The Higley Unified School District Governing Board is considering having the district take one step away from the Arizona School Boards Association.
The district tabled a matter May 10 to consider entering into a four-year contract with ASBA for its policy services. The district would pay $5,136 a year for the services, which help districts keep their policies in line with state law as the Legislature makes law changes each year.
ASBA is a nonprofit organization that provides school boards with policy services, training and advocacy at the Arizona Legislature.
However, it has come under fire in the past couple years from some conservatives who view it as a partisan group. Some of its advocacy, for example, has been against Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Account program.
ESAs, sometimes referred to as school vouchers, give families the portion of public funding that would have been used for their students at a public school for use on approved educational expenses, such as private school tuition or online education.
At the HUSD meeting May 10, Board Member Anna Van Hoek and a speaker during public comment, Roy Morales, expressed concern about entering into a four-year contract and how that could tie the hands of future boards if the members wished to leave ASBA.
“I would like to see other options and if there's a cost savings potentially with a different company,” said Van Hoek, who added that she was also unhappy about being locked into a four-year contract and not being able to get out without paying a penalty.
Superintendent Dawn Foley said district officials also did not like that, but that ASBA was firm in saying there would be no one-year contract option.
The proposed contract includes a termination clause that allows the district to end the contract with 30 days notice and a payment of 50% of the remaining balance.
The problem, Foley said, is one of timing. The current contract expires June 30. Not continuing with ASBA at this juncture could jeopardize the board’s access to its policies.
ASBA uses a platform called BoardDocs on which districts can store its policies and keep agendas and minutes of board meetings.
“The issue is that we do not feel that we are ready to drop everything,” Foley said.
Foley said she did not want to start the new school year with access to the policies being an issue.
“We have policies that aren't being implemented consistently all over the place because there was no regulation training and follow through,” she said. “I have been more worried about the quality and caliber of the implementation of the policies and getting them up to date rather than what platform we want to use.”
Board member Amanda Wade also expressed concern about making a decision on a short timeline rather than having four years to figure out what the best option is.
Board members asked about possibly getting a separate license to use BoardDocs. They also noted that Queen Creek Unified School District recently stopped using ASBA’s policy services and members asked if the district could see how the transition has gone for that district.
QCUSD’s board voted in December to end getting its contract for policy services from ASBA and move forward with an agreement with the Arizona School Risk Retention Trust for policies.
Board member Kristina Reese asked for comparisons of what is offered from the trust and ASBA and the prices.
If the district ended its relationship with ASBA for policy services, it could still be a member of ASBA. Membership is done annually and costs the district $12,442 per year.
At least two districts have ended their ASBA membership in the past two years: Dysart Unified School District and the Colorado River Union High School District.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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