While the Colorado legislative session commenced, the Adams 12 Five Star Schools district board also focused on its legislative standpoint.
The board approved the district’s legislative platform during its Jan. 9 meeting.
“We have been working on this since early spring,” said board member Enrico Figueroa. “We focused on the key elements and key bills we know are coming through.”
The platform includes the district’s legislative principles and positions. Figueroa said at one point he had to start over thanks to some guidance from superintendent Christopher Gdowski, who suggested Figueroa focus on things the board wanted to change.
But overall, the board supported the platform, with minimal changes. It was unanimously approved.
“I really like what you have done here, and I’m ready to adopt it now,” board member Fred Schaefer said to Figueroa.
Figueroa said the legislative platform will be help legislatures who represent the district understand where the district stands in certain issues.
Below are the approved Adams 12 legislative principles:
Local control — Preserve the responsibility, fiduciary role and authority of locally elected school boards for the processes and decisions of their local schools and districts.
The state’s role should be to encourage and recommend but not mandate changes within local schools.
Decisions are best made by locally-elected school board members whose sole responsibility is the education of the community’s children
Fewer regulations — Due to the cuts in funding for education and to allow maximum effectiveness with the funds available, the removal and/or flexibility of regulations on funding and program mandates would allow local school boards to better act in the best interest of its students, parents and community.
Increase funding — As local school boards work to improve and transform the educational systems in schools, it is vital to increase funding so students can benefit from quality tools and personnel needed to facilitate learning.
Accountability for student success — Adams 12 Five Star Schools affirms the need for every district and school to demonstrate continuous improvement and be accountable in meaningful and useful ways to its owners.
Parental responsibility and involvement — Parents are vital to the successful education of children.
Their responsibility and involvement for their child’s education must be encouraged and supported at all levels of the educational system. Among these decisions are decisions regarding: curriculum, sexual health, character development, budget priorities, sports, extracurricular activities, and school safety and security.
Below are the approved Adams
12 legislative positions:
Opposes the federal mandates of the Healthy and Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010. Instead, allow each local district to determine price increases or decreases as they deem necessary and appropriate.
Opposes any state or federal mandate for preschool and full-day kindergarten education due to costs associated with such programs which include capital construction, transportation and others.
However, the Five Star District is very much in favor of school districts offering preschool and full-day kindergarten education as local communities and school boards deem necessary and financially responsible. The Five Star District also supports the state making funds available for voluntary participation.
Supports legislation that improves the relationship, in academic accountability and fiscal responsibility, between charter schools and their authorizing public school districts.
Supports a student-based allocation of funds where the money follows the student.
Supports legislation that would reform teacher licensure so professionals with workforce experience are encouraged and enabled to pursue teaching credentials.
The Five Star District believes this will positively impact the workforce readiness of our students.
Supports changing the current system for counting students from one day to other systems that may be more accurate but would not add overbearing costs for districts to implement.
Opposes legislation that would place additional requirements on school districts for tracking student truancy. The district supports allowing each district to decide what is best to track and reduce truancy for its students.
