The State Board of Education met this week with new members and a new state superintendent.
Mo Green has taken the helm at the Department of Public Instruction. Green told the board he believes the tone he sets with his entry plan is critically important.
“I like to use it as a way to help show folks that I’m holding myself accountable, because then, in turn, we’re going to hold the entire organization accountable,” Green said.
One of Green’s first moves is to hold a series of listening sessions across the state from mid-January through March, that he refers to as “Mo wants to know.”
“What it does is allows me to learn about the organization, the issues, what’s on people’s hearts and minds, what we need to focus on, what we need to lift up as priorities, how we move things forward,” Green said.
Yesterday, Green listened to state board members’ wish list for requests to the legislature. The list was wide-ranging and included:
- Raising teacher pay
- Reinstating higher pay for teachers with master’s degrees
- Increased state funding for the state health plan to alleviate anticipated premium raises
- Granting schools calendar flexibility
- Redesigning school performance grades
- Extension of free meals to more students through federal programs
- Expansion of the advanced teaching roles model to more schools
- Funding more school psychologists, social workers, and nurses to bring their ratios to students closer to national recommendations
- Conducting a statewide assessment on the condition of school buildings
The new state Treasurer Brad Briner and Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt also now join the State Board of Education as voting members for their four-year terms. Hunt attended remotely, while away at a Senate meeting. Darrell Pennell, chair of the Caldwell County Schools’ board of education, joined the state board in an advisory, non-voting role.
Amid the many requests for initiatives that would require additional state funding, Briner — one of few Republicans on the State Board of Education — set a different tone by quoting inventor Charles Kettering.
“How do we do more differently with less over time?” Briner said. “It’s really hard to do more with less, but in the world we live in, that’s what we’re tasked.”
