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Shannon Award gives national honor to IASB for board governance leadership
IASB’s Targeting Achievement through Governance (TAG) Program and the Five-State Policy Project: Targeting Student Learning (TSL) were awarded the 2010 Thomas A. Shannon Award for Excellence in School Board Leadership.
The award recognizes the staff and leaders from the Illinois Association of School Boards, California School Boards Association, Maine School Boards Association, Pennsylvania School Boards Association, and the Washington State School Directors’ Association for their vision of possibilities and collaborative work to support local school board members in defining what is excellence in local school governance.
“These teams took a leap of faith and what a pay-out,” said C.H. “Sonny” Savoie, NSBA president. “Your work is so powerful and its progress tells our story: local school boards —with the necessary tools, support, and training — can be community leaders at the vanguard of providing a quality education for our students.”
The teams received the award Jan. 30 during a ceremony hosted at NSBA’s Annual Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C. The award, named in honor of former NSBA Executive Director Thomas A. Shannon, was established in 1997.
The Five-State Policy Project: Targeting Student Learning began in 1996 when Maine’s leadership invited other state school boards associations to discuss school board policy and student achievement. Out of this meeting came a long-term collaboration among the five state associations, who committed staff time and resources to balance the important aspects of policymaking with student learning.
The project group operates as a think tank and over time has produced analysis and work products and publications.
The Five-State Policy Project authored the “Targeting Student Learning Workbook,” a tool providing a process and identifying key policy topics to help school boards leaders focus on student achievement. A central strength of the Five-State Policy Project is that it brings together the thinking of five different state associations of varying sizes, geographical locations, and governance models. This enables the project staff to go beyond individual state-based models and develop a process and tool for policy-making that can be used by public schools boards across the nation.
“A board that uses the Targeting Student Learning process and workbook benefits from a renewed commitment to its policymaking role,” said Cathy Talbert, IASB associate executive director who coordinates the TSL project for IASB. “The process requires the board to discuss student learning-related topics, consider what policy is already in place, connect with those who will be affected by or must implement policy, and make data-based decisions about what the board wants for the future.”
IASB ultimately expanded on the original project and developed its Targeting Achievement Through Governance (TAG) program. IASB knew that school board training needed to be a component of the federal and state implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act. The Association was able to convince the Illinois State Board of Education to fund the program and over the past five years, the TAG program has assisted 133 Illinois districts.
“Targeting Student Learning work is a key component of the curriculum for the TAG program,” added Angie Peifer, IASB associate executive director for board development and TAG. “(Our program) would likely not have been possible without the work of the Five-State Project and Targeting Student Learning, as it is the backbone of our work with boards.”
The TAG program provides board development services at no cost to school districts, or school districts with schools that have not made Annual Yearly Progress for two consecutive years. The TAG program helps board members understand the link between policy and progress. The team provides comprehensive services including workshops, training and coaching to assist school boards in meeting their requirements.
“The work of these teams was ahead of its time. It was born and underway before No Child Left Behind was even ‘put to ink’,” said Anne L. Bryant, executive director, NSBA. “These teams’ valuable thinking, processes and tools continually improve local school board policy decisions and student learning. The teams’ expectations are extraordinary: every student achieving. Their work is an example to follow.”
Alliance chosen via ‘Partnership Zone’ to boost academics in RTTT showcase
IASB along with its Illinois Statewide School Management Alliance partners recently submitted a successful three-year proposal to become a service provider through the Illinois Partnership Zone program. The program, administered in Illinois by ISBE, will target 12 academically “low performing” school districts.
“This program represents the state’s approach to develop long-term reform strategies for low-performing schools and may serve as a precursor to Illinois’ approach for federal Race to the Top funding” explained Angela Peifer, IASB’s associate executive director for board development and TAG.
ISBE approved nine “lead partners” (those who will work directly with schools and practitioners) and nine “supporting partners” (those working with boards and district administrators to increase capacity and build human capital).
IASB, along with the Illinois Association of School Administrators, Illinois Principals Association, and Illinois Association of School Business Officials, were selected jointly as one supporting partner. Participating districts will choose which of the available service-providing partners to work with in seeking academic improvement.
Total funding approved for Illinois under the agreement totals $28 million over three years. The share of this funding that may end up going to IASB and its Alliance sister organizations will depend upon how many participating districts request services from the association and its allies.
Illinois, in turn, is just one of six states selected to join in this three-year, $75-million public-private partnership – along with Colorado, Delaware, Louisiana, Massachusetts and New York – by Mass Insight Education and Research Institute, a Boston-based non-profit education organization focused on closing achievement gaps.
“We’re excited to work with these states...to identify and implement new strategies to turn around struggling schools,” said State Superintendent of Education Christopher A. Koch.
The Partnership Zone Initiative will be funded by a variety of private and public sources, including increased federal funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). Additional money for the six participating states could also be awarded through the federal Race to the Top competitive grant program.
Each of the states will initially establish Partnership Zones in a limited amount of districts with clusters of low-performing schools that will serve to demonstrate the success of a more strategic approach to turnaround. Each cluster of schools will be teamed with a lead partner, an organization that directly supports principals in turning around schools. Lead partners are experienced turnaround leaders selected by districts that have been pre-qualified by the State Board of Education.
The Illinois Partnership Zone will also include assistance from “Supporting Partners,” like IASB and its school management allies IASA, IASBO and IPA, who will help the district and lead partners increase human capital and create capacity to sustain change in Partnership Zone schools.
Illinois will likely select the initial Partnership Zone participants from the 12 districts or Local Education Authorities (LEAs) that have signed on to accelerate improvement efforts as “Super LEAs” in the state’s Race to the Top Application. Schools chosen for the Partnership Zone will be given a higher degree of priority to receive funding through Illinois’ share of federal school improvement grants, and may receive as much as $750,000 per school year for three years.
Much of the additional funding will go toward increased teacher compensation to support extended learning time, intensive professional development and incentive pay in Partnership Zone schools.
The Partnership Zone is a hybrid model that combines the benefits of a district with the operating flexibilities most frequently associated with charter schools. Zone schools remain inside the district and may continue to tap into the efficiencies of many districtwide services. However, Zone schools also give school-level leaders the freedom to make staffing, scheduling, curriculum and salary decisions, in return for being held accountable for dramatic student achievement gains within two years.
States plan to launch Partnership Zones on a flexible but aggressive timeline; with some states, including Illinois, implementing zones as early as the 2010-11 school year.
High School Challenge conference aims to increase district success in myriad ways
The Illinois State Board of Education is inviting high school educational leaders to attend this year’s High School Challenge, June 14 and 15, at the Doubletree Hotel in Bloomington. The 5th annual conference is intended to create awareness of a variety of approaches to better prepare Illinois students for the world in which they will live and work.
This year’s theme is “Promoting Student Success: A Variety of Approaches.”
The conference is designed for all those involved with and interested in the work of Illinois high schools, including: superintendents, school administrators, teachers, school board members, curriculum directors, special education and ELL directors, regional office of education staff, business leaders and university personnel. School leaders are encouraged to bring a district leadership team to the event.
Featured speakers include authors:
This event is co-sponsored by IASB, along with 20 other member organizations in the Coalition for Illinois High Schools. Besides IASB, the Coalition includes: ACT Midwest Region, High School District Organization, Illinois Alliance of Administrators of Special Education, Illinois Association of School Administrators, Illinois Association of Regional Superintendents of Schools, Illinois Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, Illinois Board of Higher Education, Illinois Business Roundtable, Illinois Education Association, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Illinois High School Association, Illinois Interactive Report Card, Illinois North Central Association, Illinois Principals Association, Illinois State Board of Education, Large Unit District Association, West 40 Intermediate Service Center 2, Regional Systems of Support, Illinois Virtual High School, and the Illinois Community College Board.
More information, can be found online at http://www.cfihs.net.
State ‘fiscal disaster’ threatens FY 2011 school funding
State revenue down nearly $1 billion now
Illinois continues to struggle with a growing deficit as the state prepares its push towards a fiscal year 2011 budget. In fact Illinois is confronting record bill payment delays and record debt to public schools, along with what the state comptroller has called “the most dangerous fiscal conditions in modern history.”
The state had amassed a record $5.1 billion backlog of unpaid bills by the end of December. That total did not include an additional $2.25 billion worth of short-term loans the state must repay soon, and an added $1.4 billion of unpaid health care bills. All together, according to Comptroller Dan Hynes, the state’s pile of unpaid bills climbs to more than $8.75 billion.
“This ongoing fiscal disaster is threatening to permanently harm programs and services serving children,” Hynes said.
Suppliers of goods and services to the state, including health care providers and other critical social services are waiting 92 business days to be reimbursed – or more than 4½ months. The delay is almost double the 48 business-day delay these businesses and vendors were incurring at this time last year.
Record payment delays are impacting state programs and services across the board. The backlog includes grants to school districts and pre-school programs totaling $1 billion, university and community college payments in excess of $775 million and local government and transit district payments of more than $478 million.
The unpaid bills for all state agencies and purposes total $4.2 billion, with $725 million of that amount owed to K-12 education (see list below of the top 5 amounts owed to school districts).
The biggest portion of the state’s K-12 debt is derived from late quarterly payments for categorical expenditures for items like student transportation and special education. Some of the roughly 17,000 unpaid bills for K-12 education date back to October.
While the payment delays improved slightly in January, after Illinois received dollars from a pension bond sale, this marginal improvement was only temporary. The state must begin paying back its $2.25 billion in short-term loans plus interest that comes due beginning in March. Bond rating agencies have downgraded Illinois’ ranking as a bond issuer to among the lowest in the nation.
Without major changes in the way Illinois collects revenues, and how it spends those dollars, the state will enter FY2011 on July 1 with the largest amount of unpaid bills from the prior year in its history.
In fact, the state’s cash flow position already has declined by $4.1 billion over the past year. Several factors are blamed for the decline of the state’s cash flow position, including continued weakness in the state’s economy-driven revenues, and a structural imbalance in the enacted FY2010 budget. Yet another factor is the costly failure to address Illinois’ deficit through the FY2009 budget, which resulted in the state using its first $3.9 billion in revenue this fiscal year to pay last year’s bills.
The state now must deal with the reality of a structural deficit, which means revenues collected through taxes and fees are not adequate to pay for all the programs and benefits state officials have enacted. That problem has grown steadily worse over the past few years. The state’s under-funded pension obligations, for example, exacerbated by state investment losses, will add tremendous pressure to the FY 2011 budget. Meanwhile, unfunded Medicaid liabilities have soared to a dangerous level.
Due to the deep national recession, declines in Illinois’ economy-driven revenue sources this year have continued to threaten the state’s financial stability. State corporate income tax receipts were down 16.3 percent, sales tax receipts decreased 12.6 percent and individual income tax receipts fell 7.6 percent, compared to the same period last year.
Through the first seven months of the current fiscal year (FY 2010), overall base revenue is down $45 million, according to the Illinois General Assembly’s Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability (CoGFA). Sizable growth in federal sources, however, masks the extremely poor performance of the state’s own revenue sources. In fact, when $899 million in federal source growth is excluded, all other revenue would be down a crippling $944 million.
The CoGFA confirms that despite being in the early stages of an economic recovery, the larger economy related sources of state revenue, such as income and sales, have continued to greatly suffer from the recession’s effect.
Technically, an economic recovery has been underway since last summer, as confirmed by data released by the federal Commerce Department near the end of January, CoGFA reports: “Advanced data on inflation-adjusted gross domestic product (GDP) showed the economy grew for the second consecutive quarter in the final quarter of last year at an annual rate of 5.7%, the fastest pace since the third quarter of 2003. This was up substantially from the 2.2% gain in the previous quarter, which had reversed four consecutive quarters of decline,” CoGFA explained.
The surge in last quarter’s growth largely reflected the change in real private inventories, which added 3.39 percentage points to the overall gain, and therefore the strength of recovery could prove temporary, although business capital spending, exports, and consumer spending came in somewhat higher than anticipated, CoGFA added.
But the legislature’s economic commission says it will be some time before improvement in state revenue can be expected.
So what does that mean for Illinois public schools, and prospects for paying them what they are owed for last year? School leaders say the projections would be “devastating” to education in Illinois.
“We are anticipating unprecedented layoffs,” State schools Superintendent Chris Koch said. “The greatest impact is going to be on local districts.”
Gov. Quinn seeks tax hike to prevent over $1 billion in school cuts
G ov. Patrick Quinn is calling for Illinois legislators to raise income taxes to prevent the more than $1 billion in proposed cuts to state spending on education that are outlined in his FY 2011 budget. The tax surcharge would restore the education budget to its current level by increasing the state tax on personal income to 4 percent from the current 3 percent.
Quinn said that without his proposal for a 1% income tax surcharge, the education budget would have to be cut by 17% in the upcoming fiscal year. The cuts would target General State Aid and mandated categorical grants, including special education and transportation. Other cuts would decimate less costly education budget line-items for other grants, just like in the current fiscal year budget.
“If we enact this emergency rescue plan promptly, we can keep thousands of committed teachers from getting layoff notices,” Governor Quinn said.
The governor urged lawmakers to enact the one percentage point increase in state income taxes during a brief budget speech to the legislature on Mar. 10. He did not say how much money the increase would raise or what he means by a tax “surcharge.” But insiders say that increasing the state income tax rate by 1% would raise approximately $3 billion.
Illinois FRN delegation blitzes Washington elected officials
Demands for adequate funding, reforms heard
Nine board members from Illinois participated in the 2010 Federal Relations Network Conference, sponsored by the National School Boards Association.
The delegates attended two days of informational sessions on a wide variety of national education issues on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, and then had a long and productive day lobbying on Capitol Hill on Feb. 2.
The Illinois delegation included the following board representatives:
Joe Alesandrini, IASB president (Pekin CHSD 303); Carolyne Brooks, IASB vice president (West Richland CUSD 2, Noble); Mark C. Metzger, IASB past president (Indian Prairie CUSD 204, Naperville); Christy Coleman (Geneseo CUSD 228); Pelleg Graupe (Aptakisic-Tripp CCSD 102, Buffalo Grove); John Jekot (East Main S.D. 63); Mike Kelly (Plainfield S.D. 202); Anna Klimkowicz (Township HSD 211, Palatine); and Marie Slater (Wheaton Warrenville CUSD 200).
This was the 37 th annual conference to be held in Washington, D.C. This year’s agenda included several key public education priorities:
Illinois delegates met with congressional staff or elected officials from the following offices: Senator Durbin, and Congressmen Bean, Biggert, Foster, Halvorson, Hare, Kirk, Roskam, Schakowsky, Schock, and Shimkus.
The only consensus on the ESEA/NCLB issue from both parties and chambers is that the name will change and that NCLB is unfairly penalizing good schools based on poor performance by subgroups. The House is insistent that the Senate start the process this year as they have started the process in the past to no avail. Delegates also advocated for federal money to help alleviate the $1 billion funding cliff Illinois is facing from the end of stimulus money.
Delegates explained how these matters affect their local districts and why it’s important that they receive priority in federal policy.
Mike Kelly from Plainfield said that because of inadequate state and federal funding, his district plans to cut $16 million and 222 staff from its budget. “This is not fat; it’s muscle,” he said. “These are real programs affecting kids. “If you ever sat in front of parents and made these kind of tough decisions, you would know that they are really ticked off.”
Joe Alesandrini of Pekin explained the punishing effects of NCLB. “We are a high school district and because just 11 students in one subgroup out of a student population of 2,000 did not make AYP, the whole high school failed,” he said.
Klimkowicz of Palatine added that timely feedback and response on assessments would help schools “to do the work.”
Graupe asked congressional leaders not to extend the Schools and Libraries Program of the Universal Service Fund, commonly known as “E-Rate,” to colleges and other institutions until or unless schools and libraries receive their fair share.
U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke to the group about the desire of the Obama administration to make significant changes to ESEA/NCLB, which was welcome news. He also talked about new federal funding being shifted to competitive grants.
FRN attendees expressed concern that districts that most need those dollars do not have the grant writers to apply for or track those federal dollars, and Secretary Duncan said their intention is for a simple process to minimize administration costs.
Also attending from IASB were Michael D. Johnson, executive director emeritus; Michael Bartlett, deputy executive director; James Russell, associate executive director; Susan Hilton, assistant director of governmental relations; and Cynthia Woods, director of advocacy.
Economic interest filing due at county clerks soon
State law requires school board members, certificated administrators and some non-administrative school employees to file annual economic interest statements by May 1 with the clerk of the county where they reside. Statements are due by May 1 unless those required to file have already done so this year.
District superintendents are generally required to file, as are school business officials and certificated administrators. Others required to file include: department heads responsible for large contracts ($1,000 or more), those who have authority to issue or promulgate district rules, and employees who have supervisory authority for 20 or more employees.
Significant policy questions decided, deadlines pending
In addition to school finance referendum questions on the Feb. 2 primary election ballot as reported in the February Newsbulletin, there was also one other significant question on the ballot. It involved a request by Elmhurst CUSD 205 for voter permission to alter the use of a district administrative building toward classroom and instructional purposes.
The question on the ballot was “Shall Elmhurst Community Unit School District No. 205, DuPage and Cook Counties, Illinois, be permitted to use for classroom and/or instructional purposes the building known as the District 205 Center located at 162 South York Road in the City of Elmhurst, Illinois?”
Voters approved the plan by a vote of 7,727 to 1,549.
The primary was one of two statewide consolidated elections in Illinois this year. The next one is set for Nov. 2. Important deadlines and legal citations for school leaders to know in advance of that election include the following:
Aug. 27 — Last day for the board of education to adopt a resolution putting public policy questions on the ballot at the Nov. 2, 2010 General Election (10 ILCS 5/28-2)
Sep. 2 — Last day for board secretary to certify public policy questions to the election authority for referendum (10 ILCS 5/28-2)
For more information about election deadlines, download the entire list from IASB’s website at: https://www.iasb.com/pdf/cal_10.pdf .
National conference focuses on funding, achievement
Keynote speakers: Rose, Marsalis and Wozniak
The 2010 NSBA Annual Conference on April 10-12 in Chicago features a programming line-up designed to help school leaders find solutions, demonstrate their accountability, and work together to improve student achievement.
Organizers say that whether you are a veteran board member, a superintendent, a board support professional, or a first-time attendee, you will likely take back practical ideas and a renewed commitment to help your school board accomplish the important work that lies ahead.
Featured speakers
In planning your conference attendance you will note this year’s conference keynoters include some household names:
Perhaps the most important part of attending the 2010 NSBA Conference, insiders say, is the valuable information you can take home to your community. Some of the ideas and strategies you can learn through clinic sessions, workshops, roundtables, speakers and exhibitors can be implemented back home in your own district.
On the agenda, for example, are ideas for raising student achievement, and providing innovative funding solutions for today’s many budget challenges.
You may also want to confer with leading education experts, browse the trade show floor, attend panel sessions and network with colleagues.
The three-day registration fee is $720 for National Affiliate districts and $895 for non-Affiliate district registration. For more information and to register, visit http://s36.a2zinc.net/clients/nsba/ac2010/public/enter.aspx .
Plan your conference attendance at NSBA online at http://www.nsba2.org/acccg2010/
One-day fee available
But what if you can’t attend the event for all three days? NSBA has announced a one-day, onsite registration of just $440. This should be ideal for Illinois school board members and school administrators with limited time or budgets. Register onsite at the conference registration area (you will need to bring your P.O. or credit card for immediate confirmation of your registration).
For details on sessions, workshops, and events, browse the NSBA Conference website at http:// www.nsba.org/conference/ or take a look at the online conference brochure at http://www.nsba-ac2010brochure.org/nsba/2009conf .
District panel topics reviewed for fall Joint Annual Conference
Planning is well under way for the 2010 Joint Annual Conference, to be held Nov. 19-21 in Chicago. Last year hundreds of board members, superintendents and other interested school leaders attended Sunday morning “Coffee and Conversation Sessions” at the Conference to share experiences and learn from one another.
IASB will be offering attendees at the 2010 conference this same opportunity for discussion around important school leadership concerns on Sunday morning. The following list of topical program tracks offers some idea of the kind of valuable topics these discussion panels will cover:
All “Share the Success” panel session ideas for the 2010 Joint Annual Conference were initially evaluated on March 5 in the association’s Springfield and Lombard offices. As many as 30 winning proposals were to be chosen between the end of March and mid-April. This year, IASB received 124 panel proposals, compared to just over 100 a year ago.
IASB Co-Chairs for the 2010 Conference Committee are Directors Dale Hansen, Grant Park CUSD 6, and Sue McCance, CUSD 3 Fulton County, Cuba.
New tool available to help school boards recruit candidates
An important aspect of a school board’s collective responsibility is to maintain leadership, even as it experiences periodic turnover in its membership.
For school boards interested in cultivating their next generation of local leaders, the Illinois Association of School Boards has developed a new publication, “Recruiting School Board Candidates,” to help recruit prospective school board candidates.
This material is intended to support an ongoing process of identifying, recruiting and mentoring future school board candidates, whether at the next election or during an appointment process.
The publication is a packet of seven brochures that address various aspects of the recruiting process. Information in the packet includes:
A letter and flyer explaining the new publication was mailed in early March to all member superintendents and board presidents.
This extensive packet of information is available free of charge to member districts and can be ordered by contacting Tammy Call at 217/528-9688, ext. 1108.
In addition, IASB field services directors are available to present this information to local school boards and/or communities at the board’s request.
Bad tempers displayed in front of students may equal dismissal
Administrators monitor NCLB’s next act: performance pay, AYP purge
As mentioned in the February Newsbulletin, the 2010 National Conference of the American Association of School Administrators (AASA) was held Feb. 11-13 in Phoenix. Participants conferred about what is happening in local districts; best practices in school leadership; and, most notably, the future of federal NCLB and ESEA laws.
More than 6,000 participants attended the three-day event, the largest annual meeting of school superintendents in the United States. General session speakers included Geoffrey Canada, president and chief executive officer of the Harlem Children’s Zone; Malcolm Gladwell, a staff writer with The New Yorker; and Mika Brzezinski, veteran broadcast journalist and co-host of MSNBC’s news discussion program “Morning Joe.”
Also taking the podium at the event’s third general session was Bruce Hunter, associate executive director of advocacy and policy for AASA, who offered insights about NCLB and “ESEA’s next act” amid quick updates on relevant legislation.
The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), now known as No Child Left Behind, is perhaps the most pressing issue from school’s perspective, Hunter said. The current legislation is a complex collection of 93 programs, which Hunter said could be significantly consolidated in the new measure. The reauthorization could be just as complicated. As he explained, the parties in Congress seem to be at loggerheads over every issue.
Hunter updated members on the new emerging elements of the emerging federal act, which will almost surely lose the NCLB name, he said. The proposals include consolidating 38 programs into 11 new programs and shifting the funding emphasis from formulas to competitive grants. Competitive grants, Hunter said, are an issue because funding will not reach all the students who may most need the support. The new legislation also emphasizes charter schools and performance pay – two issues school management lobbyists are watching closely.
Other changes to NCLB include the removal of adequate yearly progress, all-or-nothing accountability, the 100 percent proficiency goal and one-time snapshot tests, said Hunter.
Evaluation may take a more predominant role in the reauthorization. “Highly qualified” will be replaced by measures of effectiveness for teachers and principals, likely based on student test scores.
“It will be a difficult year to be a principal,” said Hunter, in reference to the proposed higher level of accountability directed at school leaders.
He also predicted fewer, higher and clearer standards and a push for common assessments. Hunter questioned how a common assessment differs from a national examination — a crucial point that he said policy makers will have to clarify.
For more information, visit AASA’s website: http://www.aasa.org/nce/ .
Association membership reaches all-time high ratio of 97.8 percent
The membership count for school districts belonging to IASB increased by one in Fiscal Year 2010, bringing the grand total to 856 member districts. The total number of school districts in the state, however, declined by one, falling to 867 (see the historical summary chart above).
As a result of the changes, IASB’s Board of Directors was informed on Feb. 20, there are now only 11 non-member districts in the state, the lowest count ever recorded in the number of school districts that have chosen not to belong to the Association.
Impacting the membership count was school district consolidation. District consolidation created the new Mercer County District 404, which was formed by combining the former Aledo CUSD 201, and Westmer CUSD 203.
Fortunately, three school districts offset that loss of one district by joining the association during the current fiscal year. Those new member districts are: Irvington CCSD 11; Pope Co. CUSD 1, Golconda; and Oakdale CCSD 1. Meanwhile, one school district chose not to renew its membership.
The bottom line, as the attached chart shows, is that 98.7 percent of Illinois school districts are now members of IASB, the highest membership ratio ever recorded.
Science, math and tech ed are topics for special one-day board member workshop in Collinsville
A one-day training program for school board members on Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education: Why Do We Care, is scheduled for May 1 at Gateway Conference Center, Collinsville.
Board members and their Superintendents are invited to attend this workshop to learn more about the sense of urgency behind demands for more rigorous schooling in science, mathematics and technology. The workshop aims to show how boards can become leaders in creating solutions.
IASB facilitators will include: Angie Peifer, associate executive director, board development, TAG; and board development consultants Sandra Kwasa and Nesa Brauer.
The agenda includes a Continental Breakfast from 8:30 to 9 a.m., with the workshop from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Lunch will be provided during a Q & A with IMSA President Max McGee.
Workshop tuition is $50 per person, which includes materials and meals. Advance registration is required. Registration must be received two days prior to the workshop. Mail or fax your registration form with payment information to IASB, or register online by visiting https://www.iasb.com .
Hubbard, co-author of ‘resource equalizer,’ IASB friend
Ben C. Hubbard, a key author of the “resource equalizer formula” still used by the state to help allocate public school funding, has passed away at the age of 89. Hubbard, a longtime friend of IASB who was an invited guest at the association’s past president’s dinners for more than a decade, died on Feb. 8 in Bloomington.
A native of Macon County, Ala., he was dean emeritus of the College of Education at Illinois State University from 1979-1982 and served as an ISU professor from 1961-1982. He also served as the research director for the legislature’s Illinois School Problems Commission from 1964-1981.
“He was very influential in furnishing the bipartisan School Problems Commission—which in those days superseded the authority of the state education agency—with the reliable research it needed to come up with legislative solutions to major school problems,” said IASB’s Douglas P. Blair, senior director of executive searches for the Association.
Hubbard was perhaps best known for the resource equalizer formula for school funding, which was adopted by the General Assembly in 1973. The complex formula, a groundbreaking plan for its time, designated money for school districts on the basis of need rather than a flat grant to each district. Specifically, the formula was designed to equalize the money available to all of the state’s students by equalizing the value of resources (taxable property) in the state’s economically diverse school districts.
“He was never happy, however, that the entire resource equalizer plan was not adopted the way it was written,” recalled Blair. “Legislators deleted a provision from the original bill that would have enabled all school districts to use the resource equalizer without a referendum. And some districts to this day have never been able to pass a referendum to access the equalizer formula.”
Before coming to Illinois to launch ISU’s doctoral program in education, Hubbard served as the superintendent of schools in Bibb County, Ala., and was an associate professor for one year at Mississippi College in Clinton, Miss. He was proud to be a graduate of the University of Alabama, where he received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate of education. He was the author of two books.
Division leaders celebrate success of ‘20% Challenge’ at Leadership Conference
Representatives of a dozen divisions of the Illinois Association of School Boards were recognized at the 2010 IASB Leadership Conference in Chicago for their participation in the 20% Challenge in 2009. The Challenge sought to increase by 20% the number of new board members who attended training after being elected.
Nine divisions of the Association either met or exceeded the goal of the 20% increase. Another three IASB divisions were recognized for obtaining substantial increases that did not quite meet the 20% mark. Actual results of the 20% Challenge were published in the January 2010 Newsbulletin.
Aurora (Feb. 18, Beacon News) Aurora West CUSD 129 chose to hold classes on Veterans Day this year, joining a handful of districts that already do so. The school board recently approved a plan to have kids in class on Nov. 11, which in the past was a day off for students and teachers. But veterans will still be the focus, Superintendent James Rydland said. By state law, any school that stays open on Veterans Day must incorporate veteran-related education and a moment of silence into the school day. The tentative plan is to have class in the morning of Nov. 11, then parent-teacher conferences in the afternoon.
Farmer City (Feb. 17, The Pantagraph) The Blue Ridge CUSD 18 Board of Education voted Feb. 16 to split the cost of an outside appraiser with the county and township. Thus the district will help pay for a special appraisal of the Monsanto Seed Co. property in Farmer City. The company is appealing its $10.8 million assessment, which translates to a market value of about $32.4 million. Monsanto, which completed a $100 million expansion of the facility last year, wants the assessed value to be about $3.8 million, reflecting a market value of about $11.4 million. The Farmer City-based school district has the most property tax dollars at stake in the assessment: by some estimates it could lose over $100,000 a year. Blue Ridge CUSD 18 last year approved a five-year, 50 percent abatement of property taxes for the construction at Monsanto, which lies in an enterprise zone.
Glendale Heights (Feb. 17, The Daily Herald) Queen Bee District 16 is preparing for staff reductions that would lay off one in four teachers to help make up a deficit of between $800,000 and $2 million. Roughly 32 non-tenured teachers will not have their contracts renewed for next year, Superintendent Vickie Tabbert said. Queen Bee’s $18 million budget was cut about $750,000 last year and the district had to borrow money just to make payroll. Earlier this month, it took out $5.5 million in tax-anticipation warrants, essentially using future revenue to pay for current expenditures. The state owes the district more than $1 million. The district serves about 2,100 students in Glendale Heights and small parts of Glen Ellyn and Carol Stream.
Grayslake (Feb. 18, The Daily Herald) Grayslake CCSD 46 has announced plans to post payments and recipients of its expenditures online in order to add transparency to the public’s business. Board members voted Feb. 17 in favor of having District 46’s Web site list the names of companies and individuals receiving payments, and the amounts. District 46 addressed the online check register idea at the request of Joseph Calomino, director of the Americans for Prosperity Illinois chapter. Americans for Prosperity is a self-described bipartisan government watchdog group.
Joliet (Feb. 18, Herald News) The Joliet Township High School District 204 dress code committee took a field trip on Feb. 15 to see school uniforms in action. Determining the feasibility of a uniform policy was one of the steps the district agreed to take as part of its strategic plan. The committee visited Morton West High School in Cicero, where students wear white polo shirts with khaki pants. The IASB Illinois School Law Survey states, “A school board contemplating a mandatory uniform or dress code policy should carefully examine court decisions cited ... to determine the legality of a specific limitation contemplated.” Superintendent Paul Swanstrom noted, however, that dress codes are a rocky area because they involve student speech.
Lincolnshire (Feb. 13, The Daily Herald) Prairie View SD 103 has nearly finished setting guidelines for student journalists designed to give Stevenson High School student newspaper staffers clear expectations for their work. School officials hope the rules – first mentioned in public at a December school board meeting –will prevent the kinds of disputes between Statesman staffers and administrators that led to articles being pulled from recent issues. Seven students eventually quit the school paper and transferred out of the journalism class. The Statesman is produced by a journalism class and is not considered an extracurricular activity. Because so many staffers quit the paper in January, the school will ask students in lower-level journalism classes to work on future issues.
Naperville (Feb. 17, The Daily Herald) Naperville CUSD 203 is balking at picking up the $85,000-a-year tab for school crossing guards at 10 intersections and is asking the city council to get involved. Superintendent Mark Mitrovich said he recently met with City Manager Doug Krieger and police officials in an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate a better deal. Apparently the city has determined crossing guards are a “non-core” or non-essential city service, such as police protection or snow plowing, after a major self-evaluation of city services.
Naperville (Feb. 15, The Daily Herald) Indian Prairie CUSD 204 hopes its marquee message about state IOU’s to the district shames Illinois into paying its burgeoning debt. Every sign at each of the district’s 33 schools now tells anyone who passes by “The state of Illinois owes District 204 $7.8 million.” The $7.8 million was due to the district by the end of the 2009 calendar year, and officials fear state funding cuts.
State Board gets update on Race to the Top plans
At the Illinois State Board of Education’s Feb. 18 meeting, State Superintendent of Education Christopher Koch told the board that if Illinois is selected for federal funding in the first application round of the Race to the Top program, the state will learn of it sometime in the latter part of March. All states will know their funding status by the end of April, Koch said.
That comment was made just days before Illinois was named as one of 18 finalist states that are still in line to receive Race to the Top funding. More than $4 billion is expected to be divided among just a few states in the first round of funding.
The turnaround time for the second round of applications is a short one, Koch reminded the board. If Illinois is not awarded a grant based on the Phase 1 applications already submitted, Phase 2 applications would be due by June 1, 2010. Grant awards for this second round of applications will be made by September 2010.
School districts can sign up to participate in the Race to the Top program for a full 90 days after the state is awarded a grant, if it is awarded one.
Legislative liaison staff tout federal stimulus grants
According to ISBE lobbyists, Illinois has been approved to receive additional federal stimulus grant dollars (AARA) that would pay for the next three General State Aid payments. This would fund GSA payments to school districts through the end of Fiscal Year 2010, which ends on June 30. The state presumably would have to pay for General State Aid payments after that date.
Welcome another business as Service Associates member
An Illinois firm involved in school construction, called Poettker Construction, of Hillsboro, has been invited to join IASB’s Service Associates, a group of businesses that offer school-related products and services.
The members of Service Associates have earned favorable reputations for quality and integrity. Prospective members are screened by the Service Associates Executive Committee which then decides to recommend membership to the IASB Board of Directors.
IASB has 75 Service Associate members. A complete database listing of these members can be found at: https://www.iasb.com/associates/ .
Joint Annual Conference registration fee will be $350
The 2010 Joint Annual Conference registration fee is $350.
The on-site registration fee this year will be $375. All family and guest badges will continue to be complimentary.
The 2010 exhibit booth fees will range from $1,600 for the smallest booth to $2,100 for the largest corner booth. The conference hosted 2,117 exhibitors in 2009.
Latest Journal looks at child wellness efforts
Mandated wellness policies have only been in place three years, but they won’t achieve the desired result if they’re just on paper. Alice Armstrong looks at what districts are doing to implement wellness policies and offers no-cost tips for getting kids moving in the March/April issue of The Illinois School Board Journal.
Also in the issue, “Ask the Staff” has information about fund transfers and borrowing options to help districts maintain cash flow in these tough times.
April 10-12 – NSBA Annual Conference, Chicago
April 20 – Wabash Valley Division Summer Governing Meeting, The Holiday, Olney
April 22 – Illini Division Summer Governing Meeting, TBD
April 27 – West Cook Division Spring Dinner Meeting, Elmcrest Banquets, Elmwood Park
April 29– DuPage Division Spring Dinner Meeting, Hubble Middle School, Wheaton Warrenville CUSD 200, Warrenville
April 29 –Lake County Division Dinner Meeting, Bella Via, Highland Park
May 1 –Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, Gateway Conference Center, Collinsville
May 4 – Western Division Summer Governing Committee Meeting, to be determined
May 4 – Egyptian Division Summer Governing Meeting, 9th Street Grill, Mt. Vernon
For more current information, see www.iasb.com/calendar/