Kentucky School Advocate

September 2019

 

Staff report

KSBA staff will be hitting the road once again for our Fall Regional Meetings, which kick off Sept. 3 at Eminence Independent Schools.

KSBA staff will log more than 2,400 miles as we crisscross the Commonwealth, from Floyd County to Hickman County, from McCreary County to Covington.

“Our regional meetings provide an opportunity for us to interact with our members in a more relaxed, smaller setting,” said Laura Cole, KSBA’s director of board team development. 

This year’s regional meeting program will offer a preview of the 2020 regular session of the General Assembly and a discussion of how some of the issues expected to be addressed by the legislature will impact district management and operations by board teams. 

“Legislation is possible regarding school safety, charter school authorization, tax reform, district mergers and, of course, the legislature will craft a new state budget for the next two years,” said Eric Kennedy, KSBA’s director of advocacy. “We will provide a refresher on the structure of the budget, and spending trends over time, to help our members better understand the evolving numbers we will be reporting out to them as the legislative process plays out on the budget bill.”

KSBA and the Kentucky Association of School Superintendents sent a legislative issues survey in early August to all public school board members and superintendents in the state. Kennedy said the survey’s response rate from members was the highest ever.

“We will review the results of our recent survey at the regional meetings,” he said. “These results and feedback at the regional meetings will build our KSBA advocacy agenda for the session.”

Board members will receive 1.25 hours of finance training credit for attending the regional meeting dinner program. The meeting program also has been approved for charter authorization training credit.

Bonus sessions
Additionally, KSBA will once again offer one-hour bonus training sessions prior to each regional meeting.

There will be different bonus sessions on the topics of finance and ethics offered at neighboring regions so that members can attend training sessions in more than one region, Cole said.

At 11 of the 12 region meetings, members can choose between bonus finance or an ethics courses. Only finance training will be offered prior to the Northern Kentucky region meeting.

“The regional meetings and Winter Symposium are the last opportunities this year for board members to complete their training requirements,” Cole said, adding that many of the  bonus sessions will be new sessions. “Training sessions at the region meetings are much smaller, which gives members a chance for more personal training. It’s new material, a smaller setting and not far from home.”

Registration forms have been sent to members and are available online. Members must register with KSBA for bonus sessions. Regional meeting registration should be sent to your regional chair.

Regional chair elections
Regional chair seats on KSBA’s board of directors will be up for election at six of the 12 fall meetings. Regional chairs serve as liaisons for our fall regional meetings while also contributing as members of KSBA’s board.

“Our regional chairs help ensure that member voices in every region of the state are represented in Frankfort and help provide statewide leadership for all of Kentucky’s public school boards,” said Kerri Schelling, KSBA’s executive director.

The regions with elections this fall are the First, Third, Fifth, Eastern Kentucky North, Upper Kentucky River and Central Kentucky regions.