Board Members:
Happy Groundhog Day! I can never remember what it means if the ground does or doesn't see his shadow. Frankly, I'm not sure it's all that important to me anyway! On Monday we had a full meeting of the administrative cabinet and are planning to recommend that our computer fleet refresh with the Apple product. The team is convinced that the tracking pad in the new case makes a tremendous difference with the use of the device. Student testing with the chromebooks revealed some applications, ironically enough don't perform quite as well. While this is tentatively on the agenda for board action in February, we may delay it for a month and wait for the new pricing/device change; expected in early March.
On Tuesday afternoon, we met with a representative from Bound to discuss moving forward with online ticketing and the benefits of making such a move. This is wrapped into the gate admission discussion that we have been engaged in with the conference the last couple of months. I'm pretty impressed with the capabilities of the system!
We have also spent quite a bit of time on budget development for FY 2025, although we are still waiting for the SSA bill to come out of the legislature. A shell bill was introduced in the Senate earlier in the week, but it didn't reveal anything. The 30 day deadline is next week, so the clock is ticking. Because the new public hearing requirements for taxing authorities now require taxpayer statements to be mailed out in March, it is making the process challenging. Two days ago, the system was overstating our projected rates; today it is understating the rates.
In other legislative news, it was a big week for the AEA bills. The bill in the House failed to advance out of subcommittee, while the bill in the Senate did advance to full committee consideration. The caveat for this approval was an acknowledgment that in current form, the bill needs tremendous work yet. I'll also add that the teacher pay proposal is also included in this bill. The focus and energy right now seem to be on this bill (at least in my view), and is causing other important issues to be sidelined. Although we did have this little gem!
HF2073 Would allow schools to employ chaplains or engage volunteer chaplains in order to provide services to students. What could possibly go wrong? Satanic Temple Welcomes the Opportunities to Serve as Iowa School Chaplains
Have a great weekend!
Dr. Tony Voss
Superintendent
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