School superintendents who supported House File 2612, a Republican-backed bill to that reorganizes funding and oversight of Area Education Agencies – AEAs – were in a minority of their peers.
Greene County Schools superintendent Brett Abbotts, though, spoke in support of the bill at a public hearing at the capitol.
The bill was changed from the time it was introduced until the House passed it two weeks ago. In the end, lobbyists for the Iowa Association of School Boards registered as “Undecided” on the bill. Lobbyists for the Iowa State Education Association and the American Civil Liberties Union registered as “Against.”
The bill, as it was passed, keeps the AEAs as the sole provider of special education support in the state. State funding for special education services will go to school districts, who are then required to use that funding with their AEA
Additionally, school districts will receive an allocation for media services and other education services that have been provided by the AEAs. Districts can then choose whether to use the AEA or another party for those services, with payment from the school district to whomever provided the service.
Control over how to spend media services funds was one reason he supported the bill, superintendent Abbotts to GreeneCountyNewsOnline. “When auditing what we actually use compared to what we are supposed to pay… we do not get what we pay for. We hardly, if ever, use their print services. We do use a number of bookshare and other media-related subscriptions. However, we can receive those same subscriptions and still spend significantly less that what we send to the AEA,” Abbotts said, adding that the district sends close to $75,000 to the AEA for media services.
Payment for educational services is the same scenario. Abbotts explained the district gets support from one person “who is sort of a ‘catch-all’”. She supports the district with LETRS training (regarding literacy/reading), and the MTSS (multi-tiered systems of support) structures at all three school buildings. The district pays the AEA $80,000 for that services.
Abbotts said he doesn’t foresee a drop-off in services under the legislation. “I see this being an opportunity to explore alternative options, hire back someone to support our intervention, MTSS, and professional learning, fulltime and specific to Greene County,” he said.
He said it’s unclear what the impact of the entire bill will be to Greene County Community Schools. “I think a lot of schools are going to end up hiring the quality employees away from the AEA and put them on their own payroll,” Abbotts said. “This might be a concern, but I also see it as an opportunity to hire quality, fulltime staff to support the needs that we do have for our students.”
He does not think parents of Greene County special education students will see any change in the education their child receives after the full implementation of the bill.
