ASBA Connect E-News

COMMUNICATIONS

ASBA planning for virtual and in-person events and trainings

Given the ongoing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASBA continues to explore ways to connect our members from across the state while prioritizing health and safety. We want to keep members informed on status of ASBA events and trainings for 2021.

Custom-on-site trainings and facilitation are now being scheduled, with availability beginning in May. Virtual trainings will continue to be offered as well. Districts choosing the in-person should have appropriate health and safety protocols in place.

ASBA’s Summer Leadership Institute will be held virtually June 11. New Board Member Orientation Part 2 will also be held virtually June 10.

ASBA is planning to host the Annual Law Conference in-person September 8-10 and Delegate Assembly in-person September 11 at JW Marriott Camelback Inn.

We will keep members updated as new information or changes are made. Thank you for your patience throughout the uncertainty as we plan 2021 events.

What can you expect from Dr. Jennifer Harvey’s keynote?

Hear Dr. Harvey speak at ASBA’s Equity Event, Thursday, April 22 on “Disrupting Silence in all the White Places.” Also, join her for a bonus Q&A session!

Dr. Jennifer Harvey 
Educator, Author and Activist 

Dr. Jennifer Harvey is an educator, author, highly sought-after public speaker and anti-racist activist. She can often be found engaging diverse audiences and working with communities as they wrestle with real questions about the challenges to be faced and the frameworks necessary to create robust, sustainable, multi-racial solidarity for justice. Her most recent book, “Raising White Kids,” explores how white communities and leaders can more deeply support racial justice work being led by communities of color. She is also the author of “Whiteness and Morality: Pursuing Racial Justice through Reparations and Sovereignty” and a co-editor of “Disrupting White Supremacy: White People on What We Need to Do.”

Meet ASBA’s Pinal County Director, Steve Johnson

Get to know ASBA’s Board of Directors by reading their profile.

Name, district and county: Steve Johnson, Florence USD, Pinal County

How long have you been a board member? Six years

How do you define leadership in school boardsmanship? I continue to look for ways to improve the educational environment for public district education; working as team to accomplish goals and objectives. know when to challenge and when to support. helping a board achieve at a high level without self-advancing personal agendas.

What is your favorite ASBA conference/event and why? The Law Conference is very engaging and always prov ides informative sessions. It’s a great networking event with high energy at the beginning of the school year.

What do you like best about serving on the ASBA Board of Directors? Learning and sharing with a diverse group of leaders and building a team with a goal of improving public education.

How has ASBA helped you become a better school board member? I have become a better school board member by participating in training, workshops and conferences. The trainings have helped me see issues with different lenses and seek to understand before being understood.

And of the GCU “Inspiring Youth” contest is… (((drumroll)))

Congratulations to the Desert Shadows Middle School in Nogales USD for their winning program, “Hope for the Holidays.” These students will be invited to an exclusive presentation with Byron Garrett, ASBA’s 2020 Annual Conference keynote speaker, PLUS a virtual tour of Grand Canyon University and great GCU souvenirs for students.

This amazing virtual experience will take place in May 2021.

Read about the winning entry below:

For more than a decade, the Desert Shadows Middle School Student Council (DSMS STUCO) student officers and members have been the driving force behind a school canned food drive to create baskets each year during the holidays to provide to families in need.

This annual community service project began as a Thanksgiving canned food drive through STUCO and has evolved over the years to incorporate more items as students saw the need grow in the community. STUCO officers and members take the lead in advertising the drive, encouraging their peers to participate, in collecting donated items from each classroom and assembling baskets. Contact was also made to local produce businesses, who generously supported the drive, providing seventy turkeys and fresh produce.

It was suggested that shifting the holiday basket distribution to December would be best for families. Additionally, during virtual STUCO meetings, it was decided to expand the type of items in the gift baskets to include household staples and commodities that have been scarce or become more expensive during the pandemic such as detergents and even toilet paper.

With the rising need for larger baskets this year, as well as social distancing concerns while students learn online, STUCO members partnered with DSMS Parent-Teacher Association (PTC) and staff members to assist with the collection of larger donations (such as household products) as well as the delivery of the baskets to families.

This project truly provided hope and holiday happiness for almost six dozen families. It also provides a continued opportunity for the engagement of DSMS students to learn the value of community service and the benefits of collaboration, by working with the PTC, staff, and local businesses.

Superintendent searches filled for Buckeye UHSD, St. Johns USD PLUS public relations plan to announce superintendents to communities

Congratulations to Dr. Steven Bebee who was selected as superintendent for Buckeye Union High School District and Kyle Patterson as superintendent for St. Johns Unified School District. Both start July 2021. Both districts selected ASBA to conduct the superintendent searches.

Along with the search services, both districts also received ASBA’s public relations plan. Bringing in a new superintendent can be overwhelming. ASBA is providing a new service that is included in our superintendent search package! ASBA provides templates for your media release, introduction to your community, social media graphics and more! When you choose ASBA, we give you the resources to help introduce your new superintendent to the community. If you missed the webinar on “How to Introduce New District and School Leadership to the Community,” view it now and download the presentation.

Two for One #Wed Webinars: State Allocations Under American Rescue Plan AND Embedding Multi-Cultural Perspective Into Curriculum

ASBA is hosting two special webinars TODAY, Wednesday, March 24. We encourage you to attend. If you can’t attend these live webinars, please note that all of our webinars are recorded. Register for each webinar and receive the webinar recording in your email inbox automatically. Webinar recordings are also available the next day on the ASBA website.

March 24, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Webinar: State Allocations for ESSER III Under the American Rescue Plan

March 24, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Wednesday Webinars: Tools for Embedding Multi-Cultural Perspective into Curriculum

AZEdNews Data Highlight: Declining enrollment: Where have Arizona’s students gone and their funding?

A 3.54% drop in enrollment in public district schools in the past year has led education advocates to look into where those students have gone and why as well as how that funding loss is…read more

Upcoming ASBA Events

April 14, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: Wednesday Webinars: Making the Superintendent Evaluation Process Meaningful

April 28, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm: Wednesday Webinars: Building More Inclusive and Effective Student, Family and Staff Surveys

Plus more! You can find all Wednesday webinars on the ASBA webpage, https://azsba.org/events-asba/. Can’t view the webinar live? No problem. Go ahead and register and you will receive the recording automatically by email so you can view it later. There is no cost to register for this webinar.  We encourage advance registration.

Register Now: Virtual Equity Event, April 21-23

SPECIAL FOCUS: CULTURE, RACE AND ETHNICITY 

Since the founding of The Equity Event seven years ago, we have unwrapped the many influences, characteristics and circumstances that impact our students and contribute to gaps in opportunity and outcomes, among them family income, access to food and shelter, physical and cognitive ability, gender and gender identity, immigration status, and even the location of the student’s home and the district itself.

Culture, race and ethnicity intersect with all those factors and are woven deeply into the lives of each and every student we serve. The heightened local, state and national dialogue around racial equity compels us as leaders to look at race more deeply.

At this year’s Equity Event, we’ll investigate these rich, human aspects of our students and ourselves so that we can serve every student well and justly moving forward.

Featuring Arizona poet laureate Alberto Rios and a special reading of his poem “A House Called Tomorrow.” 

AZEDNews Featured Articles

Legislators hear bills to expand voucher & STO scholarship eligibility, STO donations

Gov: Arizonans 16 & up eligible for COVID-19 vaccine starting March 24

AZEdNews Senior Yearbook is back, submit senior photos now

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