Some of Kane County’s top state and federal legislators touched on some hot-button topics at Thursday’s Administrators’ Academy panel discussion hosted by Kane County Regional Superintendent of Schools Patricia Dal Santo.

A  panel comprised of 14th District U.S. Congressman Randy Hultgren, Illinois Rep. Bob Pritchard and Illinois Sen. Karen McConnaughay answered questions from Caryn Valadez of Ed-Red, with discussion ranging from Common Core to concealed carry to Senate Bill 16’s proposed changes to the school-funding formula.

Pritchard said he feels SB 16 is headed in the wrong direction. SB16 does not increase the level of education funding but changes the way in which limited state funding is distributed to school districts. Generally, school districts with higher assessed property values will receive much less state funding while other districts will receive much more state funding.

When asked about Illinois’ future success in the global marketplace, Hultgren said the state has great resources.

“I have Fermilab in my district and every year they touch about 39,000 K-12 students, which is very impressive,” he said. “We also need to tap into our universities and local community colleges. This is a country that wants to learn and discover.”

The purpose of the academy is to maintain a statewide, regionally-based network that provides opportunities for mandated professional development for school administrators.

The Kane County Regional Office of Education provides high-quality training on the evaluation of certified personnel, school improvement, school accountability, public relations, communications, and pertinent leadership education relating to student growth, student achievement and school operations. Every administrator must complete a minimum of one approved academy annually and a minimum of five in each administrator certificate renewal period.

• This post was written by Ellen Kamps of the Kane County Regional Office of Education. For more information, visit the Kane County ROE website.