Page 3 - Leadership Matters March 2013 issue.pub

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I guess I could summarize the “State of the
Association” by saying that despite facing
unprecedented challenges to public education on all
fronts, as an association we remain strong, united and
determined to protect public schools, administrators,
teachers and, the reason we go to work every day, the
students in our state.
We are confronted by what some might term a
“perfect storm” of drastic budget cuts by a state that
already ranks dead last in the nation for support of
public education, more than 100 unfunded mandates,
the most sweeping package of education reform
measures in history, and a demand by the public and
media for improved student performance despite the
fact that poverty –
perhaps the single
biggest negative
influence on a child’s
education – has
grown to affect
almost half of our
students.
Borrowing from
our dynamic
Leadership Week
keynote speaker, Dr.
John Draper, most of
us didn’t know all of
that would be on the
menu when we chose
education as our profession. And we can’t change our
order; we must meet these challenges head-on. But,
as I stated in my “State of the Association” address at
the IASA Annual Meeting, leadership will get us
through these difficult times.
I laid out to members in attendance the framework
for our “Vision 20/20” initiative to develop a long-range
blueprint for public education in Illinois. Not only do we
want to share our vision and alternative plans with the
political and educational leaders in our state, but this
project also will provide IASA with a blueprint going
forward.
Each IASA Region is in the process of nominating
a representative to the “Vision 20/20” project, and I
will follow up with a second appointment from each
Region. If this is something that interests you, and if
you have the availability during the next 15 months,
please let your Region President know.
In an attempt to provide even more and better
service to our members during these trying times, we
have:
 Opened field services offices in Schaumburg and
Marion and added three experienced field services
directors to serve you.
 Joined with our Illinois Statewide School
Management Alliance partners in developing a two
-pronged strategy to try and rein in the unfunded
mandates situation, including a review of several
mandates by the P-20 Council and an attempt to
get the General Assembly to give school districts
and locally elected school boards determine which
unfunded mandates to implement.
 Worked with State Superintendent Dr. Chris Koch
to try and get relief on two major mandates, one
involving Special Education class size limits and
ratios, and the mandate related to
Certified School Nurses. The 45-
day comment period for the
Special Education mandate is
open through April 22 and, if you
have not already done so, please
take the time to write or email
ISBE on that subject. It is critical
that we respond in force to
support these amendments
regarding one of the biggest
unfunded mandates facing
schools.
 We still are hoping to get
more school districts to fill out
the budget survey that we had in
the March edition of Leadership Matters. This
information will be used during our budget
negotiations with the General Assembly. If you
have not done so, I would encourage you to fill out
the survey, which can be accessed here.
During these trying times, we must sharpen our
focus and speak with one voice. The more difficult the
challenges, the more disciplined we as leaders need
to be. For our generation of educational leaders, this
is the ultimate battle. I know we are up to the task.
Ready to defend pensions
As members already know, more than a year ago
we put on retainer an attorney widely considered to be
one of the top experts regarding the Illinois pension
issue. In fact, retired judge Gino L. DiVito also was
retained by the judges’ association to represent them.
His opinion has been that most everything we have
seen proposed so far is unconstitutional, including
unilaterally reducing COLAs, increasing retirement
age and capping pensionable salaries.
We will continue to work with DiVito as this
process plays out, but rest assured that we are ready
to contest pension provisions that are unconstitutional.
Message from the Executive Director:
Public education facing ‘perfect storm’ of challenges
“During these trying
times, we must sharpen
our focus and speak with
one voice. The more
difficult the challenges, the
more disciplined we as
leaders need to be. For our
generation of educational leaders, this is
the ultimate battle. I know we are up to the
task.”
IASA Executive Director, Dr. Brent Clark