The Examiner U-46 News Feed

Pending IASB resolutions reviewed by U-46 board

By Seth Hancock
  At its meeting on Monday, Oct. 23, the Board of Education in School District U-46 was presented with resolutions to be voted on at the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB) conference later this month.
  The IASB is a taxpayer funded lobbyist organization for government-run schools.  
  Sue Kerr, the board’s president, said the board will select a representative and discuss the resolutions at its Nov. 6 meeting. The resolutions represent what the IASB plans to lobby for in the coming year.
  There are two new resolutions that an IASB resolution committee recommends adopting, according to an IASB document.
  Included is a resolution that seeks “legislation providing educational funding to all school districts to offset the cost of a school resource officer (SRO),” the document stated.
  The IASB has long rejected calls for local control from largely rural districts unable to afford or obtain SROs who sought to allow staff to be armed. However, the IASB supports Illinois taxpayers paying for SROs for local districts.
  Another resolution recommended for adoption by the resolution committee is one that seeks to eliminate bus driver regulations and liability requirements that took effect this year that is believed to be causing driver shortages.
  “The committee agreed that the bus driver shortage is affecting most school districts and trying to find a way to help alleviate that is important,” the IASB document stated regarding the resolution committee’s recommendation to adopt. “The committee felt that helping to ease the requirements and training to become a bus driver will help to improve the shortage that districts are facing.”
  Three other resolutions will be voted on at the IASB conference, but the resolution committee recommends against adoption. Included is one seeking to prohibit industrial facilities near schools, one seeking to use the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services for employment history reviews and one seeking for new funds for regional alternative safe schools.
  There were other resolutions that the resolution committee recommended not presenting at the conference.