Take Note

February 2015

 

KSBA is partnering with the state’s eight education cooperatives to give board members more opportunities for training in the three topics mandated by regulation since January 2014.

 

“KSBA has been working hard on strategies that will give members more training opportunities in the required subjects of finance, superintendent evaluation and ethics,” Board Team Development Director Kerri Schelling said. “This is part of our regional outreach to make training more convenient for board members.”

 

The regional training was piloted last year at the West Kentucky Educational Cooperative and Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services. Additional training in the three topics was also offered last year at conferences, regional meetings and on-site trainings, as well as through self-study modules.

 

Each session consists of three to five 60-minute clinics on superintendent evaluation, finance and ethics. KSBA will build an agenda to meet the needs of the group and handle the registration process. There will be a $40 fee for each session to offset the cost of the trainers, travel expenses, materials and handouts. Participants can attend all sessions or only the ones they need.

 

For more information, contact Jean Crowley, Board Team Development specialist at [email protected] or 800-372-2962.

 

This is the schedule of the co-op meetings this year:

 

Central Kentucky Educational Cooperative, Lexington, April 18 and Aug. 15.

 

Kentucky Educational Development Corporation, March 28 (Lexington), April 18 and Aug. 22 (Ashland) and Sept. 12 (Lexington).

 

Green River Regional Educational Cooperative, Bowling Green, March 14 and Aug. 22.

 

Northern Kentucky Cooperative for Educational Services, Erlanger, March 14 and May 9.

 

Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative, Hazard, April 7 and Sept. 10.

 

Ohio Valley Education Cooperative, Shelbyville, March 21 and Aug. 29.

 

Southeast/Southcentral Educational Cooperative, Corbin, March 14 and Sept. 12.

 

West Kentucky Educational Cooperative, Murray, April 23 and Sept. 17.

 

School boards are lining up behind KSBA’s intervention on their behalf in Kentucky Utilities and Louisville Gas and Electric rate increase cases now before the state Public Service Commission. KSBA is inviting the 84 school districts served by KU-LG&E to contribute proportionate financial support to the intervention. By mid-January, 73 had committed to help, while three declined and the remainder had not yet decided.

 

KSBA was granted intervention status in the case on Jan, 8, paving the way for later submission of testimony, as it has done successfully in prior cases. KU is seeking an average 9.7 percent electric rate increase, while LG&E is seeking electric and gas increases of 4.2 and 2.7 percent respectively, said Ron Willhite, director of KSBA’s School Energy Managers Project.

 

“However, it appears many individual schools, as proposed, could see significantly greater increases,” he said. “We’re getting the factual information. Where we have energy managers, they are quantifying how it’s going to impact the districts they serve.”

 

Beyond the proposed rate hike, he said, KSBA and the districts are questioning the rate structure.

 

“We’re concerned that schools are now served on the same rates as the industrial customers,” he said.

 

KSBA’s testimony will be submitted in March. A decision is expected by July 1, Willhite said.

Several KSBA staffers were recognized at the end of 2014 for milestones in their length of service to the association. They are from left, Chief Financial Officer Steve Smith, five years; Policy Director Katrina Kinman, five years; senior policy consultant and eMeeting Manager Kim Barker-Burton, five years; Kerri Schelling, Board Team Development Director, 15 years; and Jeff Million, print shop manager, five years. Not pictured, Brad Hughes, director of Member Support Services and Communications, 21 years.