The Greene County board of education set its legislative priorities for the 2015 session of the Iowa Legislature at its July 16 meeting.
The school board participated this year in the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) legislative policy process by talking about the impact of state policy on the district and voting on legislative resolutions for the next legislative session. Each school board prioritizes up to five resolutions.
The school board selected the following legislative priorities for 2015:
- Supports legislation requiring any new mandate have corresponding funding sufficient to implement the new mandate.
- Supports continuation of sufficient incentives and assistance to encourage sharing, reorganization or regional high schools to expand academic learning opportunities for students and to improve student achievement.
- Supports legislation that provides greater flexibility for school districts to meet changing needs, become more efficient, protect natural resources and save public funds, including support of Home Rule.
- Supports setting supplemental state aid (replaces the term allowable growth) by the date specified in the Iowa Code at a rate that encourages continuous school improvement and reflects actual cost increases experienced by school districts and AEAs. Our priority is to increase state cost per pupil and the spending authority associated with it to build a strong base for future education resources.
- Supports the use of physical plant and equipment levy (PPEL) funds for the maintenance and repair of transportation equipment that can be purchased or financed with PPEL funds.
The grassroots IASB legislative process involves all school board members in Iowa. Resolutions submitted by school districts will be reviewed by the IASB board of directors before being debated and adopted by the IASB delegate assembly at its annual meeting on Nov. 19 in Des Moines.
