Notes from JFC Hearing
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | April 22, 2021
Today, the Joint Finance Committee held its third of four public hearings on the 2021-23 state budget bill in Menomonie. The SAA was well-represented with the following school superintendents providing testimony: Patrick Olson (New Richmond), Randy Drost (Rice Lake), Jenny Starck (Cadott), Aaron Engel (La Crosse), Joe Zydowsky (Menomonie), Brian Misfeldt (Bloomer), Michael Johnson and his team (Eau Claire), and Damian LaCroix and his team from Howard-Suamico. Many thanks to these SAA members for their leadership.
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Notes From JFC Hearing
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | April 21, 2021
Today, the Joint Finance Committee held it’s second of four public hearings on the 2021-23 state budget bill in Rhinelander. The SAA was well-represented with the following school superintendents providing testimony: Eric Burke (Rhinelander), Ben Niehaus (Florence), and Scott Foster (Northland Pines). John Humphries represented the Association For Equity In Funding and delivered testimony, Benjamin Heninger, Principal (Gresham) and Tim Prunty, Director of Business Services (Antigo) also provided testimony. Many thanks to these SAA members for their leadership.
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Governor Evers, DHS Announce More than $175 Million to Support COVID-19 Testing in Schools
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | April 20, 2021
Governor Tony Evers and the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) today announced the state has received more than $175 million in federal funding to develop a program to support school-based COVID-19 testing for teachers, staff, and students. The program will be part of a comprehensive COVID-19 mitigation approach to assist schools in operating safely.
“We know this pandemic has been tough on students, educators, and staff and administration alike,” said Governor Evers. “Expanding access to testing is one tool we can use to help decrease disruption in classrooms across the state.”
In March, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it would be investing $10 billion to increase screening testing to help schools reopen, and an additional $2.25 billion to ramp up testing in underserved populations.
View the entire news release here.
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Telling Your Budget Story
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | April 20, 2021
Check out the letters to state legislators in support of our top state budget priorities submitted by Superintendents Edward Cerney (Clayton), Tanya Kotlowski (Necedah), Jon Schmidt (Riverdale), and Business Manager Brian Krey (River Valley).
Hat’s off to these members for their advocacy and their leadership in telling their district’s state budget story. It is critically important for the leadership teams in all 421 school districts to advocate for our shared state budget priorities with their legislators.
Use the information and talking points in the SAA’s State Budget Alert and in the SAA Legislative Agenda to craft your district’s communication to your legislators. All I ask is that you copy your written or video communications to the SAA so we can post them as examples for your colleagues.
COME ON! LET’S TELL THE BUDGET STORY!
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Senate Education Committee to Hold Hearing on Start Date, Equalization Aid Bills
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | April 20, 2021
The Senate Committee on Education will hold a public hearing Wednesday (tomorrow), April 21, 2021 beginning at 10:00am in Room 411 South, State Capitol. We certainly would have liked to provide members with more lead time for this hearing, but we received the hearing notice from Senator Darling’s office just yesterday afternoon. The SAA strongly supports the following two bills that will be on the hearing agenda:
SB-182 Schools (Darling, Alberta) The commencement of fall classes in public schools.
SB-177 School Aid (Jacque, Andre) The timing of equalization aid payments to school districts.
Other bills included in the jammed packed agenda are:
SB-221 Schools (Bradley, Julian) Transportation to a private school during the 2020-21 school year for pupils who reside in a first class city school district.
SB-235 Schools (Bradley, Julian) Measuring a school district’s improvement for the school and school district accountability report.
SB-041 Education (Kooyenga, Dale) Applications for the full-time open enrollment program in the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years and the family income requirement for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program in the 2021-22 school year.
SB-238 Hotline Posting (Jacque, Andre) Posting the child abuse and neglect reporting hotline in school buildings.
SB-302 DPI (Stroebel, Duey) The department of public instruction’s waiver authority related to parental choice programs, the Special Needs Scholarship Program, and independent charter schools.
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