The Examiner U-46 News FeedU-46 aligned with IASB with two issue exceptions By Seth Hancock
The Board of Education in School District U-46 will continue to oppose local control on school safety at this weekend’s Illinois Association of School Board (IASB) convention.
The board discussed the 16 resolutions to be voted on at the convention to determine how the taxpayer funded lobbyist group for government-run schools will lobby in the coming year at its Monday, Nov. 1 meeting. Board member Kate Thommes will be the U-46 voting member.
An IASB committee has already given its recommendations.
Included is a resolution that has come forward for many years as rural and downstate school districts that do not have the resources to provide school resource officers but want an option to be able to allow school staff, with clearly defined training, to conceal carry. Larger districts, including U-46, have consistently opposed local control, and potentially, the safety of students in those districts.
The IASB committee supports the resolution, but U-46 will not.
Board member Melissa Owens said she’s “very sympathetic” and “can really appreciate what they’re saying here,” but “this then applies to any district no matter where they are in the state and no matter whether they have a police force like we do.”
Board member John Devereux said the “state could fund this at every single school district,” despite Illinois being $196 billion in debt according to usdebtclock.org. He also said because some U-46 students go to other districts for athletics and other activities, U-46 would be “outsourcing that decision.”
U-46 will largely align with the IASB committee’s recommendations but diverge on a resolution seeking federal funding for landscaping, the IASB supporting but U-46 opposing with Owens noting “we’re just shifting dollars.”
IASB and U-46 will go towards compensating board members with childcare reimbursement, allowing virtual meetings permanently, extending reorganization of boards from 28 days after an election to 40, supporting indigenous people curriculum, local control on health and sex education curriculum, using some cannabis tax funds for education and expanding broadband access.
Both oppose resolutions for general board member compensation, a general gun storage regulation for gun owners in their homes, federal funds for so-called “clean energy” infrastructure as well as electric school buses, expanding teacher licensure to literacy, a science of reading curriculum and wholesale change to the school code.
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