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School Board News Bulletin
December 2002

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IASB delegates seek regional election of State Board

Lame duck governor wields power to fill two state board seats until 2009

School report cards reveal record-high graduation rates

New system promises more accurate & complete reporting of district finances, but longer watch list

NSBA President White: Now is not the time to 'sit' on board

IASB recognizes attorneys, offers sample PRESS policy

Referendum Results

Outstanding board president, Swierczewski, and superintendent of year, VanWinkle, win awards

TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

IASB offers new book on lobbying in Illinois

DEVELOPMENTS IN SCHOOL LAW

Two recent developments must be considered in order to manage data on students properly

IASB delegates seek regional election of State Board
Vote to end political appointment of Illinois State Board of Education

The current politically appointed state board of education in Illinois should be replaced with a regionally elected board. That is the recommendation of local school leaders who gathered in Chicago for the Delegate Assembly of the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) to set policy for the association for the coming year.

School board members adopted new position statements in voting Saturday, November 23, in Chicago, including one calling for a change in the way the state board of education is selected.

Delegates representing IASB's 862 member school districts voted down a proposal, however, to switch to a statewide election of the state superintendent of education. Some delegates expressed concerns about the control large campaign organizations could have over the statewide election of the Illinois superintendent.

Currently, the Governor appoints the Illinois State Board of Education, and the board appoints the state superintendent. The Illinois Constitution states that members of the state board may be "elected or selected."

The assembly of IASB members determined that requiring election of the members of the state board of education is a better alternative than electing the state superintendent. For one thing, electing the state board would only require a change in state law, not a change in the state constitution. Thus, a costly, divisive statewide campaign might be avoided.

The delegate assembly, which registered 318 IASB member districts, was part of a three-day conference that drew more than 11,300 board members, superintendents, school business officials, and guests. The event was IASB's 70th annual conference.

In addition to the resolution on the state superintendent and state board of education, local school board members voted to:

• require that new property tax rates be levied immediately following successful adoption of tax rate increases. Due to the additional time necessary to recalculate or calculate tax bills based upon a successful tax rate referendum, county clerks may not be able to meet the May 1 deadline required by state law, particularly in an April election.
• demand the development of a state assessment that will test the Illinois Learning Standards in compliance with, and only testing those areas required by, the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
• grant local school districts more than 10 days latitude in student expulsion hearings
• allow unit district formations even if one of the affected elementary districts opts out of the consolidation.

Members also voted to revise one IASB policy in order to urge basing property tax caps on a federal wage index, rather than the Consumer Price Index. The change is needed because school districts experience inflation that is more closely related to wage inflation than to consumer price inflation.

Finally, the assembled school board members voted to approve IASB's executive officers for the coming year:

President: Christy M. Coleman
Christy M. Coleman, of Geneseo C.U. District 228, was re-elected as IASB President.

Vice President: Ray W. Zimmerman
Ray W. Zimmerman, of Flanagan C.U. District 4, was re-elected as Vice President of the association.

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Lame duck governor wields power to fill two state board seats until 2009

The Illinois Senate has narrowly approved Governor George Ryan's appointments of Joyce E. Karon, of Barrington and Gregory N. Kazarian, of Lake Forest to six-year terms on the Illinois State Board of Education.

Karon, 63, is a Northern Illinois University professor, and a library consultant. She will take the place of Marilyn McConachie on the state board when McConachie's term expires January 8, 2003.

Kazarian, 40, is an attorney and partner with Pedersen and Houpt. He will take the place of Connie Rogers when her term expires on January 8, 2003.

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School report cards reveal record-high graduation rates

Illinois schools recorded a record-high graduation rate and an all-time low dropout rate in 2002, according to an Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) analysis of local school report cards.

For the first time, Illinois' graduation rate exceeded 85 percent, rising to 85.2 percent, two points above the 2001 level, and significantly above the 76.3 percent mark reported on the first school report cards in 1986. Illinois is also well above the national average, which was 74 percent in 2000, the last year for which such a figure is available.

The Illinois dropout rate fell to 5.1 percent, down from 5.7 percent in 2001 and much improved from the high point of 7.0 percent reported on the 1994 report card.

Standardized test results included on state report cards show that over 60 percent of Illinois students met or exceeded state standards on all state tests last spring.

This is the first year the overall performance of students on all state tests has been reported. Performance figures for the Illinois Standards Achievement Tests (ISAT) show that 62.7 percent of students met or exceeded state standards on all five tests. Students take ISAT in reading, mathematics and writing in grades 3, 5 and 8. ISAT science and social science tests are given to students in grades 4 and 7.

The Prairie State Achievement Examination is taken by all eleventh-grade students and covers all five subjects. Results of the 2002 PSAE show that 56.1 percent of eleventh-grade students met or exceeded state standards.

The student attendance rate in the 2001-2002 school year rose to 94 percent, up from 93.7 percent in the previous year. Low-income enrollment rose to 37.5 percent, up from 36.9 percent the previous year and considerably higher than 29.1 percent reported ten years earlier in 1991.

Local school report cards are placed on the Web sites of schools that have them, and parents receive a notice telling them how to access the on-line cards and that they may receive a printed copy if they cannot access the Web site. Schools without Web sites must continue to send the report cards home. All the report cards are available on the State Board of Education's Web site, http://www.isbe.net.

Sources: ISBE, and Belleville News-Democrat, "Schools' reports are online," November 1, 2002.

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New system promises more accurate & complete reporting of
district finances, but longer watch list

The State Board of Education acknowledges that voters need better information upon which to assess local school district financial conditions, thus the board recently approved changes in the rules for reporting school finances.

Currently, only school districts in the most dire straits are put on the state's financial watch list. This means district reserves have been depleted. In these extreme cases, the public is clearly on notice that their local school district is bankrupt.

Yet districts increasingly face financial ruin without ever landing on the state financial watch list.

"It is clear that our current system does not adequately portray the severe financial problems facing school districts," said State Superintendent of Education Robert E. Schiller in presenting a prototype of the new system to the State Board. "We know that more than 60 percent of Illinois school districts are operating with deficit budgets and 163 of those had budget deficits for at least three years. Yet, reporting only 11 [school districts] on the Financial Watch List gives the impression that severe financial problems are rare."

School districts now are placed on the financial watch list if they have a fund-balance-to-revenue ratio of less than 0% for the previous year ending June 30. The proposed Financial Profile uses fund-balance-to-revenue ratio as only one of the indicators of financial condition and adds four other measures to complete the picture of school district financial health. The other four measures include:

• Expenditures to revenue ratio: indicates how much the district spent for every dollar received. To obtain this figure, total expenditures from a district's main operating funds are divided by total revenues for those funds.
• Days cash on hand: an estimate of the number of days a district could operate without additional revenue.
• Percent of short-term borrowing remaining: the total short-term borrowing allowed by law minus the percent of tax anticipation warrants outstanding.
• Percent of long-term debt margin remaining: Districts incur long-term debt (repaid over more than one year) for major expenses (such as construction, long-term leases, installment purchases of land, and the like).

Using data from these five categories, districts will receive a numerical score that places them in one of four categories: Financial Recognition, Financial Review, Financial Watch and Financial Warning. The first two indicators (fund-balance-to-revenue ratio and expenditures to revenue ratio) are assigned the most weight in arriving at the numerical score.

Based on FY2001 data (2000-2001 school year), as many as 250 school districts could be in the two categories indicating the most severe financial problems, Financial Watch and Financial Warning. The State Board is currently surveying school districts to get an up-to-date estimate of their financial condition. Respondents indicate that as many as 85 percent of all districts may be operating with deficits in the current school year.

For many, that would amount to five consecutive years with deficits.

Source: ISBE.

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NSBA President White: Now is not the time to 'sit' on board

No one should just "sit" on a board of education these days, according to Mossi White, president of the National School Boards Association (NSBA). Now is the time to stand up and be actively involved.

From her unknowing participation in Norway's resistance underground as an infant during World War II to her current battle for public education, White carried a message that failure is not an option when it comes to ensuring a good education for all children.

"We have not failed," she told more than 2,000 conference attendees who came together for the 2nd General Session Saturday morning. "Public education has done a fantastic job in this country. Have we done a perfect job? No, but we will get better."

But, she warned, NCLB has the possibility of becoming the largest un-funded mandate that education has ever seen.

"That is setting us up for failure," she said. "They didn't ask NASA to put a man on the moon with its present budget.

"We must put our resources behind our goals."

White also charged that testing is "an absolute must" when it comes to diagnosing what's wrong and trying to remedy education. But, she said, "testing must not be used as autopsies on our schools."

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IASB recognizes attorneys, offers sample PRESS policy

The Court of Appeals favorably quoted the Amicus Curiae brief filed by IASB in support of the Board of Education of the City of Chicago. Sarah Price and Heidi Katz, Robbins, Schwartz, Nicholas, Lifton & Taylor, Ltd., prepared the brief. Excerpts from it were published in the April 2002 Newsbulletin.

In June 2002, IASB distributed a sample policy on Student and Family Privacy Rights to all PRESS subscribers. For a copy, please contact Linda Cala by calling either office of IASB, extension 1227, or by e-mailing a request to lcala@iasb.com.

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Referendum Results

Illinois school district tax rate increase proposals and bond issues met with lower than normal success in the November 5 general election, as voters approved only 12 of 58 tax increase referendums (20.6 percent), and 11 of 22 bond issues (50 percent).

In contrast, propositions to increase property taxes have yielded a 36 percent approval rate in elections held since November 1989; and bond issues have yielded a 58 percent approval rate over that same time period.

School boards placed far more tax rate increase proposals on the ballot this time than in recent elections; in fact, the 58 propositions were the highest total since April 1993, when school boards put forward 83 tax proposals. Just the reverse was true

for bond issues, as the 22 bond issues on the ballot this time represented the lowest total in any November election since 1989, when school boards put forward 18 bond issues. The November 2000 ballot included 42 bond issue proposals.

A breakdown of the November 5 tax referendum results by subcategory shows voters approved 12 of 52 education fund proposals this election, and none of six operations fund proposals.

Voters adopted education fund tax rate increases in the following 12 school districts: General George Patton District 133, Riverdale; Hazel Crest District 152½; Community High School District 218, Oak Lawn; Evergreen Park District 231; Homewood Flossmoor Community High School District 233; Hinsdale C.C. District 181; North Boone C.U. District 200, Poplar Grove; Mundelein Elementary District 75; Aptakisic-Tripp C.C. District 102, Buffalo Grove; Grayslake Community High School District 127; Stockton District 206; and Kings Consolidated District 144.

Voters approved new bond issuance for building purposes in the following 11 school districts: Oak Lawn-Hometown District 123; Hazel Crest District 152½; Thornton-Fractional Township High School District 215, Calumet City; Lindop District 92, Broadview; Hinsdale C.C. District 181; North Boone C.U. District 200, Poplar Grove; Indian Creek District 425, Shabbona; Oswego C.U. District 308; Huntley District 158; Hawthorn District 73, Vernon Hills; and Leland C.U. District 1.

All of the successful bond questions were building bond proposals, and voters rejected the lone working cash proposal. The school district that put forward a working cash bond proposal was Sheldon District 5, which had requested a $450,000 bond issue.

In addition to funding increases for schools, several referendums around the state dealt with related questions. While a tax increase was not proposed for Rockford District 205, the district did win voter approval for a proposal to maintain the district's present tax level for four more years. Likewise, voters in Oregon C.U. District 220 adopted a proposal to change the purpose of $3.9 million raised from the bond issue they adopted April 3, 2001. Meanwhile, voters in four school districts located in Hancock, McDonough and Warren Counties adopted a bond issue for a proposed new school district that was to be formed through district consolidation. Voters rejected the consolidation proposal itself, however, which made the favorable vote on bonds inapplicable.

Only one of four school consolidation proposals proved successful. The lone success came in regard to annexing the state's smallest school district, Otter Creek-Hyatt Elementary District 56, in La Salle County, into Allen Township C.C. District 65, Ransom.

Municipal voters in DuQuoin, meanwhile, approved a .5 percent increase in the local sales tax to support the cost of construction of a new high school. DuQuoin C.U. District 300, located in downstate Perry County, was in the running for a school construction grant from the state, but needed a local matching source of funds in order to qualify. Thus DuQuoin joins nearby Carbondale High School District 165 as among the lucky recipients of municipal revenue: a sales tax of .25 percent has brought more than $1.6 million to Carbondale District 165 over the past two years.

The voters of Lemont-Bromberek District 113A voted down an advisory referendum on acquiring land to accommodate a possible new school building in the district.

Property Tax Extension Limitation Law (PTELL) questions, popularly known as tax caps, won voter approval in both of the counties where county boards put such a question on the ballot, namely Coles and Crawford. Meanwhile, voters of three separate school districts - North Palos District 117, Palos Heights, Newark C.C. District 66, and Salt Creek District 48, Villa Park -- rejected school board proposals to increase their school district's debt service extension base under PTELL.

Voters approved one of four proposals to elect school board members at large. Iroquois County C.U. District 9, Watseka, was the only school district where voters approved such a proposal.

For a look at statistical comparisons of recent tax rate and bond referendums, visit the Web site at www.iasb.com/files/finance.htm . For more information on the results of school-related referendums at the November 5 general election, and other recent elections, visit the Illinois Association of School Administrators' Web site at www.iasaedu.org/publications/srer.htm.

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Outstanding board president, Swierczewski,
and superintendent of year, VanWinkle, win awards

Two of the state's highest honors for school district leadership were awarded at the 3rd General Session of the 70th Joint Annual Conference.

Created to recognize "extraordinary leaders in extraordinary times," the Thomas Lay Burroughs Award for the state's outstanding school board president this year went to Martha Swierczewski of Township HSD 211, Palatine.

Swierczewski said she would accept the award as a tribute to all board members and presidents in the state who work tirelessly and diligently, and who find the work both rewarding and enjoyable.

"There are six other board members deeply dedicated to a common vision in our district. They work as a team to follow the Palatine motto, 'Building the Future, One Student at a Time'," she said.

Now completing her third term, Swierczewski has been board president at Township HSD 211 for eight years.

A 7th grade language arts teacher in Schaumburg CCSD 54, where she served on the school board from 1985 to 1989, Swierczewski has been previously honored with ISBE's Those Who Excel award and a Distinguished Service honor from INSPRA.

Created in 1991, the Burroughs award is presented annually by the Illinois State Board of Education on behalf of the late state board chairman, who served from 1987 to 1991. Vice Chairman Marilyn McConachie announced this year's recipient on Sunday, November 24, near the conclusion of the Conference.

Prior to that announcement, David VanWinkle, Valley View C.U. District 365U, Romeoville, was named 2003 Superintendent of the Year by Harold Ford, president of the Illinois Association of School Administrators.

Previously at the Conference, the top honors in the 13th annual invitational Exhibition of Educational Environments (EEE), the Award of Distinction, were presented to two firms. The winners were: 1) O'Donnell Wicklund Pigozzi & Peterson Architects, Inc., Chicago, for its design of Adlai E. Stevenson High School of Adlai E. Stevenson HSD 125; and 2) Ruck, Pate Architecture, Barrington, for design of Prairieview Elementary School in Grayslake CCSD 46.

At the first General Session of the Conference, the Risk Management/ David Binotti Award was presented to board member Judy Yeast and Superintendent Donald Mulch, both of Northwest C.U. 175, Sciota. Their school district was honored for reducing workers compensation costs.

In addition, IASB assistant to the executive director Pat Culler received the new Heroes of Education Award from Connie Rogers, board secretary of the Illinois State Board of Education. The award was in recognition of Culler's 38 years of distinguished service to school leaders, and particularly for the 32 years she has spent in organizing and managing the Joint Annual Conference.

For more information about the Conference, visit the IASB Web site and follow the 2002 Joint Annual Conference link under "What's New?" at http://www.iasb.com/jac02.

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TOOLS FOR SCHOOLS

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Lobbying Illinois: How You Can Make a Difference in Public Policy is now available through the Illinois Association of School Boards. The 132-page soft cover book is a primer on how to lobby state government in Illinois. It is written for individuals and groups with public policy goals but without experience as players in the policy-making arena.

Written by Christopher Z. Mooney and Barbara Van Dyke-Brown, Lobbying Illinois updates and adds to many sections of an earlier book, Lobbying for the Public Schools, published in 1990 by IASB. Portions of that book were excerpted and/or adapted from the Manual of Public Interest Lobbying, which was written in 1978 by the Legislative Support Center. Both of those books are now out of print.

Lobbying Illinois, published by the Institute for Legislative Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield, explains the basics of the legislative process, how to gain access to policymakers, how to work strategically with legislative and administrative rules, how to build coalitions and grassroots organizations, and the rules and ethics of lobbying.

It is amply illustrated with facsimiles of documents, forms, and sources of information used in the lobbying process.

The book also includes an extensive guide to information resources that are essential for lobbying. These include publications, agencies, Web sites, phone numbers and directories.

Lobbying Illinois: How You Can Make a Difference in Public Policy is available from IASB Publications, 2921 Baker Drive, Springfield, IL 62703. Telephone 217/528-9688, extension 1109; fax 217/528-2831. Price is $20 plus a shipping charge of $4 per order. The book may also be purchased through the association's online bookstore, www.iasb.com/shop/.

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DEVELOPMENTS IN SCHOOL LAW
By Melinda Selbee, IASB/s general counsel

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Given: Personal data is a hot commodity.
Given: Schools maintain huge reservoirs of personal data.
Given: Commercial entities, including the media, are hungry for personal data.
Given: A multitude of laws, both state and federal, protect personal data from disclosure.

Unless you can argue with one of these postulates, you need to understand the legal context in which you must manage the data your district stores. Two recent developments - one judicial and one legislative - must be considered in order to manage data on students properly.

Last month, the Illinois Supreme Court left in place an appellate court decision having positive consequences for all Illinois public schools. The appellate court rejected a news medium's argument that a school district must, after masking student identities, disclose data concerning students. Chicago Tribune Company v. Bd. of Ed. of the City of Chicago, 773 N.E.2d 674 (Ill.App. 1 Dist., 6-28-02).

In December 1999, the Chicago Tribune submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request seeking information concerning approximately 1.1 million students, both current and non-current. The following categories of information were requested:

• School attended
• Room number
• Active or inactive status
• Leave code, medical status, and guardian relative code
• Special education status or code
• Cumulative absence for the semester
• Consecutive absences for the semester
• Race
• Transportation status and reason for transportation
• Free or reduced lunch status
• Class rank
• Grade point average
• Zone
• Bilingual education status
• Date of birth
• Standardized test scores.

Following the board's decision to disallow the request, the Tribune sought and received a court order for the district to comply with its FOIA request. The Board of Education of Chicago District 299 successfully appealed.

The Court of Appeals, scrutinizing the FOIA's section 7, found two kinds of exemptions from mandatory disclosure. The first is a general exemption and applies when a public body asserts that the requested information constitutes a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." If this general exemption applies, courts must evaluate the information on a case-by-case basis and conduct a balancing test to determine whether the disclosure would constitute a "clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." Judicial precedent from 13 years ago, focusing on this general exemption, held that a school district must disclose achievement test scores after "masking" students' identities.

The second kind of exemption from mandatory disclosure applies to records specially described in FOIA's section 7(1)(b)(i) through (v). Information falling under these exemptions is per se prohibited from disclosure. This means that a court may not conduct a balancing test but instead must uphold the public body's decision not to disclose the information.

The information sought by the Tribune fell squarely within this second exemption because it concerned "files and personal information maintained with respect to . . . students or other individuals receiving social, medical, educational, vocational, financial, supervisory or custodial care or services directly or indirectly from federal agencies or public bodies." Section 7(1)(b)(i). The Chicago Board of Education was under no obligation to mask or redact the records to protect student privacy rights – the data requested was per se prohibited from disclosure.

Following this decision, the first step in responding to a FOIA request is to determine whether the requested information is described in section 7(1)(b)(i) through (v). If so, the information is per se prohibited from disclosure. In all likelihood, if the request is for information regarding students, the district must deny the request without attempting to mask or redact the records.

The other recent development school leaders need to understand in order to properly manage data on students is the federal Protection of Pupil Rights Act, 20 U.S.C. §1232h. The No Child Left Behind Act significantly amended the Protection of Pupil Rights Act, also known as the Hatch Amendments. This law now requires every district that receives funds from a program administered by the U.S. Dept. of Education to adopt a policy on Student and Family Privacy Rights. These policies should address the Act's seven requirements, summarized below:

1. Surveys created by a third party. Before distributing a survey created by a third party (e.g. a graduate or doctoral student), students' parents/guardians must be given an opportunity to inspect it.

2. Surveys requesting personal information. Schools may not request, nor disclose, any student's identity who completes a survey requesting information concerning: Political affiliations or beliefs of the student or the student's parent; mental or psychological problems of the student or the student's family; behavior or attitudes on sex; illegal, anti-social, self-incriminating, or demeaning behavior; critical appraisals of other individuals with whom students have close family relationships; legally recognized privileged or analogous relationships, such as those of lawyers, physicians, and ministers; religious practices, affiliations, or beliefs of the student or the student's parent; or income (other than that required by law to determine eligibility for participation in a program or for receiving financial assistance under such program).

3. Rights regarding surveys requesting personal information. Students' parents or guardians may: Inspect the survey within a reasonable time of their request, and refuse to allow their child or ward to participate in the activity. The school may not penalize any student whose parent(s)/guardian(s) exercises this option.

4. Instructional material. Parents and guardians may inspect, upon their request, any instructional material used as part of their child or ward's educational curriculum.

5. Physical examinations. Parents and guardians may refuse to allow their child or ward to participate in "non-emergency, invasive physical examination or screening." Of course, schools should never conduct an invasive physical examinations or screenings as defined by the Act. The term "invasive physical examination" means "any medical examination that involves the exposure of private body parts, or any act during such examination that includes incision, insertion, or injection into the body." The term does not include a hearing, vision, or scoliosis screening.

6. Collecting personal information for marketing. The Protection of Pupil Rights Act allows schools to collect personal information from students for marketing, provided the board allows parents to preview the instrument, and opt their child out of the activity. Parents are likely to object to schools profiting from selling their children's personal information. Thus, boards should give this kind of activity a lot of thought.

7. Notice requirements. Federal law contains specific requirements for notifying students' parents and guardians of their privacy rights.

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IASB ARCHIVES HOME

Illinois Association of School Boards

2921 Baker Drive
Springfield, Illinois 62703