The Alabama State Board of Education (SBOE) held its regular meeting and work session Thursday, discussing and/or approving the following items:

1. Senate Leadership Urges SBOE to Share Plans, Vision

Alabama Senate Pro Tem Greg Reed and Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton urged the State Board of Education during Thursday’s work session to better communicate the department’s plans to improve education and assist underperforming schools. 

“In the last 10 years or so, we have not gotten any real strong policy out of the State Board; it’s always been the Legislature who has been pushing the education agenda,” Singleton said. “I want to see education get in front of education again.” 

Reed, who emphasized the importance of education as a recruitment factor in bringing business to the state, said it is lawmakers who are being asked questions about the plans and actions underway for improving education. He said more statistical data and details are needed from the department.

While the Legislature has passed major education bills such as the Alabama Literacy Act, Numeracy Act and TEAMS Act in recent years, Reed said not enough information is coming out from the department to reassure an increasingly inpatient public about implementation and progress being made. 

“If I’m going to be able to hold the line on helping educators get to a point of a critical mass of enough data to say, ‘what we’ve decided to do is working,’ I’ve got to have some more help in being able to do that,” Reed said. 

2. Proposed ESSA Amendments 

Assistant State Superintendent Shanthia Washington and Coordinator of Accountability Paul Bonner provided an update on Alabama’s proposed ESSA Amendment for 2023 resulting from the approved 2022 addendum to the state ESSA plan. The ESSA Amendment will be posted for public comment from April 13 to May 15.

Amendments include:

• Exit Criteria Timeline: Amended to provide the Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI) schools that do not meet the exit criteria one additional year of Continuous Improvement Plan implementation and one additional year to meet the exit criteria prior to advancing to Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) school status. Amended to provide CSI schools two additional years of Continuous Improvement Plan implementation and two years to meet the exit criteria prior to advancing to the next improvement status (CSI-Retained)
• Exit Criteria for Comprehensive Support and Improvement (CSI) schools: Amended to no longer include the required two consecutive years of improvement, instead to require the school to show improvement as to when originally identified
• Exit Criteria for ATSI Schools: Amended to no longer include the required two consecutive years of improvement, instead to require the subgroup that led to the school’s identification to show improvement as to when the subgroup was identified as in need of targeted support
• Graduation Rate and Progress in English Language Proficiency Long-Term Goals and Measures of Interim Progress: Amended by shifting the timeline by two years
• Academic Achievement Long-Term Goals and Measures of Interim Progress: Amended by shifting the timeline by two years (due to administration of new assessments, establish new long-term goals and interim progress using the 2021-2022 school year as the baseline year)

3. Alabama Supercomputer Authority – Cybersecurity Protections

Representatives from Alabama Supercomputer Authority (ASA) provided an in-depth look at how the latest security technologies are being used to protect K-12 school systems from outside threats. The ASA offers four major services free to Alabama’s K-12 schools:

1. Cybersecurity awareness training for school faculty and staff
2. K-12 Security Operations Center (SOC)
3. Monthly external vulnerability scans
4. Firewall reviews and updates 

4. Board Member Questions

Jackie Zeigler (District 1) requested information on how the department can respond proactively instead of reactively to one of the latest street drugs, Tranq, an animal sedative laced with fentanyl that is becoming a major and deadly threat to students across the country. ALSDE Nurse Manager LaBrenda Marshall said there have been no reported cases of Alabama students who have overdosed on or been sickened by Tranq, but her office is sounding the alarm among school nursing staff and administrators. 

Stephanie Bell (District 3) raised a question about State Superintendent of Education Dr. Eric Mackey's contract and the automatic 3% salary increase he receives annually. She requested a document showing how Mackey's salary has increased since the beginning of the contract.

Marie Manning (District 6) and Dr. Tonya Chestnut (District 5) raised questions and concerns related to what was heard earlier in the work session from Sen. Pro Tem Reed and Minority Leader Singleton. 

“We keep hearing the same thing. Because we are not moving, laws are being created all around us,” Chestnut said. “Let’s make the priority providing evidence there is a plan, showing where progress is being made and where it isn’t being made and what are we going to do next when it isn’t being done.”

Manning requested the department share talking points with SBOE members to share with constituents about how underperforming schools are being helped. She urged Mackey to work on a new way to communicate the department's efforts to legislators. 

“(The plan) is there, but if people don’t see or hear it, that doesn’t mean it has been communicated,” Manning said.  

5. Board Meeting Action

Action taken during the board meeting included approval of:

• A resolution recognizing Alabama’s 2023 Purple Star Schools. In all, 122 Alabama schools received recognition for their support of military families
• A resolution in recognition of April 2023 as “School Library Month” in Alabama schools
• A resolution approving nominations for two open positions on the Alabama School of Fine Arts Board of Trustees

Also during the meeting, the board announced:

• Intent to repeal Alabama Administrative Code Rule 290-080-030-.05, pertaining to Supervision and Administration, and replace with Alabama Administrative Code Rule 290-080-030-.05, pertaining to school-based Child Nutrition Program personnel
• Intent to repeal Alabama Administrative Code Rule 290-080-030-.06, pertaining to qualifications for Child Nutrition Program director certification, and replace with Alabama Administrative Code Rule 290-080-030-.06, pertaining to ongoing training requirements. 

6. Next SBOE Meeting

The board’s next meeting is May 11, 2023, at 10 a.m. in Montgomery with a work session immediately following.