Weekly Round-Up for March 19, 2010

Here's a quick summary of some of what's been happening at NYSASBO this past week. We welcome you to share your thoughts and questions in the comments section for this post to the NYSASBO Reporter Blog. Do you have questions about school business management? Visit the School Business Management Forum or visit the NYSASBO Resources page. Members are encouraged to ask and answer questions and share resources in support of your professional community.

NYSASBO Advocacy Efforts

NYSASBO works to promote sound school business management in New York State. Here are some of the things that have come up this week:

• NYSABSO is working with member bond counsels to draft legislation that would allow school districts to finance on the private bond market increases in budgeted employer contributions in both TRS and ERS. This would be an alternative to the Comptroller's plan to finance only ERS increases with the State.
• NYSASBO is drafting a letter to the Assembly advocating the passage of the Mandate Relief Act of 2010.
• With input from NYSASBO chapter officers and committee chairs, the Association is preparing suggestions for SED to unilaterally provide mandate relief to school districts.

Reporter Blog Posts

In case you missed it, here are the news items we reported recently:

• The latest on Medicaid Claiming
• Information on Voting Machines
• Legislative Progress on Mandate Relief
• The Senate Democrat's School Aid Conundrum
• An interview with Dr. John King, NYSED's new Senior Deputy Commissioner for Education (P-12) in the March 2010 edition of the Reporter Podcast

News Headlines

NYSASBO posts headlines of interest to members on our Delicious bookmarks page. Here are some of the stories that really caught our attention this week:

• A boost for contingency budgets
• Array of Hurdles Awaits New Education Agenda
• New York schools struggling to make ends meet