There has been so much “big” news in California K-12 education to update you on during the last few weeks, that a number of smaller issues have not made it into our updates. These are issues that are related to the COVID-19 crisis but that may only affect some of you.
CalSTRS and CalPERS Audits
Working together with a number of you during this crisis, we have had an opportunity to connect with state and federal officials and make progress to solve a number of issues, and eliminate some obstacles, to providing education services to California’s students. It has been especially enjoyable when agencies or specific agency staff have gone out of their way to be cooperative and collaborative. Special kudos, for example go to CalSTRS, which has suspended all school district and county office of education (COE) audits of retiree benefits for the duration of the crisis. They have done this because they realize that school business and HR staff either don’t have remote access to the records necessary to respond to the audit, or that they are otherwise occupied dealing with the crisis at hand. In fact, CalSTRS has asked that we contact them immediately if we hear of any contact that their audit staff makes with any local educational agency (LEA). Please let us know if that happens to your district or COE.
Unlike CalSTRS, CalPERS is not suspending its audits of retiree benefits; however, CalPERS has told us that they will not expect any answer or response to one of their audit inquiries for as long as schools are closed. This is CalPERS way of staying on their audit timelines without placing undue burden on LEAs.
Division of the State Architect and School Construction Projects
Kudos also go to the Division of the State Architect (DSA). In early March, DSA issued regulatory changes that would have impeded energy projects – both those underway now and those projects on the calendar for the summer. At our urging, and after the issue was shared with K-12 statewide associations and the Administration, the State Architect convened a conference call with her top deputies and engineers who then outlined a plan to roll back those regulations and create a new process to get input before making modifications to the regulations later this calendar year.
DSA was incredibly responsive and the problem was addressed as soon as they became aware of it. This was clearly following the intent and spirit of the Governor’s Executive Order that established our shelter-in-place policies, but that included school construction and modernization projects as an essential service. We have also been engaged in efforts to address local and other state actions that stop or slow projects in a way that conflicts with that statewide order.
AP Exams and IB Testing
There are other news items or announcements that we want to make sure that you’ve seen. For those of you with high school students, you likely have followed announcements from the College Board concerning AP Exams. More than two weeks ago, in reaction to school closures and social distancing rules, the College Board announced that it was developing a secure 45-minute online exam for each AP course. Students will be able to take those exams online, using whatever device they have available, and the College Board will set up options for students who still have access issues. Information about taking those exams can be found here. The exams are now scheduled for dates starting on May 11, and you can see that schedule here.
These online exams will focus on content from the first 75% of the course, cutting off when the closures started. College Board has also developed and collected a large number of free online AP classes and review sessions that are available on the AP YouTube channel (here). These videos can replace or supplement what your AP teachers are doing, and can be accessed by computer, laptop or mobile device. According to the College Board, their shortened exams will be used to ensure that students receive their AP credit as they would have with the regular exams. They are also assuring students that in emergency situations in the past, colleges have accepted shortened exams for college credit and placement purposes.
With respect to International Baccalaureate (IB) programs, the International Baccalaureate Organization has cancelled the May 2020 exams originally scheduled for April 30 – May 22, 2020 for Diploma Programme and Career-related Programme students. Students will, instead, be awarded a Diploma or a Course Certificate (depending on which exam(s) a student registered for) based on their coursework and the standard displayed. Additional information, which includes timelines, instructions for IB directors, and frequently asked questions, can be found here.
Upcoming Property Tax Deadline
Another issue that you might have heard about, and that is still under consideration by the Governor, is whether to implement an extension of the April 10 deadline for making the 2nd Installment of property taxes for the 2019-20 fiscal year. The state, as well as the federal government, has already rolled back payment of other taxes, including the personal income tax; however, pushing back payment of local property taxes could have dramatic effects on local governments, including LEAs, at a time when we are asking those local agencies to step up during this crisis. We have made it clear during discussions with the Administration that such an extension could be devastating on school districts and COEs. Since that deadline is on April 10th, look for the Governor’s decision (or non-decision) soon.
Both the California State Association of Counties and the California Association of Treasurers and Tax Collectors have also acknowledged the impact delaying the property tax deadline would have on local governments. On Saturday, they released a joint statement, saying that counties would be willing to, on a case-by-case basis, cancel penalties and other charges for property owners who are unable to pay their property taxes due to circumstances caused by COVID-19. However, they also noted that delaying payments for those property owners that still had the ability to pay could create cash flow problems for local governments and ultimately send them into insolvency. In the statement, the Associations maintain that property owners who have not been directly affected by COVID-19 must still pay their property taxes by the April 10 deadline.
Caution About Zoom Meetings
For those of you making use of Zoom meetings to implement your distance learning plans, please be aware of some not-so-savory things that have happened to some educators using Zoom in an unstructured manner. There is a new phenomenon that has come to be known as “Zoom-bombing”, where an intruder enters a Zoom class meeting and inserts inappropriate or irrelevant content into that meeting. This problem has led the New York City school system to ban the use of Zoom meetings in their schools. You can help avoid this problem, and protect you and your students, by following some easy tips: 1) Don’t widely distribute (e.g., on Facebook) your meeting IDs, 2) Make use of the “waiting room” feature that Zoom provides, 3) Lock a meeting once it starts, 4) Know how to disable someone’s camera or kick someone out of the meeting, 5) Disable the “private chat” feature of Zoom (private chat would sort of be like students talking among themselves in class anyway – also everyone should know that all private chatting in Zoom shows up in the meeting transcript at the end of the meeting – oops!). Zoom has some resources available that talk about security (here), as well as about “How to hide your messy room for a Zoom video conference”. It’s a new world and we have to protect ourselves and our students in new ways.
Extension of the Legislature’s Hiatus
Lastly, we heard in a Friday announcement from Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon that the April 13 date previously set for the return of the Legislature is not consistent with the current guidance from the Governor and public health officials. Instead they are setting a May 4 return day, though given what we are all hearing from the Governor, even that date is likely overly optimistic.
The problem facing the Legislature is a difficult one. On one hand, their return to session would put legislators, their staff and community members with whom they have contact at greater risk, and would tend to undercut the actions and orders of the Governor in the eyes of the public. On the other hand, further delay means that the Legislature may not be available to meet its responsibilities. The Governor’s power to issue Executive Orders is a powerful tool, but it can’t be used to overturn constitutional mandates such as the Legislature passing a budget by June 15 or finishing any legislative action by the end of the two-year legislative session this fall. It is also unlikely that the Governor would or could attempt to legislate outside of the scope of the COVID-19 crisis through Executive Order – this means that any 2020 legislative agenda, including COVID-19 related legislation, could be out the door.
This problem is further complicated by the fact that, although the State Senate has passed a resolution allowing for remote voting, the State Assembly has not done so and has questions about the constitutional legality of either house legislating remotely. We will update you in the future on how the Legislature plans to move forward.
This has not been our usual single-focus update, but we hope that information on some of the issues addressed here will be useful. As usual, if you have any issues or questions, feel free to contact any of the knowledgeable partners and staff here at Capitol Advisors. In the meantime, please stay safe and healthy.
Thanks,
Gerry
Gerry Shelton
Partner
Capitol Advisors Group