With five legislative days remaining, the activity has picked up slightly with slow but steady floor voting in both chambers. Just not much concerning K-12 public education. Both the House and Senate adjourned the last two days by noon. There seems to be some tension between the chambers as evidenced by the slow down in passing the other chambers legislation. Except for passing a budget, it not necessarily a bad thing that the legislative process is crawling at the moment. We know that will likely change very soon.
In the House:
SB 88 – the Governor’s teacher recruitment and retention bill passed on the House floor. (Moves to Gov now for signature)
* GTOY is an ex-offcio member of the State Board of Education
* Creates an alternative teacher certification path for military veterans
* Provides flexibility for teacher coaches and mentors (experienced Exemplary or Proficient ratings with 3 plus yrs) to assist teachers with less than 3 years of service with performance ratings of NI or Deficient
* Directs PSC to include differentiated instruction for reading instruction in post secondary institutions curriculum/programing and to partner with HBCU systems to recruit and train minority teachers
SB 66 – Combines Georgia Foundation for Public Education and Public Education Innovation Fund. (Moves to Gov.)
In the Senate:
No activity for K-12 public education in Georgia.
Tip of the Cap to Dr. Tanzy Kilcrease chief of staff at the Bibb County Schools who has been recognized by AASA for a 2021 Woman In School Leadership Award in the Central Office Administrator/Principal Category. What a tremendous national honor! Dr. Kilcrease currently serves on the GSSA Board of Directors.
GSSA News: GSSA’s Spring Bootstrap is scheduled for April 21-22, 2021, in Savannah. The Hotel conference block of rooms have been sold out. Check with the Marriott or Homewood Suites for availability of rooms outside of the block conference rate. We are experiencing a very high volume of registrations from members and corporate sponsors. If we continue to see the rapid increase in our registration numbers we will have to consider placing a cap on the number of attendees. So, be sure to register before we reach that number. We are about 100 registrations short of having to CAP the conference due to the social distancing requirements. My apologies for even having to consider closing registration. I will keep everyone informed of the latest numbers.
The FY22 Budget is continuing through the legislative process with Senate Appropriations Committee scheduled to meet Monday morning. This should hopefully be a sign of putting the final touches on their version of the budget.
Quote: To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. Eleanor Roosevelt
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