Jessica Bakeman is reporting at Capital Confidential Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos said Tue., Mar. 24, his conference and Governor Andrew M. Cuomo are close to a deal that would create an expert panel to explore changes in teacher evaluations and other education reforms. Skelos said he is still negotiating with Cuomo on the criteria of what the panel would review. Senate Democratic leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins recommended the creation of such a panel in a March 9 letter to Skelos outlining her conference’s budget priorities. Assembly member Amy Paulin, a Democrat from Westchester, said her conference would support the creation of a panel of educators to hash out details of a new teacher evaluation system. Cuomo's communications director, Melissa DeRosa, tweeted Tuesday evening: "...there are a number of [teacher evaluation] proposals floating around — none of them have been agreed to." Read the full story at Capital New York.