The Davenport Community School District board voted to approve recommended legislative priorities for submission to the Urban Education Network (UEN) and the Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB), and added an amendment instructing its IASB delegate to oppose changes to IPERS (the Iowa Public Employees’ Retirement System). Director Barnes moved the motion and it was seconded by Director Hayes; an amendment to add “no changes to IPERS on the IASB agenda” passed and was incorporated into the district’s submission.

Why it matters: the priorities guide the associations’ lobbying on behalf of member districts in the state legislature. The board’s broad priorities the legislative committee recommended include preschool expansion, school funding policy, unfunded mandates, school safety, teacher and staff shortages, quality preschool literacy and math supports, high-school programming flexibility, and property tax reform. Director Barnes said the district will later return with a more tactical set of priorities specific to Davenport for meetings with legislators.

Process and next steps: district staff said both IASB and UEN request priority lists via surveys and deadlines were imminent; staff will submit the association surveys by the organizations’ deadlines and will follow up with a detailed district-specific legislative agenda this fall that may include management fund flexibility and concurrent enrollment concerns. Board members discussed why some items (for example, poverty/student opportunity and special education) were not placed higher on the association priority list; staff explained the district already has representation on several state special-education workgroups and therefore chose high-leverage tactical priorities for the association submissions.

Action taken: board approval, with a board amendment to instruct the IASB submission to oppose changes to IPERS. The board chair will sign or submit the association forms before the stated deadlines.