Schools discuss education issues with legislators

School superintendents questioned Iowa State legislators about state supplemental aid, preschool funding and open enrollment during a forum hosted by BGM and HLV School in Brooklyn Jan. 25.

The annual forum allows area school superintendents and their board members to discuss education issues with State senators and representatives.

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Sen. Annette Sweeney from Senate District 27, Sen. Dawn Driscoll from Senate District 46, Rep. Thomas Gerhold from House District 84 and Rep. Helena Hayes from House District 88 discussed education issues with about 30 attendees, including superintendents and board members from BGM, Belle Plaine, English Valleys, Grinnell-Newburg, HLV, Iowa Valley, Montezuma, North Mahaska, Tri-County and Williamsburg.

Superintendents and board members asked questions regarding proposed bills and their impact on schools, including state supplemental aid (which Gov. Reynolds has tentatively suggested setting at 2.5%), funding preschoolers fully and providing flexibility to the 20:1 student to teacher ratio and reverting back to setting deadlines and waiting periods for open enrollment to prevent students from going back and forth between districts.

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“We need to keep every kid we can get,” said Curt Rheingans, superintendent of Iowa Valley and English Valleys school districts. “We just need something to help us out.”

School districts voiced their concerns about finding adequate staffing. Driscoll said that education is not the only industry having trouble recruiting employees.

“It is every single field,” she said.

Educators suggested that legislators change the school start date from no sooner than Aug. 23 to the first Tuesday following the Iowa State Fair and discussed the governor’s bills, HSB 542 and SSB 3073, which restructure Area Education Agencies and raise minimum starting teacher salaries from $33,500 to $50,000.

It’s early in the legislative session, so many new bills are being proposed, as are amendments to the governor’s education study bills, legislators said.

Superintendents shared their concerns about losing support from AEAs that not only assist students with disabilities but provide services for all students, teachers and districts.

“Concerns have run high since the governor released her AEAs proposal,” said Hayes. “My colleagues and I in the Iowa House have worked hard since then to discuss the bill details with our local district superintendents, school staff and board members along with parents who have received special education services.

“Personally, I have noticed three things that everyone in my district has agreed on: there is identifiable room for improvement in the AEAs, there are practical solutions to address specific problems and that the process needs to slow down,” said Hayes.

“We all appreciate the large amount of input we are receiving; it clear that AEAs have a special place in Iowa's history,” Hayes said.

“AEAs are vital to our school districts,” said BGM and HLV Superintendent Brad Hohensee.

Educators were appreciative of efforts to increase starting teacher salaries to make them competitive with other industries during this time of teacher shortage. Board members and superintendents questioned, however, whether districts will be able to afford it long term.

The state is required to submit a revised Every Student Succeeds Act Plan to the federal government. ESSA was signed into law in 2015, replacing No Child Left Behind.

As part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, the state created accountability measures and reports them annually in the Iowa School Performance Profile. The State is considering changing the data points used in the report.

One of the proposed changes uses chronic absenteeism in school ratings. Superintendents at the meeting said this is something that districts would be able to control.

School shared with legislators their procedures to deal with students who do not attend school at an appropriate rate. Often, even with efforts from schools, law enforcement and sometimes the county attorneys, the chronically absent still remain absent, drop out or transition to other schools or home schooling.

At the end of the evening, the director of the Iowa Association of School Boards, D.T. Magee spoke about his organization’s goals and ongoing support of school boards and districts in Iowa. Government Relations Director Michelle Johnson, who spends most of her time at the Iowa Capitol advocating for school districts and their needs, also spoke.

“I really enjoyed getting feedback and having a good discussion,” said Driscoll in wrapping up the evening. “We are still waiting to see what the bill and amendments may look like, and then, like every bill proposed here, it will start going through the legislative process so we can continue getting comments from Iowans

“The goal of this legislation, like any education policy we look at, is to increase student achievement. I do appreciate the time everyone took to attend the meeting on Thursday so we could talk about these important issues,” Driscoll said.

“The dialogue was very helpful, hearing from people with boots on the ground,” said Sweeney. “This is the only way we can make good legislation, … through conversations and questions.

“The openness of the administrators to visit their respective schools was greatly appreciated,” said Sweeney. “Also, the board members that attended the meeting were very open to conversation even after the formal round table. My thanks goes out to everyone that attended.”

(Editor’s note: Montezuma Superintendent Rich Schulte assisted with this article.)