By Todd Engdahl, EDUCATION NEWS COLORADO
Colorado schools have $17.8 billion in maintenance and renovation needs over the next eight years, according to a statewide schools facilities study released Wednesday.
The study, required as part of the 2008 Building Excellent Schools Today law, was the first-ever comprehensive structural review of 8,419 buildings, from large classroom buildings to sheds.
The $17.8 billion estimate covers only what the study calls Tier I buildings – basically those used for instruction.
The study found those buildings need $9.4 billion of deferred maintenance work between now and 2013. An additional $13.9 billion is needed for energy and educational suitability projects. A final $3.9 billion in work is estimated to be necessary from 2014-18.

The study was released to the State Board of Education Wednesday afternoon.
Ted Hughes, director of the Capital Construction Assistance Division, noted that the study was the first-ever statewide inventory of school buildings and their conditions.
He said the division still has to come up with a ranking system for buildings and is planning to put all the data in a searchable database, to be called Schoolhouse that will include district and individual building information. The database will be updated regularly.
Mary Wickersham, chair of the Capital Construction Assistance Board, wasn’t shocked by the numbers, saying. “A lot of us have known for a long time the broad-stroke dimensions.” Wickersham several years ago led a less extensive study of school conditions. From that, she said, researchers roughly estimated $10 billion in needs.
Board members received the report with only a few comments.
The assessment isn’t a priority list from which state officials will choose projects. That’s because BEST is an opt-in program for which districts and charters must apply. But, the construction board will use the list to help set priorities among applicants. The program also is designed to encourage use of local matching grants, with only a few projects supported fully by state funds.

Edison School in El Paso County has long been a poster child for school building problems.
The BEST program was approved by the legislature in 2008 and is funded by revenues from state school lands and some other sources but not from tax dollars. Applications are evaluated and ranked by the appointed Capital Construction Assistance Board and its staff and forwarded to SBE. The program matches state funds with local money to either directly fund construction costs or to pay off lease-purchase arrangements.
Last August the state board approved the first major round of projects. That project list totaled $210 million, including a $127.5 million state share, another $7.6 million to cover any higher labor costs that might be required by federal law and $75.6 million in local matching money.
The state made cash grants of $15 million, matched by $18.7 million in local money. The state is putting up $112.5 million to pay off lease-purchases (called certificates or participation, or COPs), which will be matched by $57 million in local money. (Two of the projects subsequently were canceled. Voters in the Mapleton Schools last fall defeated a bond issue that would have provided the local match for a $51.3 million project. A $3.1 million grant to the North Routt Charter School was canceled because the school wanted to raise its $1.6 million match using a bank loan, which isn’t permitted.)
About $98 million was approved last March for 11 other projects, several of which needed money to complete work started under previous, smaller state grant programs. Three other awards totaling $4 million were made in April.
The construction board is accepting applications through April 9 for the 2010 round of grants. The BEST law gives priority to health and safety projects, followed by those designed to relieve overcrowding and to make technology upgrades.
Do your homework
▪ Links to report, PowerPoint summary and FAQ
▪ Capital Construction Assistance Board
New district accreditation system taking shape
The state board Wednesday also took testimony on proposed new rules for accrediting school districts but delayed a final vote until its April meeting to allow more time for public comment.
Some school districts and the Colorado Association of School Boards still have concerns about the proposed rules.
Education Commissioner Dwight Jones said, “This is a very, very important milestone for the state … this is major change.”
He said to the board, “I think you’ll see that while nobody will like everything in the rules, the department has been responsive to feedback. The rules have landed in a place that I strongly support.”
Ken DeLay, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Boards, acknowledged CDE’s cooperation but still expressed concerns about the new system.
“This is a complex statute and these are complex rules. … That complexity has some implications. It’s going to change how we do business in school districts. … We are moving away from a community, locally based system … to a system that’s run out of this building and the buildings in Washington, D.C.”

State Board of Education member Angelika Schroeder, D-2nd District
Board member Angelika Schroeder, D-2nd District and a former Boulder school board member, responded by saying setting goals is the state’s role and the methods for achieving them are up to local districts. With SB 09-163, she said, “We are losing the option in our districts to allow kids to not learn.”
The rules will give school districts the guidelines for following Senate Bill 09-163, which was passed by the 2009 legislature and revamps the state systems for accrediting school districts, assisting and intervening in districts with persistent low accreditation status; the way districts accredit individual schools, and how school performance is reported to the public and parents.
Advisory committees and Department of Education staff have been working on the rules since last year. The board will vote on the rules at its April 14-15 meeting, and the new rules will go into effect in May, with implementation beginning in the fall.
Under the new law, the state board will set targets every year for how a district has to perform in key areas to gain accreditation at one of six levels.
The key areas are student growth, as measured by test scores; postsecondary and workforce readiness, as measured by ACT test scores and, later, performance on the new state postsecondary and workforce readiness test; student achievement levels on tests, and dropout rates and achievement gaps based on income and ethnicity.
The state board is to adopt targets by Nov. 30 each year that will the basis for the accreditation levels. Each year’s target will apply to the next full school year.
Once the new plan is fully in effect, the state will assign accreditation ratings every November, districts that are lower-ranked will have to submit improvement plans by January and plans would be published on the SchoolView.org website in April.
Accreditation contracts run for a year and are renewed only if a district is in one of the top two levels. The old law has six-year contracts.
The six types of accreditation are:
▪ Level 1 – Accredited with distinction
▪ Level 2- Accredited
▪ Level 3 – Accredited with improvement plan
▪ Level 4 – Accredited with priority improvement plan
▪ Level 5 – Accredited with turnaround plan
▪ Level 6 – Unaccredited. In such cases the state board will determine whether a district needs reorganization, external management, conversion to innovation status or charter or school closure.
The old law has a somewhat dfferent six-level system.
The law gives the commissioner of educationthe authority to create a state review panel that will evaluate improvement strategies and recommend interventions.
If a district fails to make adequate progress under a turnaround plan or continues under a turnaround or priority improvement plan for a combined total of five years, the commissioner can ask the review panel to look at conversion of the district. There was no timeline in the old law.
Districts are to evaluate schools on at least the same level as state requirements but can be more rigorous. Districts will assign accreditation status to individual schools that is aligned with and meets or exceeds the rigor of the state system.
Previous law included only general goals for district performance, didn’t require SBE review of targets and had no state review panel.
• CDE information on the new accreditation system, including draft of proposed rules, summaries and background.
Declining enrollment study almost done
The board received an early peek at a comprehensive study of the effects of declining enrollment on school districts.
The study was requested by the legislature in 2008 but was delayed a year because of budget cuts. It’s due to be publicly released next Monday. The study was done by Pacey Economics Group of Boulder, whose president, Patricia Pacey, also happens to be a member of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
Although there’s been modest statewide student growth over the past several years, most of Colorado’s 178 school districts actually are declining. The issue is important to districts because state aid to schools is based on enrollment, so there are budget impacts for declining districts. (Current law allows districts to average declines over several years.)
Calling the study “an enormous undertaking” that involved analysis of six years’ worth of enrollment, teacher statistics, spending, revenues and CSAP scores, Pacey gave the board some highlights of the study, including:
Overall student performance doesn’t seem to vary by district size or location.
Because of fixed costs, school districts have little financial flexibility in responding to declining enrollment and aid.
The percentages of budget that districts spend on various items such as instruction or transportation varies little between large and small and urban/suburban and rural districts.
“School choice costs money,” meaning that both district and Charter School Institute Schools affect the finances of districts.
School district consolidation wouldn’t yield significant savings if done on an across-the-board or formula basis although it might be useful for some districts, depending on local circumstances.
Pacey said her researchers didn’t independently study the issue of “adequacy” – how much money is needed for an effective education system – but that the study does contain a summary of other adequacy research.
She did note that that other research indicates Colorado school spending has fallen 20 percent behind inflation since 2002.
Educator ID program on track
Department of Education staff told the board that the new educator ID program is on track to issue eight-digit ID to eligible teachers and some other school personnel by June 30.
The ID program, passed by the legislature last year, is considered central to many education improvement efforts, such as tying student performance to teacher evaluations.
Earlier this year the legislature passed Senate Bill 10-036, which will require that the performance of teachers in their first three years of work be correlated with whatever teacher preparation program they attended. Other future uses of the educator ID remain to be determined.

Juveniles charged as adults in Colorado and awaiting trial as inmates in adult prisons find themselves part of a system that fails to educate them, provide them equal access to services like mental health care or even to ensure they are housed according to strict safety guidelines, The Colorado Independent reports. People involved in the system admit to not knowing how many young people charged as adults are presently being held by the state and in which prisons. Colorado sheriffs frankly admitted to the Colorado Independent that their adult facilities are inappropriate for managing juvenile detention.

A bill that opponents say would undermine senior water rights first died, then was resurrected and gained preliminary approval in the House on Tuesday, the Pueblo Chieftain reports. Sponsored in the House by Rep. Kathleen Curry, U-Gunnison, SB52 seeks to honor already permitted wells in the event that the Colorado Ground Water Commission redraws boundaries of the state’s eight existing designated groundwater basins. Designated groundwater basins generally are considered nontributary, or at least not adjacent to major streams and rivers. They may include municipal, industrial and agricultural uses.

Farmers and ranchers who are thinking about a conservation easement on their land might want to think fast.
The Legislature got moving again Tuesday on an almost-forgotten 10th bill in its tax package. Nine other Democratic tax bills on items ranging from soda to Internet sales were signed into law two weeks ago, The Durango Herald reports. But two more – on conservation easements and enterprise zones – got waylaid. The enterprise zone bill is still on hold, but the conservation easement bill, House Bill 1197, regained its footing Tuesday, passing the Senate Finance Committee 4-3.

In other coverage:

The Grand Junction Daily Sentinel: The Pueblo Chieftain: Land trusts on the Western Slope and around the state that help property owners get conservation easements aren’t thrilled with a bill in the Colorado Legislature, but they’re not opposing it anymore, either. That’s because state lawmakers reached a compromise with them. House Bill 1197 initially was intended to permanently lower by nearly two-thirds a cap on the tax credit allowed for each easement. Instead, the bill would cut by more than half the amount the state would pay, in the way of tax credits, for all easements over the next three years. And instead of having the measure go into effect March 1, which would have affected easements approved this year, it would become effective Jan. 1.

By Debi Brazzale, COLORADO NEWS AGENCY

State lawmakers are poised to debate a bipartisan measure this week that supporters say will create incentives to stay healthy and opponents say will create yet another tier of winners and losers in the country’s much-debated health-care system.

House Bill 1160 expands current law to allow small-group and individual health-care markets to offer wellness incentive programs in exchange for a discount on insurance premiums that larger group markets, self-funded and government plans are already allowed to offer. Under the measure, an additional discount could also be allowed for individuals who actually participate in a wellness program.

Yet, Kelli Fritts, Colorado associate director for the American Association of Retired Persons, contended the bill is not about wellness programs but rather is another way for insurance companies to play gatekeeper. Fritts said the measure will exacerbate a market that needs more healthy people to join to stave off rising premiums.

“This bill is a way to segment the health insurance market—to cherry pick and lemon drop,” said Fritts.  “The goal that AARP is seeking is to bring everyone into the pool and this bill doesn’t bring everyone into the pool.”

House Sponsors of the bill, Rep. Joe Rice, D-Littleton, and Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, say the proposal simply provides an incentive that creates a win-win for both the insured and the insurance company.

“We know that participation in an exercise program will reduce risk and reduce cost–which is where the self-interest of the insurance company comes in,” said Rice. “In order to induce people to (participate),  they are willing to give the discount.”

Wellness programs can include things such as smoking-cessation classes, gym memberships or nutrition programs that are voluntary for the insured, but the financial incentive, said Rice, is key.

“When you say, ‘Here’s an incentive,’ some people will participate that don’t now.  It’s good for their own health, but it kind of becomes a part of the office culture or in your own mind when participating in these programs,” said Rice

The market that the AARP is concerned about is the 50-to-65 year-olds who are too young for Medicare but old enough to have pre-existing conditions or emerging health needs.  The bottom line, said Fritts, is that financial incentives based on health outcomes should not be tied to premiums.

“We support community ratings where everyone is paying the same rate regardless of health status and claims history.  If the industry is given the ability to underwrite–or set the criteria—based on wellness programs the losers will be older people,” said Fritts.

The bill is scheduled for debate by the full House as early as Tuesday.

STATE BILL COLORADO
Over the weekend, Amazon e-mailed Colorado affiliates telling them they were being dropped from their commission-driven relationships with the online reseller as a result of passage of HB10-1193. Here’s how local and national media covered the story.

The Denver Post: Amazon.com told many of its Colorado online business affiliates Monday that it would sever its business relationship with them, a move that could slice into the revenues of thousands of Web retailers.
The company blamed state lawmakers for enacting a law requiring it to notify those who purchase Amazon merchandise through a local website that they owe state sales taxes. Lawmakers in turn criticized Amazon’s move as a hostage-taking gambit to force reversal of the measure.

State Bill Colorado: Scores of Twitterers weighed in this morning on Amazon’s decision to fire its Colorado-based associates because of the state’s passage of HB10-1193. Reaction, predictably, was negative, with posters complaining specifically about Colorado’s governor and state legislators who backed the bill.

The Wall Street Journal: Amazon.com Inc. pulled the plug on its marketing affiliates in Colorado after the state imposed new sales-tax regulations on online retailers.

The Colorado Independent: Enormous online retailer Amazon.com reacted to news that it would now be required to voluntarily report Colorado state sales taxes by canceling its relationship with affiliate web sites here– that is, with sites that earn a small fee for each websurfer they send to Amazon through links and ads. In a letter sent over the weekend to its Colorado affiliates, Amazon announced it will continue to do business with residents in Colorado and didn’t elaborate on how canceling the affiliate relationships balances against the new tax. The mystery has led analysts and lawmakers to speculate that the move was done strictly to send a political message. Others suggest the move is part of a larger corporate legal strategy to combat laws already on the books in Colorado, Rhode Island and North Carolina, as well as any future state sales tax laws that might pass around the country.

The Durango Herald: Amazon.com fired hundreds of Coloradans who market the Web site Monday and said it would not go along with a new state law on Internet taxes. The action surprised people who run stay-at-home marketing businesses, angered Democrats and brought calls of “I told you so” from Republicans. Amazon fired its Colorado affiliates in an e-mail sent shortly after 1 a.m. Mountain time Monday. Last month, Gov. Bill Ritter signed a bill that seeks to collect taxes from sales made on Amazon and other big Internet sites.

Associated Press: Amazon, citing a Colorado tax on online sales, is cutting off its Colorado affiliates that help sell products through the online retail site. Affiliates earn money by using their Web sites to link customers to online sellers like Amazon.

Colorado News Agency: Amazon.com, the world’s largest online retailer, retaliated yesterday against the Colorado General Assembly and Gov. Bill Ritter for moving to collect taxes on sales over the Web. House Bill 1193, signed into law by Ritter last month, requires online retailers to inform Colorado residents how much they owe in sales taxes for purchases made via the internet. The bill would also require retailers to provide summary information to the state of people’s web-purchases. Amazon’s retaliation came in the form of closing the accounts of all Colorado sales “associates,” which are people or businesses which advertise Amazon products, and make a commission on all sales that they personally generate. While associates in the state will have their accounts closed, Amazon gave no indication that it would curtail or otherwise end its retailing in Colorado. An earlier version of HB 1193 had sought to force retailers like Amazon to collect taxes on Colorado sales if at least one in-state affiliate solicits on behalf of the retailer. Amazon does collect sales tax for a handful of states, according to www.techflash.com.

KDVR: Here’s reaction from Colorado leaders “in their own words” to Amazon’s decision.

A House committee Monday night approved a bill that would significantly slash interest rates on payday loans, cutting out part of the bill that would have put the issue before Colorado voters, The Denver Post reports. Previous attempts to put stricter limits on payday lenders have failed in recent years amid bipartisan opposition. But with some key opponents now out of the legislature, supporters are girding for battle anew.

FBy Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Corrections Officer Pam Kahanic has already had her throat slashed by an inmate.
On Friday, she called upon state lawmakers not to allow anymore blind slashing — this time to the state budget.
She and fellow critics of across-the-board cuts to the state budget point to examples such as hers in urging state lawmakers not to cut budgets without investigating what impact the cuts would have.
Kahanic was attacked in 2007 when prisons were still under-staffed as a result of 588 full-time state employees being laid off in 2002 during the last recession.
They point to legislation backed by Republicans, but already killed by Democrats, that would have implemented across-the-board cuts to the state budget as a means of covering the state’s $1.5 billion shortfall in next year’s budget. One piece of legislation would have cut 291 more corrections jobs. Another 90 corrections jobs have already been cut from this year’s budget.
Senate Bill 168, sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Grand Junction, would have cut the state budget by 4.4 percent next fiscal year. The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee killed the measure last week on a 3-2 party-line vote.
Kahanic, who described her harrowing hostage situation at Limon Correctional Facility in detail on Friday, said such across-the-board cuts would impact the corrections budget at a time when equipment is failing and staff is struggling to keep up with inmates. Gov. Bill Ritter has already had to authorize opening 33 percent, or 316 beds, of the new Colorado State Penitentiary II after a string of incidents caused by some of the state’s most violent and destructive prisoners who are being housed in regular prisons.
Meanwhile, Ritter also authorized closing a corrections boot camp program at the Buena Vista Correctional Facility.
In an attempt to protect the corrections budget, Kahanic described being taken hostage in September 2007 by an inmate who slashed her throat during the ordeal. Radio communication was working that day and fellow officers were able to rush to the rescue — but they say they “got lucky” because radio equipment often fails at the facility and there is no money to buy new equipment.
“We just can’t afford to have any more staff taken away from us,” said a calm and collected Kahanic.
Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo, was not so collected at the news conference on Friday. Pausing to fight back tears often, McFadyen lashed out at Republicans for what she and supporters call “The Republicans’ Cut Without Consequences” budget proposals. She pointed to three inmate murders over the last several months, as well as Kahanic’s story and the story of corrections officer Eric Autobee, who was murdered at Limon in 2002. Autobee’s father, Robert, was in attendance at the news conference Friday.
Calling her Republican colleagues “dangerous,” McFadyen said across-the-board cuts would impact the corrections system in such a way that lives would be put in danger.
“I would just ask my colleagues, instead of suggesting an across-the-board cut, listen to people who actually walk the toughest beat in law enforcement, and listen to someone who lost their son walking the toughest beat in law enforcement,” said McFadyen.
Republicans, however, defend their proposal, arguing that it beats the Democrats’ proposal, which has been to eliminate an estimated $300 million in tax credits and incentives enjoyed by business.
“The choice presented is plain: raise taxes, again, or cut spending,” Penry said in a statement. “After specific spending cuts offered by Republicans have been rejected time and time again, we are proposing a different road to the same destination: across-the-board spending cuts that eliminate the need for tax increases.”
But Rep. Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, disagreed, suggesting that such a proposal is “irresponsible.”
“It’s just irresponsible, it’s rude, it’s mean to go after people whose lives are on the line every single day and say that’s where we need to cut our government,” said Pace. “We do have to make cuts, we have made cuts, but not at the expense of our safety and the safety of our society.”

By Peter Marcus, DENVER DAILY NEWS
State employees gathered at the Capitol on Friday in favor of several pieces of legislation that they believe would help create jobs.
Organized by the state employees’ union, Colorado WINS, and the AFL-CIO union, state workers — some unemployed — pointed especially to the Democrats’ centerpiece of energy reform legislation this year, which they believe would create more green jobs in the state.
House Bill 1001, sponsored by Rep. Max Tyler, D-Golden, would increase the state’s current renewable energy standard of 20 percent by 2020 to 30 percent by 2020. The bill would also set a requirement that 3 percent of total electricity sales come from so-called distributed generation systems powered not just by solar resources, but also by other renewables like wind. The measure passed through the Senate Friday on a final vote of 21-13 and is expected to be signed by the governor.
Tony Gamino, an unemployed printer, said during the rally Friday that legislation such as HB 1001 will put Americans back to work, which is the best fix for the down economy.
“Nothing will put people back to work like a strong economy, but we are not there yet,” said Gamino. “We need to take care of the families that have been hit hard by this crisis É we need to invest in green jobs and green technology.”
Republicans, however, blast HB 1001, arguing that the measure unfairly mandates utilities to rely more heavily on “taxpayer subsidized energy sources.” Utilities themselves actually support the measure, but Republicans argue that it would raise costs for the average business owner.
“This proposal may as well be called Colorado’s own ‘cap and tax’ bill because it is going to strangle our state’s economy and our pocketbooks,” Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, said in a statement. “Economic growth does not come from political mandates; it comes from increases in productivity.”
Democrats and union members on Friday also pointed to two other bills aimed at creating jobs and helping the struggling economy.
Senate Bill 58, sponsored by Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, would provide up to $20,000 in loan forgiveness for students pursuing masters or doctoral degrees in exchange for a five-year teaching commitment at a Colorado school of nursing; and Senate Bill 28 would create a so-called work share program allowing for the payment of unemployment benefits to employees whose work hours have been reduced.
“If we’re gonna ever get out of this recession it’s going to be because we put people back to work,” said Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, sponsor of SB 28. “That’s what this whole conversation is all about.”

In other coverage:

Colorado News Agency: “Justice for jobs” was the rallying cry today on what was dubbed “Labor Day at the Capitol” by Democratic lawmakers and area labor unions. House Speaker Terrance Carroll fired up the crowd with all the fervor that he usually reserves for Sunday mornings, when he occasionally preaches to a local congregation. Carroll began by asking the crowd if anyone wanted to get baptized across the street at the First Baptist church.

A new website that will provide taxpayers estimates of how their taxes are spent and allow them to vote on whether that amount is appropriate was unveiled Sunday, The Denver Post reports.