Leadership Matters - January 2013

In this month’s issue

Click the thumbnails to go directly to

the article or click the corner of each page to flip through the newsletter.

Leadership Week preview P. 6

New Years Resolution: PD for staff P. 10

Legally Speaking: evaluation tool for PERA P. 13

News from the IASA Regions P. 11

Message from the IASA President P. 15

IASA interactive calendar P. 8

Superintendent of the Year Profile P. 4

Getting to know your IASA Board Members P. 16

Tip from the Field P. 12

Top 10 strategies for communicating with legislators P. 9

Education reform is killing education P. 5

Survey of the month: Truancy A standing feature of Leadership Matters will be a very brief survey of the month on a current topic of interest. We will share the results in the following month’s newsletter and pose another question. This months’ topic is truancy, which has become a hot topic in Illinois because of a Chicago Tribune investigative series about rampant truancy and excessive absences in Chicago schools. State Rep. Linda Chapa LaVia (D-Aurora) got legislation approved to form the “Truancy in Chicago Public Schools Task Force.” While the focus is on Chicago schools, truancy is an

IASA Newsletter Editor Michael Chamness mchamness@iasaedu.org

Assistant Editor Mary Ellen Buch mbuch@iasaedu.org

issue of concern for everyone in public education. The two multiple-choice questions this month are:

IASA 2648 Beechler Court Springfield, IL 62703-7305 217.753.2213 800 Woodfield Road, Ste. F109 Schaumburg, IL 60173-4717 847.466.5075

1. How serious an issue is truancy in your district as defined by the number of chronic truants or excessive absences? 2. How does your district deal with the issue of truancy?

1200 West Main Street Marion, IL 62959-1138 618.364.0501

There also is space for you to offer any comments or suggestions you might have (name optional) regarding the issue of truancy. We encourage you to click on the “Survey” blackboard link above and take five minutes or so to participate. Thank you for your participation, and we also would welcome any suggestions for a survey topic for any of the upcoming issues of our newsletter.

Cover photo by Robert Levy (www.robertlevyphoto.com)

2