Meeting Summary
Virginia Board of Education
November 20, 2008
Proposed Revisions to the Regulations Governing Pupil Transportation
The Board accepted for first review proposed revisions to the Regulations Governing Pupil Transportation and authorized the Department to proceed with the next steps of the regulatory process, which will include public comment on the proposed changes. Significant changes in the proposed regulations include additional requirements for activity buses similar to those for yellow school buses, restrictions on daily driving hours, restrictions on students standing on buses, revisions to the Preventive Maintenance Manual, changes in the bus maintenance schedule, changes and clarifications to training requirements, and reporting changes.
Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program
The Board approved proposed Regulations Governing the Virginia Teaching Scholarship Loan Program Requirements and Selection Procedures and authorized staff to proceed with the next steps in the regulatory process. The proposed change would include endorsements in career and technical education to the areas eligible for the loan program.
Teacher Licensure and Training
The Board approved revisions of the definitions of At-Risk of Becoming Low-Performing and Low-Performing Institutions of Higher Education in Virginia as Required by Title II of the Higher Education Act (HEA) and the "Advancing Virginia's Leadership Agenda” Guidance Document: Standards and Indicators for School Leaders and Documentation for the Principal of Distinction (Level II) Administration and Supervision Endorsement.
Review of the Standards of Quality
The Board approved recommendations for changes to the Standards of Quality, to be communicated to the Virginia General Assembly. The Board reaffirmed support for new standards for principals, assistant principals, speech language pathologists, and resource teachers for students who are blind or vision impaired, but deferred its specific request for adoption and funding to the next biennium.
The Board endorsed “intermediate SOQ implementation options” for new standards regarding data managers/test coordinators, reading specialists, and math specialists. For the data manager/test coordinator position, the Board is recommending giving school divisions the option to use existing funding under the existing standard for instructional technology specialists to hire data managers, instructional technology specialists and/or a combination of both.
For reading and math specialists, the Board recommends extending flexibility over the use of funding for the Early Intervention Reading Initiative and the Algebra Readiness Intervention initiative to hire reading and math specialists respectively.
The Board also proposes making funds from the SOQ Prevention, Intervention and Remediation program available to provide additional instructional services to English Language Learner students, to supplement the existing 17 per 1,000 positions per LEP students already provided for in the SOQ.
Reports
The Board received the Board of Education’s 2008 Annual Report on the Conditions and Needs of Public Schools in Virginia, a report on the Petersburg City School’s planning for implementation of the Restructuring Contingency Plan for 2009-2010, the annual report from the Virginia Committee for Career and Technical Education, and a report from the Statewide Dropout Prevention Summit.