OKLAHOMA CITY – Now that many lawmakers are calling for a freeze on judicial pay and the salaries of all statewide officeholders, state Rep. Jason Nelson said it’s time to also freeze school superintendent salaries.

“Last year we saw hundreds of instances of superintendents getting pay raises while furloughing teachers and increasing class sizes,” said Nelson, R-Oklahoma City. “If it doesn’t make sense to give statewide officeholders a pay raise while Oklahoma is climbing out of recession, the same thing holds true for school superintendents at a time when education budgets have been cut. They should not be getting pay raises when teachers are being asked to do more with less.”

In a recent report, Oklahoma Watchdog found that 356 Oklahoma district superintendents (more than two-thirds) received some form of compensation increase this year. The combined expense of those raises was an extra $1.4 million annually.

Oklahoma Watchdog found that 37 of the superintendents receiving raises oversaw districts placed on the State Department of Education’s “Needs Improvement” list and 16 of those individuals received raises of $5,000 or more .

The Board of Judicial Compensation recently recommended pay increases for judges. Since the compensation of judges and statewide officials is linked, both would get a raise under that proposal.

State Rep. Scott Inman, leader of the House Democratic caucus, has been one of the most vocal critics of potential pay increases for statewide officeholders even though none of those officials could receive a salary increase during their current term in office.

Nelson said the Del City lawmaker should now join him in opposing superintendent pay raises.

“To protect school funding, we have to do more than oppose phantom pay raises that no current statewide officeholder is eligible to receive,” Nelson said. “It is ridiculous to complain about phantom pay raises for current statewide elected officials while ignoring $1.4 million in real pay raises for superintendents across the state.”

Last year, Nelson filed House Bill 1746 to require schools to spend at least 65 percent of funds on direct instructional activities within three years.

That bill included a provision that would have prevented superintendents from furloughing teachers without first having their financial plan reviewed by the State Board of Education so that classroom teachers would be protected.

“My legislation would have protected teachers from layoffs and furloughs, yet it was opposed by superintendents and their allies, including Representative Inman,” Nelson said. “I hope he and other opponents will now join me in standing up for teachers.”

Nelson praised State Superintendent of Public Instruction Janet Barresi, who announced she would not accept a pay raise when the issue was first raised this month.

“Superintendent Barresi did the right thing for Oklahoma students,” Nelson said. “Given that many local school superintendents are paid more than the governor or state superintendent, there is clearly no reason for local administrators to get a pay raise at the expense of teachers and classroom funding. It’s time to freeze superintendent pay.”

To answer her question, I called Jeff Mills, the new executive director of the Oklahoma State School Boards Association.

I’ll start with his response about what a school board is: a local governing body of a school district whose members are either elected or appointed to represent the public. Now on to what they do.

“One of their main functions is to hire a superintendent or a CEO to run that organization. … Their other major responsibility is setting policy,” Mills told me.

He went on to explain: “If I’m a superintendent, I can set a directive or I can set an interoffice activity, but the board is responsible to set legal and legislative type policy to manage the district. … A school board wouldn’t necessarily be involved in the day-to-day operations — that’s what the superintendent or CEO is for.”

Now if you’re wondering just what types of policies he’s referring to, don’t worry, he elaborated. Such policy responsibilities can include everything from school safety to budgeting and expenditures, he said.

Oklahoma City School Board meeting, Sept. 2, 2008 / By Wendy K. Kleinman, The Oklahoman 

Mills also talked about the public comments issue that started this conversation.

“There are public participation policies out there, and some of those may limit (comments) to three minutes or so — each one will vary — and they may limit the number of people who may speak on one topic,” Mills said, “for the simple reason that if you have no order you could be there all night.”

UPDATE: To answer a question this entry prompted, school board members’ phone numbers and addresses, at least for Oklahoma City Public Schools, are available to the public. They are listed on this site.

Keep the comments and questions coming!

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

Although his comments were made a few weeks ago, I’m bringing them up now because of a column in the most recent issue of The School Administrator magazine, which I just received.

The column is by Nicholas Caruso with the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education. You can read the whole piece here, but one line in particular intrigued me. He wrote:

The board meeting is a meeting held in public,
not a public meeting.

It seems to me that view aligns with Humphreys’ comments, while the parents I spoke with afterward said they feel as though the meetings belong to them. 

What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

So now that Barack Obama and John McCain have both formally accepted their nominations and spoken to the nation from their respective conventions, I thought I’d post information about each of their education plans. They all have a lot of ideas, so following are the links to the details of them.

McCain: www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/19ce50b5-daa8-4795-b92d-92bd0d985bca.htm
Obama: www.barackobama.com/issues/education

Poke around, read both sides, and come back here to share your thoughts.

Wendy Kleinman
Education Reporter

State Regents last week approved a new degree program at Oklahoma State University: a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing.

The graduate program aims to train the practicing writer/teacher and will begin enrollment in fall 2012. The Association of Writers and Writing Programs cited an increase in the number of jobs for writers, both in academic jobs and as self-employed or freelance.

The MFA in creative writing requires 42 to 45 credit hours.

Other new programs approved by State Regents are:

OSU-OKC: Associate in Applied Science in Dietetic Technology; East Central University, Ada: Master of Science in Accounting; Tulsa Community College: Associate in Applied Science in Computer Programming, Transaction Processing Facility and Certificate in Computer Programming, Transaction Processing Facility; and Western Oklahoma State College, Altus: Associate in Applied Science in Production Agriculture.

The book is called “Time to Learn,” and its premise is that the last school bell ringing out at 2:30 p.m. “makes no sense at all.”

Authors Christopher Gabrieli and Warren Goldstein write:

We wrote Time to Learn because we think it’s just the right time for a practical, large-scale transformation in American public education. We think it’s ‘time to learn’ from the available evidence — and we give you a ton of it in what follows — that our children need more ‘time to learn’ all of what they need to succeed and thrive in the twenty-first century. No one knows exactly how long the standard school schedule has clocked in at about six-and-a-half hours a day, or how it got to be that way, but just about everyone knows it’s not giving kids or teachers enough time to produce high school graduates well prepared for higher education, for the workplace of our newly global economy, or for citizenship in our democracy.

A little less than a year ago, State Superintendent Sandy Garrett called for a Time Reform Task Force to study the length of the school day and school year in Oklahoma. (Here’s a recap of their recommendations, and you can view the task force’s full report here.)

“If you want to raise expectations, this is the kind of discussion we need to be having,” Garrett said later.

So let’s have the discussion. Is the school day — or the school year — too short? And if you were in charge, what would you change?

Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter

One part mentioned the Toledo Plan, a unique method of teacher evaluation spearheaded by the Toledo, Ohio, school district.

NPR recently put together an interesting segment about the plan, including conversations with and about teachers who came under the scrutiny in the peer review system.

You can tune in to the “All Things Considered” recording by clicking here and selecting “Listen Now,” and share any comments you have on this blog.

Wendy K. Kleinman
Education Reporter

The Hechinger Institute fellowship was an amazing opportunity to hear from college leaders, policy analysts and researchers about two-year colleges, which educate nearly one-half of our nation’s college students.

But one of the most inspirational moments took place not in the historic halls of Columbia’s Teachers College, but on the airplane ride home.

On the short flight from Dallas to Will Rogers, I met a young man named Luis. The high school senior from Boulder, Colo., was enroute to his sister’s home in Oklahoma City and then to apply for enrollment at Oklahoma City Community College.

Luis, who lives in a Colorado housing project, wants to study music and business. American Idol aside, this first-generation American has a passion for singing but knows he needs a college degree to succeed in any field.

He can’t afford the University of Colorado, but was told by a high school counselor to check into community colleges. While out-of-state tuition at OCCC is less than he’ll pay if he stays in Colorado, he hopes to qualify for financial aid as an emancipated minor.

Today, I planned to go through my notes from my week in New York and prepare a schedule of stories about community colleges. Instead I’ve been thinking about Luis and the journey he’s taking. It seems so much more momentous than anything I’ll do.

Susan Simpson, Education Writer

Ssimpson@oklahoman.com

The Oklahoman runs an “On the Campaign Trail” box every day to tell you what the candidates are up to. But if you want to know more about their positions and ideas on education — from big ideas to small comments — there’s a good place for you to find out more.

The Education Writers Association maintains a Web site that chronicles the candidates’ musings on education, which voters consistently rank as a top concern.

The blog entries are short and simple.

Want to know which candidates say they’re comfortable reading “King and King,” a book with a same-sex relationship theme, to their children and other schoolchildren? Or what’s in John Edwards’ “Restoring the Promise of America’s Schools” plan? Or why Rudy Giuliani has a controversial record on higher education?

Visit http://edelection.blogspot.com to find out, and to stay educated on election-related education issues.

Garrett previously announced that Lucy Smith would lead the Time Reform Task Force, and on Thursday she announced the other members of the group.

The task force will look into adding one hour to the school day and at least five days to the school year. Currently, minimums for public schools are six hours of instruction a day for 175 days.

“Oklahoma’s school day and school year are below the national average,” Garrett said in a press release. “This is significant when you consider that our nation’s schools require significantly less instructional time than competing nations in Asia and Europe do.”

Here are the newly named members:

-Don Parker, Bank of Oklahoma’s chief information officer and executive vice president from Tulsa;
-Helen Parker, Norman High School PTA president (no relation to Don Parker);
-Monica Barbour, parent of a special needs child from Tulsa;
-James Branscum, Metro Technology Center superintendent;
-Brooke Bisel, University of Central Oklahoma student;
-Alan Ingram, Oklahoma City Public Schools’ executive director of federal programs;
-Matthew Livingood, Tulsa Public Schools Board of Education member;
-Judith Ann Barber, education consultant from Grove;
-Patricia Hardre, University of Oklahoma faculty member;
-Joe Siano, Norman Public Schools superintendent;
-Lisa Horn, El Reno Public Schools’ director of special services;
-Gene Hunt, retired minister from Oklahoma City;
-Danny Rennels, Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association executive director;
-Bobby Russell, Pauls Valley Public Schools superintendent;
-Teresa Bryant, Cordell teacher representing the Association of Professional Oklahoma Educators;
-Lyndol Fry, retired educator from Hugo;
-Glenda Cobb, Duncan Public Schools assistant superintendent;
-Bruce Demuth, chief of staff for the state Department of Career & Technology Education;
-Silvya Kirk, Midwest City-Del City Public Schools’ high school principal;
-Ken Lease, Oklahoma School of Science & Mathematics’ vice president of academic services;
-David Pennington, Ponca City Public Schools superintendent;
-John Privett, Tahlequah resident and former education reform advocate in Texas;
-Terri Silver, with the Oklahoma State School Boards Association;
-Connie Sloan, 2006 Oklahoma Teacher of the Year finalist from Canadian;
-Kathryn Turner, Fletcher Public Schools superintendent;
-Stan Bryant, Oklahoma City teacher representing the Oklahoma Education Association (no relation to Teresa Bryant);
-Cathy Williams, Vinita Public Schools elementary principal;
-Bill Bentley, Dibble Public Schools superintendent; and
-Ed Allen, president of the Oklahoma chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.