DIRECTORS’ CORNER
Navigating new
developments
Kent Ellickson
Director of Finance and Business Services,
School District of Onalaska
WASBO Past-President
This is my final newsletter
article I write
as a board member
for seven consecutive
years: concluding
a three-year term as
director; special one-year term as a director;
and a three-year term moving
through the offices of president-elect,
president, and past-president.
However, this will not be my final
article for a WASBO publication. I
have volunteered to serve as chair of
WASBO's Editorial Committee, a
new committee that will help oversee
WASBO's publications.
In preparing to write this article, I
took a moment to reflect on WASBO
and the changes it and our profession
have gone through in seven years.
To help do this, I reviewed 2013-14
editions of Taking Care of Business.
Reading through the articles in these
editions reminded me of sessions I
attended at WASBO conferences.
Thinking about some of the WASBO
conference sessions reminded me of
follow-up conversations I’ve had with
many of you on various topics.
Who remembers navigating through
the new restrictions on the use of the
Community Service Fund seven years
ago? Who remembers the WASBO
initiative undertaken by our former
executive director, Woody Wiedenhoeft,
to work together with the
state, WIAA, and attorneys to help
us clarify and interpret the use of
WIAA officials in the same manner
as an Independent Contractor? Who
remembers our association offering
guidance in multiple ways on the importance
of classifying, reporting, and
discussing fund balance after seeing
legislators scrutinize the UW-System
fund balances?
This lookback has impressed upon me
how WASBO has a history of being
here to support school professionals
as we navigate through the changes
and issues in our profession. I also
found solace in knowing that we have
been provided resources to help navigate
through these things and adopt,
when necessary, best practices to
address many of these things that used
to be a source of professional anxiety.
With change there is always uncertainty.
Change and uncertainty will
always be inherent in our profession.
If we would have been able to look
forward seven years ago and see how
the end of the 2019-20 school year
and the start of the 2020-21 school
year would be for our profession,
it would all seem like an alternate
universe.
It would seem crazy to think about
a pandemic, school physically closing
with an abrupt swing to remote
learning, decisions on continuing to
pay various agreements, no traditional
graduations, no spring sports, school
staff providing a significant portion of
students’ weekly meals under amazingly
loose USDA rules to an increasing
number of students as substantial
numbers of family breadwinners lose
employment, Zoom board meetings,
planning for a Year 2 of a state biennial
budget likely to require significant
adjustment due to a hard recession,
and navigating reopening school
with a possible phased-in approach
that minimizes physical proximity of
students and staff.
Now, more than ever, our profession
needs WASBO. We are a strategic
organization prepared to offer both
what our members need and the skills
and techniques they can effectively
use. WASBO will continue to offer
professional development to help us
address our current needs, provide
networking opportunities, and offer
opportunities to grow as leaders.
Good leaders are needed to help organizations
navigate through change!
Speaking of change, with the end of
the school/fiscal year comes changes
to our Board. Finishing their terms
in June are Bill Freeman and Greg
Gaarder. Their participation on the
board over the past three years has
certainly helped improve our
organization.
The new directors joining the board
in July are Sarah Viera, Jeff Mahoney,
12 June 2020 • Taking Care of Business • WASBO.com