Springfield School Board Update

Study Session, 10.7.2014

 

 

Highlights:

 

* Parker McKenna made a recommendation for the board to renew the District's contract with Mercy as the Preferred Provider. The new 5-year contract will save the District approximately $4 million dollars, according to a re-pricing analysis of last year's claims. The board will vote on the recommendation at it's next regular meeting, Oct. 21, 2014.

 

* The board is considering a 3rd party contract to cover Crossing Guard responsibilities. There was much discussion about partnering with both the city and county, but the total cost to the district could be as much as $67,000 if those groups do not contribute toward the costs of keeping our children safe.

 

* Dr. Jungmann presented a draft of the district's 2015 Legislative Agenda, to be voted on at the next meeting. The document stresses legislative support of local control, revenue increases, the positive correlation between strong public schools and our community's healthy economic development, a commitment to fully funding the formula and an expectation that local legislators will use the Missouri Public Education Vision Project to direct their work for our children.

 

* Board President, Dr. Denise Fredrick presented to the Chamber's Good Morning, Springfield about the importance of defeating Amendment 3. She also volunteered with other local educators at the Protect Our Local Schools phone bank to call voters across the state to ask them to join us in voting against this harmful amendment.

 

* All board members agreed that more focused, one-on-one advocacy needs to take place between each of them and our local legislators. They expressed frustration that many candidates run on an 'education' platform and then can't be found when it's time to vote in support of our local education issues. There may be a reception for local legislators before the Dec. 9th board meeting.

 

One of my favorite moments of the meeting, which lasted until after 8:00 p.m., was when Dr. Jungmann referred to ,"Creativity and our other C's...", as he shared out experiences from his Listening/Learning Tour. Many of us have  thought that Creativity should be the first of the 4 C's and it was inspiring to hear the word used so naturally by the vision-maker of our district!

 

Submitted by Kittilu Maxson

SNEA President