The State Board of Education met on April 8th to discuss the Long Range Plan for Technology, hear public testimony, and take up action items from the subcommittees that met over the last week. A video archive of the hearing can be found here.
This report is intended to give you an overview and highlight of the discussions on the various topics taken up. It is not a verbatim transcript of the discussions but is based upon what was audible or understandable to the observer and the desire to get details out as quickly as possible with few errors or omissions.
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Long Range Plan for Technology
- Pam Little, SBOE Vice Chair – Discussion on this item was a bit confusing before, wanting to bring this back up
- Melody Parrish, TEA – Provides history on the Long Range Plan for Technology, to be revisited every 2-3 years or when there were significant changes needed
- TEA Staff assisted with the writing of the Long Range Plan; TEA focused on 2 areas for 1) devices & device management and 2) cybersecurity & ransomware
- Staff planning to update, bring the updates to the SBOE for discussion, and then seek approval
- Ruben Cortez, SBOE – Two very important areas to address, will there be a conversation on trying to close the device gap to try and get to 1:1? Also what are we doing to ensure students have internet access for devices that they may take home?
- Parrish – Majority of schools are probably at a 1:1, before pandemic most were at 5:1 or 4:1 but closer to 1:1 now; want to research and talk to the districts
- Schools need to have a plan for a refresh, TEA can probably give more guidance on what that refresh might look like
- TEA deployed 850k hotspots for students without internet access in their homes, also purchased some lines
- State needs to address places where wi-fi doesn’t work, many places where fiber and wi-fi won’t work & need to work with vendors, school districts, other local govs to figure out access in their regions; Operation Connectivity team is small but working on this
- Cortez – Anything being done on wi-fi for access management, on a bigger scale?
- Something we’d like to revisit and review in the plan, mostly what we do is make sure devices are CIPA compliant and make sure they have security on them
- Given developments in ransomware, etc., can make recommendations to districts to further secure devices and networks
- Cortez – Anything we should be doing in districts to get feedback?
- Had a committee made up of ISDs, ESCs, vendors, etc. when the first plan was developed
- Want the plan to be usable, had a lot of best practices, need to go back and update
- Would be more than happy to have stakeholders who want to participate on the new committee & give info on best practices and guidance
- Will Hickman, SBOE – Who drafted the 2018 plan?
- My department and the subcommittee of stakeholders, brought it to the SBOE for approval
- Will be the same type of process for the update
- Will likely pull from activity of Operation Connectivity, want to make sure we don’t miss anything
- Hickman – Would recommend adding CIPA compliance with internet filtering for ISPs
- That is what we’re working on with the Commissioner right now; endpoint detection, CIPA compliance, etc.
- Districts need a security assessment
- Hickman – Learned about white hats and black hats; children know how to get around filters and may need some white hats to help us
- Might want kids to tell us how they’re doing it
Public Testimony
- Vice Chair Little noted there were late registrants, SBEO suspended rules to allow late registrants to testify
Individual, Self
- References Nov 8, TSLAC contracts with online databases like EBSCO and Gale that carry obscene content
- Content on EBSCO is specific to every user, Gale content is universal; TEA should have standards
Mason, Self
- Federal government is taking over public schools, began with No Child left Behind and Common Core
- Children are not learning from books, using screens to watch videos
- Some districts are removing male and female pronouns
Rebecca David, Student
- Witnessing decay of education in Texas, speaking against CRT and LGBTQ content; students should learn core subjects and nothing else
Mary Lowe, Self
- SBOE should signal to legislature to stop Ponzi scheme of new age instruction
- Should have a moratorium on all devices for K-3 & should collect data on improvement in reading when we take kids off
- Parents are not able to get information on device time from the schools
Holly Plemmens, Self
- Speaking on SEL, transformative SEL, and how ISDs are turning students into activists; there is an invasion on parent’s rights
Item 2. Approval of Consent Agenda
- Approved
COMMITTEE OF THE FULL BOARD
- TEA Staff identified need for a technical edit to strike reference to Subchapter G regarding CTE courses which no longer exists – 74.13(f)(3)(ii)
- Motion to approve for second reading and final adoption passes
- Tom Maynard, SBOE, POI – Is the vote requirement 2/3rds of the members present?
- If it takes 2/3rds of total SBOE then it would need 10 members & only 9 are present
- SBOE waited for members to return & be present to retake the vote
- Motion to approve for second reading and final adoption passes
- Little – 2/3rds vote is necessary for earlier effective date
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- Maynard POI – If this does not receive a 2/3rds vote, when does it become effective?
- Should be effective at the start of the 2022-2023 SY, have been requesting earlier dates for DOI starting in August
- Motion to approve for second reading and final adoption passes
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- Little – Will also need 2/3rds for this
- Motion to approve for second reading and final adoption passes
- Motion to approve for first reading and filing authorization passes
- Motion to approve for first reading and filing authorization passes
- Motion to approve for first reading and filing authorization passes
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- Motion to approve for first reading and filing authorization passes
- Motion to authorize issuance of Proclamation 2024
Item 11. Update on Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills Review
- Hickman – No motion on this item?
- Little – Just a discussion item
- TEA staff notes that this was listed as an action item, but not always discussed, asks SBOE members to review notes
COMMITTEE ON INSTRUCTION
- Motion to approve for first reading and filing authorization passes
- Motion to approve for first reading and filing authorization passes
Item 14. Proposed Approval of Innovative Courses
- Peacekeepers 1 & 2 and Making Connections 1-4
- Hickman – Klein ISD has Making Connections and I’m familiar; what is Peacekeepers?
- Submitted by external org, believe they are a nonprofit
- Could be offered for elective credit provided the local board approves
- Hickman – So Peacekeepers provided this to an ISD and the local board approved?
- Correct
- Motion passes
- Motion to approve for first reading and filing authorization passes
COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL FINANCE/PERMANENT SCHOOL FUND
- Maynard – Only action item was put on consent, organized the corporate board; also had a discussion about facilities, when the current corporation moves out from TEA
- Total value of the fund is about $41b, looking forward to June and going through process of asset allocation
- Trying to keep corporate board engaged with what is going on in the community
COMMITTEE ON SCHOOL INITIATIVES
- Matt Robinson, SBOE – Committee on Initiatives recommends SBOE take no action on this item
- No action taken
- Matt Robinson, SBOE – Committee on Initiatives recommends SBOE take no action on this item
- No action taken
Item 19. Review of Proposed Amendments to 19 TAC Chapter 245, Certification of Educators from Other Countries
- Matt Robinson, SBOE – Committee on Initiatives recommends SBOE take no action on this item
- No action taken
- Robinson – Committee on Initiatives recommends SBOE take no action on this item
- No action taken
COMMITTEE OF THE FULL BOARD
Item 21. Cont. from Wednesday, April 6, 2022 Proposed New 19 TAC Chapter 61, School Districts, Subchapter A, Board of Trustees Relationship, §61.3, School Safety Training for School Board Members
- Not discussed
Closing Comments
- Patricia Hardy, SBOE – Got the review calendar dates for the social studies review teams, SBOE members can go and listen in on discussions
- Monica Martinez, TEA – Absolutely welcome to attend, some of the dates we gave were tentative & will make sure week ahead notice is made
- Typically, TEA Staff will not make hotel arrangements for other participants, only work group members
- Robinson – Everyone will be receiving an email on Gen 27 charters, 9 will have interviews Tuesday May 10th to Thursday May 12th
- Hardy – Can I get a clarification on Heritage Classical?
- Robinson – Completely different from the Heritage Academy I was asking about the other day
- Hardy – Heritage Classical is listed under Heritage Education, is that a group?
- Martinez – Cannot answer this, no one from charter team present, can take these questions offline and get an answer for you
- Little – Virtual Learning Commission met on March 30th, had 6-7 presentations on various types of virtual learning and was interesting to see the wide variety
- Little – Each presenter said that virtual education is not for everyone, only for a small percentage of students, importance of not spending so much time in front of a screen ties into this; specialized need, but excited about various programs around the state & hope TEA can come up with guidelines
- Hardy – is that a study for school districts to adopt so a certain percentage of kids can go to that?
- Little – Haven’t gotten there yet, haven’t been any conclusions
- Hardy – Met with some teachers about retention, technology portion really bugged them, teachers were struggling
- Little – Has been evident to SBOE that for virtual education to work you will need tremendous parental support and not all students have that luxury
- Martinez – Reason for the Virtual Education Commission is to develop recommendations for the Legislature
- Hardy – Maybe then Legislators will understand it is not a big savings to get everything online