Superintendents, lawmakers discuss education issues

Dec. 8—WEBB CITY, Mo. — How do schools fill vacant teaching jobs with a shrinking candidate pool graduating from teacher education colleges? What might open enrollment look like? Will the foundation formula be increased this year?

These were among the questions on the table this week at a forum between Southwest Missouri school superintendents and area lawmakers at the Southwest Center for Educational Excellence in Webb City.

More than 30 superintendents attended and spoke with state Reps. Lane Roberts of Joplin and Ann Kelley of Lamar as well as state Sen. Jill Carter of Granby and a staff member of U.S. Rep. Eric Burleson's office.

Money, as always, was a topic, but the group discussed other topics with the potential to affect education in the coming legislative session that starts Jan. 4, 2024.

"Teacher retention is a bigger problem now than it has been for a long time," said Joplin school Superintendent Kerry Sachetta. "It's been coming, we've learned, because the number of students going to teacher education programs were going down. They were not as much as it has been in the past. Then COVID just made it worse. People looking at different jobs and work-at-home jobs, all these different things. What's affecting the whole workforce is also affecting us. So teacher retention when it comes to salary and all that is a big deal."

Webb City Superintendent Anthony Rossetti talked about accreditation and having options to determine whether a school is performing well or poorly.

"Accreditation and accountability are not identical, and right now they are combined together and the current system we have does not properly reflect the success or nonsuccess of school districts," Rossetti said. "The blue ribbon school that we just had this year, that is a school that on the APR scored 76%, so we're going to have a parade in Webb City for this school but we're getting a C from the state accreditation."

Rossetti said representatives from Harry S. Truman Elementary School just returned from Washington, D.C., where they were honored by the U.S. Department of Education as a 2023 National Blue Ribbon School. But the state assessments say something different.

"And I know there are things that we're trying to work to change that," he said. "But why? It's confusing to try to explain that to your community when you are having those kinds of success."

Also discussed was a possible increase of $235 million in education spending in the coming state budget.

That amount has been frozen for five years and there is a push by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to raise it. Superintendents said state funding is not keeping up with increases in costs for schools to operate because of inflation.

Rep. Roberts said the meeting was helpful for him as he prepares for the upcoming session.

"I learned that the problems from last year haven't gone away," Roberts said. "Some of these things seem to be almost perennial. A couple of things I knew going in, the recruitment and retention piece is going to be a big deal for teaching throughout the state, throughout the nation for that matter. The concern with this sort of blanket standard for everybody, one size really doesn't fit all. There are concerns about DESE (Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) promulgating rules that adversely affect some, not others. It's just not universal. So I think some independence from DESE is a big deal for some superintendents. How that looks remains to be seen."

Carter said she didn't learn much that she didn't already know, but the communication between her office and the superintendents in her district is always helpful.

"I think we're living in a time and an era where people are very distrustful of government and they would like to see their elected officials feel like they have more of an invested interest in their community than what happens in Jefferson City," she said. "That's where my heart is, in the community."

Rossetti said it's important for the superintendents to keep those lines of communication directly with the lawmakers open.

"I've done the forums for years and it's really hard to have a one-to-one conversation when you have 40 people in the room and three or four representatives and senators that are there," Rossetti said. "When you go up to Jefferson City, you can have time with them and they're welcoming to see us because we're not lobbyists, we actually live in the communities that they represent and you can sit down and say here's how open enrollment will affect us or how I think it will affect us. If the foundation isn't fully funded, here are the negative things that could happen."