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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
TryToHave ‘NoBadDays’
Message From the Executive Director
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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!