Resolutions address issues facing your school board and public education

Tiffany Jackson, Director of Membership Services

It’s the beginning of the school year, and this means for your districts in preparing to serve your students at the Association of Alaska School Boards this means the Resolution process has started.  You may be asking yourself, why is the Resolution process so important?  The Where We Stand document is really long, and it takes some serious time for our school board to review and make recommendations.  

The work you do on resolutions is critical to the work of AASB.  AASB will not take a position on any item that the membership of the association hasn’t resolved itself around.  The resolutions the membership passes in November will be used to set the legislative agenda for AASB for the upcoming year.  These resolutions will be distributed to the Governor, the Legislature, the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development, the US Department of Education, and to many others.  These resolutions will set the tone for the Association, which is why we call the document “Where We Stand”; it reflects what is important to school boards.  

Where are we right now?  Currently, AASB is soliciting resolutions, resolution amendments, and comments from local school boards for consideration at the 2023 Annual Conference on Nov. 9-12th at the Hilton Hotel. These resolutions guide our association for the coming year beginning November 13, 2023. They also guide our advocacy and positions during the upcoming legislative session.  The AASB Board of Directors will come together on November 13th to review the resolutions passed by the membership on November  12th and identify priorities for the association’s Advocacy work moving forward.  

Each member district should have received the 2023 Call for Resolutions by now.  If you haven’t seen them yet, ask your superintendent or your executive administrative assistant as we sent both of them a copy of the resolutions packet.   AASB asks each member school board to carefully review the resolutions packet during a work session or meeting.  It is critically important our resolutions adequately cover the issues facing school boards and public education, so please think carefully about the issues facing your district, and possibly others across the state.  If there are any issues your district thinks are important which aren’t covered by the resolutions, please consider submitting a new resolution to address the issue.  All resolutions received will be compiled, and a complete set of resolutions containing proposals from districts will be sent back to school boards by Oct. 21, 2023.

From there, the Resolutions committee will meet on November 9th to review, amend, and approve resolutions to be moved forward to the full membership on November 12thWe’re asking for each school board to appoint at least one member to attend the Resolutions Committee meeting on the 9th to help review the resolutions.  On November 12th, the full membership of AASB at our annual conference will amend and adopt the final resolutions based on the report approved by the Resolutions committee on November 9th.  

It can feel like a long process, and it is. It’s also critically important to the association, as mentioned before, so we appreciate school districts taking the time to review resolutions when they’re sent out to you.   

RESOLUTIONS TIMELINE:

  • August  – September:  Member districts review, propose, and amend resolutions. 
  • October 10th:  New/amended Resolutions due to AASB.
  • October 21st:  Resolutions returned to districts for additional review prior to the conference. 
  • November 9th:  Resolutions committee reviews, amends, and approves resolutions. 
  • November 12th:  Full membership amends and adopts final resolutions.November 13th:  AASB Board of Directors selects priority resolution focus for 2024.