CSBA: A voice for all at ‘the education table’
Humboldt visit puts focus on rural issues
Published: December 5, 2012
The concerns of the state’s small and rural districts received special attention from CSBA at the Humboldt County Association of School Trustees’ recent annual meeting.
CSBA Executive Director Vernon M. Billy, Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Dennis Meyers and General Counsel Keith Bray joined nearly 150 local governance team members and other friends of education at the event in Eureka.
“This visit just reinforced in my mind the unique needs of some of our small and rural districts, particularly in the northern part of the state,” Billy said afterward. The area’s isolation from the rest of the state complicates student transportation issues, for example, but does not protect it from decisions made elsewhere. On the contrary, Humboldt’s schools are among the region’s largest employers, so the effects of state budget cuts can be even more severe.
“Decisions made in Sacramento have real impacts on entire communities, particularly when they’re smaller communities,” Billy noted.
Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools Garry T. Eagles, who arranged for the visit, welcomed the “reaffirmation of CSBA’s aggressive advocacy” the delegation delivered. “The audience came away with a greater appreciation of CSBA’s role in the past, as well as in the future,” Dr. Eagles said.
On Gov. Jerry Brown’s goal to revamp state education appropriations under a weighted student funding formula, for example, Eagles is confident “CSBA will make sure the governor’s principles on weighted student funding are moderated by a little more on-the-ground perspective.”
“The most important part of the visit is the personal presence” of the CSBA representatives on Humboldt-area governance teams’ home turf, Eagles said. The message received was that “CSBA is there not only to represent the bigger voices but also the small, rural voices at the education table.”