature will receive any direction until after the 2007 general session. The state filed a stay of the district court order until the appeal has been decided by the supreme court. This was granted by the court, with resulting implications being deciphered. Two supreme court justices have recused themselves, Chief Justice Hill and Justice Burke. They have been replaced by district court judges Donnell (Laramie) and Young (Lander). The time allowed for oral argument before the court has been expanded to a total of two hours, one hour per side. This is exceptional for arguments before the court. Further, amicus briefs have been filed by the Wyoming PTA and the Northern Arapahoe Tribe pertaining to the issue of pre-school (pre-K) programs.
Work on several issues continues in response to the district court order and school finance litigation. The Department of Education, School Facilities Commission and state's counsel are reviewing career technical education or vocational education and excess capacity. Vocational education efforts will focus the establishment of parameters for vocational programs and the excess capacity issue will focus on retrofitting facilities in relation to facility planning, funding and maintenance issues. It is anticipated work updates will be provided to committee members at the proposed September meeting.
Block Grant Model Administration
Fred Hansen, Wyoming Department of Education. Mr. Hansen provided the committee with Appendix 7, Appendix 11, and Appendix 12. The Department is responsible for administering the school funding model to make sure the model is in compliance with the law. There are three (3) types of corrections that the Department may have to make pertaining to the model. The Department is developing procedures through rule and regulation for administration of the model. It may have to make technical corrections, data corrections and format corrections. Technical corrections in the model are the most extensive and involve an eight (8) step process. Data and format corrections to the model are not nearly as extensive and they are envisioning a three (3) step process for these types of corrections. General approval of the proposed process was provided by committee members.
Success Curriculum/Program Standards
Update
Dr. Annette Bohling, Wyoming Department of Education. Dr. Bohling provided the committee with
Appendix 6. The Department through its
various task forces assembled for this purpose, is moving quickly to develop the
success curriculum as required by components of law establishing the Hathaway
scholarship program. Many stakeholders have
been included in this effort. The
recommendations and the report will be ready by October 1, 2006 as required by
statute. The curriculum will have
ramifications throughout entire educational system, kindergarten through post
secondary. The depth of work
contemplated by the task force was questioned by the committee, with some
members suggesting the breadth of the proposed success curricula may exceed the
intent behind the enabling legislation.
In response to a request for guidance regarding continuation of these
efforts, the committee, as clarified by cochairman Coe, suggested the
Department and its task forces continue with the original success curricula
development plan as outlined in Appendix 6, to be reported to the committee for
consideration at a later date.
Cochairman Coe expressed concern the Department not discontinue current
efforts.
Statewide Student Assessment Report
Dr. Bohling, Wyoming Department of Education. Dr. Bohling discussed implementation of the PAWS student assessment administered to Wyoming students. Dr. Bohling gave the committee Appendix 5 which is an overview of the implementation of the PAWS assessment. The Department ran a pilot test of the assessment in January of 2006. The next step in implementation was a field test which gave the Department the opportunity to test PAWS technology application. The operational test was administered in April of 2006. There were very few problems in administering the assessment. The Department worked with the districts to make sure there were no problems. The Department conducted five (5) pre-administration workshops. After the assessment was administered, five (5) post administration workshops were held. Teachers and students were surveyed regarding the assessment, with over one thousand surveys returned. The surveys indicated several positive aspects of the assessment. Students may have tried harder on the assessment and preferred taking the assessment online. Because the assessment is not timed, students better focused on the questions. Teachers appreciated the immediate feedback the online assessment provided. The assessment can be improved and the Department needs to provide more room in the booklets for the student to write test answers. The online scrolling feature as well as the graphics and the font size were suggested to be improved. Teachers would like to have more online reports and more kid-friendly rubrics. Eleventh graders requested the entire assessment be taken online. Districts would also like to do practice assessment at the high school level.\
Overall, the PAWS assessment was accepted much better than WYCAS. It was noted student may take portions of the assessment more than once with the higher of the two test scores being applied to that student. It was explained that if a student takes an assessment in January, the student's assessment results will not be graded at a proficiency label until later in the spring, at the time April assessments are scored. Teachers will make a recommendation as to whether the student should take the assessment a second time based upon their original score. A proficiency label will be attached to the score once all students have taken the assessment. It was noted that proficiency labels will have Hathaway scholarship ramifications for students.
Data Reports: Food Services/Student
Activities
Fred Hansen, Wyoming Department of Education. Mr. Hansen provided the committee with Appendices 8, 9, 13, 14, 15 and 16, which provide committee members with a detailed analysis of revenues and expenses in food service programs as reported by school districts. This data is based upon school year 2004/2005 data, which is the most current information available at this time, to be updated with 2005/2006 data later this fall. Mr. Hansen reported no common denominator regarding district school lunch program financial operations could be determined. Program funding is through federal funds, fees charged students for lunches and monies from district general operational revenues. By statute, programs are to be self-sufficient. It was noted federal funding appears to be very stable at this time. School districts make a choice as to the subsidization of food service programs with district operational funds by not passing costs on to students through fees, and in program delivery. Cochairman Wasserburger thanked the Department and indicated the committee would await additional information, 2005/2006 data and recommendations from the Department on this matter.
In regard to the issue of school activities, Mr. Hansen
provided the committee with Appendix 18.
Again, the Department used school year 2004/2005 data at this time, as
it represents the most current information available to date. As with student food services, 2005/2006
program expenditure information will be provided at a later date. Similar to Picus and Odden, the Department
found 2004/2005 data to be inconclusive due to the wide variances reported by
districts. The Department anticipates
under the current model, in excess of $28 million will be distributed under the
model to districts for school activities.
Update student activity data will be available in the fall for review by
the committee and consultants.
Litigation Expenditures
Fred Hansen, Wyoming Department of Education. Mr. Hansen addressed the committee regarding litigation expenditures by school districts, as the Legislature required by law. Mr. Hansen provided the committee with Appendix 17. The data outlined in Appendix 17 pertains to litigation expenses of the districts and other entities party to school finance litigation. The data was collected and is still being collected from many sources. The time period reflected in Appendix 17 runs from March 1, 2003, the onset of the latest round of litigation, until March 31, 2006. The collection of information is ongoing. As a result Mr. Hansen provided the committee with Appendix 20 which reflects the most recently reported information pertaining to litigation expenses for the month of April, 2006. Appendix 20 builds upon the information presented to the committee in Appendix 17. The handouts show actual reported litigation expenses. Not all association fees are included in the adjusted amounts shown in the handouts. The Department will continue updating the committee regarding this topic.
Instructional Facilitators
Fred Hansen, Wyoming Department of Education. Mr. Hansen provided the committee with Appendix 19, and reminded the committee that instructional facilitator positions are funded outside the block grant model. The legislature appropriated $16 million for the program, with all but one eligible district having applied for program funding. The number of requests were more than the amount of money allocated. The entire appropriation will be dispersed to the districts in the first year of the biennium. It will be necessary for the legislature to make a supplemental appropriation for the program for the 2007-2008 school year. A follow up report will be made by the Department of Education to the committee at a later meeting.
Cochairman Wasserberger requested comments on Wyoming teacher tenure laws by any committee member or individual in attendance. There were no comments from the committee or the public at this time. The committee had received a great deal of information regarding this topic from staff and Cochairman Coe suggested members review the materials and present any resulting comments at the September meeting. There being no objections, Cochairman Wasserburger concluded discussion of this topic.
There was no other business to come before the committee. The committee discussed the next meeting date, to be held in Cody on September 20 and 21, 2006. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on the 21st.
There being no further business, Cochairman Wasserburger adjourned the meeting at 2:21 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
______________________________ ________________________________
Senator H.R. "Hank" Coe, Representative Jeff Wasserburger,
Committee Cochairman Committee Cochairman