AzSIAA Bi-Weekly Newsletter

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From the Executive Director

From the Executive Director:

​Greetings! Welcome snow! A great start for December. The midterms are over. What is the outcome for ASIAA?

Arizona Congressional Contests - Voting November 6, 2018.
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Senate	Rep	Dem	Incuments	Winner
Senate	Martha McSally	Kyrsten Sinema	Jeff Flake	Kyrsten Sinema (D)
House	---	---	---	---
District 1	Wendy Rogers	Tom O'Halleran	Tom O'Halleran	Tom O'Halleran (D)
District 2	Marquez Peterson	Ann Kirkpatrick	Martha McSally	Ann Kirkpatrick (D)
District 3	Nicolas Pierson	Raul Grialva	Raul Grijalva	Raul Grijalva (D)
District 4	Paul Gosar	David Brill	Paul Gosar	Paul Gosar (R)
District 5	Andy Biggs	Joan Greene	Andy Biggs	Andy Biggs (R)
District 6	David Schweikert	Anita Malik	David Schweikert	David Schweikert (R)
District 7	Rugen Gallego	---	Ruben Gallego	Ruben Gallego (D)
District 8	Debbie Lesko	Hiral Tipirneni	Debbi Lesko	Debbie Lesko (R)
District 9	Stephen Ferrara	Greg Stanton	Kyrsten Sinema	Greg Stanton (D)

The House shows five (5) Democrats and four (4) Republicans as winners. This is a change for Arizona.
Yes, Democrats did take the House, the Senate will remain under Republican control. read below, Government Shutdown or Not!!!.

On November 14, both parties in the Senate and Republicans chose their leaders for the 116th Congress. On November 28, House Democrats held their leadership elections. Many key advocates for Impact aid continue in or have been elected to leadership positions. As posted in NAFIS News, Nov 30, 2018, results are:

Senate Republican leadership:

• Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY);
• Senate President Pro Tempore Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa);
• Republican Whip John Thune (R-SD);
• Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso (R-WY);
• Republican Policy Committee Chair Roy Blunt (R-MO); and
• Republican Conference Vice Chair Joni Ernst (R-Iowa).

Senate Democratic Leadership: 

• Democratic Leader and Conference Chair Charles Schumer (D-NY):
• Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL);
• Assistant Democratic Leader Patty Murray (D-WA);
• Democratic Policy and Communications Committee Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-MI);
• Democratic Conference Vice Chairs Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Mark Warner (D-VA); and
• Democratic Conference Secretary Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).

House Republican Leadership:

• Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA);
• Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA);
• Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY);
• Conference Vice Chair Mark Walker (R-NC); Conference Secretary Jason Smith (R-MO); and
• Republican Policy Committee Chair Gary Palmer (R-AL).

House Democratic Leadership:

• Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA, nominated - will be voted on by the full House in January)
• Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-CA);
• Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-LA);
• Assistant Leader Ben Ray Luján (D-NM);
• Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY);
• Caucus Vice Chair Katherine Clark (D-MA);
• Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chair Cheri Bustos (D-IL); and
• Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee David Cicilline (D-RI).

Committee assignments are underway. I will be tracking assignments for the Arizona delegation.

The Executive Board is planning a General Assembly meeting at the ASBA annual conference. The meeting is scheduled for December 14, 2018, at 12:30 pm in the Prescott Room. Please post to your calendar. Agenda is in progress.

2019 NAFIS Spring Conference, March 17-19. Prepare to advocate against the Trump 5% cut!

Larry E. Wallen
Executive Director

Take action now to begin the FY 2020 application.

The application opened December 1, 2018 in G5.gov. If you need help opening the application call 1-855-336-8930. Application deadline is Thursday, January 31, 2019. The deadline for amendments is June 30. Submit early to avoid unexpected issues. Keep in mind that applications received late (up to 60 days) are subject to a 10% penalty. If more than 60 days, districts no not receive funds.
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Arizona Superintendent Elect Announces Transition Group

November 27, 2018
Phoenix
Superintendent-Elect Kathy Hoffman today announced the appointment of her fourteen-member transition team:

• John Carruth - Chair of the Transition, incoming Chief of Staff, and current Associate Superintendent for the Vail School District
• Dustin Williams - Pima County School Superintendent
• Jill Broussard - Pinal County School Superintendent
• Quincy Natay - Superintendent for the Chinle Unified School District
• Lupita Hightower - Superintendent for the Tolleson Elementary School District
• Jaime Festa-Daigle - Director of Personnel and Technology for the Lake Havasu Unified School District and National Board Certified Teacher
• Chris Kotterman - Director of Government Relations for the Arizona School Boards Association and former Deputy Director of Policy Development and Government Relations for the Arizona Department of Education
• Charlene Mendoza - Founder, Teacher and Principal at Arizona College Prep Academy, a Tucson Charter School
• Vince Yanez - Senior Vice President, Arizona Community Engagement for the Helios Education Foundation and former Executive Director of the State Board of Education
• Sabrina Vazquez - Senior Director, State Relations for the University of Arizona and former Deputy Director of the State Board of Education
• Susie Cannata - Attorney with Peters, Cannata & Moody PLC and Special Education Policy Specialist
• Muktar Sheikh - Program Director for the Somali Association of Arizona and Community Leader
• Beth Hutchins-Maloney - National Board Certified Teacher and 2014 Teacher of the Year
• Chuck Essigs - Director of Government Relations for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials and School Finance Expert

Report Shows Continued State Education Funding Issues - AASA, the Legislative Corp Weekly Report - November 30, 2018

A new report out from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities shows that decades of disinvestment in public schools in many states. The cuts from the recession are still being felt in many states across the country. Worse, some of the deepest-cutting states have also cut income tax rates, weakening their main revenue source for supporting schools. This calls into question the stability of future funding in these states.

The report can be found here.

GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN OR NOT!!!!

Seven of the 12 government funding bills - Homeland Security, Agriculture, Commerce-Justice-Science, Financial Services, Interior and Environment, State-Foreign Operations and Transportation-HUD - are still operating under an extension of their FY 2018 funding bills, which expires on December 7.

Congress has just a week to finalize negotiations on these bills; pass another extension (likely for at least some of the bills); or let those parts of the government shut down until funding is enacted. There are funding and policy issues holding up several of the bills, including funding for a southern border wall and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officers in the Homeland Security bill, topics to be included in the decennial census in the CJS bill, funding for the Environmental Protection Agency in the Interior bill and firewalls protecting the Mueller investigation, among others.

Full-year funding has been enacted for education programs already, so a government shutdown would not affect Impact Aid or other programs at the U.S. Department of Education. (NAFIS, Nov 30. 2018)

FISEF Good Idea Grants Award $5,000 to Support Students

School district leaders: do you have staff members with great ideas to improve student outcomes but not the budget to implement them?

Let them know about FISEF Good Idea Grants. Three grants of up to $5,000 each will be awarded to representatives of NAFIS member school districts - such as teachers, school counselors, librarians, principals or other educators - for programs that address at least one of three areas: student academic needs, updated curriculum or improved student social and emotional wellness.

In the past, funded projects have included outdoor classrooms, art activities, pre-K readiness, bridge-building modules, kinder kindness and much, much more.

We have created a teachers' lounge flyer that can be posted at school or attached to a staff email.

Applications are due December 15. Learn more.

E-Rate Application Window Opens in January - AASA - Nov 30, 2018

The FY19 application window for ERate will open in January. We want to make sure school districts are accessing the full amount of ERate funding available to them in light of the 2014 funding increase. In current years, hundreds of millions of ERate dollars have been left on the table. IN an effort to expand enrollment and help schools better access this funding for FY19, we will be doing a coordinated set of outreach with USAC administrator Radha Sekar. In the mean time, here is the link where you can sign up for USAC and ERate webinars, including monthly ERate webinars and one on Dec 12 in preparation for the FY19 application window: https://www.usac.org/sl/about/outreach/default.aspx
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Post to Your Calendar

Date	Organization	Event	Location
Dec 1st, 2018	USDOE	FY2020 Application Open	---
Dec 10 - 11, 2018	NIISA	Annual Conference	Las Vegas, NV
Dec 12-14, 2018	ASBA	ASBA-ASA 61st Annual Conference	Phoenix, Az
Dec 14, 2018	ASIAA	General Membership Meeting in conjunction with ASBA Conference	Phoenix, Az
Jan 31, 2019	USDOE	FY2020 Application Closes	---