By Jennifer Wohlleb
Staff Writer
You might say that KSBA has gotten too big for its britches, or at least its annual Summer Leadership Institute has.
“The reason we are at the Louisville Downtown Marriott this year is because we have grown so much that the Griffin Gate in Lexington where we usually have it could not accommodate our needs on the dates available,” said Kerri Schelling, KSBA’s director of Board Team Development. “There is so much more training that boards need, so we have grown. It really was a logistical issue and that’s why we took it to Louisville.”
This one-year change will be offset by holding KSBA’s annual Winter Symposium in Lexington, rather that its usual Louisville location.
The July 13-14 institute will include a panel of industry leaders; breakout sessions with topics ranging from end-of-course exams to athletics to college and career readiness; the biannual meeting of both the Council of School Board Attorneys and the Kentucky Organizations of Superintendents’ Administrative Assistants; and a meeting of the General Assembly’s Interim Joint Committee on Education.
“Our Governmental Relations Department traditionally holds an agenda planning day that was the kick off of the Summer Leadership Institute and every year we have invited legislators, school board members and superintendents to come together to talk about what are some of the burning issues that we would like to place on our legislative agenda for the next year,” said KSBA Associate Executive Director David Baird. “This year we’re going to a have a different wrinkle. Instead of having just the planning day for our legislative agenda, we’ve invited the Interim Joint Committee on Education and they will kick the conference off.”
Shannon Stiglitz, KSBA’s director of Governmental Relations, said this is a great opportunity for school board members to discuss issues that are important to them with legislators.
“Each committee is only allowed to travel to two off-site places a year during the interim and we just wanted these legislators to have the opportunity to see what it is that KSBA offers its members, the quality training they get,” she said. “We also wanted our members to have the opportunity to get involved and engaged with the General Assembly.”
This year’s institute also will continue a focus on college and career readiness.
“Our opening session Friday night is going to focus on how school boards can help create the talent pipeline to make sure kids are 21st-century ready,” Schelling said. “State Education Secretary Joe Meyer is going to moderate the session for us which will feature industry leaders providing a real-world perspective. It will be similar to the panel we had at our annual conference, but different sectors are going to be represented, including LG&E as well as a bio-pharmaceutical company.”
That session will be followed up on Saturday with three career pathway workshops on business services and health care; energy; and automobile and aircraft manufacturing.
Schelling said board members also will have the opportunity to hear from several organizations not usually represented at conference.
“Commissioner Julian Tackett from KHSAA is going to be there to talk about what board members need to know about athletics, so I think that’s a real coup,” she said. “And we’re going to have a session on end-of-course assessments presented by officials from the ACT office in Atlanta, Quality Core, the people who put them together. I think that’s going to be impressive.”
Other session topics will include superintendent evaluations and facility planning. All levels of the Academy of Studies will be represented.
– Registration information will be mailed this month and will be available on our homepage under "KSBA Events."