Leadership Matters March 2014

Outreach

Mutual respect fuels informative legislative roundtable By Superintendent Brent O’Daniell

Virginia Community Unit School District 64 When it comes to outreach, one area that sometimes gets overlooked is communications with elected officials. Thanks to the past efforts of people like retired Superintendent Diane Robertson and Pikeland District 10 Superintendent Paula Hawley, the IASA Two Rivers Region has been able to host a very productive annual Legislative Roundtable the past few years. At our most recent roundtable, held in January at John Wood Community College in Pittsfield, we had four of the five state legislators that represent our region as well as 25 of our 31 members. If I had to identify just one reason for such great participation, I would say mutual respect. Even in times as tough as these, when the legislative news is not happy, legislators know that they will be treated with respect, and we know that the legislators will be willing to listen and receptive to our input. It’s not that we

superintendents is to gain some political insights. Back when we started our roundtable, it was hard to get much comment from the legislators, but over the years I think we have built up trust and they do open up. The politics involved still make the legislative From left, Rep. Norine Hammond (R-Macomb), Sen. John Sullivan (D-Quincy), Sen. David Koehler ( D-Peoria) and retired superintendent Diane Robertson, attend a Two Rivers Legislative Roundtable a couple of years ago.

hold back or sugar-coat our opinions, but we have never been offensive to legislators in our comments. “I always learn something I did not know when we have this meeting. I always make an effort to attend,” said Senator John Sullivan (D- Rushville), who has a leadership role in the General Assembly as Assistant Majority Leader of the Senate. In addition to Sullivan,

process unpredictable, but you get an idea where they think something might go and that helps us develop our strategy. For example, this year Senator Sullivan was honest in telling us that the education line item in the budget looks bad, especially with the temporary income tax increase scheduled to sunset halfway through the next fiscal year (January 1, 2015). One key to making the roundtable an efficient use of everyone’s time is advance planning. We normally start gathering questions and issues two

Brent O'Daniell earned his undergraduate degree from Lindenwood College in St. Charles, Mo. He began his career in education teaching mathematics and physical education in

Odin. He earned his Masters and Specialists degrees from Eastern Illinois University and is currently superintendent in the Virginia (IL) School District overseeing a $17 million building project.

or three months in advance. We then combine and boil the topics down to the four or five that are the most timely and important. This year, we focused on school funding, bonding, transportation, unfunded mandates and the PARCC/Common Core transition. It’s also helpful to make sure that as superintendents we are on the same page regarding our issues, a process that involves information (Continued on page 9)

the bipartisan roundtable included Sen. Sam McCann (R-Carlinville), Rep. C. D. Davidsmeyer (R- Jacksonville) and Rep. Norine Hammond (R- Macomb). It’s our job not only to give legislators the cold, hard numbers and facts, but also how a particular bill or policy will affect our particular school district – to put a face on the pain. One of the big takeaways of the roundtable for

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