This subseries is housed in five boxes and is arranged alphabetically by the name of board. Subseries contains correspondence, memorandums, nominations, applications and resume material for, from, and about citizens who were appointed to agency and college and university boards within the Education secretariat by Governor Mark R. Warner. Also included are board profiles, which explain the purpose and goals of the boards, and the number, name, and make-up of board members.

In addition, this series contain records related to the Governor's Advisory Commission on Higher Education Board Appointments. Created by Governor Warner's Executive Order 8 on 7 February 2002, the Governor's Advisory Commission on Higher Education Board Appointments reviewed potential appointees to the governing boards of Virginia's institutions of higher education, the Virginia Community College Board, and the State Council of Higher Education. The review process criteria was based on merit, experience, sound judgment, and proven leadership. The Commission had seven members appointed by the Governor: Marshall Acuff, the chairman of the Board of Directors of the Association of the Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges; Joshua P. Darden, former University of Virginia rector; James B. Murray, Jr., former College of William and Mary rector; Paul Torgersen, former Virginia Tech president; Reginald Brown, former member of the Business Advisory Board of George Mason University; Grace Harris, former Virginia Commonwealth University provost; and Lovey Hammel, chairwoman of the George Mason University Foundation Board. The Secretary of Education (Dr. Belle S. Wheelan) and Secretary of the Commonwealth (Anita Rimler) served non-voting members of the Commission. The Commission records in this series are Dr. Wheelan's. This series provides information about the appointment process, as well as background information on those chosen to serve.

This subseries is housed in 26 boxes and is further subdivided by Higher Education, State Agencies and Other and alphabetical there under. Subseries contains agendas, agreements, correspondence, handouts, memorandums, notes, presentations, and reports.

Notable documents filed under Higher Education include: background information on Higher Education Summit, 7-8 October 2002 including Steering Committee meeting materials, 31 May 2002 (B8, F1-2); documents related to Virginia Tech's 2003 decision to end any preferences in admission or hiring including a 14 March 2003 letter from Dr. Wheelan to Attorney General Jerry Kilgore; a 19 March 2003 e-mail from Peter Blake to Dr. Wheelan analyzing the Attorney General Office's response to Dr. Wheelan's 14 March letter; and talking points for Governor Warner for a 4 June 2003 interview with Virginian Pilot reporter Phil Walzer (B8, F3). The Accord between the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights to implement certain program and facilities improvements at Norfolk State University is documented (B10, F8 and B11, F1); and State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) agenda books for the 10 May 2005 (B18, F4) and 19 July 2005 (B18, F2) meetings.

Notable documents filed under State Agencies include: Department of Education Briefing Notebooks prepared by Jo Lynne DeMary, Superintendent of Public Instruction for Suzette Denslow and Sarah Finley of Governor Warner's Transition Office, dated 7 December 2001 (B20-B21); 2003 Legislative Proposals for the Department of Education, 6 September 2002 (B23, F1); and materials related to Governor Warner's Education Roundtable, 24 January 2002 (includes agendas, notes, and handouts). (B23, F5)

This subseries is housed in 1 folder and is arranged alphabetically by agency. Records primarily contain letters from agency heads certifying that they have a viable COOP. A copy of the Continuity of Operations Plan is not included.

This subseries is housed in 6 folders and is arranged alphabetically by agency. Records include quarterly SWAM totals for the first quarter of fiscal year 2006 for education agencies. Also included is a copy of each agency's Supplier Diversity Model Program as required by Governor Warner's Executive Order 29, Equal Opportunity in State Procurement, issued on 2 July 2002.

This subseries is housed in 11 boxes and is arranged chronologically. This subseries contains copies of out-going correspondence from the Secretary of Education (Belle Wheelan, 2002-2005 and Peter Blake, 2005-2006). The majority of these records are duplicated in Series III. Constituent Correspondence.

Some of the notable correspondence in this series relates to the following topics: No Child Left Behind, Tuition Assistance Grant (TAG) program, education funding, Standards of Learning (SOL), budget cuts in state aid to public libraries, college tuition increases, teacher salaries, consolidating the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, school vouchers, Mary Washing College name change, and proposal for a new university in the Martinsville-Henry County region. Also included are requests for travel and approval for hiring outside consultants made by educational institutions between 2002 and 2004.

This subseries is housed in 13 boxes and is arranged roughly alphabetically by subject/event. This subseries contains calendars, correspondence, e-mail, briefings, notes, presentations, and press releases. Notable subjects in this subseries include: Prince Edward County scholarship program (meeting notes, 8 May 2003 - attendees: Governor Warner, Del. Baskerville, Del. Watkins Abbitt, Dr. Vonita Foster, Dr. Ed Peeples, John Stokes, and Ken Woodley); Sarah Finley's Day Calendars, 2002-2005 (lists appointments); consolidating Virginia Schools for the Deaf and Blind; Council on Virginia's Future meeting materials and Cabinet Technology Team for Education and Technology (VITA), 2004-2005 meeting materials.

This subseries is housed in 15 boxes and is arranged by project or event. Subdivisions are: General Obligation Bonds (GOB) for Higher Education, 2002; Governor's Higher Education Summit, 2002-2003; College and University Research, 2002-2006; Higher Education Restructuring, 2002-2005; New College Institute, 2004-2005; and Undocumented Aliens and In-State Tuition, 2002-2003. Subseries contains agendas, correspondence, memorandums, legislation, presentations, notes, handouts, talking points, press releases, briefing books, resumes, e-mail, reports, and articles.

In 2002 the Virginia General Assembly approved and Governor Mark R. Warner signed into law a $900.5 million general bond package for educational facility capital improvements. On 5 November 2002 Virginia voters approved the bond package by a 73%-27% margin. Notable documents filed under General Obligation Bonds (GOB) for Higher Education include: administration talking points for the referendum.

Governor Warner announced in his first State of the Commonwealth Address in January 2002 the creation of a Higher Education Summit to find ways to support colleges and universities and make them more entrepreneurial. He established a steering committee composed of administrative and legislative leaders, college and university presidents, and business leaders. The steering committee met 30-31 May 2002 and the committee divided into workgroups devoted to the four study areas outlined by Governor Warner: Administration, Management, and Governance; Planning and Capacity; Workforce Development; and Research Capabilities and Centers of Excellence. The Governor's Higher Education Research Summit was held on 1 May 2003 in Newport News. Notable documents filed under Governor's Higher Education Summit include: memorandums for planning/logistics of summit, meeting notes, briefing books, and planning session materials for meetings.

On of the products of the Governor's Higher Education Summit was the creation of Governor's Research Panel to increase funding for research and development at Virginia's Colleges and Universities. Notable documents filed under College and University Research included: meeting materials for the Governor's Higher Education Summit held on 1 May 2003 in Newport News (memorandums for planning/logistics of summit, meeting notes, handouts, briefing books, planning session materials, prepared remarks for Governor); creation of a panel for a Blue Ribbon Review of Virginia Research Universities (resumes); and nomination packages from Virginia's major universities submitted to the Governor's Research Panel for review.

The 2005 Restructured Higher Education Financial and Administrative Operations Act (Restructuring Act) granted Virginia's colleges and universities more operational autonomy in return for meeting state higher education goals and performance measures. The law began as a charter university proposal from the University of Virginia, College of William and Mary and Virginia Tech in 2004 - the schools offered to accept less state financial aid in return for more freedom to set tuition rates. The Restructuring Act required the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV) to develop performance indicators to measure whether the institutions are meeting the state's goals; SCHEV approved the Institutional Performance Standards developed by the colleges and universities. The Standards were submitted to the Governor, who made some changes, for approval. The Restructuring Act also required the governing boards of each public institution of higher education to develop and adopt biennially a six-year plan and submit it to SCHEV, Governor and the General Assembly money committees. Notable documents filed under the Higher Education Restructuring include: background materials on the charter university proposal, review of legislation, legislation, meeting notes, reports, presentation, correspondence, e-mail, and materials related to the development of performance measures and six-year plans as required under the Restructuring Act.

In 2004 a bipartisan coalition of state and local officials attempt to create a college in southern Virginia. The Harvest Foundation of the Piedmont pledged $50 million towards the establishment of a state-supported 4 year college in the Martinsville-Henry County region. In 2005 state and local officials propose creation of New College Institute, a publicly-funded institution of higher education located in Martinsville-Henry County. The New College Institute was established and funded in 2006. Arranged roughly in reverse chronological order; notable documents filed under New College Institute include: talking points, legislation (drafts of NCI bill), correspondence, e-mail, studies, presentations, reports, articles, notes, memorandums, studies for the new college.

Governor Warner vetoed legislation in April 2003 (HB2239) that claimed to prohibit undocumented students from receiving in-state tuition at Virginia's colleges and universities. Notable documents filed under Undocumented Aliens and In-State Tuition include: correspondence, legislation, talking points, meeting notes, articles, e-mail, reports, memorandums, and studies on this issue. Records are arranged in roughly reverse chronological order.

This subseries is housed in 21 boxes and is arranged by various aspects of the Education for a Lifetime Initiative. Governor Mark R. Warner's Education for a Lifetime initiative was a series of targeted reforms to improve a number of elements within the broad spectrum of "public education" including: Pre-Kindergarten (School Readiness Indicators), Accountability and Efficiency Reviews, Senior Year Plus (Path to Industry Certification), Teacher Support and Retention (Effective Mentoring and Turnaround Specialists), Preserving and Strengthening Higher Education, and Workforce Development (Race to GED and Career Readiness Certificates). The Education for a Lifetime Initiative was developed in 2002 and early 2003 and announced in September and October 2003. This subseries documents the development and implementation of various aspects of this wide ranging program. Most of the materials in this subseries are the records of Sarah Hopkins Finley, Deputy Secretary of Education. Subseries contains articles, agendas, correspondence, e-mail, meeting notes, executive issue briefs, recommendations, reports, surveys, memorandums, lists, presentations, budget documents, summaries, talking points, and legislation.

The Warner Administration developed three Working Groups (Accountability, Needs, and Financing) consisting of various education experts and stakeholders whose purpose was the development of valuable information for the formulation of an action and legislative agenda for public education in Virginia (accountability, unmet education needs and funding as they related to K-12 system). The Accountability Work Group examined what Virginia was doing to help low performing schools, noting what worked and what more need to be done to ensure their success. The Needs Work Group helped identify the most pressing educational needs that affect the achievement levels for students. The Finance Work Group looked at how Virginia could pay for the things needed. Records include membership lists, meeting notes, correspondence, surveys, reports, e-mail for the Accountability and Needs Working Groups.

The Education for a Lifetime, K-12 Plan was announced in September 2003. Notable records include: Education for a Lifetime Talking Points, September 2003 rollout (Pre-K, Project Graduation (SOL Remediation), Efficiency Reviews, Senior Year, Teacher Retention, and Higher Education (Box 108, Folder 5); Notes of K-20 Plan Development (Box 109, Folder 1); Governor's Meeting with Virginia Association of School Superintendents, 12 May 2003 (Box 109, Folder 2); Governor's Meeting with University Presidents, 15 April 2003 (Box 109, Folder 2); and Virginia Education Coalition Meeting with Governor, 5 May 2003 (Box 109, Folder 2).

Other significant materials about the initiative may be found in the following areas: E arly Childhood Initiatives , Path to Industry Certification , Career and Technical Education , School Efficiency Reviews and Work Plans and Status Reports . The Work Plans and Status Reports are the records of Secretary of Education Belle Wheelan. The Higher Education, 2003 and Education Plan, K-12, 2003, materials provide an excellent, detailed, overview of the creation and implementation of the entire Education for a Lifetime Initiative (B123-B124).

This subseries is housed in four boxes and is arranged by topic. The Governor's Partnership for Achieving Successful Schools (PASS) initiative, started by Governor Mark R. Warner in July 2002, was a statewide partnership with business and community leaders, state educators, and local school and government officials to boost student achievement in Virginia's lowest academically performing schools on Virginia's Standards of Learning (SOL). The majority of this material belonged to Deputy Secretary of Education Sarah Finley. Subseries contains articles, agendas, correspondence, e-mail, meeting notes, reports, memorandums, presentations, and press releases.

Noteable records include: notes from meetings with the Governor, 2002; development of PASS initiative (Box 126, Folder 5) and PASS Reports, 2003-2005 (Box 127-128).

This subseries is housed in four boxes and is divided by topic. The original order has been maintained. The 2002 Session of the General Assembly established the Commission to Review, Study and Reform Education Leadership (HJR 20/SJR 58), a two-year, 21-member commission to "review, study and reform educational leadership." The 2004 Session of the General Assembly adopted HJR 124 to continue the Commission's work. The Secretary of Education was a member of the Commission. This series includes the records of Deputy Secretary of Education Sarah Finley and includes materials on turnaround specialists, principals, school leadership, Educational Leadership Commission and State Action for Educational Leadership Project (SAELP II) grants from the Wallace-Reader's Digest Funds. Subseries contains agendas, correspondence, memorandums, presentations, notes, handouts, press releases, e-mail, reports, grants, reference materials and articles.

In May 2000 the Virginia State Board of Education and the State Council of Higher Education (SCHEV) for Virginia created the Joint Task Force on the K-12 Teaching Profession to develop a series of recommendations on issues facing the teaching profession in Virginia. The Joint Task Force presented its recommendations to the Board of Education and SCHEV in June 2001 and they recommended that a committee be established to continue the work of the task force. The Committee to Enhance the K-12 Teaching Profession in Virginia was established in February 2002 by the Virginia Board of Education and SCHEV to design a comprehensive blueprint for advancing the teaching profession in Virginia. The committee's work was complemented by Virginia's inclusion in the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices State Policy Institute on Recruiting and Retaining High Quality Teachers for the Nation's Classrooms project and a three-year Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant from the United States Department of Education. Records in this series document the work of the Committee to Enhance the K-12 Teaching Profession in Virginia, the NGA project and the Teacher Quality Enhancement Grant.

This subseries is housed in one boxe and is arranged roughly chronologically. In July 2005, the National Governors Association selected Virginia to receive an Honor States Program Grant as part of it's Redesigning the American High School Initiative . The NGA program, initiated by NGA Chairman and Virginia Governor Mark Warner, provides grants to implement redesign initiatives in high schools, specifically targeting high school graduation rates and increase college readiness. The records in this series document the Warner Administration's work on improving Virginia's high schools in 2004 and it's efforts to secure the grant from the NGA in 2005. Notable documents include "Virginia's Proposal to the National Governors Association to Redesign the American High School", dated 1 June 2005 (Box 135, Folder 5).

This subseries is housed in one box and is arranged roughly chronologically. In November 2004, Governor Warner launched the Healthy Virginians initiative, an effort to promote health and wellness and reduce health care costs by combating obesity, hypertension, and other preventable diseases among state employees, public school students, Medicaid recipients, and the public. The records in this subseries document the programs efforts at combating obesity in public schools.

This subseries is housed in 17 boxes. The processing archivist retained the original order of the files, but arranged them in alphabetical order in thle finding aid to facilitate better access. This subseries contains agendas, correspondence, background materials, e-mail (printed out), handouts, legislation, memorandum, notes, presentations, and reports. Included in this series are correspondence to/from Belle Wheelan (2002-2005) and Peter Blake (2005-2006). Researchers should check Series II. Assigned State Agencies, Series IV. Office of the Secretary, and Series VI. Special Projects for additional records.

This subseries is housed in 8 boxes. The processing archivist retained the original order of the files, but arranged them in alphabetical order in thle finding aid to facilitate better access. Boxes 159 and 160 contain the files of Deputy Secretary of Education Sarah Finley. This subseries contains subject files. Researchers should check Series II. Assigned State Agencies, Series IV. Office of the Secretary, and Series VI. Special Projects for additional records.

The Legislative Files sub-series is housed in 3 boxes and is arranged chronologically by legislative session. This subseries documents the Office of the Secretary of Education's review of education related legislation introduced by members of the Virginia General Assembly between 2002 and 2004. Each file usually contains the text of each bill and Legislative Action Summaries. Additional information on legislation is located in the Records of the Policy Office of Governor Mark R. Warner, Series III. Legislative Files (accession 42414).

The Weekly Reports subseries is housed in one box, arranged chronologically and contains the weekly reports submitted to the Governor and Chief of Staff by the Secretary of Education. Reports were submitted each Thursday and placed in a binder for the Governor that he took with him at the end of the day on Friday. A second copy of the report was made for the Chief of Staff. Each report contains information on legislation, Governor's initiatives/special projects, agency matters/operations, events/agency visits, audits/investigations/compliance, stakeholder issues and pending decisions. This sub-series provides a weekly account of the issues and policy decisions of the Secretary of Education during the Warner administration.