Each year, Boards of Education in public school districts across the state determine what they feel are the top priorities for the upcoming legislative session.

The Perry School Board chose their top five issues at their annual meeting last week.  Superintendent Lynn Ubben explains the purpose of the decision.

“What they hope is that all districts will send in their five priorities, then when they have their Iowa Association of School Boards meeting in November each district sends a delegate and then they vote on the priorities and that helps them in in their lobbying efforts” says Ubben.

The first priority set by the local board was in regards to preserving the integrity of the statewide penny to pay for various projects.  Others include everything from pre-school to English Language Learners funding.

“Adequate and on time funding for English Language Learners is huge for us.  Adequate and on time funding to assure that all four year olds have access to preschool is important to all districts.  Allowable growth rate, which is now State Supplemental Funding, that is just your per pupil funding and that’s important to us.  And then of course the boards are always saying ‘we don’t want new mandates with no funding’.”

The board approved the priorities 4-1 with board member Kyle Baxter voting no after expressing concerns about the 4 year-old preschool priority and supplemental aid, citing the fact that lawmakers haven’t followed the law on the issue in the recent past anyway.