Colorado Department of Education issued the following announcement on Nov. 12.
The State Board of Education at its regular monthly meeting Wednesday and Thursday extended the school and district ratings assigned in 2019 to this year. With the cancellation of state assessments in spring 2020, the accountability system was paused by Gov. Jared Polis’ Executive Order in March and later codified by the legislature in the School Finance Act. Districts and schools will not receive performance framework reports or updated plan types in 2020.
Extension considered for READ Act K-3 teacher training
In response to the challenges teaching are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic, the board considered providing kindergarten through third-grade teachers with a six-month extension to meet the READ Act requirement to complete evidence-based training in teaching reading. The board will take up the proposal again during a special meeting scheduled for Nov. 19.
About 23,000 teachers in Colorado must complete the training, as required by changes the legislature made in 2019 to the READ Act. The legislation requires teachers to complete the training before the beginning of the 2021-22 school year and provides an allowance for CDE to grant a one-year extension if districts demonstrate a good cause for their inability to comply. The proposal considered by the board would extend the deadline to January 2022.
In other action, the board declined to consider a district waiver application from the Education reEnvisioned Board of Cooperative Educational Services. The Innovation Schools Act gives only districts -- not BOCES -- the ability to request waivers from certain state statutes, so the board found the BOCES to be ineligible for the waivers under state statute.
The board also referred a disagreement between New Vision Charter School and Thompson School District to CDE staff to review and make a recommendation on whether the district provided the proper amount of funding to the school in the 2019-20 school year. The board will consider staff’s recommendation at a future meeting.
The board approved a request from Academy District 20 for a waiver from state statute. The waiver will allow the district to change its charter school application deadline from Oct. 1 of the year preceding the proposed opening of a charter school to about six months earlier -- April 15 of the calendar year preceding the opening of the school.
State board defers to CDOT in dispute between Windsor and Colorado Early Colleges
The board deferred to the Colorado Department of Transportation’s findings in the dispute between the Town of Windsor and Colorado Early College-Windsor regarding who should pay to construct a turn lane into the school grounds to accommodate increased traffic. CDOT determined that Colorado Early College should pay for the construction of the turn lane. The board also granted the town’s request for an explicit finding that construction of the lane was “feasible,” which is the statutory standard.
The dispute came to the board under a little-used statute that gives boards of education the authority to resolve disputes between charter schools and local governments. The Colorado Early College charter school is authorized by the Charter School Institute, which the State Board of Education oversees.
Original source can be found here.
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