NEW ALBANY — With schools closing and cuts being made at many Indiana school districts to make ends meet, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett talked one-on-one in person with The Evening News and The Tribune Tuesday about the possibility of more cuts, changes in measuring students’ growth and how schools will soon be graded.

Bennett said kindergarten through 12 education makes up about half of the state’s budget, so he understood when reductions had to be made.

“The governor did everything humanly possible to protect K-12. That doesn’t make the pain any less. There was no place else to go,” he said of the cuts that school districts are now dealing with.

However, he said rumors claiming the cuts won’t end there may or may not be true.

“The first two months of revenues [for 2010] were not where we had hoped. We do hope the economy rebounds,” Bennett said. “I have not heard any discussion about any more cuts in 2010 and I think it’s really too early to talk about 2011.

“I don’t think the indicators are favorable right now that the revenues are rebounding like we had hoped.”

He added that he has not had a discussion with Gov. Mitch Daniels on that issue.

New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp. dealt with its cuts, which added up to $6.6 million, with a variety of reductions, including closing four elementary schools.

Bennett said he can’t say for sure how he would have handled that situation if he were superintendent there.

“I have not read their plan in detail and I’m not sure frankly what I would say I would do differently, because I don’t know the process they used to get to where they got to. I’d be shooting in the dark there,” he said. “I would use the citizens’ checklist and I would have very transparent discussions surrounding the citizens’ checklist.”

That checklist includes a number of items, including closing schools, freezing salaries and going on the state’s health insurance.

Bennett said the Indiana Department of Education also is making its chief financial officer available to districts to help find places to cut. He said though some districts are taking advantage of that free service, no one in Clark or Floyd counties has done so.

“It’s there if people want it,” he said.

He said many school districts are finding ways to save. He said in Kokomo, the teachers’ association and its members ratified a contract that included no salary or incremental raises for 2010-11. Also, all employees will pay more for health insurance premiums and the district there will open its own health clinic.

“We applaud it,” Bennett said of those changes. “One of the things about the citizens’ checklist, it provides a framework for all stakeholders to buy in to do what is necessary to reset the budgets.”

Bennett said there are other districts, too, that are freezing raises to save money.

“We have great teachers all over this state ... What all great teachers appreciate the most are other great teachers. Great teachers don’t want to lose their colleagues,” Bennett said. “So, maybe the union needs to come to the table on behalf of teachers and take the necessary steps to keep teachers working.”



MAKING THE GRADE

Helping districts find ways to save isn’t the only thing Bennett has been working on. He said his goal to have schools given a grade from A to F based on their performance should become a reality by the end of this school year.

“I think if you walked out here and asked 100 people on the streets in New Albany can you clearly define what an ‘exemplary,’ ‘commendable,’ a school on ‘academic watch’ and ‘probation’ are you’re going to have a hard time getting explanations,” he said of current designations. “I think if you ask people what’s an A school, B school, C school, D school or F school, I think they can tell you, because they are acclimated to that kind of accountability standard.”

He said that has a benefit that will help schools improve.

“When you have a transparent, easy-to-understand accountability system, communities become engaged in their schools,” he said. “I think that’s a positive byproduct. The community will become actively engaged in school improvement.”



MEASURING GROWTH

Also, by the end of this school year parents will be able to track their student’s academic growth online, with a set username and password. Bennett said that is figured by using ISTEP data and seeing if the student grew from where they were the year before.

He said this pushes schools to make sure everyone is advancing, including the highest and lowest performers, instead of just working on those in the middle — making sure they pass the standardized ISTEP test.

“It’s very individualized. It’s a new way of looking at old data,” Bennett said. “It’s exciting. It gives parents an opportunity to be engaged like they’ve never been engaged before.”

Since students take the ISTEP in the spring, this year’s data won’t be available, but by the end of this school year, previous years’ data will be so that parents and administrators can see what progress has been made and whether each child gained a year’s worth of learning.

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 SO YOU KNOW

• To learn more about the new way to measure student growth, go to learningconnection.doe.in.gov