Voice of MN Education

"On the Road w/ Charlie".... positions opening up

This message is directed to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) from Executive Director, Charlie Kyte.

The audio podcast is 6 1/2 minutes long.

MASA ELECTIONS COMING UP SOON

Nominations for MASA Officers, Board positions and AASA Governing Board members closes this week. By next week we will share the slate of members running for each position. Campaigns can be mounted in February and ballots will be sent out about March 1. We will know the election results by the time of the MASA Spring Conference.

MASA SPRING CONFERENCE

Mark your calendars for April 3 & 4. The spring conference will be at the Bloomington Sheraton Hotel and registration materials will be coming out in the next couple of weeks. Mia Urick, the MASA Conference Manager has a really good conference coming together.

IT'S "CLEAR AND COLD" TODAY

30 degrees below zero in northern Minnesota along with -50 degree wind chills. Blizzard conditions in south eastern Minnesota. I wish the AASA National Convention, scheduled for Tampa, FL in mid February was being held right now!

ADMINISTRATIVE POSITIONS ARE OPENING UP

We expect to see 60-70 Superintendent positions open tis year along with quite a few central office administrative positions. The search firms are meeting with school districts and are actively recruiting prospective candidates. A number of you have called me to indicate an interest in making a move and if there are others thinking about a move, please call me. I will help to make sure the search firms know that you are interested.

PRE-LEGISLATIVE SESSION ACTIVITY

It almost seems like the session has begun. Valerie Dosland, MASA's ace lobbyist has me meeting daily with legislative leaders as we explain the positions of MASA. In addition we are going to various caucus fundraisers and meeting with many of the other lobbyists that try to influence the legislators on education related subjects.

WATCH FOR THE NEW MASA BLOG

Within 2 or 3 weeks MASA will create a new Blog site. This new site will provide you with messages in 3 formats.... text, audio and video. The staff is all working together to get the new technology to work. If you are interested in Blogging to your staff or community, give us a call and we will help you get going.

"On the Road w/ Charlie".... Ramping up for Legislature

A report to the members of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators (MASA) by Charlie Kyte, Executive Director.

JANUARY 15 NEGOTIATIONS DEADLINE REPORT

Every school district must submit a form to the MDE by January 30 to indicate if they have settled their teacher contracts by January 15th. The report is attached to the December Superintendents message from the MDE. All these messages are on the MDE website. Just add "/super" to the address.

RAMPING UP FOR THE 2008 LEGISLATIVE SESSION

We had a good meeting in Proctor with the NE MN Legislators... our compliments to the NE Service Coop and the Superintendents for arranging that meeting. We hope meetings like this are occurring in every area of the state.

Valerie Dosland, the MASA lobbyist, and I have been in many meetings recently with key legislators, other association leaders as well as with representatives of the Governor's office and MDE. We are making everyone who will listen aware of the MASA legislative platform and are listening to the needs of others.

EDUCATION FUNDING

We have an inadequate 1% increase in foundation funding on the books for next year. We are asking for an additional 2% and we heard many legislators thinking more about an additional 1% only. Lately, legislative leaders are focused on the impending state deficit and transportation needs. Education is now hardly making their 'list'. We MUST HAVE some additional funding for schools for 2008-09 and we all need to be making this case.

WORLD CLASS EDUCATION ACT

We hope the legislature will place the 10 strategies from the MN Promise report into statute to serve as a future template for policy initiatives for public education.

PENSIONS AND CONTRACTS

MASA will work with TRA, other education associations and the Legislative Pension Commission to possibly adopt several changes in our pension laws

1) Secure the post-retirement fund
2) Find some solution for post 1989 'hires' so that they don't have to wait until age 67 to retire
3) Increase the $-match that districts can make with employees toward tax deferred savings

MASA will also try to change the contract conditions underwhich Superintendents are hired so that Boards have greater flexibility in how these contracts are written. It would be to the advantage of both Boards and Superintendents if these contracts could 'roll ahead' annually in an automatic fashion if the relationship remains positive.

CONFERENCES & WORKSHOPS

AASA National Conference is on February 14-17 in Tampa, Florida

Elections Workshops with Don Lifto in two (2) locations

February 21 in St. Cloud
February 22 in St. Paul

MASA Spring Conference at the Bloomington-Sheraton is on April 3-4