OLYMPIA - A group charged with oversight and implementation of major education reform is set to gather for the first time Thursday in Olympia.

Sen. McAuliffe has a conversation with teachers in Anacortes

The 13-member panel consists of legislators, the state schools superintendent, a school administrator and the chairs of the State Board of Education and the Professional Educator Standards Board. It also includes the director of the Department of Early Learning. The legislation that created the council and sets in motion major changes to the state’s school system is House Bill 2261, approved in April.

Democratic Sens. Rosemary McAuliffe and Eric Oemig, chair and vice-chair of the Senate education committee, will serve on the council. Both have spent the past three weeks traveling the state meeting with teachers on a nine-stop 2009 Education Listening Tour. About 600 teachers have attended the meetings. The tour wraps up this week in Wenatchee.

“The time we’ve spent with teachers this month is certainly going to help to shape my role on the QEC,” Oemig said. “We’ve heard from hundreds of teachers from across the state on a variety of topics, but at the top of the list was clearly how we as a state recommit to funding our children’s education. That is challenge number one.”

The meeting takes place from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Thursday in the Cherberg Building at the state Capitol. It will also be televised live on TVW.