Executive Viewpoint

New School Year Insights

Dr. Mike Hernandez, AAEA Executive Director

Well, that was quick! Summer is just about over, and we now have the promise of a new school year. Hopefully, you were able to attend the AAEA conference this summer. It was one of the largest groups ever, with many participants and vendors. That is a credit to you for wanting to get quality learning and networking and to our constituent boards and staff for putting together a conference full of great information. Many things compete for your attention, and I hope our summer conference is viewed as a great option that serves your needs. The message of our theme this year was purposeful to help you begin or continue to change the narrative about public education in your communities. There are so many wonderful things going on in your schools, and we must let that light shine. AAEA is already planning for the 2023 conference.

There will be many opportunities to shine this year. Surely, we will begin this year without the threats of major Covid outbreaks that will disrupt how we do school. This reprieve will allow us to get back to consistency with our schedules and plans to educate our students. The 94th General Assembly will convene this year, beginning on January 9th, 2023. This session will bring many challenges, I am sure, but also opportunities to improve the educational process in our state. We must continue to work with our community and locally elected officials to express the needs we have and the challenges we face due to policy restrictions and funding. The AAEA Legislative committees will continue to meet along with some other ad hoc groups to determine what policy changes might be needed to better educate students who are products of our ever-changing society. I know you all welcome these students with open arms. Some early focus areas discussed are reading, career and technical education, fiscal responsibility, family and community engagement, and school safety.

School safety has been a massive topic of discussion in our state due to the recent events in Uvalde, Texas. The Arkansas School Safety Commission will submit its initial report to the Governor this month, and a final report will be finished by October. The initial discussion has been around ascertaining how schools have been able to institute the previous 2018 recommendations and develop new possible recommendations based on further information from Uvalde. You should expect to see new survey questions asking you to respond. There is hope that new money will be made available to schools through the adequacy study and the special session on August 9th. The two main ideas I have gleaned from all this discussion are that districts should have safety procedures that ensure that doors are locked as much as possible and that districts practice and inspect these procedures regularly. Many layers can be added to this, but it starts with communication of procedures and training with staff. I know many of you are being asked questions by your community about school safety and how your district will address these questions and concerns. The best way is to establish or continue a school safety committee that includes parents and community members to discuss these matters and educate them on what you're doing to keep your students and staff safe.

Speaking of the special session, we understand that teacher salaries have little chance of being on the call. It is excellent that we have had such a widespread discussion about teacher salaries. On the other hand, it is unfortunate that the debate has turned into such a public fight, but that is where we are in this climate. On the positive side, we seem to have widespread agreement that salaries must be addressed. I believe the adequacy committee will address this in the coming months as we approach the next legislative session in January. This month's main order of business for the special session will be to accelerate tax cuts that were voted on in December of 2021. I know there is some concern about how the federal government will view this as it relates to the American Rescue Plan, but that is yet to be determined. We hope these tax cuts will not jeopardize the future funding needed for schools and teacher raises. School safety funding is the only other item that may be on the call that has to do with education at this point.

Finally, as you know, we are awaiting guidance on how the new Arkansas Legislative Council's bonus recommendation will shake out. Many of you are scrambling to figure out what your next step is. This is an excellent opportunity to educate your staff and community about the history of all the relief funding provided and how you have worked with your community to make plans for spending this based on needs. I was interviewed on Arkansas Week about this topic, which may help with some of the language in your communications. The recording is linked here. The bottom line is that it should remain a local decision on how you spend these funds to help your students, staff, and district. Hopefully, relief funds will begin flowing soon for reimbursement, and we can move forward from this recent development.

The 2022-2023 school year is upon us. Let's make a difference and improve the lives of our students. Thank you all for your hard work this summer!