House Bill 213 – creates the Office of Dropout Prevention within the State Dept. of Education. This office shall establish graduation rate benchmarks for each 2-year period through 2018-19 SY with an 85% graduation rate benchmark for the 2018-19 SY. Each School District is required to implement a Dropout Prevention Program by the 2008-09 SY. The Senate also has similar Dropout Prevention provisions contained in Senate Bill 2602. There is great concern that only 60% of our ninth-graders graduate in their senior year. Therefore, I feel certain that this bill or similar legislation will pass this year to address this issue.

House Bill 214 - requires the State Dept. to design curriculum choices within the current requirements for a high school diploma for students who are interested in direct entry into the workforce immediately following graduation.

House Bill 215 - amends the Ms Adequate Education statutes. The following changes are made:

-conforms the selection of districts in the determination of the “base

student cost” to the current accreditation system and includes efficiency measures in cost calculations.

-Currently, student counts for distribution of MAEP funds are based on the greater of the 2 preceding years of the SY funds are appropriated for. This bill changes this to only the preceding year (2nd&3rd months), and adds an allowance for high-growth districts. The additional allowance is based on the % growth in the 2nd&3rd month’s avg. for the 3 preceding years. For those districts experiencing declining student enrollment, or not experiencing 3 years of consecutive growth, only the preceding year’s ADA is utilized, except that, until 2009, if MAEP is not fully-funded, the greater of the two preceding years will be utilized. This change will help high growth districts, but will remove one year of protection for declining districts (if MAEP is fully-funded).

-Removes state at-risk funds from the calculation of the base student cost, and removes the current small ADA calculation from the MAEP formula. These are minor adjustments but do have the effect of decreasing the total MAEP funding. It would be best if these provisions were not implemented unless MAEP is fully-funded. Currently, there is no provision for this.

-Retains the Base Student Cost for Multiple years. Currently, the Base Student Cost is recalculated using the most recently available cost from school districts. This provision retains the same base student cost for 4 years, but adds an inflation factor of 40% of whatever the state inflation rate is for each of the 4 years. This could have a fairly significant impact on the allotments for MAEP, if school districts experience cost increases above that 40% factor. This also assumes the legislature will be able to honor the inflation provision.

House Bill 951 – requires school district superintendents to give teachers, administrators and other professional educators’ notice of non reemployment either on or before April 15 or within 5 days after the Legislature adopts appropriation bills to fund K-12, whichever date is later. In non-election normal years, where the legislature is able to complete the appropriation process on time, this will be no issue. However, in election years, about 30 days is added to the length of the Session and will delay notice on rehires by at least a month. Additionally, when serious budget issues arise and cause a delay in the normal legislative calendar, rehire notices will again be delayed. It certainly would be better if the Legislature would adopt the K-12 budget prior to the current April 15th notice date.

House Bill 1119 – requires the Dept. of Ed. to report expenditures of public schools and defines reporting categories and function codes and requires the State Auditor to audit such reporting, compile a compliance report. Requires financial reports by October 15. Directs the SDE, rather than the auditor, to prescribe accounting and reporting of school districts.

House Bill 1121 – (portion of Gov.’s upgrade bill) includes “home rule” for school districts, and exempts Level 4 & 5 school districts from SEMI and other process standards. The bill provides that all school districts can set the closing date of the school term, subject to the minimum number of days required, observe legal holidays as designated by the local school board and to privatize nonacademic school functions excluding sixteenth section land.

House Bill 1122 –(portion of Gov.’s upgrade bill) provides authorization of additional base pay for teachers who teach in a critical geographical or subject shortage area . The bill also provides that the state may provide funds to reward certified teachers, administrators and non licensed personnel at school showing improvement in test scores. Additionally, two mentor teachers in each middle school are authorized to be paid $1,000. This bill also provides that, beginning July 1, 2006, classroom supply funds which are not reserved in an approved spending plan and remain unspent on March 31 of the fiscal year must be used by the school for instructional supply and equipment purposes.

Other House Bills of interest are: 166,216,308,318,319,320,321,563,653,944,1119,1130,1167,1242,1358,1383,1423,1449.

Senate Bill 2061- changes the requirements for a local school superintendent from having at least 4 years of either classroom or administrative experience to 3 years.

Senate Bill 2119 - provides for elected school boards and apptd. superintendents beginning 2009.

Senate Bill 2427 – provides that no local school board, superintendent, or principal shall prohibit a public school classroom teach from discussing Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution and the existence of other theories of evolution, including, but not limited to , the Intelligent Design explanation of the origin of life.

Senate Bill 2602 ( Gov.’s upgrade bill) – provides home rule for school districts, authorizes performance pay based on growth in test scores, additional pay for geographical and subject area shortages, includes dropout prevention strategies. Note that reemployment of retired teachers was removed from this bill.

Senate Bill 2604 – This bill contains similar provisions to House Bill 215 with some differences in the ADA language. This bill removes specifics of the calculation of the base student cost and leaves that determination to the State Board of Education. This bill does not contain an inflation factor, but does allow for calculation of the base student cost only every 4 years, and provides that school district funds derived from any fees in lieu of taxes will be counted as part of the school district local contribution for MAEP.

Other Senate Bills of interest are:2008,2049,2055,2154,2158,2188,2409,2665,2700,2701,2704,2716,2718,2918,2978.