Mt. Pleasant school board sets 2022 legislative priorities

The Mt. Pleasant school board settled on a shortlist of preferred legislative priorities at its Monday night meeting.

Superintendent John Henriksen explained the process of submitting the district’s legislative priorities.

“We send our legislative priorities to the Iowa Association of School Boards,” Henriksen said. “The association selects those from around the state, and they decide what their legislative agenda will look like for upcoming session in 2022.”

Topping Mt. Pleasant’s list was teacher recruitment and licensing.

“We felt pretty strongly about teacher recruitment and licensing, alternative ways for licensure and flexibility for licensure,” Henriksen said. “I would say that the Board of Educational Examiners have supported us. They’ve really supported school districts that have struggled to fill vacancies.”

The board’s recommendations include:

• Alternative teacher licensure upon completion of research-based teaching pedagogy training in addition to content knowledge in a curricular area.

• Pathways for individuals with non-traditional educational backgrounds to meet licensure qualifications.

• Reciprocity agreements with other states with high-quality education programs so as to increase diversity among our certified teachers and administrators.

• Expansion of programs such as: Teach Iowa Scholar, Troops to Teachers, Teacher Intern Program and others as approved by the Board of Educational Examiners.

• Programs designed to recruit teachers that will better match the demographic makeup of our student population.

• Advocate for funding of loan forgiveness programs and grants that will make education careers a viable option.

Another priority is increasing supplemental state aid to school districts to “a rate that sufficiently supports local districts’ efforts to plan, create and sustain world-class schools.”

“We would certainly like to see more than 2.1 percent in supplemental state aid,” Henriksen said.

It includes a call for the Legislature to set supplemental state aid at least 14 months prior to the certification of school district budgets.

The third legislative priority is increased investment in broadband infrastructure, something Henriksen said that the state is already working on.

“The district supports significant infrastructure to improve broadband connectivity statewide, especially in our most rural areas,” he said.