1. MattersAUGUST 2013
IASA MONTHLY NEWSLETTER
Leadership
ARE YOU READY?

2. 2
2648 Beechler Court
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618.364.0501
IASA Newsletter Editor
Michael Chamness
mchamness@iasaedu.org
Assistant Editor
Mary Ellen Buch
mbuch@iasaedu.org
In this month’s issue
Volume 1, Issue 8
Additional Items
 IASA’s 5Essentials letter to
Dr. Koch P. 4
 Vision 20/20 initiative
seeks input from Illinois
superintendents P. 11
 Affordable Care Act leaves
school districts in legal
limbo P. 15
 New state law mandates
school shooting drill P. 16
 Concentrate on improving
teaching, not just getting
rating P. 17
 Enhanced P.E. Task Force
offers webinar P. 18
 Legislative Agenda: School
funding formula, graduated
income tax on radar P. 19
 IASA Annual Conference
features dynamic lineup of
speakers P. 20
 Registration being
accepted for Joint
Educational Support
Professionals Conference
P. 22
 Do Federal school
breakfast/lunch programs
benefit districts? P. 23
 2013-2014 Principal
Evaluation Tool P. 24
 IASA News in Brief P. 26
 New SB Performance
Rankings File available P.
27
 Getting to know your IASA
Board Members P. 28
 IASA Calendar P. 30
Message from the new
IASA President-Let’s try
common sense approach
P. 6
New school year brings
challenges P. 7-10
Common Core issues
bubble up in state P. 12
ISBE unveils metric value
tables P. 13

3. 3
‘Back to School’ edition offers
info to take into new school year
It hardly seems like it could
be time for school to start
again, but here we are -- and
clearly it will be another very
challenging year for public
education. It is our hope that
this “Back to School” edition of
Leadership Matters can supply
you with some helpful
information to take into battle.
Working with the IASA Board of Directors, I have
written a letter to State Superintendent Dr. Chris
Koch asking him to consider delaying the public
reporting of the 5Essentials Survey until next year
and use this first year’s results to formulate a
statewide baseline, and also to give ISBE time to
improve the survey itself in order to make the results
more relevant to school districts and to the public.
That letter can be found on page 4.
Among the other topics included in this month’s
newsletter:
 New IASA President Dr. Steve Webb offers his
thoughts and promises a common-sense
approach for his tenure. I think Steve’s approach
is a very good fit for IASA and for tackling the
issues currently facing educators.
 Several IASA Board members identify what they
view as their main challenge going into the new
school year and offer their plans to address those
challenges. Dr. Nick Osborne, IASA Field
Services Director for the Southern Super Region,
also offers some practical tips for going into a
new school year.
 The Vision 20/20 initiative is in full swing, and this
month’s update is about a survey of our
superintendents that will be vitally important to
the success of our goal to develop a road map for
the future of public education in Illinois. The
survey offers all superintendents a chance to
express their views, and those views will help
shape the agenda for the Vision 20/20 work
groups. The more superintendents we hear from,
the better and more reliable the data will be – and
the more weight the final plan will carry.
 Dr. Lindsey Hall, superintendent in Morton
Community Unit District 709, shares her
experiences regarding participating in a public
meeting with members of the Morton-Tazewell
Tea Party regarding their concerns and
objections to the Common Core State Standards.
That story seems quite timely as the issue
appears to be bubbling up throughout the state.
 An update on the impact of the Affordable Care
Act, otherwise known as “Obamacare,” on school
districts that was co-authored by IASA Associate
Director and Legal Counsel Sara Boucek and
Barbara Erickson, an attorney who specializes in
employee benefits, with an emphasis on state
and federal pension laws and health insurance
with Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick &
Kohn, LLP.
 Diane Hendren, IASA’s Director of Governmental
Relations/Chief of Staff, offers a glimpse of the
main education legislative issues that likely will be
on the General Assembly’s radar for the 2013-14
school year -- and notes that the next few weeks
are really good times to make contact with your
elected representatives while they are back in
their districts.
 Dr. Richard Voltz, IASA Associate Director for
Professional Development, writes about teacher
evaluation from the viewpoint that the
observations and evaluations should be more
about improving teaching than just coming up
with a rating.
 Noting that the Catlin School District has
withdrawn from the Federal Lunch Program, IASA
Field Services Director for the Northcentral Super
Region, Dr. Bill Phillips – who also withdrew his
district from the program back in the 1970s when
he was serving as a superintendent -- writes
about that federal program.
 A story about the new School
Safety Act changes recently
signed into law requiring that
an emergency response drill
involving a shooting incident
must be held annually at
each school building that
houses students. That story
was written by Grace S.
Park, a University of Chicago
student who is serving as an
intern at IASA this summer.
Grace is a fourth-year psychology and biological
sciences major who was selected as a 2013
University of Chicago Metcalf Fellow in
partnership with the university’s Institute of
Politics. Grace was born in Mendota and grew up
(Continued on page 4)
Message from the
Executive Director
Dr. Brent Clark
Grace Park
IASA Intern

4. 4
IASA’s 5Essentials letter to State Superintendent Dr. Koch
Friday, August 2, 2013
Dear Dr. Koch,
I am writing on behalf of the Illinois Association of School Administrators (IASA) Board of Directors to request
that you consider delaying the public reporting of the 5Essentials Survey until next year and use this first
year’s results to formulate a statewide baseline, and also to give ISBE time to improve the survey itself in
order to make the results more relevant to school districts and to the public.
We are not calling for a repeal of the survey. We are simply asking for time to allow stakeholders and ISBE to
work together to make the survey a product that would yield more credible data, thereby making the
information more valid for school districts to consider going forward in an attempt to make improvements.
We appreciate your decision to re-score the survey using statewide data as a benchmark instead of trying to
compare all schools throughout the state to the Chicago Public Schools. In terms of demographics -- including
size and socio-economic status – one simply cannot compare CPS to all other schools in our very diverse
state. Our representatives on the advisory panel questioned from the start that approach by the statisticians
from the University of Chicago, and we are encouraged by ISBE’s decision on this issue.
While having a more reliable benchmark would be an important improvement, our Board and other
superintendents have identified some other issues from this first round of surveys that we think merit further
consideration. Those issues include:
 The security of the survey. We are aware of instances where the percentage of responses was greater
than 100 percent – even after corrections were made to the number of potential respondents. Unless the
survey is secure in terms of who was able to fill them out and how many times a particular person could fill
out the survey, the results are simply not credible. The approach that individual districts could invalidate its
results if it could prove some sort of fraud places the burden on the wrong party. Those who are
conducting the survey should have the responsibility to prove that their survey is secure because they are
the ones who know how the security for the survey was designed. School administrators are not trained to
be investigators and they have far too many other items on their plate this time of year to be investigating
security issues with this survey.
 The scoring of results. The conclusions do not appear to match up with the actual results. For example,
in many instances cited, a very high percentage of responses (above 85 percent and even 100 percent in
some cases) were “Strongly Agree” or “Agree” – both positive answers – but because not enough
(Continued on page 5)
in Wisconsin. She said she considers education as one of the most important pursuits in this world, and
wants her work at IASA to reflect the importance and priority she places on constantly improving the
education agenda.
 A story about ISBE’s new Value Table for Growth Metric, an attempt to provide school districts with a tool
to show growth rather than just the pass/fail data that gets reported regarding AYP.
IASA stands ready to assist you throughout the school year and to continue our advocacy for public
education in Illinois. Our Annual Conference is scheduled for October 9-11 in Springfield, so please mark
those dates on your calendar. We have an outstanding group of speakers lined up, and we plan to feature the
upcoming conference in the September issue of Leadership Matters.
I again want to thank you for all that you do to offer top-notch educational opportunities for the children of
Illinois. It’s not easy work. It can be thankless work in terms of public perception and feedback, and often it’s
made even more difficult because of budget cuts and additional mandates. But your work is vitally important
to the future of your community, state and nation because that’s what your students represent – and those
students are the bottom-line reason we all chose this profession.
Dr. Clark’s ‘Back to School’ message ————————————————————
(Continued from page 3)

5. 5
responses were in the “Strongly Agree” category the end result was a school being labeled “Neutral” or
“Weak” in a category.
We are told that probably is the result of scoring on a bell curve, which inherently creates “winners” and
“losers.” Regardless, the results are undermined and become invalid when “Agree” ends up being counted
as a negative response because the respondent clearly was “agreeing” with a statement not knowing that
“Strongly Agrees” actually was the only answer that would count as a positive response.
 Some of the survey questions are unclear or set up for failure. For example, questions about parental
visits to classrooms simply do not apply in many
cases, especially in high schools. For that matter,
given today’s safety concerns do we even want lots of
parents in the school buildings when many schools
already are struggling with security concerns?
Some schools, like Pittsfield High School, operate on a
Block 8 system, meaning classes meet every other
day. How is a math question where the best response
is “We do this most every day” valid for a class that
doesn’t even meet every day?
Similarly, as Dr. Chris Clark of Zion-Benton Township High School District 126 mentioned in her letter to
you, how can a principal of a very large school be expected to know what’s going on in every classroom?
The question refers only to the principal and fails to refer to any other type of administrator who might be
the principal’s designee, such as an assistant principal, department or division chair. How are teachers
supposed to answer that question in a case where other administrators have visited their classrooms
regularly?
Those are three general areas of concern that remain even after the issue of comparing all Illinois schools to
CPS schools. We believe that ultimately this survey could be a useful tool, but not as it is currently
constructed and administered. The premature release of this first-year data very likely will paint a distorted
picture of many schools and be one more weight placed on school districts and administrators, who will be left
to try and explain the flaws in the survey when all the media and the general public will focus on will be the
summative conclusions.
Why rush to release data that may not be reliable, especially in the form of comparative summative ratings?
As I said earlier, it would seem to be a more prudent approach to sit down with stakeholders, take a look at all
of these issues with an eye toward improving the survey and use this year’s results to start forming a
benchmark.
If these first-year results must be made public for some reason, then we believe those results should be
reported as the percentages for each response (for example, 25 percent “Strongly Agree,” 70 percent
“Agree,” 3 percent “Disagree,” and 2 percent “Strongly Disagree.”) It is simply too early to try and use
comparative data and make a summative evaluation based on norms that are not yet well established.
In summation, due to the inaccuracies because of the invalidity and unreliability of the survey results, the
consequences of the release of information from this survey as it currently exists could be very hurtful and
harmful to school districts. We do not believe that is the goal of ISBE. Thank you for your consideration of this
letter. As a statewide association, IASA stands ready to assist you in a good-faith effort to review and improve
the 5Essentials Survey.
Sincerely,
Brent Clark, Ph.D., Executive Director
Illinois Association of School Administrators
(Continued from page 4)
“In summation, due to the inaccuracies
because of the invalidity and unreliability
of the survey results, the consequences
of the release of information from this
survey as it currently exists could be very
hurtful and harmful to school districts. We
do not believe that is the goal of ISBE. “

6. 6
Let’s try common sense approach
As the busy summer of a
superintendent draws to a
close, please allow me to say
how much I appreciate the job
that each and every one of you
do. I know it is extremely
difficult to maintain a positive
attitude in the politically
charged and always complex
Illinois public education
system, but now more than
ever the thousands of children
we serve every single day
need us at the top of our game.
As I reflect on the many various situations we
have traversed the past several years, with
education reform at the top of the list, I find myself
looking for a beacon in a sea of perpetual change –
much like a lighthouse guides us from darkness to
destination. Although our destination seems to be a
moving target, we still open the doors daily to our
future. We still love and nurture those students, and
we still strive to provide a first-class education to the
children of Illinois no matter what might be the
political agenda of the day.
The Illinois Association of School Administrators
(IASA) serves as that beacon of light to help guide
school administrators through the perils of the
unintended or even the untenable. I have found that
the IASA staff and Board of Directors work very hard
to assist us in our duties and, possibly most
importantly, provide focus to our state leaders and
the general public on the real issues we face.
When I accepted my first superintendency, a
colleague once reminded me of the old adage that it
was truly “lonely at the top” and added that as a
school superintendent, friends can quickly become
enemies and your enemies multiply. In my 20 years
as a school administrator, I have found those words
both frightening and highly accurate.
I am very proud to be a part of IASA – the only
statewide organization that is always there for us
and works tirelessly to aid in our quest for
educational excellence. I am very humbled and
honored to be President of this association and hope
that I can contribute some common sense when
helping our state leaders deal with issues that are
certainly “common” over time, but where the
problems are due largely to a lack of “sense”.
Thank you again for all you do for our children. I
truly hope your summer was restful as well as
peaceful, and that the coming year is full of great
and powerful achievements. Lastly, never lose sight
of the destination, and may God bless us in our
endeavor to shape a better future.
Message from the
IASA President
Dr. Steve Webb

7. 7
“Implementation of the Common
Core Standards and the PARCC
Assessment are the biggest
challenges.
We have been planning for this for over a year and
hope it goes smoothly.”
Tim Buss
Wabash District 348
Wabash Valley Region
“The biggest
challenge I see
for this coming year is not one of the
specific legal or technical issues we face
with increasing regularity, but the
challenge of keeping our school
community focused on the positive
attributes of our educational
system. While we always take a hard look
at areas we need to improve on, and
develop plans for those improvements, I
believe the glass is half full and we need to
be proud of our students, staff and
families.
We are a popular, and too often easy,
target for those that want to blame schools
for anything they are concerned about, and
we need to remind them that we know
what we are doing and that good things
are going on in our schools.
“I plan to address this with consistent
regular communication to our community
in a variety of ways about the good things
happening in our schools.”
Dr. John Correll
Salt Creek 48
Du Page
Region
New school year brings challenges
IASA superintendents offer their views
“Our biggest challenge for this
year is keeping up on all of
the new requirements — Common
Core, new teacher evaluation systems, new reporting
systems from the state, etc. I truly feel like there is not
enough time in the day to do everything that is being
asked of our teachers, schools, and districts. “How to
address it? I can’t create time. I can only work with the
time I have, keep my staff calm, and hope that my
administrators and teachers don’t go crazy in the
process of addressing everything that is being asked of
them. I am starting to see burnout in even my very
youngest teachers, and it is very concerning.”
For this “Back to School” issue of Leadership Matters, we posed a two-part question to superintendents
who are serving on the IASA Board of Directors. The questions were:
What do you see as the biggest challenge heading into the new school year? And
How do you plan to address that challenge?
The responses we received covered a variety of topics and are listed below and on the following pages.
“My challenge is to maintain focus on our local goals
and real reform in a time of many distractions.
I remind myself that I was hired to lead. Each day I
give the distractions their due, set them aside, and
then bring myself back to the real work of
concentrating on teaching and learning in our district.
It would be possible to fill my days doing what others say is important. My job is to
concentrate on the work that will best serve our students' needs as we move forward toward our district's
goals.”
Dr. Jonathan Heerboth
West Prairie CU 103
Western Region
Paula Hawley
Pikeland Community
Unit District 10
Two Rivers Region

8. 8
“In my view, the biggest challenge for
school personnel heading into the 2013-
2014 school year is meeting the needs of
all children while coping with education
reform initiatives of outside, political groups.
We plan to focus on meeting students’ needs based on local
community needs, and pay attention to, but not be distracted
by, the ebb/flow of reform initiatives so that when our local
goals align with reform initiatives, we can benefit from the
larger dialogue.”
Dr. Jason D. Henry
Sesser-Valier Comm 196
Egyptian Region
“Since I have a property poor school district that is very dependent on General State Aid, having the
finances to maintain our programs and keeping staff employed is an ongoing challenge for
my district. We have spent down our fund balances rather than cutting teachers and programs and now
face the tough decisions that come as the fund balances are reaching critical levels that would not support
another deficit budget year.
We cut two staff positions and are not replacing two other retiring teaching positions. We are also
planning to borrow the maximum possible in the Working Cash Fund in order to supplement the
inadequate revenue in the Ed Fund. We have already cut back in spending on supplies and other
discretionary areas. We are changing to self insurance for our Major Medical insurance in order to save
additional dollars. We continue to advocate for full funding of the General State Aid formula.”
Dan Marenda
La Salle
Elementary
District 122
Starved Rock
Region
“I feel the biggest
challenge I face
heading into the
new school year is finding time and
resources to provide meaningful
professional development for
teachers. In the past, we used Block
Grant funds to help provide this
training to our staff. Now, without
those funds, combined with the
number of mandated changes we are
trying to implement, it places further
stress on both the budget, and our
teachers.
To address this challenge, we attempt
to train our best teachers, and ask
them to present what they learn to
their colleagues. This gives these
teachers ownership when they are
either asked to attend a workshop, or
they request to attend one. They also
understand that it is sort of a privilege
to get to attend a conference, and not
a ‘right’ as perhaps it once was. We
also will use many of our own
‘experts’ to train their colleagues, as
well as utilizing our Regional Office of
Education. In simpler terms, it all boils
down to time and money!”
President-Elect Scott Kuffel
Geneseo Community Unit District 228
Blackhawk Region
“The biggest challenge for 2013-14 is
continuing down the path towards student growth for principal
and teacher evaluation, particularly in those areas that are not
as easily ‘quantifiably calculated.’ It seems self-evident to me
that a teacher of a Building Trades house with 20 students,
who successfully completes an 1800-square-foot house,
without incident, and high student engagement, and can sell it
for a profit, has demonstrated student learning and value-
added growth, but we're never quite sure if that meets the
letter of the evaluation regulations. Likewise with that choir
teacher or art teacher, who typically are more performance- or
product-based in their teaching and assessment, but who do
not have the same metrics that a math teacher may have
available.
I plan to address the challenge by being as resourceful as
possible in working with our faculty, administration and with
those colleagues from IASA who have great answers and
experience in these areas.”
Ron Jacobs
Riverdale Comm
Unit District 100
Blackhawk Region

9. 9
Dr. Kevin O’Mara
Argo Comm 217
Cook South Region
“I feel that our biggest challenge
remains the funding uncertainty surrounding the state's
support for teaching and learning. The proration was kept
constant, but is still woefully inadequate to meet the needs
of our schoolchildren. The looming pension ‘fix’ that will
almost certainly demand that school districts either wholly or
partially fund the normal costs going forward will only serve
to exacerbate the situation. I just don't see it getting better
in either the short or long term.
I will continue to be fiscally conservative, budgeting for less
than I hope for on the revenue side and working with our
staff and Board of Education to minimize negative effects on
our kids.”
“The biggest challenge is to continue to
implement and maintain, with integrity,
mandated as well as local initiatives and
services designed to promote student
achievement in a climate of uncertain financial
stability. These include but are not limited to: Common Core State Standards,
PARCC, RTI, Early Childhood, School Safety, Continuous Staff Professional
Development, Transportation, PERA Requirements and Personnel.
Continue the cautious, thoughtful, and conservative allocation of human and fiscal resources. Working
individually and in collaboration with IASA, emphasize to the ISBE and Legislature the critical
importance of a reliable and sufficient revenue source to adequately operate and maintain these
programs. “
Cliff McClure
Paxton-Buckley-Loda CU 10
Corn Belt Region
Victor White, III
Prairieview-Ogden
CCSD 197
Illini Region
“In a word: finance. We did RIFs and
most likely will have to do it
again. Also we are putting an
education referendum for vote in
March 2014. Along with the new
teacher evaluation, lunch rules, loss
of transportation funds, the list can go
on and on.”
“Balancing budgets while maintaining top tier
education excellence with potentially drastic
increases in costs due to the state legislature’s
attempts to transfer their responsibilities onto local
school districts and, thus local taxpayers. These
“moving targets” expenses and “prorations” (cuts) in promised anticipated revenue
are causing us to increase class sizes and decrease offerings without a firm grasp
on what we are actually going to need in revenues to support our program
expenses.
We are making minor cuts in many areas in hopes of staving off the seemingly inevitable total
programming cuts.”
Dr. Steve Webb
Goreville Comm Unit 1
Shawnee Region

10. 10
Here we are once again,
families are returning from
summer vacations, students
are returning from summer
camp, teachers are
decorating and preparing
classrooms, and the annual
“Back to School”
advertisements are popping
up in the local newspapers
and on the radio and
television airways. The
much anticipated summer vacation is quickly
coming to an end. Yes, here it comes…another
school year!
The start of a new school year is a special
event; some even consider it a holiday. It is an
exciting time for the students, parents, faculty, staff
and administration. For the school superintendent,
it is an excellent opportunity to engage the district
stakeholders, reinforce the districts values, and
communicate goals, beliefs and strategic
initiatives. The “Back to School” environment is
also an excellent opportunity to promote all that is
good about public education.
There are a number of activities a school
superintendent should pursue to secure a
successful beginning of the new school year. The
following list represents some of the approaches
that are considered important in focusing on the
launch of a new school year:
Focus on communications
Develop a list of “Back to School” talking
points, including things such as a brief review of
the previous year’s accomplishments, goals and
strategic initiatives for the new school year,
challenges and opportunities, and special events
for the new school year.
Develop a “Back to School” news release for
your district and distribute via your local media
contact list to stimulate and promote the local
media’s interest in the district’s return to school.
Utilize your talking points. This is a great
opportunity to advance a positive message about
your school district and to also promote the value
and importance of the public education systems.
Develop “Back to School” welcome letters for
staff and faculty, administration, the Board of
Education, parents and students.
Utilize your talking points to develop the “Back
to School Welcome” for the district’s website.
Contact local, civic, fraternal and professional
organizations to schedule opportunities to make a
presentation regarding the new school year for the
district. This is also a great time to include a
message about the merits of the public education
system.
Keep in mind that local groups are always
looking for presentations for their weekly or
monthly programs. Plan on scheduling an
opportunity each month to deliver a message
about your school and the importance of the public
education system. It is time for us to recapture the
conversation regarding the merits of the public
school system.
Develop the all-inclusive “Back to School”
agenda. Share this agenda as part of your
communication activities.
Plan ‘Back to School’ events
Hold an annual “Back to School” meeting and
engage your staff in the planning of the meeting.
Keep the focus of the meeting positive and upbeat.
Provide refreshments and pre meeting time for
socialization.
Provide a formal “Welcome Back to School”
message. Include representation from the Board
of Education and the staff/faculty unions, and
clearly set out the district goals for the new school
year and emphasize the upcoming opportunities
and challenges. Also talk about statutory and
funding changes, new policies, or updates to your
district’s regulations.
It is essential to share the district’s key vision,
priorities and successes with staff at the start of
the school year. Staff can serve as
communication ambassadors who carry key
messages to a wider audience.
Recognize any retirements and resignations
that would have occurred over the summer and
formally introduce all new staff members.
Encourage each school to establish “Back to
School” events that provide for the students,
parents and staff an energetic and exciting return
to school.
Schedule “Back to School” visits. Visit each of
the schools during the first two days to welcome
back the students and the staff. It's important to
acknowledge all of the faculty and staff in your
district, you are all working together as a
(Continued on page 11)
Dr. Nick Osborne
Field Services
Director, IASA
Back to School: Tips for thriving, not just surviving

11. 11
IASA’s Vision 20/20
initiative is entering a new
phase by conducting a
survey of Illinois school
superintendents and other
school leaders regarding
their thoughts about public
education and specifically
about areas on which the
Vision 20/20 committees
are focused.
“It’s really important to tap into the expertise and
insights of the real education leaders, the people on
the front lines throughout the state,” said IASA
Executive Director Dr. Brent Clark. “I encourage all
school superintendents to take a few minutes to offer
their thoughts regarding what public education ought
to look like. The information gleaned from this survey
will help guide the work of the Vision 20/20
committees, and your voice could have a lasting
impact on the future of public education in Illinois.”
Following the conclusion of the school
administrators survey, a survey invitation will be sent
to the broader community. The survey of the general
public is scheduled begin on August 19 and run
through September 15. IASA members will be asked
to disseminate the survey link to their community by
using their school district communications lists and
websites.
“The data from both surveys will be extremely
important to the work of the Vision 20/20
committees,” said Dr. John Gatta, president and chief
operating officer of ECRA Group, Inc., a Rosemont-
based national research, leadership and strategic
planning firm whose role will be to manage, facilitate
and document the project. “The institutional
knowledge and expertise of superintendents
throughout the state can be a powerful tool in the
development of this strategic plan for the
transformation of public education in Illinois.”
Vision 20/20 initiative seeks input from Illinois superintendents
Survey of school leaders ends August 16; to be followed by community survey
community and you want to assure that the new
school year is a positive experience for all of your
students and their families."
Meet with your administrative cadre to discuss
the “Back to School” agenda and provide an
opportunity for engaged conversation regarding the
new school year. Encourage each administrator to
embrace the “Back to School” holiday/event
concept.
Meet with your facility management team and
schedule a facility walk-through for each site to
inspect all facility maintenance and construction
projects and to inspect the condition of each
building to determine readiness for the opening day
of school.
Establish a formal meeting with all new staff
members. Use this time to provide your own
personal welcome to the school district. Make sure
they walk away with a strong sense of “meaningful
existence.”
Provide a “Back to School” theme for the school
district’s board of education meeting.
The start of a new school year is an important
time for the educational community. It is a time to
instill an excitement about learning and a time for
communicating to all individuals the mission and
vision for your school district. It is also an
opportunity to bring a renewed awareness of the
importance of the public school system.
Successful school superintendents tend to
approach “Back to School” as a holiday event that
provides opportunities for reflection, renewal and
stimulation to promote new energy for the purpose
of focusing on establishing a quality educational
opportunity for all students.
Best wishes for a great “Back to School”
coupled with another excellent school year!
(Continued from page 10)
Back to school tips ————————————————————

12. 12
Common Core issues bubble up in state
By Michael Chamness
IASA Director of Communications
With everything else that is swirling about public
education, some school leaders in the state are being
asked to explain the Common Core State Standards
Illinois and 44 other states have adopted.
Dr. Lindsey Hall, Superintendent of Morton
Community Unit District 709, Assistant
Superintendent Craig Smock, and Troy Teater,
director of curriculum and technology, recently spoke
at a meeting of the Morton-Tazewell 9.12 Tea Party.
They presented factual information about Common
Core and then answered questions from the more
than 40 attendees.
“We just shared the facts about Common Core,
the sources of our information, and our experiences
as school administrators,” Hall said. “One of the main
points we tried to make is that curriculum and
instruction is still under the control of the local school
board. No one is telling us what books to read in
English class.”
Hall’s experience in Morton is hardly unique.
There is a website called “Stop Common Core
Illinois” (www.stopcommoncoreillinois.org), and
questions about Common Core persist not just in
conservative political groups, but also in Parent
Teacher Organizations (PTOs) and in the general
public. Issues raised by the group in Morton were
pretty much in line with opinions expressed on the
website referenced above, including concerns about
standards being too low and too much government
intervention, ranging from a perceived federal control
of curriculum to the gathering of personal information
about students.
Hall said she distributed a CCSS Informational
Sheet, encouraged the group to read the standards
themselves, and pointed them to websites that
contain pros and cons about Common Core. She
also shared some of her concerns about Common
Core with the group.
“One of my big concerns is that Common Core is
another unfunded mandate, but in the world of public
schools that is not unique. Mandates get passed all
the time with no money to fund them,” said Hall,
noting that her district is fortunate to have the
hardware, software and bandwidth capacity needed
to conduct the Common Core assessments, but that
many other school districts might need to upgrade or
add those capabilities.
Other Common Core issues Hall cited included
the time spent conducting the assessments and the
resulting loss of instruction time as well as questions
about the assessments themselves. But she has no
objection to the standards themselves.
“We didn’t go to the meeting to make a sales
pitch for it,” Hall said. “But we made the point that
having learning standards is not a new thing for us.
Illinois enacted state learning standards back in
1997, and those were preceded in 1985 by the Illinois
State Goals. We can’t blame everything on Common
Core.
“Collecting data about students is also not a new
activity for public school districts, but ‘data mining’ is
definitely a concern of groups like the Tea Party. The
people we talked with, I believe, were receptive to our
message because we did balance the positives with
our concerns, and openly answered questions.”
Hall said she was glad to have been able to meet
with three of the Morton group’s leaders prior to the
public meeting. She said setting parameters for the
public discussion and requesting submission of
questions in advance paved the way for the public
discussion about Common Core to be efficient,
respectful and productive.
She also said she emphasized that standards are
not the determining factor in a child’s education.
“The single most important factor remains the
teacher in the classroom. It doesn’t matter what
standards we adopt if we don’t have great teachers.”
“One of the main
points we tried to make is
that curriculum and
instruction is still under the
control of the local school
board. No one is telling us
what books to read in English class….
The single most important factor
remains the teacher in the classroom. It
doesn’t matter what standards we adopt
if we don’t have great teachers.”
—Dr. Lindsey Hall
Morton Community Unit 709
Dispelling myths with facts, and sharing concerns is approach that resonates

13. 13
ISBE unveils growth metric value tables
By Michael Chamness
IASA Director of Communications
In an attempt to go deeper and provide a more
nuanced look than No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the
Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) is unveiling
Value Tables as a Growth Metric to provide schools
and school districts another way of demonstrating
progress.
“We wanted something that could help measure
growth instead of just the pass/fail standards used in
the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports,” said
Mary O’Brian, ISBE’s Director of Assessment. “We
wanted to try to create something that was valid,
reliable and fair from the standpoint that results do
not favor one type of school district over another.
AYP does not provide a nuanced look at the
performance of schools or districts.”
The Value Tables (see table below) award points
based on a student’s growth from one year to the
next. Some of the features used to go deeper than
AYP’s measurements include:
Dividing the AYP categories of “Exceeds
Standards,” “Meets Standards,” “Below Standards,”
and “Academic Warning” into “A” and “B” categories,
in effect creating eight categories instead of just four,
and awarding growth points for moving from the lower
to higher subdivision within a category.
Recognizing that it is more difficult to show growth
for high-performing students and awarding significant
points for maintaining the performance of top
students.
“The goal is to show growth even among the
highest-performing students, and the Value Table
acknowledges that the room for growth is less among
top performing schools and districts,” O’Brian
explained.
The accompanying Value Table uses color coding
to help interpret the results. The gray cells represent
students who have maintained their performance
from year to year, while the green cells represent
students who have achieved a higher level of
proficiency and the red cells represent students
whose performance has declined.
(Continued on page 14)

14. 14
The vertical axis is the performance in Year 1 and
the horizontal axis is the Year 2 performance. The
intersection represents the points awarded for growth.
A school’s or district’s growth is computed by taking
the total number of students’ growth points and
dividing them by the number of students. For this
year, the Year 1 axis will represent new performance
levels applied to last year’s scores.
The concept and the final points in the Value
Table are the result of meetings with an advisory
panel that included ISBE personnel, statisticians and
representatives from stakeholder groups such as
IASA, the Illinois Principals Association (IPA), the
Regional Offices of Education (ROE), the Illinois
Education Association (IEA), the Illinois Federation of
Teachers (IFT), and Illinois universities.
“The first meeting was kind of contentious,” said
Dr. Steve Webb, Superintendent of Goreville
Community Unit District 1 and President of IASA.
“There were lots of positive comments about the
direction ISBE was attempting to go, but very little
agreement among practitioners and statisticians.
Concerns were raised about things like the effects of
small class size and the issue of fairly representing
the growth of high-performing students and districts.”
Webb said the meeting had to be continued to
another date of which he was unable to attend, but
said the proposed Value Table that ISBE and the
panel came up with seems to have addressed those
concerns.
“We identified the need for individual progression
data decades ago and although there are many other
factors that our schools use to gauge progress than
just the ISAT, it appears we are finally going to move
a step closer to real data at the state level that we
can use to make sound educational decisions for our
students as they progress from year to year and
hopefully better informed decisions regarding the
overall performance of our schools.”
In addition to Webb, other superintendents on the
panel included Dr. Thomas Leonard of Barrington and
Brad Hutchison, who recently retired as
Superintendent of Olympia District 16 after a
distinguished career of more than 30 years in public
education.
O’Brian said the range of points (0-200) and the
values assigned to maintaining, progressing or
regressing in the eight categories were determined
collaboratively with the stakeholders on the panel.
Another factor that comes into play especially for
the coming school year is the elevation of the bar for
the ISAT test administered to students in grades 3-8.
The “meets” bar has been raised significantly and,
applying the new performance levels to last year’s
scores, could result in up to 25 percent more students
failing to meet standards statewide.
That -- and the fact that so many schools and
districts nationwide are failing to meet the unrealistic
AYP standards of NCLB (only 17.7 percent of Illinois
districts met AYP in 2012) -- is precisely the reason
for implementation of the Value Table as a Growth
Metric in Illinois.
“The Value Table was chosen as Illinois’ growth
metric because of the relative transparency of this
metric,” O’Brian said. “It provides another measure of
the effectiveness of school and district programs and
adds to the AYP picture in a way in which schools
and districts can show growth.”
(Continued from page 13)
ISBE unveils growth metric value tables——————————

15. 15
Affordable Care Act leaves
school districts in legal limbo
It has been a common practice in Illinois school
districts for school administrators to receive greater
health insurance benefits than other school district
employees. Usually, the Board of Education pays the
full cost of the administrator’s health insurance
premiums for both single and family coverage while
the other employees only receive paid or partially
paid single coverage. With the passage of the
Affordable Care Act (“Act”), school boards could be
forced to end this practice.
Specifically, the Act now prohibits employer-
sponsored, fully insured group health plans from
discriminating in favor of highly compensated
individuals with regard to eligibility to participate in the
health plan and the level and type of benefits
provided. Thus, a health plan where school
administrators have their insurance premiums paid at
a higher rate than other employees runs a potential
risk of being found to be discriminatory under the Act.
If an insured health plan is found to be discriminatory,
the penalty to the employer is equal to $100 per day,
per individual discriminated against, as well as
possible injunction.
Although the
nondiscrimination
provision of the Act
was to take effect
against non-
grandfathered,
insured plans as
early as 2010,
fortunately the IRS
announced that it
would not enforce
the nondiscrimination
rules on group insured plans until the release of
further guidance. Accordingly, because enforcement
of this nondiscrimination provision on group insured
plans is delayed, with what we know right now, a
school district could continue to provide
administrators with district-paid insured plan
premiums that exceed that of other employees.
Please note, the law is not clear on whether the
disparate payment of premiums for highly
compensated individuals will even be part of the test
for nondiscrimination. It is anticipated that the IRS
will answer this question in future guidance.
Still, several third-party administrators and
insurance companies are advising school districts to
act immediately to equalize the employer-paid
insurance premiums of all employees. As a result,
many school districts are not waiting for further
guidance and are heeding this advice and acting now.
It is vital, however, that school districts and
administrators proceed with caution when attempting
to equalize the payment of premiums. Such
adjustments can have long-term TRS and IRS
implications. For example, decreasing non-TRS
creditable employer-paid insurance premiums could
be considered conversion by TRS and result in a
significant impact at the time of retirement. As an
alternative, some districts are simply adding re-
opener language to administrator contracts -- but this
approach also could be problematic due to pending
pension reform legislation.
It is important to note that even prior to the
passage of the Act, this nondiscrimination rule
applied to self-insured health plans and, unlike the
Act’s nondiscrimination provision, the self-insured
rule’s enforcement has not been delayed. If a self-
insured plan is discriminatory, the penalty is full
taxation of the employee of the benefits received
under the plan. Thus, it is critical that school districts
find out if they are self-insured or fully insured. If the
plan is a self-insured plan and is discriminatory,
contact with legal counsel should be initiated
immediately to discuss options.
In the end, consultation with legal counsel on
behalf of the school district and impacted employees
is not only highly recommended, it is crucial.
SARA BOUCEK,
IASA Associate
Director/ Legal
Counsel and
BARBARA A.
ERICKSON, a
partner at Hodges,
Loizzi,
Eisenhammer
Rodick & Kohn LLP, represents school districts,
municipalities, and park districts in all areas of the
law. Ms. Erickson’s primary concentration is on
employee benefits, with an emphasis on state and
federal pension laws, health insurance, including the
implications of the Affordable Care Act, and deferred
compensation.
“It is vital, however,
that school districts
and administrators
proceed with
caution when
attempting to
equalize the
payment of
premiums.”

16. 16
New state law mandates school shooting drill
By Grace S. Park, IASA Intern
In the aftermath of the tragic shootings at Sandy
Hook Elementary School, the General Assembly
amended the School Safety Drill Act to mandate that
a school shooting drill must be conducted annually at
each school building containing students. Governor
Pat Quinn signed Senate Bill 1625 on July 1.
During the academic year, schools are to conduct
six school safety drills. Three of the drills must be fire
evacuation drills, including at least one in which the
local fire department participates. The other three
drills must include a bus evacuation drill, a severe
weather and shelter-in-place drill and, per SB 1625, a
law enforcement drill involving a shooting incident.
Previously, schools could include a shooting incident,
but were not mandated to do so.
The amendment to the School Safety Drill Act
was the result of the discussions that arose from
Governor Quinn’s School Safety Summit. The summit
was facilitated by the Illinois Emergency Management
Agency (IEMA) and included law enforcement, fire
service, public health and education representatives
among its invited attendees.
Another change in the law is that local law
enforcement is now required to participate in the
school shooting drill, much like the local fire
department has been mandated to participate in
school fire evacuation drills. School administrators
and local law enforcement are expected, by mutual
agreement, to set a date for the on-site drill during
each academic year. If a mutually agreeable date
cannot be compromised between the school
administrator and the appropriate local law
enforcement agency, the school shall still hold the
drill without participation from the agency.
Upon the participation of a local law enforcement
agency in a law enforcement drill, the appropriate
local law enforcement official shall certify that the law
enforcement drill was conducted and notify the school
in a timely manner of any deficiencies noted during
the drill.
IEMA Director Jonathan Monken said he thinks
one of the benefits of the new law is that it will help
set a common baseline for schools to be prepared to
respond to a shooting incident.
“When you look at a state like Illinois, there are
864 school districts, and almost 5,000 secondary and
primary schools. So when you look at that number of
institutions, that number of facilities, it stands to
reason that you will see differences from school to
school,” said Monken, who previously served as
interim director of the Illinois State Police before
being named director of IEMA in 2011. “Some
already integrate well with law enforcement, but we
wanted to raise that lowest common denominator to
make sure we have a better baseline for what schools
are doing in terms of preparedness.”
Ron Ellis, who became director of the state’s
school and campus security training program after
serving 19 years with the Illinois State Police, said
that while the change in the School Safety Drill Act
will help, there remains a need for consistency.
"The problem we have found in going around the
state is that everyone is doing it a little bit differently,"
said Ellis, whose training program is funded by the
Illinois Terrorism Task Force (ITTF) and is in
partnership with the Illinois State Board of Education
(ISBE) and the Illinois Law Enforcement Alarm
System (ILEAS). “The School Safety Drill Act says
you will do certain types and numbers of drills. It does
not say how to do them."
Another issue confronting school administrators
regarding the new law is whether children should be
included in the school shooting drills. The law does
not specifically require that students be a part of the
shooting drills, leaving that decision up to individual
districts.
Dr. Gary Niehaus, Superintendent of McLean
County Unit District 5, where a student brought a gun
to a classroom and fired shots into the ceiling last fall,
believes the benefits outweigh the concerns when it
comes to involving students of all ages in the drills.
“I think it is a major mistake not to include kids in
the drills,” said Niehaus, whose district includes
13,600 students and 17 elementary schools, four
junior highs and two high schools. “We are certainly
sensitive to the age of the students, but still feel
strongly that students, regardless of age, should be
involved with drills. Prior to drills we notify parents as
to what is happening and ask them to talk with their
children about the situation.”
Photo by David Proeber courtesy of The Pantagraph
Matt Chapman, a teacher at Normal Community High School,
evacuates students to Eastview Christian Church after gunfire at
the high school Friday, September 7, 2012. No one was injured.

17. 17
Concentrate on improving
teaching, not just getting rating
Traditionally, most teacher
evaluators I have interacted
with view teacher observation
as a compliant duty that
results in a teacher rating.
The evaluator meets with the
teacher in the Pre-
Conference and the teacher
does all the talking,
describing the lesson they will teach, describing their
students, describing how the lesson relates to the
district curriculum and recently the Common Core
State Standards. The evaluator observes and takes
copious notes of what is occurring in the classroom.
The evaluator then prepares the summative
evaluation, including the teacher rating, and does all
the talking in the Post-Conference.
What really occurred in the above scenario that
will result in teacher change of behavior? Probably
nothing, as the teacher likely went directly to the
summative rating in the Post-Conference and then
listened politely to the evaluator if the teacher
received a perceived “good” rating, or the teacher
would prepare their objections to the rating and try to
tell the evaluator what they missed and why the
rating was not accurate if the rating is below their
personal interpretation of what it should be.
In my opinion, teacher evaluation should be
retitled “Teacher Observation” -- and the goal should
be professional development not summative rating.
Sure, the evaluator will need to eventually rate the
teaching (notice I wrote “teaching” not “teacher”)
because that is required in the law. However, what
the evaluator and the teacher should really want is to
improve the teaching performance and subsequently
student achievement.
So how do we change this paradigm? I would
suggest that we change this process by not
concentrating on the “rating” and instead focusing on
the reflective questions the evaluator asks the
teacher in the “reflective conference.” This reflective
questioning process should occur following all
observations of teaching, both formal and informal
evaluator observations.
Illinois law requires that the teacher reflect on his
or her own teaching. I am suggesting that districts
add a fourth required component of the summative
formal evaluation process. This fourth requirement
would be a reflective conference that would be
placed after the formal observation but before the
Post-Conference.
The evaluator will prepare for this reflective
conference by forming reflective type questions
based on the evaluator’s observation notes. By
thinking about forming open-ended reflective
questions the evaluator will stay away from
interpretation, judgment and bias until the evaluator
has given the teacher a chance to explain why he or
she did what they did in their teaching.
Below are some examples of evaluator-scripted
notes followed by possible reflective questions the
evaluator could ask the teacher in the reflective
conference:
(Continued on page 18)
Dr. Richard Voltz
Associate Director
of Professional
Development
Evaluator Notes Reflective Questions
Teacher asks 15 questions in a 45-minute lesson. All 15
questions use knowledge-level verbs such as describe and
define.
How could you have asked higher-level questions in this
lesson?
Of the 15 questions asked in this class, the teacher
answered 5 of the questions, 7 questions required one-word
answers, and 3 questions required explanation.
How could you have asked questions so that students an-
swered all the questions?
Three students asked questions during this lesson and the
teacher answered each question.
How else could you deal with students asking questions?

18. 18
In one of my recent training sessions, Christine
Yeoman from Watseka thought of these reflective
questions as a result of watching a high school
English teacher teach a lesson. They were:
 How could more students be engaged in
questioning?
 Tell me about a part of the lesson that did not go
according to plan.
 How could students be encouraged to ask better
questions?
 Tell me how supplies could be better distributed
to the class.
 What was the outcome of the lesson?
 In what way were students learning-challenged?
 Talk me through the purpose for the graphic
organizer.
 What evidence was gathered after the lesson to
show students met the objective?
 What types of patterns did you see in the
students’ responses?
 Which resources in the lesson were most
effective in meeting the objective and why?
 Describe the students level of engagement
during the lesson.
The reader may remember in a previous article
that this author recommends several informal
observations and at least two formal observations.
One of the reasons for multiple observations is to
develop trust and a rapport between the evaluator
and the teacher concerning teaching and learning.
The teacher will have several opportunities to reflect
on their own practice and to make improvements
based on the reflective conversations. Then, in the
end, the “rating” should not be that big a deal, it will
reflect the growth of the teacher throughout the
process.
(Continued from page 17)
Enhanced P.E. Task Force offers additional webinar
Leading the Nation: Illinois Enhance P.E. Task Force Recommendations & Revised Learning Standards
The Illinois Enhance Physical Education (P.E.) Task Force, established by
Public Act 97-1102, brought together a diverse array of stakeholders who
created recommendations driven by the compelling evidence linking enhanced
P.E. with improved academic achievement, behavior, and health. The
recommendations promote and support the leadership of local schools and
administrators so they can be champions and models for other schools. The
Task Force also recommends actions to ensure that sufficient professional
development opportunities are available to teachers and suggests specific
metrics that can be used at the state and local level to measure the
implementation and impact of enhanced P.E. The Task Force also proposed
revisions to the state learning standards for Goals 19-24 that will facilitate
consistent implementation of quality P.E.
This webinar will be held Tuesday, September 17, 2013 from 10 to 11 a.m. Click here to register. During this
webinar, participants will hear from Task Force members, including the State Superintendent of Education,
and will learn about the specific recommendations put forth by the Enhance P.E. Task Force, including
proposed changes to the learning standards.
Concentrate on improving teaching, not just getting rating——————————
ISDLAF+ July 2013 Monthly Update
Click here to view the July 2013 ISDLAF+ rates, economic indicators
and general economic news brief. To obtain additional information
regarding this IASA sponsored service, contact Emmert Dannenberg,
statewide marketing director/ ISDLAF+ at 815.592.6948. To check
daily rates, visit the ISDLAF+ website at www.isdlafplus.com.

19. 19
Legislative Agenda:
While the timing for a pension
reform bill to surface from the
conference committee remains an
unknown, there are some legislative
issues that would appear to be
predictable as we head into a new
school year.
In addition to the fight to gain
funding for public education that plays
out near the end of session each
spring, a couple of new issues could
arise in 2014 given the fact that it is an
election year that includes a race for governor. The
state’s budgetary issues revolve around revenue, much
like the planets circle the sun. And revenue must be
addressed next spring because the 2 percent income
tax increase is set to expire January 1, 2015. Expect a
graduated income tax to be part of the revenue
discussion. Also, expect talks about changing the
school funding formula.
While no politician wants to
utter the word “tax” – especially in
an election year – many
legislators acknowledge the need
for increased revenue, the
pension situation notwithstanding.
A graduated income tax might be
more politically fathomable
because while it is estimated to
increase revenue, those same
estimates indicate that it would
either lower or hold steady the
state income tax for the majority of residents in Illinois.
The “losers” would be those making the most money,
always a politically popular tact.
The school funding formula almost certainly will be
a topic of discussion for an advisory panel that was set
up to study the funding distribution method for public
education in Illinois. That panel was established by
unanimous approval of Senate Resolution 431,
sponsored by Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill). In
addition to Manar, who is a co-chair of the panel, the
other seven members include:
 Sen. David Luechtefeld (R-Okawville), co-chair
 Sen. Jason Barickman (R-Champaign)
 Sen. Melinda Bush (D-Grayslake)
 Sen. Kimberly Lightford (D-Maywood)
 Sen. Karen McConnaughay (R-St. Charles)
 Sen. Michael Noland (D-Elgin)
 Sen. Sue Rezin (R-Morris)
In calling for creation of the panel, Manar cited
inequities in school funding and said the panel would
focus on General State Aid.
“The General State Aid formula, by statute, is
intended to be the equalizing factor,” Manar said at the
time. “It’s very intricate and it’s based on a state that
existed in 1998, not based on a state that exists today
in 2013 … so now we need a distribution method that
accounts for those things.”
Manar’s advisory panel is due to report its
recommendations in February of 2014.
‘Six-Step Plan’ may be pension reform framework
Regarding the pension reform issue, many signs
appear to be pointing toward the conference committee
adopting much of the framework of the plan proposed
by university presidents, referred to as the “Six-Step
Plan” because it contains six main elements, including:
 Increasing employee contributions by 2 percent
(from 8 percent to 10 percent) at a rate of ½ percent
per year for four years;
 Adjusting the compound COLA
for retirees to ½ of the Consumer
Price Index (CPI);
 Placing new employees into a
hybrid pension system that is a
combination of the defined benefit
and defined contribution plans;
 Changing the way to calculate
the effective rate of interest used to
determine a range of benefits,
refunds and service credits set each
year by the SURS Board and the
State Comptroller;
 Shifting the normal pension costs from the state to
universities at a rate of ½ percent per year; and
 Ensuring that the state and/or universities make
their payments into the pension system
While that plan is specific to the State University
Retirement System (SURS) and might need to be
tweaked to fit the other four state retirement systems,
the presidents said that they estimated it could save as
much as Speaker Madigan’s Senate Bill 1 proposal.
The conference committee is awaiting reports from the
retirement systems’ actuaries, but when a proposal
might emerge – and, more importantly, whether it could
garner enough support to pass both chambers – is still
a question.
While the veto session still is a couple of months
away, this is a great time to reach out and make contact
with your representatives and senators while they are in
their home districts. We encourage you to make calls or
visits to establish or re-establish connections with them
and to let them know your thoughts and concerns
regarding public education.
Diane Hendren,
Director of
Governmental
Relations/
Chief of Staff
School funding formula, graduated income tax on radar

20. 20
Session Headline
Building public support for schools, how to deal
with the health care reform laws, leadership
techniques, major issues facing school
administrators and a panel discussion regarding
IASA’s Vision 20/20 initiative highlight the topics that
will be addressed during the IASA Annual
Conference October 9-11 in Springfield.
Registration will open August 13 for the
statewide conference. Additional information can be
found on the IASA website. For more information, or
to register, please click here.
“We are really excited about the lineup of
speakers and topics for this conference,” said IASA
Executive Director Dr. Brent Clark. “We have been
fortunate to get some nationally known speakers to
share their views and experiences with us regarding
some really timely issues in public education.”
The lineup of speakers and presentations
includes:
Award-winning author Jamie Vollmer, president
of Vollmer, Inc., a public education advocacy firm
working to increase student success by raising
public support for America’s schools. Vollmer’s
presentation is titled “Welcome to the Great
Conversation: Building public support for public
schools one community at a time.”
The presentation will focus on themes from his
book “Schools Cannot Do It Alone,” which was
called “one of the top 10 education reads of
2010” by the American School Board Journal.
Those themes include community understanding
of the challenges facing our children and our
schools, community trust in their local schools to
accomplish the goal, community permission to
make the changes needed to teach all children to
high levels, and community support throughout
the complex and emotional restructuring process.
“Health Care Reform: What You Need to Do
from Now to 2015” presented by Susan Relland,
vice president of American Fidelity Assurance
Company. Formerly an employee benefits
attorney with the law firm of Miller & Chevalier in
Washington, D.C., Relland was actively involved
in the Affordable Care Act legislative debate.
Her presentation will focus on the rules that
create responsibilities for employers – and school
districts – between now and 2015. Topics will
include the Free Rider Penalty and other new
plan design
mandates,
fees and
administrative obligations. She will break down
the requirements and help attendees create their
own action plans.
Veteran Illinois educator Jim Burgett, a former
IASA Superintendent of the Year and a popular
national speaker, will talk about “Leadership in
Challenging Times: Back to the Basics.” He will
address such things as a countdown of
leadership techniques and no-nonsense
leadership skills that work and have passed the
test of time.
Burgett also was named Administrator of the
Year by the Illinois Association of Educational
Office Professionals (IAEOP) and recipient of the
Van Miller Distinguished Scholar Practitioner
Award. He also has published several books,
including “What Every Superintendent and
Principal Needs to Know.”
Key staff from the Illinois State Board of
Education (ISBE) will conduct a discussion titled
“The Big Picture” regarding school finance,
licensure, assessments and learning standards.
ISBE staff also will be available to respond to
questions on a variety of topics.
Dr. Clark and ECRA President Dr. John Gatta
will head up a General Session titled “IASA
Vision 20/20: Creating a Vision for the Future of
Education in Illinois.” The session also will
include members of the Vision 20/20 work groups
and will discuss the impetus and motivation for
the initiative as well as the process, research and
information gathered so far for the statewide
project.
The conference will also include an academy
and breakout sessions designed. The academy
is “Basic Collective Bargaining-revised
2011” (AAC 1045). Breakout sessions include
IASA Annual Conference
features dynamic lineup of speakers
Registration to open August 13 for October 9-11 conference in Springfield

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Registration being accepted for
Joint Educational Support Professionals Conference!
On September 24, the University of Illinois Springfield will house a day jam-packed with sessions
geared toward support staff or anyone who is new to the business office. This year’s downstate
Conference will focus on:
 School finance and technology topics – including electronic board packets,
Internet safety, p-Cards, records retention and more… see a list of sessions.
 How to thrive in your role, manage distractions and tame your inbox –
featuring our Keynote speaker Sydne Kalet.
 Relationships with your Board and public – including social media
communication, board training and meeting minutes.
REGISTER NOW
The Joint 2013 Educational Support Professionals Conference is
being co-sponsored by IASA, IASB and IASBO

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Federal school breakfast and lunch
programs: Do they really benefit districts?
By Dr. Bill Phillips
IASA Field Services Director
I recently noticed an article about the Catlin
School District leaving the federal school lunch
program. Some many years ago, when I was
superintendent of Gardner-South Wilmington High
School, that district left the school lunch program.
Since this is such an unusual occurrence, I thought
that I would discuss their rationale and some facts
about the National School Lunch Program (NSLP).
Superintendent Gary Lewis of Catlin felt that some
students were “going away hungry” due to dietary
restrictions placed upon school districts participating
in the NSLP. Some of the concerns included the
facts that nutrition guidelines have become overly
restrictive, there were new calorie limits placed on
school districts, and, most importantly, kids seemed
to be leaving the lunch still hungry.
Having duplicated this removal from the NSLP in
the late 1970s, I can concur with Superintendent
Lewis’ analysis of the issue. Currently, it appears that
most districts feel safe within the environment and
regulations of NSLP, and this unusual solution should
bear some observation.
Here are some salient facts about NSLP:
The National School Lunch Act was granted and
received permanent status in 1946, and from this
legislation came the NSLP.
The NSLP is a federal and state reimbursement
program that provides cash reimbursements per meal
to schools as an entitlement to provide nutritious
meals to children.
All NSLP sponsors are required to offer free and
reduced-price lunches that meet federal
requirements.
Any public school, intermediate unit, charter
school, area vocational technical or career technology
school, public child care institution, and tax-exempt
non-public school, or residential child care institution
can apply to be an NSLP sponsor.
All eligible schools can participate and all children
attending those schools can participate if eligible.
Schools participating in NSLP also receive
agricultural commodities (unprocessed or partially
processed foods) as a supplement to the per-meal
cash reimbursements, in amounts based on the
number of lunches they serve.
Congress created the NSLP after an investigation
into the health of young men rejected in the World
War II draft showed a connection between physical
deficiencies and childhood malnutrition. In response,
Congress enacted the 1946 National School Lunch
Act as a “measure of national security, to safeguard
the health and well-being of the Nation’s children.”
The NSLP provided nutritionally balanced, low-cost or
free lunches to more than 31 million children in 2011.
The School Breakfast Program (SBP) is a
federally assisted meal program operating in public
and nonprofit private schools and residential child
care institutions. It began as a pilot project in 1966,
and was made permanent in 1975. The SBP is
administered at the federal level by the Food and
Nutrition Service. At the state level, the program is
usually administered by state education agencies,
which operate the program through agreements with
local school food authorities (USDA, 2012).
The SBP operates in the same way as the NSLP
in that qualifying schools that elect to participate
receive cash subsidies from the U.S. Department of
Agriculture for each meal that they serve. The meals
must meet federal, USDA guidelines and be offered
at free or reduced prices.
The eligibility requirements for the SBP and the
NSLP are income-based. Students identified as living
in poverty and students identified as homeless
(Continued on page 24)

24. 24
automatically qualify, are enrolled in the programs and
will receive free breakfasts and lunches for the
duration of the school year. Students can also be
enrolled in the SBP and NSLP programs and receive
lunches at a reduced price if their household income
meets the eligibility requirements set by the federal
guidelines. Students from families with incomes
between 130% and 185% of the poverty level qualify
for reduced-priced meals. If students qualify for
reduced meal prices, they can be charged no more
than 30 cents per meal. Students from families with
income levels at or below 130% of the poverty level
are eligible for free breakfasts and lunches.
As previously stated, participating districts are
reimbursed per meal provided through these services.
But are schools being adequately reimbursed for the
free and reduced-cost meals that they are providing?
According to the School Nutrition Association, the
cost to schools to prepare a lunch that meets the
federal nutritional standards is $2.92. Compare that to
the federal NSLP reimbursement rate of $2.68 per
meal and it is apparent that the extra 24 cents per
meal being spent each day for the more than 31.8
million students enrolled in the program is costing
schools a substantial amount of money. With many
schools facing major cutbacks in spending and being
forced to make difficult decisions in a struggling
economy, continuing participation in programs like
NSLP can prove to be hazardous to the budget.
(Continued from page 23)
IASA offers two ways to acquire
2013-2014 Principal Evaluation Tool
The IASA is pleased to announce that members
once again have an opportunity to acquire the IASA
Principal Evaluation Tool. There are now two
methods for acquiring the 2013-2014 IASA Principal
Evaluation Tool. IASA members can attend a three-
hour workshop or members can purchase the tool
outright.
A listing of dates and registration information for
the workshops can be found here. The evaluation
tool has been updated with several new tips that will
help users comply with the requirements of PERA,
suggested improvements from users of last year’s
tool, and the addition of an informal observation form
that can be used to share notes with those being
evaluated.
The tool can be acquired by attending one of the
scheduled workshops, or you can submit a request to
purchase the tool by submitting the form here or by
visiting http://bit.ly/iasaprincipalevaluationtool. The
registration cost for the workshop is $200 and will be
facilitated by the developer of the tool, Dr. Don
White, and Dr. Joe Pacha. The tool is included in the
cost of the workshop. The price for purchasing the
file online remains $100, the same as last year.
Illinois school breakfast and lunch program ———————————————

25. 25
Session Headline

26. 26
MR. A.C. STORME, retired IASA member from Marion, passed away on May 22, 2013. Storme retired as
superintendent of Marion Community #2 in 1985 after 42 years in education.
IASA News in Brief
Nominations now being accepted for the Van Miller Award
Nominations for the Van Miller Distinguished Scholar Practitioner Award are now being accepted. This
award is presented annually by the University of Illinois College of Education at the IASA Annual Conference
in Springfield.
The Van Miller Award is given to a person to recognize “outstanding contributions through their actions
and leadership to the field of education in the state of Illinois.” Miller was a faculty member at the University
of Illinois and was one of the first scholars in the area of education administration as we know it, writing one
of the first education administration books, The Public Administration of American School. He was an active
and loyal supporter of the IASA and AASA and served as President of IASA in 1970.
The criteria for the award include: (1) Change Agent – Meaningful involvement in school improvement
that goes beyond participation in the state process; (2) Scholarly Practitioner – Communicates clearly and
thoughtfully in speaking and writing; (3) Professional Commitment – Engages in professional activities
beyond own school district. Attends to own personal growth activities and supports the professional
responsibilities of the Superintendency and public education in general. Makes a contribution to the dialogue
about public education; and (4) Mentor – Provides advice, support and encouragement to colleagues and
aspiring administrators.
If you wish to make a nomination please send materials to Dr. Vic Zimmerman, at Monticello CUSD 25, 2
Sage Drive, Monticello, IL, 61856 or via email to zimvi@sages.us by September 6, 2013.
The 17th
Annual School
Leaders’ Law
Conference
will be held
Wednesday,
September 25, from 8 a.m. to 3 pm. on the
campus of Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Brought to you by the SIUC Department of
Education Admin & Higher Ed, the IASA, the Illinois
Association of School Business Officials and the
Illinois Principals Association, this conference offers
the latest information on Education and Labor Law.
By attending this conference, you will start your
school year armed with current and accurate
information on topics that matter to you and your
district! The registration deadline is September 18,
2013. Click here to register.
INSPRA offers communications
special presentation
The Illinois Chapter of the National
School Public Relations Association
(INSPRA) invites you to a special
presentation, featuring Lt. J. Paul
Vance, Lead Public Information Officer
during the Sandy Hook School crisis in Newton,
Connecticut.
His presentation, “Management of Media in a Mass
Casualty Event” will be held from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
September 19, 2013, at Glenbard East High School in
Lombard. The cost to attend is $20 per person.
Vance is the Commanding Officer of the Connecticut
State Police Media Relations/Public Information Office.
Click here to register. Reservations are due by
September 9.
Correction in New Superintendent listing in July issue
In the July issue of Leadership Matters, Ms. Judy Wilson was listed as a new superintendent at Nettle Creek
24C. Ms. Wilson is the superintendent at Lick Creek 16. Dr. Donald McKinney is the superintendent at Nettle
Creek 24C. We apologize for any inconvenience.

27. 27

28. 28
Getting to know your IASA Board Members
Derek Hutchins
Shawnee
School district: Crab
Orchard CUSD 3
One thing you would like
people to know about your
school district: : We were instrumental in
becoming the first county in the state to pass the
1% sales tax for school construction.
Years on IASA Board: 1
Years as educator: 25
High school: Benton Consolidated High School
Colleges or Universities: Eastern Illinois
University (BA in Chemistry and MS in Ed.
Admin) , Southern Illinois University-Carbondale
(Specialist)
Family: Wife-Tina; Son-AJ, Daughter-Autumn
Favorite hobby: Golf
Favorite movie: “Stalag 17”
Favorite book: Anything by Michael Crichton
Favorite musical artist: Zac Brown Band
One thing people probably would be surprised
to know about you: That I enjoy going off-road
riding on my RZR and spending the day playing in
the mud.
Biggest concern about public education: Lack
of respect that the general public holds for
education.
Most encouraging thing about public
education: There are a lot of great things that
are happening that people don’t know about. It is
an exciting time to be in education.
Dr. John H. Correll
DuPage
School district: Salt Creek School District 48
Villa Park, IL
One thing you would like people to know about
your school district: We are a small, awesome
school district with great students, families and
staff.
Years on IASA Board: 2
Years as educator: 34
High school: Collinsville, IL High School
Colleges or Universities: University of Illinois,
Urbana (B.S.); Western Illinois University (M.S.);
Northern Illinois University (Ed.D./CAS)
Family: Wife-Ellen Correll; Children-Andy, Chase,
Adam, and Lisa
Favorite hobby: Running
Favorite movie: “Remember
the Titans”
Favorite book: Undaunted
Courage
Favorite musical artist: The
Eagles
One thing people probably would be surprised
to know about you: I have run in 25 marathons,
and have finished 21. I ride a great Yamaha
Roadstar motorcycle.
Biggest concern about public education:
Keeping progress going and keeping people
optimistic in an increasingly negative environment
for public education.
Most encouraging thing about public
education: Great people who really care and who
have the potential to continue to make things

29. 29
 Flexibility with Coverage
 Flexibility with
Deductibles
 Life Insurance Coverage
 Early Retirement Option
 Short-Term Disability
(STD) & Long-Term
Disability (LTD) Coverage
 Dental Coverage
 Vision Care Coverage
 Out-of-State Coverage
 No-Balance Billing
 Cafeteria Plan
 COBRAAdministration
 Health Care Reform
Compliance
 No Exit Fees
IASA, IASB, IASBO offer
insurance plans for schools
For more information, please contact Stan Travelstead at stan@iasaedu.org or Jeremy Travelstead
at jeremy@iasaedu.org or toll-free at 877.698.2247
Powered by American Central Insurance Services

30. 30
Calendar Index
IASA Event
Professional
Development Event
Click on a
color-coded date
to open a link for
more information
about the event.
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August 2013
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September 2013