18227 LM Nov-Dec 2018

CompromisePossible inNew Political Environment Message From the Executive Director

Dr. Brent Clark There will be a shift in the political atmosphere in Springfield this coming January with the inaugurations of our state’s newly elected lawmakers and governor on January 9 and January 14, respectively. Both the House and Senate chambers of the 101st Illinois General Assembly will also have Democratic super-majorities. Forty-three new legislators, including appointments, either recently have or will take office in January. A lot of these freshmen legislators will be flexing their muscles to bring campaign promises and hopeful political change to Springfield. But, political reality says they will have a tough time going up against the financial nemesis, the 50 year pension repayment ramp, that continues to plague Illinois. In my opinion, this is the single largest issue facing our state and is going to have to be dealt with sooner rather than later if the state is going to move forward fiscally. However, I remain confident compromises will be made and cooperation from all sides will be present to address critical issues with this new change in administration. Governor-Elect Pritzker has announced his 35-person Education for Success transition team comprised of school superintendents and many other representatives from the education community. This transition team will tackle many important issues facing public education that need to be addressed in order to ensure maximum educational success for all students. These education issues are multi-faceted and present unique challenges, especially considering the overall strain on Illinois’ budget. This education transition team will have an important role in helping to vet and craft key education policies for the Pritzker administration. The team is scheduled to meet multiple times between now and inauguration day and there is already some discussion of keeping the group together through the end of the spring session.

Back in early August, we started the process of refreshing the Vision 20/20 document to have it ready for the next gubernatorial administration. We are putting the final touches on this document and it will go to Pritzker’s team soon. Next month in Leadership Matters, we plan to detail the latest on Vision 20/20. Stay tuned. One recent development with Vision 20/20 I can share is HB 4284 becoming law after lawmakers convincingly overrode the governor’s veto during veto session. The initiative requires three active educators to serve on the Illinois State Board of Education board. We have tried to pass this bill for several years and are pleased because it provides professional expertise that will help guide the implementation of state initiatives and help ensure that oversight and regulatory efforts positively impact student learning. Lastly, I know many of you have been busy this fall in preparing your district Strategic Dashboard that helps tell your school district’s success story as a supplement to the Illinois School Report Card. This issue of Leadership Matters promotes some of the dashboards that are now complete and also is a quick reminder to turn your Strategic Dashboards live and tag your posts with #ILSchoolStories . Here at www.ILSchoolStories.com you will see other live school district Strategic Dashboards and it’s a central-hub for sharing successes about Illinois public schools. We are going to be capturing this online data and plan to use it to share with legislators this Spring.

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