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School Board News Bulletin
April 2001

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Woods of IASB staff wins AT&T honor

Seven schools added to watch list

C-SPAN for Illinois still in works

Some Illinois schools best in world in science and math

Make a dream come true

Glenbard District 87 to issue alternate revenue bonds

Mold concern causes officials to close St. Charles High

Vouchers & education tax plans advance

District leadership essential to sustain reforms

WORKSHOPS & MEETINGS

National educational computing conference set for Chicago

Random drug testing teleconference planned

TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

Video can help schools adopt integrated pest management

LEGISLATIVE ACTION

ISBE policy would expand phys-ed waiver requirements

THE NATIONAL SCENE

Coke to soften school marketing plan

For-profit Edison charter school gets last chance

RESEARCH REPORTS

Standardized tests confuse many parents

NEWS FROM IASB

Move to eliminate Directors at Large aimed at maintaining geographical balance

Leadership and Development Activity Summaries coming

REFERENDUM RESULTS

CLASSIFIED ADS

RECENT MAILINGS FROM IASB

AT&T and Tech 2000 presented awards for excellence in education on Tuesday, March 20 in Springfield. Cynthia Woods, IASB assistant director for advocacy, was honored with an award for Outstanding Technology Contributor of the Year (see picture at right).

The award was presented at a special reception after the Tech 2000 event, which this year featured demonstrations of classroom technology from 140 schools around the state. Demonstrations included plants grown from seeds carried aboard the Apollo spacecraft.

The AT&T and Tech 2000 program is a not-for-profit initiative supported by a broad range of education and business organizations. The goal is to increase awareness of the need for additional funding in the area of classroom technology and the role it plays in helping to prepare students for an information-based world.

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At its March meeting the Illinois State Board of Education adopted the state's 2001 Financial Watch List, which includes: Cairo C.U. District 1; Calumet City District 155; Geneva C.U. District 304; Waukegan C.U. District 60; Cahokia C.U. District 187; Dupo C.U. District 196; Lena-Winslow C.U. District 202; Roseville C.U. District 200; Panhandle C.U. District 2, Raymond; and Zeigler-Royalton C.U. District 188 (Zeigler-Royalton was placed on the list because the district did not submit the annual financial report by the required deadline). Seven of the ten Watch List districts were added this year.

Four districts consigned to the 2000 Financial Watch List were removed from the list this year: A-C Central C.U. District 262, Ashland; Elmwood Park C.U. District 401; Millstadt C.C. District 160; and Signal Hill District 181, Belleville.

Just two districts remain on the 2001 list of districts certified as "In Financial Difficulty" - Livingston C.C. District 4 and Spring Lake C.C. District 606, Manito. Livingston has been on the list for many years but is making slow but steady progress, according to ISBE staff, and may be eligible for removal from the list in the not-too-distant future. Spring Lake is likely to be recommended for decertification this year, according to ISBE.

Only two districts remain on the list of districts for which a Financial Oversight Panel has been appointed: Round Lake Area District 116 and East St. Louis District 189.

The state's financial accountability system, known as the Financial Assurance and Accountability System (FAAS), includes the Financial Watch List, which signifies the onset of financial challenges. The FAAS also includes the Financial Certification category.

Finally, the FAAS includes districts under Financial Oversight - a method for providing technical assistance through an appointed three-member panel for local school districts with fiscal difficulties.

Source: ISBE.

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Illinois may be getting its own version of C-SPAN called the Illinois Channel. The Institute for Public Affairs at the University of Illinois at Springfield (UIS) is conducting a comprehensive study of the requirements involved in starting a statewide public affairs television channel. Nineteen other states already have such a channel.

"For the past 21 years C-SPAN has allowed citizens throughout the nation to follow the debates in the U.S. House and Senate. We believe the citizens of Illinois deserve the same," noted the study's chair, UIS Chancellor Naomi Lynn.

In a recent letter to the Chicago Tribune the study's co-vice chairs, former Governor Jim Edgar and former Senator Paul Simon wrote, "Visitors to the state capitol can watch the legislature in action from the visitors' gallery. But this is not good enough in the information age. We have the technology to expand the visitors' gallery to a classroom in Chicago, a business in Joliet, a living room in Carbondale."

The channel would be distributed on government cable channels and the Internet. In addition to live coverage of the legislature, the executive branch and the courts, the Illinois Channel would televise public policy forums across the state, including non-profit organizations' keynote speakers and conferences. The study's researchers say gavel-to-gavel televised coverage frees the discussion of complex issues from the current constraints associated with highly edited television news coverage.

The Illinois Channel planning study is publishing its interim report in March and will seek funding from the legislature this spring. If approved, the channel could be on the air next January.

For more information, or to offer your views, click on the Illinois Channel Web site, http://www.illinoischannel.org and click the button marked "Feedback."

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While most Illinois eighth graders remain behind their counterparts in industrialized nations in math and science, the newest international comparison finds some Illinois schools rank among the best in the world.

Recently released results from the Third International Math and Science Study point to a wide gap in achievement, however, between top-performing suburban school districts and those serving lower income urban families. For example, while about 90 percent of students in Naperville District 203 studied algebra by the end of the eighth grade, nearly half of their counterparts in Chicago Public Schools focused on arithmetic.

Naperville students were the top performers in science internationally; Chicago schools fell far below the average U.S. performance. Other high-performing U.S. schools included the First in the World Consortium, a group of 18 districts from the northern Chicago suburbs that have banded together to raise science and math achievement, with remarkable results.

Note: For more information about the study, see the Web site at http://nces.ed.gov/timss/. Source: "Ed.Net Briefs," April 9, 2001, Simpson Communications.

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Many students from Europe, Asia and South America are looking forward to spending a semester or school year in the United States, but some still need help. The Center for Cultural Interchange (CCI) is currently interviewing individuals and families interested in sharing their day-to-day life with a future citizen of the world. For more information contact Kimberly at 618/392-4819 or CCI's regional office at 888/488-4056. Source: CCI press release.

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Thanks to a little-known borrowing alternative, the Glenbard Township High School District 87 Board of Education recently approved a $10 million bond issue without a tax increase and, thus, without having to ask taxpayers. The Glen Ellyn-based district accomplished all this through the use of alternative bonds, an option employed previously by nearby Elk Grove District 59, in Arlington Heights.

The revenue option was shaped by a 1995 state law, the Illinois Local Government Debt Reform Act (30 ILCS 350). Until recently schools had been advised that such bonds could not be issued by school districts.

Alternate bonds differ from typical school district bonds in that state law calls for them to be paid off from existing school revenue, not from any increase in property taxes. Alternate bonds are subject to backdoor referendum if a petition is signed by 7.5 percent of registered voters in the district within 30 days of the publication of the bond authorization or other public notice. But District 87 witnessed no such petition drive.

To issue alternate bonds, a school district or other unit of local government must pledge funds from an existing revenue source equal to 1.25 times the principal of the bonded indebtedness. The district must find operational savings to pay off the debt. District 87 had operational debt expiring, freeing up a revenue stream available in a district saving account for use in repayment of the debt over the next 20 years, according to assistant superintendent of finance Gary Frisch.

District 87 needed an additional $10 million to complete a $44.5 million building project at its four high schools, including full funding for a $3.8 million auditorium addition at Glenbard South High School.

"The board looked upon this as a way to complete the renovations that they started two years ago," explained District 87 spokeswoman Julie Armantrout.

For more information on the use of alternate bonds, contact bond counsel Linda Given of Chapman and Cutler, 312/845-3814.

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Students were kept home from St. Charles East High School April 2 after officials closed the school for a week because of mold problems. A toxic mold, Stachybotrys, had been discovered in outside walls in one wing of the school the week before.

The mold can cause sore throats, scratchy eyes and bloody noses in some people. St. Charles district administrators closed the high school until a firm monitoring the building's air quality could finish testing the whole school.

The Kane County school was built in the mid-1970s, but difficulties with airborne mold began at the 2,400-student school in 1986, when students started registering complaints. One former student recently brought a lawsuit alleging that mold at the school caused her several years of health problems.

The school district reportedly has conducted six environmental tests at the school since 1997 and has spent $5.6 million to replace most of the building's ventilation system and carpeting to combat mold. Source: Chicago Tribune, April 2, 2001.

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The U.S. Senate Finance Committee gave unanimous approval March 13 to a $20 billion education tax package that includes the basic components of a voucher-like plan proposed by President George W. Bush. The revenue bill gives parents federal tax breaks to help them send their children to religious schools.

Democrats joined Republicans on the panel in endorsing legislation that would allow parents to contribute up to $2,000 per year to tax-free education savings accounts for each child in the family. That amount, which in future years would be available to pay for private or religious schooling, is up from the current limit of $500. Bush had proposed letting parents set aside up to $5,000 a year.

The Senate Health and Education Committee the previous week had approved another portion of the Bush education plan. That key education bill grants local and state school administrators broad authority in establishing classroom policy, while making them accountable for academic outcomes.

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The process and business of educating our children has changed over the past 30 years, and even the past five years," says St. Paul, Minnesota, school board member Becky Montgomery. "But the basic structure of most school districts has not." Whether that structure should change - and how - was the topic of a February 8 forum convened by the Institute for Educational Leadership (IEL).

Montgomery, who serves on the NSBA Board of Directors, and Education Secretary Rod Paige, former board member and superintendent in Houston, co-chaired IEL's Task Force on School District Leadership.

The task force report, Leadership for Student Learning: Restructuring School District Leadership, is the second in IEL's series on educational leadership. The first one, on the role of the principal, was released in October. Reports on the role of the teacher and the state will be out this spring.

Speaking at the forum, Montgomery said the task force explored various models of governance-and raised critical issues that need to be discussed in local communities-but did not recommend a single answer.

Underlying the movement to explore new governance options is the recognition that public schools are "a focal point of our communities," Montgomery said. "We know that communities with thriving public schools attract people and businesses, and the reverse happens when the public's perception of the local school district is negative."

Many school districts are implementing reforms that are resulting in high levels of student achievement, Montgomery said. "It takes three to five years or more for reform strategies to be implemented and results to be documented," but many superintendents, especially in large urban districts, only stay for two or three years.

"Consistency and stability in leadership is critical to the successful development and implementation of reform strategies," she said. "The relationship between the superintendent and school board is critical to the stability of leadership in the district."

For more information, visit http://www.nsba.org/sbn/01-feb/022001-6.htm

Source: NSBA News Service, February 20, 2001.

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NEWS FROM IASB

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As mentioned in the March News Bulletin, the IASB Board of Directors voted February 24 to recommend the elimination of the four Director-at-Large positions on the Board. The Board recommended the change in order to maintain geographical balance on the Board of Directors.

"Director-at-Large posts are too often filled by individuals representing the same school district or division as existing members of the Board of Directors," said one Board insider. "This undermines the basis for the Board of Directors composition requirement under the IASB Constitution, namely that each division shall have one representative on the Board."

Board members also suggested that IASB Directors representing the divisions can also serve to represent the entire state just as well as Directors at Large.

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2000-2001 Leadership and Development Activity Summaries are to be mailed to all seated school board members in mid-June. Leadership and Development Awards are IASB's way of recognizing and honoring board members for the time and effort they devote to self-improvement and leadership activities.

For the fourth year in a row, an awards level system is being used that allows board members more opportunities to earn L&D points and changes the number of credits needed to reach each level. One important change was made two years ago. Attendance at the 2000 Joint Annual Conference will count 30 points, five more than in previous years.

This allows board members to move more quickly from level to level. In addition, Master School Board Members who attend the conference are able to maintain that level with only 20 additional L&D points.

Please watch the mail for your Summary form and complete and return it by the deadline (roughly within one month of the mailing date) so that you may receive recognition at your fall division meeting.

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RESEARCH REPORTS

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A great many parents are confused about mandated state testing, according to a recent survey by Harris Interactive. The survey, sponsored by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) and by Sylvan Learning Center, produced the following findings: