Page 20 - Leadership Matters February 2013_3140b78f.pub
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might have to choose between firing teachers or hiring
SROs. We believe any decisions of that magnitude
need to be handled at the local level by elected school
board members. IASA and the Alliance did put on the
table a couple of suggestions to offer some districts
some more flexibility
while not costing the
state, including:
Changing
the
language regulating
the use of the 1
percent school sales
tax so that school
districts in those
counties that have or
will have the school
sales tax could use
those funds to pay for
SROs or to make
other school security
enhancements that currently are not allowable.
Allowing districts in tax-capped counties to offer a
“front-door” referendum to go outside the cap for very
narrowly defined school safety improvements. This
would allow for citizens in a community to determine
locally whether they are willing to go outside the cap
for this issue.
Unfunded mandates, reform measures pile up
Unfunded state and/or federal mandates – now
totaling more than 100 in Illinois – and a laundry list of
reform measures are burying school districts at a time
when resources are dwindling.
For example, the latest unfunded mandate
scheduled to go into effect July 1 is the one that would
require school districts to employ a Certified Nurse
rather than a Registered Nurse to be part of any health
-related decisions involving the education of a special
education student. Technically, this would not be a
new rule, just more stringent enforcement of one that
has been on the books for a long time.
The sheer expense of hiring CNs would seem to
be enough to stop implementation
of this mandate given today’s fiscal
climate for Illinois schools. There
are
other
exacerbating
circumstances, including difficulty
in finding enough CNs in some
parts of the state and laying off
RNs who cannot get certified by
ISBE in time to meet the mandate.
The good news, if there is any,
is the State Superintendent Chris
Koch has agreed to meet with a
group of superintendents to
discuss this issue.
Other ISBE issues include
raising the cut scores for the Illinois
Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) when the
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College
and Careers (PARCC) is coming down the pike in just
a couple of years, implementation of Common Core
Standards and rolling out the 5Essentials Survey of
school climates at a time when budget cuts, layoffs
and public bashing of teachers are destroying morale.
Unity is important
With all that is being pushed onto already heavy
laden school districts, reaching out to individual
legislators and speaking with unity is more important
than ever. We have strength in numbers, and we need
to use that as well as our first-hand expertise when it
comes to public education.
You can find contact information for your
legislators at
Spring legislative outlook
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IASA & IASBO team up to offer seminar on communicating with legislators
IASA and IASBO are co-sponsoring a seminar March 19 titled “Communicating and Lobbying with
Legislators: How to Make Your Views Known and Affect Change.”
The day-long seminar is approved for Illinois Administrators’ Academy Credit (AAC #781). It will run
from 8:30 a.m. to 4:20 p.m. in Room 413 of the Stratton Building in the Capitol complex. Lunch will be
provided.
Participants will have a chance to become more familiar with the Capitol, visit with legislators, sit in
on a Committee Hearing and create a personalized action plan. As a result of taking this workshop,
participants will understand and be able to work effectively with legislators.
The registration fee is $155. Click
o access the registration form and additional information.
