Vantage Point: The year of rebuilding
By:
CSBA President Jill Wynns
Published: December 5, 2012
So, how have we done this year? We began the year determined to leave our crisis behind and to leap ahead of our traditional role as followers and responders. Have we succeeded? I think, yes!
Our Delegate Assembly, the representative decision-making body of CSBA, took a bold position by endorsing Props 30 and 38. We worked hard to get Prop 30 passed, while taking a strong role in the budget discussions. We were right there when the debate about teacher evaluation arose at the end of the legislative session.
The passage of Prop 30 means that we have avoided a fiscal tsunami overtaking our public schools and students. But school funding is not fixed; far from it. We remain more than 20 percent below funding levels of five years ago. We are grateful for a school year that is still only five days shorter for most of the students in our state. Even after all our hard work, we still have a huge job ahead of us to get our state to a level of funding that is competitive with other large, high-cost, industrialized states. This is the least that our students deserve, and it is an absolute necessity for the future of our economy, and, therefore our state and our nation. Are we in a better position to be a significant voice in this debate? Yes!
The Policy and Programs Department has organized our policy work into four pillars—Governance, Closing the Achievement Gap, Conditions of Children, and Funding and Finance—that support CSBA’s longstanding Policy Platform. We are all learning to use this terminology and to change the way we think. CSBA’s Superintendents Advisory Council has been organized under this structure, and all the member superintendents are excited about the increased rigor and seriousness of their interaction with our association. We will continue to see more alignment of our work with these principles. We have expert staff in these fields and are publishing more policy briefs.
Our Linked Learning/Career Technical Education Task Force continues to be the leading forum for policy development in this important area. We have secured an important grant to support this work that will allow us to have a significant impact going forward.
And our Stand Up for Education initiative is going forward. CSBA, its leaders and members will be at the front of the line of Californians who will stand up for our greatest public treasure, our public schools.
It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve you all this year as your 2012 CSBA president. I have done my best, as I promised, to always speak the truth and to represent you in tough times. I leave this office content that we have done all we could together to fulfill our obligation to our students, and committed to continuing this work. Thank you for your support and your friendship.