MONDAY SUPERINTENDENT E-MAIL – 5/2/11
The Monday E-mail contains information on the following KDE-related topics:
· Kentucky sets record with TELL Survey
· Link to Recording of the TELL Kentucky District Leadership Webinar (Attachment)
· Tentative Budget Submission
· Update on MUNIS for Districts
· Condition and Educational Suitability Assessments Underway for Facilities Inventory and Classification System Project (Attachment)
If you have questions about the specific items, please see the contact information for each item.
Items from KDE
Kentucky sets record with TELL Survey
Kentucky teachers’ and principals’ participation in the TELL (Teaching, Empowering, Leading and Learning) Kentucky Survey set a record for first-time response rates on similar surveys.
According to the New Teacher Center (NTC), the non-profit organization that administers the survey, Mississippi previously held the highest record for first-time response rate, with 67 percent participation. Kentucky’s overall response rate was 80.27 percent. Of the total 52,353 educators eligible to participate, 42,025 completed the survey. Additionally, 91 percent of Kentucky schools met the minimum response rate threshold of 50 percent and will be able to use their own school results for annual school improvement planning.
See the news release on the results here and expanded data related to the survey at http://www.tellkentucky.org/reports/.
Link to Recording of the TELL Kentucky District Leadership Webinar (Attachment)
As you are aware, the New Teacher Center (NTC) in collaboration with our TELL Kentucky Working Conditions Coalition of partners provided two sessions of a technical assistance webinar on Friday, April 29, 2011. This webinar was designed to assist you with review of the TELL Kentucky Survey data.
If you were unable to participate in one of the live sessions on Friday, you can access a recording of the webinar by using the following link:
https://sas.elluminate.com/site/external/jwsdetect/playback.jnlp?psid=2011-04-29.0706.M.129FFEC53FD3DCD355C152652963E9.vcr&sid=20010
Additionally, the PowerPoint used during the session is attached to this e-mail. Feel free to distribute the link and PowerPoint to your principals and teachers to assist them with appropriate use of the data from the survey.
If you have questions on this matter, contact Michael Dailey at Michael.dailey@education.ky.gov or Troy Teegarden at troy.teegarden@education.ky.gov .
Tentative Budget Submission
In accordance with KRS 160.470 (6) (b) and Administrative Regulation 702 KAR 3:110, Tentative Budgets are required to be submitted by districts to KDE by May 30, 2011. The Tentative Budgets will be submitted via the web submission process, the same as last year. This application will only be open for a limited time starting on May 15, 2011 through May 30, 2011 and will only allow one submission from each district. The link for submitting Tentative Budgets is http://odss.education.ky.gov/webforms.
· Please refer to the Tentative Budget Report (STW-GL-6) to access MUNIS instructions for generating and submitting the budget and the Tentative and Working Budget Guide to assist with the process. This guide consists of a listing of the submission errors and note guide notification (edit checks) that will be utilized by KDE as part of the Tentative Budget analysis process. All errors need to be corrected by the district in order for the Tentative Budget to successfully upload to KDE.
The instructions and frequently asked questions will be located on the KDE website at:
http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Administrative+Resources/Finance+and+Funding/School+Finance/MUNIS/User+Guides/Budget+General+Ledger/Statewide+Budget+General+Ledger+Reports.htm.
If you have any questions related to Tentative Budgets, please send an e-mail to the finance.reports@education.ky.gov. The subject line should read Tentative Budget and we will ensure that you get a response within 24 hours.
Update on MUNIS for Districts
The Department of Education’s Office of Knowledge, Information and Data Systems (KIDS) and the Office of Administration and Support (OAS) continue to provide updates on MUNIS for districts to use during the MUNIS migration. Access to this information is found below:
· http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Administrative+Resources/Technology/Additional+Technology+Resources/MUNIS+Cloud+Services
We encourage districts to continue to monitor the hyperlink found above for new updates. We continue to work on finalizing the District Reference Guide and recently added an FAQ document, compiling all the questions and answers from the Webcast.
As of now, we have over 60 districts scheduled for migration during this calendar year. The plan is to logistically coordinate this effort through the KDE KETS Engineering team, since this is a migration of the underlying technological platform. However, as mentioned during the prior webcasts, it is very important that local CFOs and CIOs communicate internally throughout this process.
For the districts that remain, we anticipate that the KETS Engineering Team is coordinating with your local district staff to verify whether your district is planning to move to the hosted MUNIS solution (as opposed to seeking a waiver to keep an on-prem solution), and whether there are any known conflicts with particular month(s) in the 2012 calendar year. Ideally, we anticipate migrating approximately 10 districts per month and, while acknowledging that everyone likely won’t be able to have their preferred month of migration, we want to do our best to avoid timelines known to be bad for a particular district, based upon your financial needs.
If either you or your staff have any questions or concerns overall, contact Associate Commissioners David Couch at David.Couch@education.ky.gov or Hiren Desai at Hiren.Desai@education.ky.gov to address them.
Condition and Educational Suitability Assessments Underway for Facilities Inventory and Classification System Project (Attachment)
KDE’s vendor, Parsons Commercial Technology Group, Inc., along with their partner, MGT of America, has assembled eight assessment teams with a standardized process to perform the facility condition and educational suitability evaluations. The Commonwealth’s current construction regulations and nationally recognized best practices are the basis for the standardized questionnaires that are completed by the schools and assessors during the school visits. The list of schools to be assessed includes those identified as “category 3” or worse, as of September 2010, encompassing 145 districts.
The schedule is established and continues to be refined to accommodate testing dates and other scheduling conflicts. As of April 26th, Parsons has completed 232 of the 483 scheduled facility condition assessments. In addition, MGT has evaluated 190 of those 232 schools for educational suitability. The Parsons assessors will complete their condition assessments by early June. The MGT assessors will finish their on-site visits in September 2011 as they require students in the buildings to adequately evaluate the instructional space.
The general process for each facility assessment is:
· At least one week prior to a scheduled visit, the district office and school will be contacted to confirm the schedule for an on-site visit and discuss pre-visit preparations the district and schools need to complete.
· On the scheduled day, the assessment team will arrive at the school’s front office, consisting of one condition assessor and one educational suitability assessor. The condition assessment team member will tour the school with a school facility employee who has knowledge of the building and can gain access to the roof, boiler, plumbing, etc. The educational suitability team member will tour the school with the principal or a designee who has knowledge of the programs being offered in the school.
· Following the tour, the assessment team will require space with Internet access to complete their data entry.
· After Parsons has completed their quality control of the data, a school report will be provided to the district office and principal for their feedback. We anticipate these reports to be available to the schools and district offices in July 2011.
· The assessment team can complete most elementary schools in three hours, middle schools in four hours, and high schools in five hours. These timeframes include their data entry. Therefore, school personnel time is only required for the initial portion of the visit.
Please reference the link below for additional information and attachments:
· Frequently Asked Questions document
· Master Schedule of school visits
http://www.education.ky.gov/KDE/Administrative+Resources/Facilities/2011+Facilities+Assessment+Project.htm
For questions regarding this project, please contact Paige Patterson-Grant at Paige.Patterson@education.ky.gov or via phone at 502-564-5279.
Items from Outside Agencies
REMINDER: “Capture the Earth” photo contest
To celebrate Earth Day, April 22, the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet invites student photographers in middle school (grades 6-8) to submit an original photograph for the first “Capture the Earth” environmental photo contest.
The winner will receive two nights’ lodging at any Kentucky State Resort Park with his or her family.
Judges will look for originality and creativity, photo composition, and how well your photo represents the Earth Day theme: Playground Earth: Get Outside, Kentucky!
To enter, send photos by e-mail to Kidsphotocontest@ky.gov. Photos must be in jpeg format, and file size may not exceed 5 MB. The subject line of the e-mail should read “Student Earth Day Photo Contest.”
Students should include the following information in the body of the e-mail:
name, age and grade
parent or guardian’s e-mail address and phone number
name of school and the county where it is located
where and when the photo was taken
a paragraph explaining the photo and why it represents Kentucky’s Earth Day theme of Playground Earth: Get Outside, Kentucky!
The deadline for submission is 4:30 p.m. ET May 9. All entries will be judged by the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet communications staff, based on the following criteria:
Creativity & Originality (50 percent)
Photo Composition (25 percent)
Appropriateness to Contest Theme (25 percent)
For more information, contact Ricki Gardenhire at Ricki.Gardenhire@ky.gov or (502) 564-5525.
PIMSER PD opportunities
The PIMSER P-12 Math and Science Outreach unit at the University of Kentucky is offering several professional development training opportunities this summer that align with goals of Senate Bill 1 and address the Kentucky Core Academic Standards.
Meeting the Challenge: Implementing Standards and Assessment Practices features national and local experts presenting a variety of strategies that address the challenges of relating standards, instruction and assessment. Pre-conference sessions on July 25 provide an in-depth focus on methods of instruction utilizing research, technology and assessment for learning.
July 25-27, Lexington
Conference website: http://www.uky.edu/P12MathScience/MTC-Conference/home.html
Understanding Fraction Concepts offers a conceptual approach to teaching fractions using manipulative materials.
July 11-13, Lexington or July 18-20, Murray
Task, Text and Talk in Science explores a range of text resources to use in the classroom and examines the keys to effective integration, including assessment, of literacy strategies and science content.
Elementary: June 29, Murray or July 18, Lexington
Middle/High: June 29, Murray or July 19, Lexington
Science Reasoning and Assessment Tools presents a variety of strategies to integrate effective assessment practices, while increasing student motivation, reasoning skills, and achievement.
June 21, Lexington
Full program details and registration for all of these opportunities can be found at http://www.uky.edu/P12MathScience. For more information, contact Jessica Dutzy, senior conference coordinator, at (859) 257-3706 or jldutz2@email.uky.edu.