Saturday in the basement of the Kewanna Public Library Fulton County Residents had the opportunity to hear from their representatives, as well as engage in a Q&A after the legislators presentations. Senator Stacey Donato as well as Representatives Jack Jordan and Ethan Manning were in attendance; Representative Douglas Gutwein was the only of the four scheduled to not make an appearance.

Donato, Jordan, and Manning all spoke about education and how important it is to them when they are in session. Specifically Rep. Jordan says the goal is to provide flexible teacher training and the regulation of schools. With the 2020 legislative session scheduled to be a short session we might see an accelerated process to see bills signed into law.

Of the crowd, totaling roughly 40 people most were teachers so the topics on hand hit close to home. During the Q&A session plenty of opinions were voiced, some that stood out included and Culver teacher who spoke of concerns with the state taking over funding leaves question as to budget on a year by year basis, which impacts the training teachers go through and in fact some teachers have to pay out of pocket for their training to keep their license.

Helping students with social and emotional learning was the concern for a teacher from Plymouth. He says this used to be funded by the state but with that no longer the case the schools are doing the best they can to help students. Training is needed for these teachers to make sure they can help students through whatever situation might be troubling them. Plymouth has 20 minutes every Tuesday scheduled to help students with social and emotional difficulties, however the challenge again is sometimes the message from the students is getting to teachers who have not received the proper training.

Overall a very productive day in Kewanna as Legislators had the opportunity to hear from the community about concerns for the area, and now it will be brought back with Senator Donato as well as Representatives Jordan and Manning to session. Rochester Meat and Deli will be hosting the next Legislative Breakfast Series on February 15.