Board Members:

Good afternoon! It is very nice to see the sun shining today! It has been quite an eventful week! Monday began with our semi-annual bus inspection and at the writing of this memo, there are two outstanding minor issues that need to be resolved. Aside from that, we had to do most of it in the rain so it wasn't a lot of fun! 

I appreciated your quick attention during the board meeting on Wednesday afternoon, we made quick work of the agenda. Hopefully that was the end of the evening for everyone else! Thanks to Matt and Dave for taking time on Thursday morning to walk through our teacher salary recommendations for next year. That was followed up with a meeting with a small group of superintendents in the area this afternoon to check the barometer on how everyone was approaching this work. At this point, I think we are good to go; but I am going to wait for Chad to have a meeting with a few of his colleagues mid-week before meeting with the teacher group. As it currently stands, I plan to meet with them on Wednesday afternoon and hopefully have this in front of the board for final adoption at our April 17th meeting. Right now, everything is lining up so keep your fingers crossed!

There was not a lot of action in the Capitol this week, at least as it pertains to education policy. Most of the work right now is centered around finishing the state budget, and with the end of the session slated for April 16th, we can anticipate that is where the majority of the work will center. The House did advance HF 2618 Early Literacy to the Senate. This bill requires a plan for non-proficient readers and to provide parents the option to retain their children if not proficient. It also requires a test for teacher graduates, but it is not tied to licensure or graduation. It does not appear to be retroactive to current practitioners. 

That's all for now. Have a great weekend and Go Hawks!

Dr. Voss
Superintendent