· The 2008-09 budget discussion took up the bulk of the meeting. The subject was addressed by ACSA Exec. Dir. Bob Wells. Bob expressed his concern that both the Democrats and the Republicans have stopped well short of saying they are not going to cut schools. He recommends that we "pin down" legislators on the issue by asking how they will vote on that subject. He reminded us that the education coalition has made early agreements for budget cuts in previous years, and those cuts were enacted, while other agencies and departments received no such cuts. Therefore, he cautions us against coming out with suggestions or agreements for education cuts too soon. For example, there are some bills coming out of the legislature regarding flexibility in categorical programs. Bob feels we should "hold off" on offering support for this flexibility at this time. He feels legislators may view it as a "freebee" cut that legislators would view as easy and might dilute our more serious message to maintain Prop. 98 without cuts.

· Director Bob Wells discussed the failed oil severance tax proposal, explaining that all dems voted "yes" for the proposal, and all repubs voted "no". This points to the obvious differences in the two parties and therefore, to the probable difficulty the legislature will have in coming up with a state budget. He stated that California is the only state in the nation without oil severance taxes, while oil companies have just reported record profits.

· Dale Janssen and Paula Mishima, CDE, discussed CALPADS (California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System) and CALTIDES (California Longitudinal Teacher Integrated Data Education System). California is moving from separate unconnected aggregate data collections to a longitudinal K-12 education data system based on student and teacher-level data. Note: It was unclear how this is going to be funded, given the current budget situation.

· There was some discussion regarding the notion of going from a 2-year to a 3-year tenure process for teachers. The consensus at the table was that the current 2-year probationary period is working, and should remain. If you wish to weigh in on this topic, write me.

· ACSA leadership expressed concerns over some of the State Board of Education’s actions on NCLB Corrective Action. In particular, as ACSA’s Sherry Skelly Griffith wrote, "The most significant concern with the entire plan is that the State Board struck the language at the last minute that the entire plan for technical assistance would be "contingent upon funding." ACSA interprets that to mean that ". . . the State Board expects LEAs to implement the mandates they approved with or without federal funding which has been set aside for these purposes."