The State
of the Association
by Dr. Gaylord Tryon, SAI Executive Director
Since we are nearing the close of the current fiscal/membership year (September 1, 1999-August 31, 2000), I want to share with you a brief "State of the Association" message-my last such statement as executive director of the School Administrators of Iowa.
MEMBERSHIP
Membership is at an all-time high. We will close this year with
the following totals:
1965 Regular Members
47 Associate Members
50 Aspiring Administrator Members
15 Corporate Members
These are some numbers for which we are very proud. They speak
to the continued support we receive from school administrators,
from the leadership provided by our elected state and district
officers, and to the diligent efforts of a hard-working and dedicated
SAI staff.
FINANCIAL
We started the current fiscal year with a fund balance of approximately
$783,150. Because this article is being written a few days prior
to the close of the current fiscal year, I am estimating that
we will end the year with a fund balance of approximately $815,000,
which includes the money we have paid toward our new office building.
Overall, we are very pleased with the financial strength of the
association-especially considering that SAI was founded only 13
years ago this month (September 1, 1987).
PROGRAMS/SERVICES
The general categories of services provided by SAI include professional
growth, legal assistance, representation in the state and federal
legislative processes, publications, general employment assistance,
and networking. During this past year, SAI sponsored (co-hosted
in a few situations) 15 regional workshops, 10 statewide workshops,
nine leadership labs in our state office, and our annual All-Iowa
School Administrators Conference. At the state capitol, we were
very involved in efforts to improve funding for Iowa schools and
to improve our state retirement system for public employees. We
continue to employ a full-time director of legal services, a director
of professional development, a communications director, and a
full-time person whose primary responsibility is legislation at
the state and federal levels. In addition, SAI staff members are
frequently called upon to speak at numerous state and regional
meetings involving board members, teachers and administrators.
SAI employs a highly talented staff of seven full-time individuals
who are dedicated to providing the best service possible to its
members.
OFFICE FACILITIES
We have been in our current office facilities since September
1, 1987. We are very proud of the fact that we are in the process
of constructing our own office building. (See pictures on the
front cover.) If everything goes as planned, we could be in our
new office sometime in January, 2001. Owning our own facilities
will enhance the financial stability of the association. It also
exemplifies the membership's confidence and pride in SAI.
CHANGING OF THE GUARD
As I have indicated in previous newsletters, I will be retiring
as executive director of the association on December 31, 2000.
After serving 42 years in education, including 28 years as executive
director, it's time for me to do something else with my life and
to hand the baton over to someone else. While I have enjoyed my
experience as executive director of SAI, I feel good about leaving
the association at this time in its development. I am also excited
that Dr. Troyce Fisher will be the new executive director (effective
January 1, 2001). Troyce is an outstanding educational leader.
I pledge to her, and to SAI that I will do everything in my power
to ensure a smooth and successful transition to this new chapter
in the history of the School Administrators of Iowa.
Top
Good Conduct
Policies:
The Mere Presence Rule
Will It Fly?
by Kathy Lee Collins, J.D., SAI Director of Legal Services
Welcome back!
There has been some interesting activity from the State Board
of Education on the issue of Good Conduct policies and rules.
In April, the Board overturned the Ackley-Geneva board's decision
to impose the good conduct rule on a student who was at a party
where minors were consuming alcohol illegally, but he didn't drink.
This was the first time the State Board had an opportunity to
rule on the "mere presence" aspect of a Good Conduct
Rule. The Administrative Law Judge had little problem deciding
that the district's "mere presence rule" was unreasonable
as written and as it was applied by the district on these facts.
Thus the student's eligibility was restored.
In that case (In re Ryan Oelmann), the ALJ said that a "mere
presence" rule must have a knowledge component. In other
words, you need to have some evidence that the student facing
loss of eligibility KNEW that illegal drinking or drug use was
going on. This can be proven either by the student's admission
or by "circumstantial evidence" such as things like
a keg in the immediate vicinity, several students with beers or
drinks in their hands, the strong smell of marijuana, or several
students telling you, in effect, it would be impossible not to
know what was going on. (Remember: Just because the student says
"I didn't know there was beer there . . ." doesn't mean
you have no evidence of knowledge. That statement can be rebutted
with other evidence [student statements or common sense given
the circumstances] indicating it was highly unlikely the student
didn't know the illegal activity was occurring. On the other hand,
if the student is credible and the facts suggest the use by others
was quite surreptitious, you may legitimately have a situation
where the student honestly didn't know. Use YOUR common sense
in applying the rule!)
The ALJ, and ultimately the State Board of Education, also
said it is incumbent upon administrators and A.D.s to look at
the facts of each "mere presence" situation to see if
the student had a reasonable opportunity to leave and failed to
do so. In the Oelmann case, the student joined up with some boys
who had been drinking beer earlier and had some cold beers in
the car hidden under a coat in the back seat. Ryan and the other
boys testified that Ryan wasn't aware that there was beer in the
car until one boy offered another one of the beers, at which point
Ryan supposedly said he wanted to get out of the car because he
couldn't be in that situation. Almost simultaneously, one of Ackley's
Finest stopped the car and the jig was up. Ryan Oelmann was ruled
ineligible by district officials for merely being in the car with
the beer. The ALJ and State Board were critical of the application
of the mere presence rule under the facts of this case, and ultimately
overturned the Ackley-Geneva board, albeit after considerable
discussion and disagreement at the State Board meeting.
The rumor swiftly circulated that a "mere presence"
rule would be dead in the water if appealed to the Department
and State Board. But then along came In re Brett Lureman, an
appeal from the Newton board, also involving the "mere presence"
rule. In this case, a student who had already had at least one
violation of the Good Conduct Rule went to a party at a student's
home where he had previously attended four parties where alcohol
was present and presumably being used illegally by minors. He
parked behind the residence and walked through the back yard (which
I assume the ALJ took to mean he was trying to avoid detection),
and he was there for approximately 30-35 minutes before the police
arrived; therefore, he had ample opportunity to leave after realizing
(!) that alcohol was present, but he failed to do so. The ALJ
recommended upholding the Newton board's decision to impose a
second offense of the Good Conduct Rule on Brett, and the State
Board of Education approved the decision.
The moral of the story is this: If you have a "mere presence"
rule make sure you either write into it a "with knowledge
that the illegal activity is occurring" component as well
as a "failed to leave the location despite having ample opportunity
to do so" component. If you don't have time now to get it
into the Board's policy or Student Handbook, make sure you apply
those two factors if you are faced with a "mere presence"
violation. Newton's Handbook didn't mention "knowledge"
but they made sure they had evidence of knowledge. It did, however,
cover the "failed to leave" component by stating, "Attending
functions (without their parent or guardian's supervision) where
alcohol is present and being used, and not immediately leaving
such functions."
Of course, you don't have to have a mere presence rule. In
fact, you don't even have to have a Good Conduct Rule. Frankly,
there are some communities where the "mere presence"
thing wouldn't fly based on community values. Something along
the lines of "Students who attend these functions as the
designated driver should be given an award for not drinking, not
punished by loss of eligibility!!!!" If that's the battle
cry of the majority of parents in your district, you may be fighting
a losing battle.
It has been 28 years since the Iowa Supreme Court decided the
now-famous Bunger case out of Waverly-Shell Rock, but they will
have another opportunity this term. Martin v. Marshalltown C.S.D.
should be decided by next spring. It involves the loss of eligibility
of a kid who went on a school-related trip to Germany and drank
(he was of legal age there) despite having been warned that to
do so would result in a Good Conduct violation. The kid has lost
at every level supt., board, State Board, and district court
but he is persistent! I fully expect that case to be affirmed,
but it might be interesting to read what the court is thinking
in this day and age about the Good Conduct rule. It might help
us know what they'd do if a "mere presence" rule came
before them.
Thanks to all of the principals and activities directors who
helped us with our student survey last spring on attitudes related
to good conduct rules. I hope to have the results "packaged"
soon and we'll make the report available either on the S.A.I.
web page, through my CYA column, or otherwise. Verrry interesting!
On a completely unrelated topic: Just a reminder (in case
you missed last year's state S.A.I. convention, this year's S.A.I.
convention, and the February School Law Conference): The State
Board of Educational Examiners (SBEE), our licensing and disciplinary
body for educators, has taken the position that they will impose
discipline on contract jumpers (both teachers and administrators).
You may recall, I was quite concerned about an amendment to the
Code stating that the SBEE was to make rules regarding "habitual"
failure of educators to honor their contractual obligations. Initially,
early decisions of the BEE showed the Board taking a "hands
off" attitude towards most if not all first-time complaints.
However, under Dr. Anne Kruse, as advised by the Assistant Attorney
General, the SBEE began issuing reprimands to most first time
contract breachers. (One notable exception was given a year's
suspension, but he left teaching altogether, so it hardly hurt
him.) Thus, when a teacher walks out on his/her contract without
a release, you should file a complaint. (I have a sample I created
for your reference if you need one.) If you don't file, the teacher
gets (at least) one free bite of the apple without any consequence
whatsoever. If you do file, while s/he may only get a reprimand
this time, the next time the penalty will undoubtedly be stiffer.
If they walk out without a release, don't later release them;
the SBEE also looks at that as a mitigating circumstance, lessening
the magnitude of the offense.
S.A.I. is considering ways to make contract-jumping less attractive,
including possibly asking the SBEE to stiffen the penalty for
even first time violators. We may also seek some assistance from
the legislature. If you have any ideas for ways to deal with this
issue fairly, please let me know. We may even put together a "think
tank" on the topic. Volunteers are encouraged! Call or email
me! Rest assured we know that late resignations and teachers
"walking" without a release have caused you to lose
your precious little "down time" in the summer, to have
to postpone or cancel planned family vacations, to spend more
money and to leave you without positions filled late into the
summer, even into the start of the school year. We heard you,
and we're going to try to do something about it. Stay tuned. And
let's have our best year ever!
Top
Legislators Back to School Day
by Dr. Marcus Haack, SAI Associate Executive Director
Those of you who heard me present at the August SAI conference
will remember my emphasis on building positive relationships with
your legislative representatives. I'm truly convinced that our
collective influence on the legislative process is only as strong
as the individual networking we do with our elected officials.
The National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) has come
up with a timely method for building the kind of relationships
we need to nurture with our legislators. The NCSL has designated
the third Friday of September (9/15) as America's Legislators
Back to School Day, based on the theme, "Your Ideas Count."
The program is designed to teach young people what it's like to
be a state legislator, the processes used, the pressures, and
the debate, negotiation and compromise that are the fabric of
representative democracy.
America's Legislators Back to School Day is an opportunity
to provide young people with insights into the roles and responsibilities
of state legislators. Most important, it's an ideal way to establish
a powerful connection with our youth, to get their thoughts and
perspectives, and inspire their active involvement in the democratic
process and links with their schools.
The NCSL is providing resource and marketing materials for
the Back to School day. To get additional information about the
project you can go to the NCSL Web site at www.ncsl.org/public/backsch.htm.
State legislators have received information packets from NCSL
outlining some of the activities they may want to be involved
in while visiting schools in September. Discussion topics which
have been suggested to legislators include: school uniforms, school
violence, driving age, helmets for bicyclists or roller bladers,
video game restrictions, smoking on campus, graffiti, competency
testing to graduate, and curfews.
Legislators are being discouraged from holding large group
assemblies as part of the Back to School Day activities. Instead,
they've been offered ideas for classroom activity that can be
more personalized as compared to large group activities.
Examples include:
- (High school or middle school) Choose a public policy issue
of importance to the students and have them prepare a simple,
one-sentence proposal to solve the problem in advance of the legislator's
visit. On the day of the visit students can form a committee to
debate proposals and make recommendations to the full class for
"policy implementation." Students can discuss the process
of dealing with competing interests, negotiating, compromise,
and decision-making.
- (All grade levels) Have the visiting legislator select a "typical
day" from his/her personal calendar and go over it with the
class. Discussion about the day could include dealing with constituent
problems, listening to diverse points of view on difficult issues,
negotiating, compromising, decision-making and balancing personal
and professional life with legislative duties.
- (Elementary school) Ask students to decide as a class how they
will make a batch of chocolate chip cookies to take home to their
families. Begin by asking what makes a perfect chocolate chip
cookie. When there is disagreement, the legislator and teacher
could lead students through a process of deciding on things like
nuts or no nuts, many or few chips, soft or chewy cookies, thick
or thin, etc. At the conclusion, students can discuss how this
exercise relates to the role of a legislator.
Whether or not you decide to participate in the formal activities
on September 15th, I'd encourage you to make a contact with your
elected officials in the House and the Senate. Use this time prior
to the fall elections and the next legislative session to get
to know them. Share your successes and your concerns. Let them
see you as a person and a professional whose work is of the utmost
importance when it comes to assuring success for your students.
Taking the time today to build a strong relationship with your
representatives can go a long way toward gaining legislative support
for administrators, schools, and especially children. Don't put
it off. Call today!
Top
We're Getting Closer
by Dr. Elaine Smith-Bright, SAI Director of Professional Development
What an excellent time the Annual Conference always turns
out to be. It's such a great opportunity to renew friendships,
network with colleagues, find out where everyone has moved, support
organizations like IWEL, join in beneficial activities such as
the Schlapkohl Walk, play golf, hear from national speakers, renew
your commitment to leadership for student achievement, pick up
on happenings on the state front, etc. And this year, 123 new
administrators eager to begin their careers or a new position
joined us on Tuesday, August 8th. IF YOU MISSED IT, YOU MISSED
OUT! Plan now to join us next year in Des Moines on August 8th
& 9th.
Speaking of plans, we certainly like inviting you to come to
Des Moines, but in keeping with SAI's goal to bring programming
closer to you, we have two excellent opportunities scheduled for
this school year. Joining once again with the Department of Education
(DE) and the Iowa Association for Supervision and Curriculum (IASCD)
three Winter Institutes will be held in February. Their design
will be to provide continuing support as you implement and refine
your Comprehensive School Improvement Plans and gather data for
your Annual Progress Reports. By February the Department of Education
will have had time to review the first submitted plans and reports,
and be able to share constructive feedback with districts. Mark
these sites and dates: FEBRUARY 1 - CARROLL, FEBRUARY 6 - CEDAR
RAPIDS, FEBRUARY 7 - AMES.
The second regional opportunity was prompted by the knowledge
that, due to retirement, most districts will face the task of
replacing one or more of their administrators in the next three
years. SAI and Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) will be
teaming together in January to present an Administrative Team/School
Board Workshop specifically designed to help districts with the
administrative hiring process. A well-planned and full agenda
will include exploring the alignment of job criteria and expectations,
legal issues surrounding hiring, use of a consultant, involvement
of community members, and best practices. Although not an actual
component of the hiring process, the concept of districts "growing
their own" or "grooming their own" future administrators
will also be explored. The time has been set for late afternoon
(4:00 8:30 p.m.) to allow for busy administrators and board
members to be available. If your district is facing the eminent
replacement of you as superintendent or another key administrator,
don't miss this opportunity to guide the district in planning
for a smooth transition of leadership. The sites and dates for
the workshop are: JANUARY 9TH CARROLL, JANUARY 10TH AMES, JANUARY
11TH CEDAR RAPIDS.
As we plan leadership development, we refer to suggestions
that you as participants place on the evaluation forms collected
after each lab or workshop. Last year there were repeated comments
about the need for ongoing offerings on legal issues. In several
collaborative meetings with our own Kathy Collins and attorneys
from the Ahlers Law Firm it was determined that three Leadership
Labs on important "need to know" topics would be presented
this fall. Each will be a full day, will take place at the SAI
office, and you may sign up for one or all three. On OCTOBER 31,
the lab will be devoted to issues of Search and Seizure. On NOVEMBER
21, the lab will center on Investigatory Interviews, and on DECEMBER
7, the lab will be built around Principle Based Collective Bargaining.
Naturally we will again be sponsoring our traditional workshops
for Elementary (OCTOBER 11), Secondary (NOVEMBER 30TH), Middle
Level (MARCH 1) and Superintendents (APRIL 18). We see those as
providing opportunities for on-going networking, learning from
each other, gaining information, and receiving glimpses of practices
or programs that you can further explore. We sincerely hope you've
had a smooth, fun, excellent start to the school year, and look
forward to seeing you in Des Moines or "closer to you"
in your part of the state!
September 15 has been here and gone. This means your Annual
Progress Report (APR) is done! But now what? How do you handle
questions and your local media?
Below are two sample interviews. Look at the "bad"
interview versus the "good" interview, and take note
of the good differences. Chapter 12 has given Iowa's schools a
wonderful opportunity to connect with our communities and let
them know about our schools. If you follow the good sample below,
you'll have no difficulty at all talking about your APR.
Faster than a kindergartner at recess, more powerful than
a parent's yell, able to leap lunch room tables in a single bound...
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's SUPER-INTERVIEW (applause)! Our
drama opens with Super-Interview (SI) and Lois or Louis Lane
(LL) sitting in a coffee shop in Metropolis...
BAD INTERVIEW EXCERPT
LL: I've been looking forward to this chance to interview you and learn more about your school, Super-Interviewer. As I mentioned over the phone, I'd like to ask some questions about your district's Annual Progress Report.
SI: (aside) Uh oh, I thought he/she wanted to talk about last night's football game.
LL: I didn't quite understand one of these graphs (pulls out copy of APR).
SI: I know we didn't send you an APR. Jumpin' jahosophat, we didn't think anyone would actually look at it!
LL: Could you explain why your district only reported grades 4, 8 and 11?
SI: Because the State said we had to.
LL: The 11th grade reading scores show quite a drop this past year. Why is that?
SI: We're really not sure. We're thinking that was just one of those dumb groups of kids.
LL: (gives SI a strange look) I think that's all I need. Thanks for your time. (LL stands up to leave and says to audience) I just don't understand it - I always heard that Super-Interviewer gave excellent interviews! (walks away)
SI: (jumps up) I'm not really Super-Interviewer (rip off S) - I'm Hex Luther in disguise! (evil laugh)
GOOD INTERVIEW EXCERPT
SI: Thanks for meeting with me today, Lois/Louis. I wanted to be sure you were one of the first to know about our district's Annual Progress Report.
LL: I appreciated your sending this to me ahead of time so I could glance through it before today.
SI: I'm sure you saw why I'm so proud of our students
and staff. They've made great gains in the past several years.
For instance, as you can see on page 9, more Metropolis 4th, 8th
and 11th graders scored at the intermediate
or high achievement levels than students nationally.
LL: Could you explain why your district only reported grades 4, 8 and 11?
SI: First I'd like to make it clear that Metropolis School District improves learning for all students. Iowa Code requires reporting grades 4, 8 and 11 at a minimum. We compile student learning statistics for other grade levels, as well. More than just test scores...
LL: More than test scores? What else is there?
SI: Our teachers assess student learning every day through things like classroom discussions, quizzes, homework, and projects. These everyday assessments give a better picture of what our students are learning and how they learn best. Metropolis School District improves learning for all students.
LL: The 4th grade reading scores show quite a drop this past year. Why is that?
SI: There has been a slight drop in 4th grade reading
scores, and that concerns us. One of our new district goals is
to bring those scores back up. Metropolis School District improves
learning for all students. We've
already started an intense reading improvement program called
"All Children Can Read."
LL: That sounds like a great program - can you tell me more about it?
SI: Actually, the best way to tell you about it would be to show you... would you like visit to one of our 4th grade classrooms sometime soon?
LL: Why, I'd love to Super-Interview!
THE END