School Districts and the State Shutdown

State aid to school districts must continue during a, according to a ruling Wednesday, June 30 by Ramsey County District Court Judge Kathleen Gearing.

Because the Minnesota constitution requires a “general and uniform system of public schools,” the ruling makes funding education a critical core function of government. Consequently, for the most part, education aid payments will continue to flow to school districts.

The ruling before the state shutdown eased some concerns of school district officials statewide. However, with the closed doors of the Minnesota Department of Education (MDE) since the shutdown July 1, potential issues with licensing, test score reporting and construction inspection still remain an unknown to school districts.

LICENSING
Many schools statewide will now have to contend with expiring teacher licenses during the state shutdown. Teachers must regularly renew their licenses with the Minnesota Board of Teaching, showing that they met certain professional development milestones since their last renewal, among other regulations. Even if a teacher has been in the classroom for many years, they still technically need a license to run a classroom. No current license, no classes.

The same goes for new teachers. And since many school districts across the state do much of their new teacher hiring during summer months, many new teachers may find themselves with a job but without a license to teach.

Administrators in the are current on their licensing and the teachers union has been “urging continuing teachers to stay on top of licensure,” said ISD 279 School/Community Relations Director Barbara Olson.

“We expect that most of them attended to their licensure renewals prior to the shutdown. Regarding new teachers, we’ll see if the shutdown stretches into August. We don’t know how many new teachers might be affected,” she said.

STATE TESTING
Student test scores are likely to be delayed due to the state shutdown, essentially preventing schools being able to use those assessments to address student needs.

The results from these “Adequate Yearly Progress” (AYP) and Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCAs) essentially drive instruction at Minnesota schools. Since many districts decide on curriculum changes in August, after those tests results are published, schools across the state will be without a way to see where educational gaps exist and correct any problems.

These tests are also important because they’re used under the federal No Child Left Behind Act to determine whether a school has made AYP. If districts and schools receiving Title I funding fail to meet AYP goals for two or more consecutive years, they are classified as “in need of improvement” and face a battery of potential consequences.

In the Osseo School District, Olson said “we anticipate that the state will work with school districts to address pressing needs in as timely a fashion as possible” once the shutdown is over.

The State of Minnesota is responsible for submitting the local test results to the Department of Education for evaluation. Without the staff to submit those results, an extended shutdown could mean Minnesota schools would miss the federal deadline to turn in their AYP scores—set 14 days before school begins.

MDE Acting Director of School Improvement Steve Dibb spoke to Patch just a few hours before the department’s doors were to close June 30 and said, “We’re not feeling very positive [around here].”

He said it was unclear exactly how the shutdown would affect or delay test scores from getting into educators’ hands because the impact was contingent on how long the shutdown lasts.

“If [the shutdown lasts] a day or two, there probably won’t be much of an effect,” he said. “If it turns into a few weeks of a shutdown then the reports would be delayed … How long? We don’t know … We haven’t had this happen before.”

But the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) told Patch that if the shutdown continues, the MDE can apply for a waiver of the federal reporting deadline, calling the shutdown an “unforeseen, mitigating circumstance,” and predicting that the a school district “would get a sympathetic review from the USDOE since it would get the same treatment as a natural disaster that impedes State operations.”

The difference between a state shutdown and a natural disaster however, according to the USDOE, is that in Minnesota’s current situation, no one from either the state or the local school agencies is communicating with federal education officials. Once the state government is back, the USDOE would wait until MDE is operating and able to estimate when test analysis would be complete and the results disseminated to local school districts, before deciding on a new deadline.

Dibb went on to say his department at MDE had been working with its test vendors and clients to set up a contingency plan so when the shutdown is over, they can pick up where they left off.

“We’ll have to wait until the shutdown is over,” he said. “We’ll just take it as it comes and do our best.”

OTHER IMPACTS
Summer is the time when most school districts take on renovations to their buildings and grounds. But without state inspectors on hand to review construction, many of these projects have been put on hold or will have to be scrapped. Olson said the Osseo School District primarily uses city inspectors for its projects. As a result, most of the projects taking place by the district during the summer "should be unaffected.

“In our case, the projects that could be affected would include entrance remodeling projects; boiler projects; and the remodeling work at the new OSTC site,” she said, indicting the projects might require state electrical inspection. “If the shutdown goes on for an extended amount of time, it could affect inspections on those projects, but it’s too early to speculate on projected impact.”