Page 4 - Leadership Matters March 2013 issue.pub

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Not only are Major League
Baseball teams like the
Cardinals, Cubs and White Sox
immersed in spring training, but it
also is time for leaders in public
education to make sure we are
fully ready to handle the fastballs
and curveballs sure to come our
way during this spring session of
the General Assembly.
The governor is scheduled to
deliver his Budget Address in just
a few days (March 6). The
process then will begin in earnest
toward an end of May deadline for hot-button issues
like the FY14 budget, pension reform, the cost shift
and the Property Tax Extension Law Limit (PTELL).
The next 30 days are a perfect time to reach out to
your legislators and let them know how these items
will affect your school district.
We recently sent IASA
members a link to our new
online Superintendent’s
Toolkit, which contains
white papers on the
hottest public education
legislative issues as well
as a template for creating
a school communications
plan. Each issue paper
contains a section on the
background of the issue,
an explanation of the
issue, suggested talking
points and links to a variety of resource materials
about the issue. By utilizing the same online flipping
book technology and format as we use in this
newsletter, we have the ability to update issues or
even add new issues as circumstances dictate.
Those who attended our first-ever IASA
Leadership Week last week not only got to hear some
fabulous speakers address very timely topics, but
they also were able to participate in our Legislative
Advocacy Day at the capitol as well as a reception for
legislators. I have seldom seen the energy I
witnessed after our members returned from visiting
their legislators. Those one-on-one meetings make
an impression on the legislator, and they absolutely
are the most powerful force we have in affecting
public education policy.
Based on the initial feedback of attendees, we
intend to continue Leadership Week next year,
possibly moving it to early March to try and avoid
conflicts with the regional and sectional basketball
tournaments, but we want to make sure we schedule
it at a time when legislators are going to be in town.
For those that were unable to attend, there is a
wrap-up story on Page 10 in this publication, and the
story also contains links to videotapes of the
speakers’ presentations. Those presentations also
can be accessed through the Video Library on our
IASA website (www.iasaedu.org).
Speaking of the website, as many of you already
know, we had some problems a few weeks ago when
our website was hacked into and had to be taken off-
line for several days. No personal information was
compromised and we were able to get a temporary
site up and running within a week. Ironically, we
already had started accepting proposals for a new
site a couple of weeks before the old site was
compromised.
We apologize for any inconvenience caused by
the problems with the site
going down. The temporary
site will support all of our
major website needs while
the new website is being
developed. The new site,
which we hope to launch by
July 1, will be dynamic and
user-friendly.
I mentioned earlier the
strategy of using the next 30
days to reach out to
legislators. Also, we have
been in discussions with
State Superintendent Dr. Chris Koch about getting
some mandate relief on the issues related to Certified
School Nurses and class size restrictions for special
education students. Dr. Koch has listened to our
concerns and seems committed to working out
compromises that will provide our overburdened
school districts with some relief.
A critical 45-day public comment period begins
March 8 regarding the mandate pertaining to special
education class size and the 70/30 ratio for general
education classes. It is vitally important that we
respond in force to support Dr. Koch in his attempt to
grant us relief on this mandate in the best interests of
all students, including special education students.
It promises to be a lively spring for public
education. Thanks in advance for doing your part to
make sure our team is ready to go!
Brent Clark
It’s spring training time for public education, too
A Message from
the IASA
Executive Director