Source: http://sltsupport.blogspot.com/
Timestamp: 2015-04-26 02:43:57
Document Index: 664153232

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 6', 'art 6', 'art 6', 'art 6', 'art 6', 'art 6', 'art 6']

Court Case Affirms SLTs Subject to Open Meetings Law
The decision in the case of Thomas v.DOE came out today. It affirms that SLTs are public bodies and must adhere to the NYS Open Meetings Law. The DOE had asserted that members of the public could not attend SLT meetings.
The decision also made important statements about SLT responsibilities. "The role of an SLT in formulating its school's CEP is one of decision maker" (p.9). "If it is fulfilling its statutory role, a schools SLT is not a mere advisor to the principal" (p.9). " In fulfilling this role, the SLT acts in conjunction with and not subordinate to, the schools principal"(p.9). It is shameful that parents and teachers need to go to court to force the DOE to adhere to the law. Make sure parents, teachers and the principal are made aware of this important decision.
The links below will access the court case.
http://go.shr.lc/1I0USSY or
www.scribd.com/doc/262875757/Thomas-v-DOE-Decision-and-Judgment
CEP Quality Assurance and S/CEP Progress Monitoring
All schools / Deadline: February 27
Please note the updates below regarding the quality assurance process (for Comprehensive Educational Plans only) and progress monitoring (for all schools):
Revised Process for Quality Assurance Feedback for CEPs Only: This week, your network leader or network CEP point will email you a CEP Quality Assurance (QA) feedback report. You should work with your School Leadership Team (SLT) to incorporate the feedback into your school’s CEP; your superintendent will receive a copy of this report as well. As a first step, you should download your CEP from the iPlan Portal and, as noted in the January 6 edition of Principals’ Weekly, review whether the NYCDOE made any updates to your plan. You should make revisions to this version of the plan only; do not use any prior versions that you may have saved. The deadline for uploading your revised final plan to the iPlan portal is February 27.
Guidance for SCEP schools: Note that schools that completed SCEPs received QA feedback and were asked to update their SCEPs in December. If your school’s SCEP has not been fully updated with that guidance or needs further refining, you should incorporate relevant revisions to the current version of your SCEP in the iPlan Portal by February 27.
Process for Reviewing Progress: As noted in the January 13 edition of Principals’ Weekly, all schools except School Improvement Grant (SIG) and School Innovation Fund (SIF) schools should use this 2014-15 S/CEP Mid-Point Review of School Progress document to guide their SLT in a review of their schools’ progress towards meeting annual goals. This document is intended as a guide only; you should not upload it to iPlan. Note that:
§ If your school completed the 2014-15 S/CEP, you should not complete Part 6b – Progress Monitoring for any of your goals. You should use the 2014-15 S/CEP Mid-Point Review of School Progress document noted above instead and incorporate any necessary updates directly into the S/CEP action plan for each of your goal/s.
§ If you are the principal of a SIG or SIF school and your school only completed the Title I Appendix, you are not required to use the Mid-Point Review of School Progress document. For more information about the process for your school, click here for SIG schools and here for SIF schools. Your network is available to support you in determining if your school met benchmarks and made appropriate progress towards meeting your annual goals. If you, your SLT, or your network determine that your school has not made sufficient progress toward meeting a goal, you, your SLT, and your network should discuss and identify resources and strategies to support your school in meeting that goal by the end of the school year. You must update the action plan(s) in your S/CEP to reflect the strategies that you and your SLT agree upon before uploading your final S/CEP to the iPlan Portal.
As noted above, the deadline for uploading your revised final plan to the iPlan portal is February 27. By March 5, the NYCDOE will combine each school’s S/CEP with its Language Allocation Policy (LAP), Language Translation and Interpretation (LTI) Plan, and Title III plan (if applicable) and post it on your school’s NYCDOE website. For questions, contact your network leader. Posted by
School/Comprehensive Educational Plans (S/CEP): Quality Assurance and Monitoring Progress
Please review the updates below regarding the School Comprehensive Educational Plan (S/CEP) process:
Revised Process for Reviewing Progress: You should use this 2014-15 S/CEP Mid-Point Review of School Progress document to guide your School Leadership Team (SLT) in a review of your school’s progress towards meeting your annual goals. Note that:
As first noted in the January 6 edition of Principal’s Weekly, you should first download your school’s S/CEP from the iPlan Portal and review it to determine whether the NYCDOE made any updates to your plan.
If your school completed the 2014–15 S/CEP, you should not complete Part 6b – Progress Monitoring. Leave Part 6b blank and use the 2014-15 S/CEP Mid-Point Review of School Progress document instead.
If your school is a School Improvement Grant (SIG) or School Innovation Fund (SIF) school, you are not required to use the Mid-Point Review of School Progress document; however, you may find it useful to complete the document as you engage in performance management progress reporting. For more information about the process, click here if you are a SIG school or here if your school is a SIF school. During this period, you should work with your SLT to determine if your school reached benchmarks towards meeting the annual goals. If, when reviewing a particular benchmark, you and your SLT determine that your school has not made sufficient progress, you should reach out to your network CEP point and work with your SLT to identify resources and strategies to support your school in meeting the goal by the end of the year. You must then edit each action plan in your S/CEP to reflect the newly-agreed upon strategies before uploading your final S/CEP in the iPlan Portal.
Revised Process for Quality Assurance Feedback: If your school completed a CEP, your superintendent and network leader will receive CEP Quality Assurance (QA) feedback about your school’s CEP on January 27. Your network will share the CEP QA feedback with you so that you can work with your SLT to incorporate the feedback. If your school completed an SCEP, you and your SLT should revisit the SCEP QA feedback that you received from your network back in December and use this time to make any additional revisions that were not made in December.
The deadline for uploading your revised final plan to the iPlan portal is February 27. By March 5, the NYCDOE will combine your school’s S/CEP with its Language Allocation Policy (LAP), Language Translation and Interpretation (LTI) Plan, and Title III plan (if applicable) and post it on your school’s NYCDOE website. For questions, contact your network CEP point.
Principals' Weekly SLT CEP Update -Jan. 2015
Please note the following updates regarding the School Comprehensive Educational Plan (S/CEP) process:
Quality Assurance Feedback: In December, the NYCDOE reviewed and provided quality assurance (QA) feedback on SCEPs for Priority and Focus schools to your superintendent, cluster, and network so that your network could communicate the feedback to you and so that you and your School Leadership Team (SLT) could make revisions before the plan was submitted to SED on December 19.
If your school’s accountability status is Good Standing, Reward, Local Assistance Plan, or if you are the principal of a new school and your SLT completed a CEP, the NYCDOE will review and provide quality assurance feedback to your superintendent, cluster, and network in January. Your network will share QA feedback with you by January 30. You should work with your SLT to incorporate the feedback into your plan and make revisions by February 27.
You should download your S/CEP as soon as possible from the iPlan Portal and review the plan for possible updates made by the NYCDOE on your behalf. Check to determine if your school’s plan was revised as indicated below:
2013–14 CEP Covers: If your SLT used a version of the 2013–14 CEP template that was different from the one distributed via iPlan, revisions were made to your plan to update the logo and plan title on the cover.
2013–14 CEPs for Title I Schoolwide Program Schools (SWP): If your school is a Schoolwide Program School that is conceptually consolidating funds, required information was added to your CEP to reflect your school’s funding amounts.
2014–15 S/CEPs for Renewal Schools: If your school is a Renewal school, language was inserted in the overview section to describe the implementation of specific school improvement strategies for your school.
Monitoring S/CEP Progress: During the month of February, your SLT should review your school’s progress towards meeting each annual goal as described below:
If your school used the 2014–15 S/CEP template, as indicated in Part 6 of Section 5 for each of the action plans, your school must complete Part 6b. Your SLT should complete the following steps:
Assess your school’s progress towards meeting your annual goals mid-way through the school year (i.e. in February).
Complete Part 6b by:
If your school met the mid-point benchmark for each goal in the timeframe specified, place an “X” in the appropriate box.
If the mid-point benchmark(s) was not met, place an “X” in the appropriate box and describe any revisions made to the action plan to achieve the goal.
Reach out to your network CEP point and work with your SLT to identify best practices and make necessary revisions to actions and strategies in order to achieve each annual goal.
By February 27, complete the “Part 6: Progress Monitoring” section of your S/CEP and submit the revised plan via the iPlan Portal.
If your school used the 2013–14 CEP template for the 2014–15 CEP, your SLT should use the Progress Monitoring chart to review your school’s progress towards meeting your annual goals. A blank Progress Monitoring chart will be shared in next week’s Principals’ Weekly. Refer to the same guidance for completing assessing progress in the 2014 –15 S/CEPs, listed above, when completing the chart. If your school completed the 2014–15 SCEP Title I Appendix for School Improvement Grant (SIG) Cohort 4/5 or the School Innovation Fund (SIF) Schools plan, your SLT should engage in your school’s customized review process during your school’s performance management progress reporting time period. For additional information on the customized review process, click here for School Improvement Grant schools and here for School Innovation Fund guidelines for SIF schools.
By March 5, the NYCDOE will combine your school’s S/CEP with your Language Allocation Policy (LAP), Language Translation and Interpretation (LTI) Plan, and Title III plan (if applicable) and post the revised S/CEP on your school’s NYCDOE website. For questions, contact your network CEP point.
Prepare Draft School/Comprehensive Educational Plan (S/CEP)
All schools / Deadlines: December 12; January 30 You will receive an email on November 13 from iPlan with a link for downloading your customized School/Comprehensive Educational Plan (S/CEP) template for the 2014–15 school year. The template has been aligned with your school’s New York State Accountability status. It has also been revised for this school year so that your School Leadership Team (SLT) can align your school’s goals for school improvement with the six elements of the Capacity Framework. Once you receive the email from iPlan, you should:
§ Download your customized template and accompanying guidance, which will be provided in the email.
§ Work with your SLT to prioritize the completion of your school’s draft plan during the months of November and December.
§ Submit your draft plan for network and central review by December 12 via the iPlan portal; more information on accessing the iPlan portal and uploading your plan will be shared in an upcoming edition of Principals’ Weekly.
As a new step this year, the NYCDOE will post your draft plan on your school’s NYCDOE website on December 19. Because your draft plan will be displayed publicly, you should work with your network to ensure that your draft contains proper grammar, formatting, and use of acronyms before you submit it to the iPlan portal.
Network and/or central NYCDOE staff will review your school’s draft plan and provide feedback by January 16. You should work with your network to incorporate feedback and submit your revised plan for your superintendent’s approval via the iPlan portal by January 30. Following approval, your school’s finalized S/CEP will be uploaded to your school’s NYCDOE website. Additional information about the S/CEP process will be shared in upcoming editions of Principals’ Weekly.
For questions regarding developing your S/CEP, contact your network accountability/CEP points. For technical assistance with iPlan, contact cep-iplansupport@infusion.com.
If I am reading this excerpt from Oct. 24th Principals'Weekly correctly,the 2014-2015 Template is only now being released.The problem is that the 2014-2014 CEP is suppose to be in place since September.Apparently, a Goals and Budget alignment form was suppose to be submitted last June.
The SLT should now be preparing the 2015-2016 CEP.This is just another example of how the DOE undermines and confuses the CEP process and makes the duties of the SLT difficult. Also, notice how the school's Network has an CEP liaison person, who is not an SLT member but probably has more influence. "To prepare for the upcoming release of School/Comprehensive Educational Plan (S/CEP) templates for the 2014-15 school year, you should begin working with your School Leadership Team (SLT) to complete the following steps:
§ Review the NYCDOE’s Capacity Framework to begin thinking about how to align your school’s goals to NYCDOE priorities and address the six elements of the framework. § Revisit the Initial Goals and Budget Alignment Form that your school submitted in June as part of your comprehensive educational planning. You can access this form by signing into the iPlan Portal. § Review this guidance memo for more information about next steps to support your SLT in continuous improvement planning." For questions, contact network accountability/CEP liaison
Court Case Affirms SLTs Subject to Open Meetings L...