Members of AASA’s Governing Board updated its legislative agenda and adopted revised language in several policy and beliefs statements, reacting in a few instances to the vastly different federal education landscape compared to a year ago.

At its semi-annual meeting conducted at Nashville’s Omni Hotel on Wednesday, the approximately 120 delegates were careful in their work to be sensitive to differences of opinion across the association’s six geographic regions during a time of highly politicized moves in education, health care, immigration and other facets of public life.

One Governing Board member Walter Jackson, superintendent in La Porte, Texas, spent several minutes gently but firmly cautioning his colleagues to be mindful that “what may be supportive on the East Coast may not be supported on the West Coast.” 

The updated legislative agenda, which guides the year-round work of AASA’s public policy staff members, affected the association’s positions on the following:

• Asking to retain a cabinet-level position at the federal level dedicated to public education;
• Supporting reinstatement of schools and school property as “sensitive locations [and] protected areas” as safe spaces for children;
• Supporting the preservation of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, to ensure children have access to the nutritional support they need; and
• Seeking federal requirements ensuring technology firms commit to student privacy and data safety while enabling localities and states to retain decisions about student participation in ed tech.

The Governing Board also modified a few policy and belief statements. The most notable was the addition of a new statement indicating the association’s members “trust medical professionals to make medical recommendations to ensure our school community makes sound health decisions.”

The quickest action taken at Wednesday’s half-day meeting, with no serious discussion, involved a proposal to retain AASA membership dues at their current levels. In past years, the governing body would be guided by upward changes in the Consumer Price Index, which measured 2.7 percent in the past year, as a determining factor. The board’s decision leaves AASA’s active membership dues at $485 a year, small district leaders at $241, professor and central-office leaders at $215 and aspiring leaders and retired members at $82.

(Jay Goldman is editor in chief of Conference Daily Online and editor of AASA’s School Administrator magazine.)