LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER

February 4, 2011

Committees worked this week to get bills with funding out of committee so they could be referred to Appropriations by the February 7 deadline. Leadership will likely extend the deadline for specific bills, but they need to be moving all bills along. In addition to committee work, there was a full hearing schedule.

On Monday NDSBA testified in favor of SB2338, which provides grants for early childhood education programs, and SB2311 that clarifies procedures for the Teacher of the Year (TOY) program. The Senate Education Committee amended SB2311 to include up to $3,600 in substitute pay for the TOY’s home district. They also replace the higher education person with a non-public K-12 person on the selection committee. NDSBA supported the amendments and the bill received a unanimous DO PASS recommendation. As you recall, NDSBA’s Delegate Assembly unanimously passed a resolution supporting new TOY program changes.

Senate Education spent Tuesday and Wednesday going through SB2150 section by section. Significant adopted amendments:

Provide $7 million for deferred maintenance in districts levying at least 110 mills if the state’s ending fund balance exceeds $30 million on April 30 of 2012 or 2013--requires a dollar-for-dollar match.
Indicate excess foundation aid will be distributed to districts.
Raise compulsory attendance age to 17 or graduation for high school beginning on July 1, 2015.
Include kindergarten in compulsory attendance.

Several sections of SB2150 were tentatively approved, while the following are being held for possible amendments:

Section 2. Early Childhood Education

Section 8. Teacher Support Program

Section 14. ND Scholarship Fund--continuing appropriation

Section19. Per Pupil Payments

Section 25. Supplemental Teacher Effectiveness Compensation Plan (STECP)

Section 29. STECP Review Panel--reimbursement for expenses

Section 32. Use of New Money--70% to teacher compensation

Section 35. Principal Mentorship Grants

The committee plans to finish work on SB2150 next week.

Tuesday and Wednesday NDSBA testified on several bills:

SB2314--Contains $1.5 million for safe and drug-free school grants. North Dakota has lost $3 million in federal money for this prevention program. NDSBA supported the bill.

SB2316--Includes a formula factor for alternative school or programming for grades 6-8. There is already a factor for alternative schools in grades 9-12. NDSBA supported the bill because it supports local boards’ efforts to combat truancy and dropouts.

HB1457--NDSBA supported this bill that provides $1 million to county health units to provide nursing services to schools. We have long asked for nursing services that are funded outside of general education dollars.

HB1229--Mandates all school districts to include a specific and prescriptive abstinence-based curriculum in health education. NDSBA opposed the bill because we support local control in use and scope of sex education in schools.

HB1248--Requires North Dakota to join the Interstate Compact of Education of Military Children. As we did last Session, NDSBA opposed joining the Compact. Students of military families in North Dakota are already afforded accommodations laid out in the Compact and joining the Compact entails submitting to a whole new layer of bureaucracy with reporting, monitoring, and sanctions that we believe are unnecessary. Decisions of the national commission that governs the Compact would supersede state law, and yet, they are not accountable to North Dakota voters in any way.

On Wednesday, House Education worked on HB1029, which is the school approval bill. Major components of the bill are:
1) simplified reporting,
2) moves the school improvement process requirement from accreditation to approval, and
3) provides that a district missing the approval report filing deadline permanently loses state aid for every day its approval report is late.
The committee passed amendments to HB1029 that included moving the reporting deadline from September 15 to October 1. NDSBA had asked for this amendment because the report to DPI requires board action, and we wanted to be sure boards had the month of September to meet and approve the report. After adopting amendments, the bill received a unanimous DO PASS recommendation.

On Thursday, the Government and Veterans Affairs Committee took action on two TFFR bills:

HB1134--Contains the 2% employee and 2% employer increases for July1, 2012, and July 1, 2014 (for a total of 4% and 4%) and benefit reductions. The committee adopted an amendment (10-3) that would prohibit schools districts from paying the increases in teacher contributions. The employee increases could not be included in the bargaining process. Districts that current pay all or part of employee contributions would continue to do so, but the increased employee contributions in HB1134 would have to be paid by the employee. The amended bill received a DO PASS recommendation on a vote of 12-1.

HB1258--Closes TFFR’s defined benefit plan to new members on July 1, 2012, and requires new members hired after that date be placed in a defined contribution plan. The committee amended the bill to remove the option of defined benefit members to move to defined contribution plans and gave the amended bill a 7-6 DO PASS.

Important bills on next week’s hearing schedule include:

House Finance and Tax

9:00 Monday--HB1194 Truth in property taxation

House Education

11:00 Tuesday--HB1436 Eligibility for kindergarten

House Political Subdivisions

9:00 Thursday--HB1438 Allows for referral of school district budgets

House Government and Veterans Affairs

10:00 Friday--HB1398 Reduces TFFR benefits of school administrators

To see the complete hearing schedule for bills we are tracking, click on Hearing Schedule at the top of this page.

Everyone has access to bill topics and texts, hearing schedules, and bill status reports at the Legislature’s Web site. NDSBA’s Web site includes this weekly Legislative Newsletter, hearing schedules for the upcoming week, and the list of bills NDSBA is tracking. Updated information will be posted Thursday or Friday each week depending on when information becomes available.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

ND State Web site: www.nd.gov

ND Legislative Information Web site: www.legis.nd.gov

Legislature Toll Free # 1-888-635-3447

Bismarck Legislative # 328-3373