New Early Ed Council formed

Association of California School Administrators

Leadership Development Committee approves request to form council

August 9, 2021

ACSA will have a new council this year — the Early Education Council — devoted to improving the learning outcomes of children in the first five years of their lives. Members will have the opportunity to serve on this new council, which will consist of one representative from each region and liaisons from other councils with shared interests.

“I encourage members to contact their region president as soon as possible to let them know about their interest and availability to serve on this new council. We are looking forward to full representation from throughout the state,” said Linda Kaminski, chair of ACSA’s Leadership Policy Committee, which supported a request to create the council following an extensive study.

But before the Leadership Development Committee could do that work, it had to be reinstated.

In October 2020, the ACSA Board voted to reconvene the LDC (which had been on hiatus since 2018) to consider two requests from the Region 16 Executive Board for new state councils: Early Education Council and Instructional Technology Council.

A roster of who would serve on the 23-member LDC was then compiled and presented to the Leadership Assembly. For the 2020-21 year, ACSA State Past President Kaminski served as the Chair, per policy.

“It was particularly exciting to restart the committee in response to region requests for two new councils,” Kaminski said. “Being part of the process of listening to every region and committee/council to hear their perspective was a privilege. Each request grew out of a request to address expanding aspects of our roles as leaders in education.”

The LDC committee began its work in March 2021. Some of its first tasks included reviewing the committee’s purpose and applicable policies and bylaws, reviewing relevant strategic plan milestones, and reviewing the requests ACSA received for new committees/councils.

After reviewing the results of a study that was conducted from March 26 through May 16, the committee’s recommendations to the state board were to approve the request to form an Early Education Council and refer the request for the Instructional Technology Council back to LDC for further study. The board agreed with the LDC’s recommendations and approved the creation of the Early Education Council at its meeting June 29.

“The research on the value of early childhood education, the experience of many educators, and the ever-growing consensus and political will to ensure that every child has the opportunity for early learning have resulted in expanding opportunities that ACSA members lead throughout the state,” Kaminski said. “The LCD and Board recognized the importance of this council to support early education members and also to be a valued voice for state policy and funding decisions to ensure high quality early education for all students.”

In addition to conducting the study on the two new council requests, the LDC formed several workgroups to focus on the following topics: leadership training, strategic plan milestones and the process for gathering input from State/Region leaders about leadership support needs.

LDC members were also able to play a vital role in ACSA’s first virtual leadership training in June and provided beneficial feedback for changes to the annual planning and reporting templates.

This year, leadership of the committee will pass to its new chair, ACSA Past President Ron Williams. The LDC will continue to review and possibly revise/update the strategic plan milestones, develop a process for gathering input from State/Region leaders about leadership support needs, and conduct a follow-up study of the request to form an Instructional Technology Council. The purpose of the LDC is defined in policy as: “Working with the board, define association leadership needs, set criteria and requirements, and then build programs, training and orientation strategies, mentoring/coaching opportunities, and other tasks that effectively develop leadership at the region, council/committee and board levels.” The LDC is comprised of 23 members: the chair (ACSA past president), a co-chair (selected by the president), two current board members, and a representative from each region. Co-chairs serve a two-year term, board members serve one-year terms and region representatives serve three-year terms that are staggered to promote committee continuity.

Early Education Council

ACSA’s State Board has approved creation of the Early Education Council. Here are some details, as outlined in the proposal from the ACSA Region 16 Executive Board. Rationale:
Early Education has its own diverse needs and learning outcomes that are significantly different from the needs of Elementary. This is an opportunity for Early Education administrators to have a voice and to build a network that will address the developmental, social-emotional and skill set needs of our youngest learners while also obtaining quality professional development and support. Description:
The Early Education Council is committed to improving learning outcomes in the lives of young children (birth to 5 years old) to transition to kindergarten with essential skills as they continue their successful educational trajectory. The council is committed and takes on the responsibility of serving a diverse cultural and linguistic needs of students and their families. The council will focus on crucial standards such as developmental milestones; social and emotional learning; cognitive and physical skills; high quality professional development for Early Education administrators; and parental and community engagement.

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