Is this your first or second year as Superintendent?
What do you need to know to assure a successful start to your new
career?
The answer could be a Superintendent workshop.
Each Fall and Spring our office offers a
Superintendent’s
Workshop. Our goal is to teach the nuts and bolts of the job.
Our seminar is a must for new Superintendents. Experienced
Superintendents and School officials will benefit, as well.
The one-day
workshop goes in detail on important topics that impact on your
District and
your job. Seating is limited.
The primary Presenter is retired Superintendent Al Humpage from LaSalle. Al
shares his expertise and experience acquired during 30 years in the
education
field. The Attorneys from Zukowski Law Offices join him
during each
topic.
The
Fall session includes:
·
Budgeting –
The how to’s of preparing
and then working within your District budget.
·
Tax Levy – How to
prepare for the
levy, the legal way of establishing your levy and how to present the
levy to
your Board and the public.
· Property Taxes – Understanding individual
property tax bills, the assessment
cycle, tax extensions, and collection cycle. How to predict your
District’s
equalized assessed valuation. Dealing with property tax
appeals and
understanding tax abatements.
· General
State Aid – Calculating the
formula to determine your future state aid payments. Understanding the
factors
influencing the state aid formula.
·
Federal and State Grants
- How to
determine which ones to go after. How to incorporate grants into your
short and
long range budgeting.
·
Audit
– Understanding the audit from a
practical approach. What are the important findings in an audit and how
to use
this information.
·
Working with the Board of
Education –
Learn how to orient new members and work with experienced ones. Learn
the do’s
and don’ts of Superintendent-Board relations. We also cover
best practices from
Board Agendas to Board Meeting, as well as workshops for your Board of
Education.
· Public Relations
– Successful tips on
building strong public relations within your District and Community
from
Newsletters to speaking with the Media.
·
Your
District’s Financial Profile –
Getting a handle on your District’s financial condition.
The
Spring session includes:
·
Negotiating
– Learn valuable tips on
how to prepare in advance for upcoming negotiations with unions
representing
certified and non-certified staff. We discuss information to
be collected
in advance, how to review the current contract, prioritizing the
board’s
proposals, the role of the board, the role of the superintendent, and
the role
of the principals.
·
Tax
Increment Finance (TIF) and Enterprise
Zone – We take a thorough look at
how TIFs impact school districts, a
step-by-step look at what can be done and a comparison between TIFs and
Enterprise Zones.
·
Remediation
to Dismissal – We examine
the best practices for placing a teacher on remediation and then the
proper
steps of dismissing a teacher on remediation.
· Tax
Abatements/Objections – Millions
of dollars are lost each year from tax abatements such as Homestead
Exemption,
Homestead Improvement, Senior Citizens Homestead Exemption, Senior
Citizens
Assessment, and other abatements. Districts are also hurt by
failure to
defend against taxpayer filed petitions to reduce property tax. We
discuss
their impact and what schools can and should do about them.
Each participant receives a binder of materials,
lunch,
and has plenty of opportunity to ask questions in a small group
setting.
PAST
PARTICIPANT
COMMENTS
“A must for a new Superintendent.
I would strongly
encourage all new Superintendents to participate in the Orientation
program.”
-H.S.
Superintendent,
“Very
good program. I love getting practical,
usable information. This is very helpful to someone with
little
experience. I’ve learned a lot.”
-G.S.
Superintendent, Will County
“Thanks again – very informative
in straight forward
language with examples that are easily understood.”
-G.S.
Superintendent,
“This
was an extremely worthwhile set of Workshops for a
beginning Superintendent. Packets of information gave me
valuable
resources that I now have at my finger tips for on the job use with
staff,
board, and community.”
-G.S.
Superintendent,
“This Workshop gave me many useful tools to
step into my
new role as a Superintendent. I am eager to hear about more
Workshops.”
-G.S.
Superintendent,