ARIZONA SCHOOL BOARDS ASSOCIATION
“Quality leadership and advocacy for children in public schools.”
Mission Statement of ASBA: Promoting community volunteer governance of public education and continuous improvement of student success by providing leadership and assistance to public school governing boards.
——————
At the September 13, 2011 Gilbert Public School Board meeting, board members cast their vote for their top 10 priorities among 105 identified by ASBA. Any priority receiving two votes or more was sent to ASBA. The Board sent 11 items. (ASBA lobbies on behalf of School Boards at the Arizona State Capitol. Is it "for the children"?)
Here is how the Board members voted:
ADVOCACY FOR CHILDREN AND STUDENT NEEDS
• Seek and support legislation that adequately encourages, assists, and financially supports the curriculum and instructional needs of Arizona’s public schools to ensure college and career readiness of all students.
EJ Anderson
Staci Burk
Helen Hollands
Shane Stapley
• Seek and support legislation that will fund programs to prepare and support children and families for success in public schools.
Lily Tram
LOCAL CONTROL/GOVERNANCE
• Advocate for preservation of community governance of school districts through elected representation and oppose federal, tribal, state, or administrative efforts to erode the authority of governing boards.
Staci Burk
• Oppose unfunded and burdensome legislative mandates.
Staci Burk
Helen Hollands
Shane Stapley
• Oppose any effort not initiated by local school districts, through their governing boards or voters, to consolidate or unify school districts.
Staci Burk
• Seek and support legislation that ensures that all public schools are funded and governed in a manner consistent with the Arizona Constitution’s requirement of a general and uniform public school system, so that substantial disparities in the treatment of schools are not created by the law.
EJ Anderson
• Seek and support a change to student enrollment laws that would allow a school district to honor a disciplinary action of a student from another district when enrolling that student.
Dave Allison
Shane Stapley
• Seek and support legislation that provides Governing Boards with flexibility in committing and prioritizing the use of education funds.
Staci Burke
• Seek and support legislation that would allow the removal of a governing board member for excessive absences at meetings.
EJ Anderson
ACCOUNTABILITY
• Seek and support legislation to ensure that all schools receiving public funds are equally accountable financially to the public by complying with conflict of interest laws. Further seek to ensure that charter funding systems are transparent, do not allow comingling of funds, and reverts all public funds and property to the state, if a charter school ceases to operate or loses its charter.
Staci Burk
• Support legislation that accurately, consistently and fairly measures the academic performance of individual schools and the district as a whole.
Dave Allison
Staci Burk
Helen Hollands
Shane Stapley
Lily Tram
• Support efforts to implement an accurate, statewide data system that enables local districts to use data to inform financial, student, and personnel decision making, with the cost of implementation to be funded and provided to each district by the state.
Lily Tram
TAXATION/REVENUES
• Oppose any legislation that prohibits local school district governing boards from supplementing state funding and budget provisions through M&O and flexible capital overrides as well as bond authorizations.
EJ Anderson
Helen Hollands
Shane Stapley
• Seek and support efforts that would serve to maximize and increase the earnings of the school trust lands for the benefit of K-12 public education.
Dave Allison
Helen Hollands
• Advocate for a review of all proposed legislative mandates to ensure any new requirements will have an identified funding stream.
Dave Allison
Helen Hollands
Lily Tram
FUNDING
• Advocate for a complete revision of the school finance formula.
Dave Allison
Helen Hollands
Shane Stapley
Lily Tram
• Seek and support legislation that addresses issues related to school capital issues, including minimum building standards, new school construction, building renewal, and soft capital.
Staci Burk
• Seek and support legislation to ensure full funding for inflation, especially in years in which the rate of inflation is greater than 2 percent and vigorously oppose at the legislature and in the courts any attempts to not fully fund at least the 2 percent inflation factor as approved by the voters in Proposition 301 (2000).
Helen Hollands
• Oppose any effort to divert Medicaid in Public Schools (MIPS) reimbursement dollars from school districts to the state general fund.
Dave Allison
Staci Burk
• Seek and support funding of programs that are proven to enhance school safety, including, but not limited to gang and drug prevention programs.
Dave Allison
• Oppose any mandatory increase in calendar days.
Shane Stapley
• Seek and support efforts to create a statewide database of digital content to be used in the classroom to enhance student achievement while lowering costs.
Helen Hollands
• Seek and support the reenactment and funding of voluntary, full-day kindergarten.
Lily Tram
PERSONNEL
• Seek and support legislation providing all school districts with 5.5% in revenue to fund a system that promotes or rewards teacher individual performance, including merit pay.
EJ Anderson
• Oppose any legislation that would further restrict the local board’s ability to terminate non-certificated personnel.
Staci Burk
• Oppose any legislation to impose mandatory collective bargaining as a method of determining salaries and working conditions for employees.
Staci Burk
• Expand existing programs for the provision of instruction from proficient teachers through technological means.
Dave Allison
EJ Anderson
Staci Burk
Helen Hollands
Lily Tram
• Encourage legislation which allows public colleges and universities to offer a tuition discount to teachers who need to meet the ESEA criteria for becoming “highly qualified” and continue to teach in schools that have a high concentration of economically disadvantaged students.
EJ Anderson
FEDERAL CONCERNS
• Advocate for increasing the federal investment in public education to meet the federally-imposed mandates and subsequent cost increases for special education (IDEA) and implementation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).
Dave Allison
• Ensure that the E-Rate* is continued, making advanced telecommunications services affordable for the nation’s schools and libraries.
Dave Allison
EJ Anderson
Helen Hollands
Lily Tram
• Seek and support legislation aligning the Higher Education Act with ESEA to ensure a pool of highly qualified teachers.
EJ Anderson
• Seek and support developmentally appropriate early education standards for Head Start that are aligned with state academic content standards and reflective of the expectations of local schools.
Staci Burk
• Support Arizona’s efforts to apply and implement its Race to the Top plan.
EJ Anderson
*What’s the E-Rate? According to Clyde Dangerfield, the Assistant Superintendent, E-rate is a federal reimbursement grant that provides support to schools to access telecommunication services, internet, and internal connections necessary for deploying technology into the classroom. The reimbursement rate is determined by the level of eligibility in the federal free and reduced lunch program. During the 2010-11 fiscal year Gilbert Public Schools received $554,214 in reimbursement for eligible expenditures.
If you’d like more information: http://www2.ed.gov/Technology/overview.html