WASB Fall Regional Conference

Tonight I am going to the fall conference for region 12 of the WASB as the Madison Metropolitan School District's delegate. This is one of the few opportunities where board members get together, share information and discuss advocacy at a state level.

The agenda for tonight's meeting will include: recognizing the award-winning work of students in grades K-12 who submitted books in the WASB Write and Illustrate Your Own Book contest; presenting the WASB Board Governance Awards; holding our election for our WASB regional director; and, ending with a keynote presentation on Achievement Beyond High School.

I'm excited to learn from leading experts and fellow board members about what we can do to create a path to (post-secondary) success for our students. I will also be presenting on behalf of the MMSD board of education two resolutions that I recently submitted as part of our state advocacy efforts through WASB.

It should be a great meeting.


The resolutions submitted to our regional delegation are:

Proposal for the 2009 WASB Delegate Assembly Subject: Cooperative purchasing program
Submitted by: The School Board of the Madison Metropolitan School District
Resolution:
Be it RESOLVED that the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (“WASB”) shall call on the State legislature to commit resources towards the coordination and expansion of the State’s cooperative purchasing program to address the needs of school districts and other units of local government.

Rationale:
All levels of government—state, county, local, and school districts—are under pressure to use tax dollars wisely in these times of economic stress.
School Districts’ budgets in particular have been constrained by state statutes on revenue limits for 15 years, leading to many cuts in programs and employees.
The investment by the state to coordinate this purchasing service would benefit all levels of government by lowering their costs.
Leveraging the combined purchasing volume of both state agencies and local governmental units would lower the costs of acquiring goods and services and ultimately benefit the taxpayers of our state.


Proposal for the 2009 WASB Delegate Assembly Subject: Localized Purchasing in School Nutrition Programs
Submitted by: The School Board of the Madison Metropolitan School District
Resolution:
WHEREAS School Boards recognize the connection between a healthy diet and a student’s ability to learn effectively and experience success in school; and
WHEREAS School Boards recognize the school district’s role, as part of the larger community, to establish and maintain life-long healthy eating habits, to support the local economy, and to act as a good steward of community resources;
THEREFORE, be it RESOLVED that School Boards in Wisconsin shall actively promote the purchase of local products and produce from local farms in their respective county or region, based upon availability, and be it further RESOLVED that school districts should work together with CESAs and county organizations to coordinate a list of producers to increase the amount of products purchased from local farms and organic food suppliers.

Rationale:
Recent changes enacted as part of the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 address procurements in Child Nutrition Programs, amending the Richard B. Russell National School Lunch Act to require the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture to encourage institutions to purchase unprocessed locally-grown and locally-raised agricultural products. Specifically, “The Secretary shall … allow institutions receiving funds … to use a geographic preference for the procurement of unprocessed agricultural products, both locally grown and locally raised.” (P.L. 110-246, Sec. 4302).
Effective October 1, 2008, the National School Lunch Act allows institutions (including school districts) to apply a geographic preference when procuring unprocessed locally grown or locally raised agricultural products. Appropriate geographic preferences would include, State, county, region, etc.
Moreover, as Woodbury (IA) County Rural Economic Development Director Robert Marqusee stated for the July 2007 National Association of Counties publication on Local Food Systems and sustainable communities, “Most people think we have to look outside of [our county] to reinvigorate our economy … We simply have to be willing to support local farmers and help them develop products that are lucrative in today’s markets rather than putting them out of business just to save a few dollars in the short term.” [http://www.farmtoschool.org/files/publications_133.pdf]
[See http://www.fns.usda.gov/cnd/Governance/Policy-Memos/2008/SP_30-2008.pdf]

Approved by motion of the School Board of the Madison Metropolitan School District on September 8, 2008.

Weekly Update

There's an image I get in my head that captures the feeling I sometimes get when dealing with Board of Education agenda and obligations over the course of a week. It's an image tied into that fall phenomenon of nature as birds begin their migration south.

This past week on the board I have moved in varied circles, hopefully which may lead our district in a new and better direction as we improve our connections with the broader community.

Early in the week the Madison Board of Education approved the submission of two resolutions for the state school board association's annual meeting. I was happy to be an author of one and to get assistance from the Middleton/Cross Plains board on the second.

One meeting that I'm always happy to attend is with community organizers and childcare providers working to bring quality early childhood education to all students in Madison. We met at a local business, Ground Zero coffee shop, and enjoyed much in the way of conversation and goal-setting. If you would like to learn how to get involved in this effort feel free to contact me and I will put you in touch with some great people working on behalf of young children and through an investment in our future.

In addition, I may start holding listening sessions at local businesses to better communicate with the community.

An evening meeting included fellow school board members' plans for our calendar and agenda over the next few months as we work together on behalf of all students throughout Dane County. We are the main organizers of the Dane County School Board Consortium who have been meeting for over a year now to create a movement of pro-active advocating of the work being done from a board level regarding cost-savings measures, creation of efficiencies and focused improvement of academic achievement for students in our schools.

I also had the pleasure of attending a local fundraising event that included speeches on school financing as well as support for going to a referendum this November in the Madison Metropolitan School District (MMSD). My sense is that many boards in our area will be going to referendums in the spring. This issue will not go away anytime soon for voters, taxpayers and educators. We would do well to continue to work together.

Later in the week, I attended as the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) as a delegate from the MMSD board. The seminar, which focused on employment law, gave me the opportunity to learn the latest in legal findings pertaining to Wisconsin school systems and bargaining issues.

Last week also led to the final draft of a memorandum of understanding with the teachers' union to address multiple grievances that Madison Teachers, Inc. has filed against the district regarding athletic director positions and online courses. The MMSD has much to clear out from the past and I'm convinced that with enough hard work we will go in a new direction.

One positive aspect of the MOU is that it begins to lay the groundwork for more formalized connections for our students in the high schools through the positions of full-time athletic/activities directors. In addition, the distance learning portion may lead to continued conversation on the importance of embracing new ideas and technology in this district.

Let's hope that our staff and the union can continue to open the window to 21st the century. We need to plan for the future as stated in an excellent document from Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning, A Review of State-Level Policy and Practice, 2006 by John Watson and Jennifer Ryan of Evergreen Consulting Associates.

“Many analyses looking at the growth of online education have concluded that online learning will have, or is having, a tremendous impact on the evolution of education. The proliferation of the Internet is challenging the limitations of education’s traditional methods of teaching and learning.”

“Many online programs began in response to the need to transcend limitations of time and place and increase availability of courses to students in rural and urban schools. With the growth of online learning across much of the country, virtual schools are expanding options for students in a way that no other delivery model can, allowing for focus on student needs and supporting school reform and redesign efforts. In addition to these valuable benefits, practitioners are increasingly noting an additional, largely unplanned, advantage of online learning: promoting 21st century skills and global citizenship.”


I like what the Superintendent recently said at a presentation on the state of the schools and the need for a referendum. I think many in the audience of business professionals, local industry executives, alternative education providers and parents were impressed by Dr. Nerad's honesty and openness.

He said toward the end of his speech and I'm paraphrasing, "I can’t turn the hands of the clock back but we can move forward…"

I guess that's why I've been looking up lately. Scanning for winged migrations. It's time to take flight and I'm ready to move.