CSBA is ‘in the arena,’ Billy tells delegates
Delegate Assembly hears reports on internal, external developments
Published: January 2, 2013
The legislative priorities that CSBA’s Delegate Assembly identified last May returned to the association’s policymaking body in an aggressive legislative governance agenda that received strong support as a cornerstone of the new initiatives and services the association is taking under Executive Director Vernon M. Billy.
The legislative agenda was part of a comprehensive update the association’s senior staff and elected leaders gave the nearly 300 delegates assembled in San Francisco Nov. 28-29. Included were insights into political, policy and regulatory developments at the state and federal level, and counsel on issues local school boards will grapple with in the new year.
In his speech to delegates, Billy summed up CSBA’s strategy and tactics to address “the need for school board members to be able to understand the contemporary nature of change at any given time and understand what it means for governance.” He said CSBA is working to help board members navigate current governance issues by redesigning its Masters in Governance training program and creating new pathways for board members to access critical policy information and engage in state legislative issues.
Wynns, Billy cite successes
President Jill Wynns set the standard for such efforts by barnstorming the state with Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson in a successful effort to defy the polls and pass Proposition 30, Gov. Jerry’s Brown’s Schools and Safety Protection Act, on last November’s ballot.
CSBA’s executive director cited Wynns’ exhaustive effort in his remarks to the delegates, calling her “a champion for strengthening our political advocacy and helping to ensure we are ‘in the arena’ ”—a metaphor Billy borrowed from President Theodore Roosevelt and echoed several times in his speech.
Proposition 30 may have received the most attention in 2012, but Billy was able to cite a list of other accomplishments—beginning with the governor’s historic meeting with CSBA’s Board of Directors early in the year—and the influence the association was able to wield in state budget deliberations and throughout the legislative session. The Governmental Relations Department tracked some 1,300 bills in the Legislature and lobbied on those of greatest import for education, Billy said. He credited the department’s work with direct savings to local schools of $153 million—or $26 for every enrolled student.
Changes ‘respond to our members’
Evidence of CSBA’s work on behalf of its members extends beyond the political arena into education policy, as well as valuable training and services for school governance teams—and into the association’s internal organization.
As Billy put it, “we are reshaping our internal operations in order to strengthen our association.” Under his direction, the staff has been implementing an organizational Blueprint with eight overarching priorities to strengthen the work of the association and the value of membership.
Those changes extend to the association itself. Delegates had paved the way for change at their meeting last May when, in addition to the legislative priorities they’d identified in breakout sessions and their plenary meeting, they also discussed new directions in policy and procedure they want CSBA to pursue. These discussions will continue when the Delegate Assembly meets again in Sacramento in May, when it will consider significant revisions proposed to the organization and content of the Policy Platform by which the Delegate Assembly guides all of CSBA’s work.
CSBA and Endowment ‘natural allies’
Delegates also heard from two influential allies in service to California’s schools and the children they serve.
Robert K. Ross, M.D., president and CEO of the California Endowment, gave a ringing endorsement to full-service community schools, another cause that Wynns took up in her energetic presidency of CSBA. Ross said schools “are easily our most critical and important partner”; he called the Endowment—a private foundation established in 1996 to expend access to affordable, high-quality health care for the underserved—and CSBA “natural allies.” In fact, a $175,000 Endowment grant funds some of CSBA’s current work on student wellness issues.
In addition, Louis Freedberg, executive director of the nonpartisan education information group EdSource, gave an entertaining and informative talk on school finance, policy and politics, and confirmed the key role local governance plays in underpinning the nation’s political structure, calling school board members “truly the foundation of the democratic process.”
Speaking days before several influential state senators introduced State Constitutional Amendment 3—which CSBA is co-sponsoring—to allow local educational agencies to pass parcel taxes with 55 percent voter approval instead of the two-thirds majority currently required, Freedberg called the prospects “very good.”