An amendment to Senate Study Bill 3073 (SSB3073) — the bill reorganizing Area Education Agencies (AEA) — was sent out on Saturday. On Monday, Gov. Kim Reynolds contacted the Times-Republican to speak about the amendment and correct what she called “misinformation” regarding the bill.

Reynolds said she listened to concerns brought forward by legislators, educators and citizens, and has made changes to SSB3073. For example, the AEAs can continue to offer educational and media services to the school districts. The previous bill would have essentially eliminated media and educational services.

“I have heard the concerns,” she said. “We took a step back, took a look and compromised, and I think we’re in a good place.”

Marshalltown Community School District (MCSD) Superintendent Theron Schutte said the kicker to the AEA media services is no money will be available to support it.

“The governor is not allowing money to be given to the AEAs to pay for media services, and the districts aren’t getting that money,” he said. “There’s $32 to $33 million across the state that goes directly to the AEAs for media services, and she is cutting all of that funding. That’s one of our school district’s largest concerns with the amendment. That was the number one thing we complained about when the bill came out and when the amendment came out, it didn’t change anything.”

Beth Strike, director of creative services and communications for the Central Rivers AEA, which is based in Cedar Falls with satellite offices in Marshalltown and Clear Lake, said the amendment changed very little, and concern remains about the transfer of decision-making power from school boards and AEAs to the state.

“It is alarming in a state that values local decision making, and they move it to Des Moines,” she said. “An overwhelming majority of individuals are concerned about every provision of this bill.”

Previously, the worry was AEA employees in the media sector, which is a large percentage of the Marshalltown AEA location, would lose their positions.

Strike said it is too soon to tell how many employees will be negatively impacted by SSB3073.

“The districts will have access to media services, but not through us,” she said. “In a real sense, especially in the Marshalltown office where we house a majority of media items, those positions are in jeopardy. The amendment will allow us to provide services, but the district might not have the money to buy them.”

Now, Reynolds said very few jobs would be eliminated across the nine AEAs, but added there are plenty of opportunities for those employees to begin working in school districts.

“One thing I was hearing was the AEA was pulling the best teachers out of the classrooms. Schools were losing principals,” she said. “This will put more money in the school system, which will provide opportunities in the districts.”

Schutte said it was the first time he had heard of that concern.

“Most everybody who works in an AEA has worked in a classroom. There’s nothing magic about it,” he said. “In order for them to support the schools, it is best to have walked in [a teacher’s] shoes.”

Reynolds said AEA employees would continue to remain local, and would not be moved to Des Moines. Rather, the oversight would be provided by the Iowa Department of Education (DOE).

The biggest change in the amendment, Reynolds said, is money would go to school districts, and boards would decide whether or not to opt in or out of the AEA services. She said districts were previously required to spend money for special education and use the AEAs. As a result, districts were not aware of how their AEA money was being spent.

“No [other state] allocates millions of dollars for an entity and then mandates the use of the entity,” she said. “This brings transparency and accountability to the schools.”

Reynolds said if the AEA is providing a bargain on services the district can still use them.

“The district is the customer,” she said.

Schutte estimates that roughly 800 MCSD students receive special services, but Strike said it could be argued every student has been touched by the AEA. The organization has provided speech language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, audiologists and more.

“The special needs students are just more often recognized,” she said.

Reynolds said the primary reason she brought SSB3073 forward at the beginning of the month was the consistent poor performance of special education students in the state.

“Our students have underperformed and somebody needs to stand up for the kids,” she said. “I was elected to be a steward of the taxpayer dollars.”

Millions of state and federal dollars were going into a system in which Reynolds said no one knew how it was being spent.

“That is irresponsible,” she said. “Change is hard, but I tried to make this as flexible as I could. There should be some option for them to use someone else. It’s just not right. It’s like mandating everyone to buy your paper. It is not a good system of checks and balances.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream

at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.