LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER

April 22, 2011

Conference committees meeting on bills NDSBA is tracking made little or no progress this week in spite of multiple meetings every day. As a result, they are unable to conclude business before Easter as was once hoped, and the Session will go into next week.

There was action on the following bills this week:

SB2281 contains concussion management requirements for school districts. It has passed both chambers and has been signed by the Governor.

SB2311, the Teacher of the Year bill, passed the House and Senate. We have heard there is an e-mail campaign from teachers and some Democrat House members urging the Governor to veto the bill. The message they are sending is that the legislature should not tell a private association how they should present their award. The disinformation in that argument is that it is NOT and NEVER HAS BEEN an NEA or NDEA award program. Rather, it is a national program initiated by the National Council of Chief State School Officers (state superintendents of public instruction). Because the NDEA hijacked the announcement ceremony years ago, most people (including some legislators) have believed it was their association’s award. NDSBA is asking the Governor to honor wishes of the House and Senate and guarantee that the Teacher of the Year announcement be a (union) neutral event.

HB1047 provides a formula for property tax relief grants. House members of the conference committee offered amendments that attempted to address rapid valuation increases, districts unable to reach 75 mills of relief, and districts that are getting 75 mills (based on 2008 mill levels) that probably shouldn’t still be receiving the full 75. Once a run was produced for an amendment, it showed different winners and losers. Senate members supported their version of the bill that contains the current formula with a slight adjustment for districts with rapid valuation increases. The adjustment states that no district can receive an increase in property tax relief greater than the percent increase in statewide average valuation. After several meetings, the House acceded to the Senate amendments on Thursday and sent the bill to the floor.

HB1194 requires political subdivisions to hold a public hearing if they are proposing a mill levy that raises more dollars than their current mills. An amendment proposed by Senator Cook in conference committee simplifies the hearing advertisement requirements and removes a deadline date for the hearing. The committee adopted the amendments and sent the bill to the floor.

HB1248 is the bill that relates to treatment of transfer students of military families. As introduced, the bill required North Dakota to join the interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children. The House version of the bill excluded the Compact and simply stated that school districts would do everything possible to ease the transition of military transfer students. The Senate included an interim study of the Compact. When HB1248 went to conference committee, the House conferees proposed adding the Compact requirement back into the bill. The committee has been unable to agree because the Senate conferees still want a study before obligating the state to requirements of the Compact. An amendment was offered by the Senate which would include the Compact with an August 1, 2013, sunset clause. During the upcoming interim, impacted schools will be required to report to the Interim Education Committee regarding implementation of the Compact. Based on the interim report, the 2013 legislature will either remove the sunset clause or withdraw from the Compact. This was a decent compromise. The bill will now go to the chambers for a floor vote.

The following bills are still in conference committee:

HB1134 contains contribution and benefit changes to TFFR. House committee members are holding out for their version of the bill that requires teachers to pay their own 2 percent increase. Senate committee members support their version that allows the teachers’ increased contribution to be negotiated with their school boards. Neither side is budging. The conference committee may be dissolved, in which case, a new conference committee would be named or the current version of the bill (Senate version) will go to the floor in both chambers for a vote.

HB1229 is the abstinence education bill. The conference committee was deadlocked over the purpose of abstinence-based concepts. Rather than addressing risks involved in adolescent sexual activity, the Senate insists on addressing “sex before marriage,” which reaches far beyond adolescent behavior. The House held firm on allowing local districts to develop their own abstinence curriculum content. This committee appears to be deadlocked. NDSBA’s position is that specific curriculum content should be adopted at the local level.

SB2150 is the comprehensive education policy bill with multiple differences among the House and Senate Education versions and the House Appropriations version which ultimately passed in the House. The conference committee has been meeting for two weeks. Conferees have agreed to include a .15 factor for schools offering alternative middle school programming in the 2013-15 biennium, to require reporting of those programs, and to sunset it June 30, 2015. This will allow the legislature to revisit the factor in the 2015 Session. They also increased the special factor to 1.79.

Regarding grants to rapidly growing school districts, conferees will attempt to provide funding from oil impact money rather than from the Department of Public Instruction budget so that schools in oil impact areas are guaranteed funding from oil impact grants ($2.5 million per year).

Foundation aid payments will be set at $3,910 for year one and $3,980 in the second year of the biennium.

Conference committee members have also agreed not to include in the bill any reference to deferred maintenance and to remove all sections referring to the supplemental teacher effectiveness compensation plan.

The conference committee will be voting on the final bill Friday (today) at 2:00 p.m. so the committee on SB2013 (DPI budget) can begin its works.

CLICK HERE for summary information on SB2150.

There are only a few days left in the Session and several important bills remain unresolved. If your school board has an opinion on any of these bills, you should contact your legislators IMMEDIATELY!

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