LM January 2017

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With this law now in place, we will continue to work with the General Assembly and Governor Rauner to try
and achieve school funding reform using the Evidence-Based Model, another pivotal piece of the Vision 20/20
blueprint for the future of public education in Illinois. Of course, we also will continue to push for a FY18 PreK-
12 budget as well as mandated categorical payments. Unless those payments are made by the state many
school districts will be in worse shape than they were a year
ago despite the General State Aid formula being funded.
SAFE fund gets big boost
The IASA School Administrators Foundation for Education
(SAFE) got a big boost recently when the recently dissolved
Northern Illinois University-Society of Educational
Administrators (NIU-SEA) made a $10,000 contribution.
“As our intention is to promote assistance for aspiring
superintendents, we thought the Moon Scholarship would
be a good venue for such a donation,” said Dr. Bruce
Brown, the Executive Director of the North Cook
Intermediate Service Center, and a representative of the
NIU-SEA.
The SAFE provides funding for the James V. and Dorothy
B. Moon Scholarship Program. IASA annually awards the
Moon Scholarships to aspiring superintendents or for
current superintendents to pursue graduate study. We
certainly appreciate that Dr. Brown and the other members
of the NIU-SEA Board of Directors thought of SAFE as a
recipient of their funds. We will put those funds to good use.
Alliance Leadership Summit set for Feb. 21-22
Registration is now open for the to be held in Springfield. This will be the
second biennial Summit that includes school administrators, school board members, school business officials
and principals coming together to learn about and discuss timely issues of importance to public education in
Illinois.
The main topics of discussion this time around will be school funding reform, the public education budget and
the implications of the possible “grand bargain” mentioned above. The Summit provides a unique opportunity
for front-line educators and school board members to come together for a statewide strategy session. The
2015 Summit received very high marks from attendees and we would love to see you at the upcoming Summit!
A real reason for hope
Finally, when I talk about hope despite all of the challenges facing public education in 2017, I am most
encouraged by the way our superintendents tackle their responsibilities on a daily basis—with enthusiasm,
purpose and being mindful of their awesome responsibilities to the schoolchildren in their communities.
Twenty-one have been chosen by their peers in the IASA regions as Superintendents of Distinction. They will
be honored at a luncheon in Springfield on April 24 and they are listed on Pages 10-12 of this issue of
Leadership Matters. Each honoree is deserving based on their accomplishments, but they would be the first to
tell you that they are simply representative of the type of efforts and achievements going on all over our state.
And that does give me hope that transcends politics.
“Finally, when I talk about
hope despite all of the
challenges facing public
education in 2017, I am
most encouraged by the
way our superintendents
tackle their responsibilities
on a daily basis—with
enthusiasm, purpose and
being mindful of their
awesome responsibilities
to the schoolchildren in
their communities.”