Across the Board August 2024: Key Takeaways from the ALBOE Retreat

Recapping important State Board of Education policy decisions for you

Here are our key takeaways from the August 27th State Board of Education retreat, held at the Finial Hotel in Anniston – and what they mean for Alabama’s students.

Top 4 Takeaways

1. FY 2026 Proposed ALSDE Budget

The Board discussed an early draft of the ALSDE budget request for Fiscal Year 2026. The Board will continue this budget discussion at the September work session and vote to send its request to the Governor’s office at the October meeting. After the Governor creates her recommended budget, the legislature will take it up during the 2025 Legislative Session. Line items to watch:

• Foundation Program: $4.69 billion suggested request, a $55 million increase over $4.639 billion in FY25. This increase includes typical growth in the Foundation Program and doesn’t include three cost drivers Dr. Mackey anticipates will significantly increase this number. Those include:
  • Public Education Employees’ Health Insurance Plan (PEEHIP) – An anticipated increase of $100 million due to changes Congress made in the Inflation Reduction Act that reduced federal funding for this program beginning in 2025. PEEHIP was established in 1983 to provide healthcare insurance benefits for public school employees.
  • Teacher Retirement System (TRS) – An anticipated increase of $100  million, which will cover a 1% increase in employer share, which are the costs that employers cover for their employees.
  • Teacher Pay Raises – Dr. Mackey shared that he anticipates another pay raise for teachers, but nothing has been confirmed. He also shared that Governor Kay Ivey has advocated for seven pay raises in a row. A 1% increase would cost $40 million. 
• Alabama Numeracy Act: A suggested $27 million increase, totaling $95 million. This increase would go toward operating expenses for the Office of Math Improvement, hiring more OMI regional coordinators, and hiring more school-based math coaches. 
• Alabama Reading Initiative: Suggested total request of $150.2 million, an increase of over $7.4 million from last year. Dr. Mackey shared that the current cost of having a reading coach in every K-3 school is around $68 million and they are hoping to increase the reading coach allocation from $80,000 per coach to $90,000 to better cover the full cost. Last year, the legislature significantly increased the funding for ARI to cover the cost of summer reading camps and training in the science of reading associated with the Alabama Literacy Act that had been covered by federal ESSER funding for several years.
• Principal Leadership and Mentoring Act: A suggested request of $34.7 million total. This includes a $400,000 increase for the department to implement the new law,
  • Principal Stipends: an additional $852,000 for CTE Director & Principals that were not included in the ETF last year 
  • Assistant Principal Stipends: an additional $2.69 million
  • Additional Hard to Staff School Stipends: level funded
• TEAMS Act: A suggested increase of $5 million, bringing the total to $85 million. This is the first time TEAMS stipends will surpass $80 million. As a reminder, the TEAMS Act was designed to make STEM teacher pay more competitive to recruit and retain them.
• Struggling Readers Beyond Grade Three: Initially, the ALSDE requested $25 million, which would be an increase of $20 million more than the $5 million allocated in the FY24 Supplemental budget. However, after significant discussion and urging, the board decided to increase this total request to $52 million. ALSDE estimates that $52 million is how much it would cost to support all struggling readers beyond grade three in Alabama.
• Office of School Improvement: Suggested $350,000 increase for a total of $1.85 million.

2. Legislative Panel

Board members have expressed a desire to work more closely with the legislature and have prioritized hosting key legislators for lunch at their bi-annual retreats. Today, Sen. Andrew Jones (Senate District 10), Rep. Mark Gidley (House District 29), Rep. Craig Lipscomb (House District 30), and Rep. Randy Wood (House District 36) were present for a conversation about the upcoming legislative session. Every legislator had an opportunity to celebrate the education legislation they were most proud of. Rep. Mark Gidley spoke about the Assistant Principals (AP) bill, which defined the role of an assistant principal. The ETF budget included an additional $10.8 million to add 200 APs to schools with more than 300 students. Dr. Mackey said they hope to get that number down to 250 students in the next few years. 

Sen. Andrew Jones spoke about the School Security Act, which laid out the process for school security inspections every five years, followed by school security grants the following year to implement recommendations from the inspection. Dr. Mackey shared that while the bill passed, no funding was appropriated for these school security grants, but he hopes there will be money for this in the future.

Sen. Andrew Jones asked board members about the “next big thing that we need to be looking at to move the needle” for students. Dr. Wayne Reynolds shared that schools need help supporting the growing number of EL students. Tracie West shared that the board believes public school retirees need a “cost of living adjustment,” also known as a COLA. Dr. Tonya Chestnut and Marie Manning urged legislators to provide additional funding for supporting struggling readers beyond grade three, which was the topic of significant discussion during the FY26 budget portion of the retreat.

3. ACAP Reading Cut Scores

Dr. Mackey shared that the board will need to decide in the next few months whether to raise the ACAP reading cut score for the upcoming 2025 test. Dr. Juan D’Brot, Senior Associate at the Center for Assessment, joined the board for the discussion. Under the Alabama Literacy Act, the ACAP reading sub-test determines if students are reading sufficiently by the end of third grade to be promoted to fourth grade. To read more about the reading cut score, click here. 

In the June work session, Dr. Mackey mentioned that he would bring the board data at the August retreat to help them determine if they should raise the cut score for 2025, including summer reading camp attendance numbers, additional reading assessment results, how many portfolio assessments were used to promote kids, and final numbers on 3rd graders promoted. 

The current cut score for ACAP Reading assessment is set at 435 (for 3rd grade), which is minus two standard errors of the measurement (SEM) and reflects a 90% probability that students not achieving that score are below grade level. 

Dr. Mackey urged the board to consider holding the cut score at the current level to allow for another year of data collection. Tracie West asked if they could potentially adjust the cut score to 1.5 or 1.25 standard errors of the mean (SEM) and pushed the board to consider feedback she had received this year about setting the reading cut score too low. There was no final decision made and the board committed to continuing the discussion at the next work session. 

A+ would like to see the score to be raised over time to accurately reflect grade level reading and ensure that all struggling students get the extra support they need. This is similar to the approach taken in Mississippi and other states that have laws similar to the Alabama Literacy Act.

4. Cell Phones

The board discussed the impact of their cell phone resolution encouraging local districts to adopt policies on cell phone use in schools, which they passed at their February 2024 meeting. Recently, the ALSDE administered a survey to school districts to determine if they have adopted cell phone policy. Of the 133 districts that responded, 94% have some limited cell phone and 6% no limit to cell phones. This is up from 85% last year.

There was an interesting discussion on the benefits of limiting access to cell phones, which included insights from Superintendent Tony Willis, of Calhoun County. Mr. Willis shared that they looked at the data and found that 100% of fights originated from something kids saw on social media. As a result, they decided to get Yondr pouches and now require students to put cell phones and watches away during the school day.

The Alabama State Board of Education usually meets on the second Thursday of each month, with the exception of the July meeting, to discuss important policies, procedures, and changes for Alabama’s K-12 public schools. The Board takes official action during their monthly meeting and then follows up with a Work Session to get updates and discuss future action that will be voted on at the next board meeting. You can watch them live and see old meetings here.

Contact Your Board Member:

Have feedback on any of the above items – or anything else? Contact your state school board member using the resources below:

-To contact your State Board of Education Member, click here.

-To find out which district you live and/or teach in, click here. Scroll down to the bottom of the page and enter your address in the “Polling Place Search” box. Once entered, it will take you to a page that shows your polling place and the districts you live in.

-To view a map of the state school board districts, click here.