LM Oct.2018

Message From the Executive Director

TryToHave ‘NoBadDays’

Dr. Brent Clark The month of October was always my favorite month to be a school superintendent—weather was good, fall sports teams were in full swing and the academic pace was really clicking and, of course, we hadn’t hit winter yet. This year in Illinois, October is roaring forward and our schools are doing amazing work! As we ended the most recent IASA conference a couple weeks back, I had several superintendents comment that they had never experienced the upbeat spirit that was very present among our school leaders this year. It’s truly amazing what a little bit of new financial support does for things. For the past several months at IASA, we’ve been working on a new project called Future Green Energy Consortium (FGEC)—we’re calling it Future Green for short. This is a renewable energy program that can bring significant financial savings to any participating school district, as well as their employees, community residents and small businesses. We are highlighting this new program in this edition of Leadership Matters. Financial savings coupled with a clean energy program is a nice package for all of us going forward. To get you started, go to www.future- green.org , fill out the interest form and a Future Green representative will follow up to explain the details and answer any questions. And speaking of energy, the campaign season has as much energy from all parties this year as I’ve experienced in a long time! With only a couple weeks to go before Election Day and reading the various polls, it looks like Illinois will be electing a new governor. It’s widely

expected that JB Pritzker will unseat incumbent governor Bruce Rauner and will be sworn into office January 14. This change in the state’s executive branch will launch a spring legislative session that is assuredly full of issues that we will both embrace and challenge, but as we’ve always done in the past, we’ll be looking out for the best interest of the children in our care guided by the work of Vision 20/20. And as we care for those children and report on their academic progress, I’m looking forward to seeing the many IASA-ECRA Strategic Dashboards that are being built and launched to help give the communities a deeper picture into the work that their local schools and districts are doing to advance the academic success of their students. These dashboards are a unique opportunity for each district and school to answer key questions, show student gains and also point out the specific areas that are still a work in progress. In closing, I’m inspired by the life motto of a recently deceased son of an Illinois school superintendent, “No Bad Days.” In fact, it’s etched on his burial monument. As school leaders, we have both great duty and honor in our work. Always take pride in that opportunity and fill each day with your very best effort...No Bad Days!

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