Legislative Update

Education Budget (SB318 by Sen. Pittman) On Thursday, the House sent the ETF Budget back to the Senate with its changes.  The Senate non-concurred with those changes—primarily changes made in the Department of Postsecondary Education and the bill now goes to a conference committee.  Each legislative version of the budget has produced better options for K-12 schools. The House version has set the divisors at .135 above the current year. That is better than the .4 increases that came with the Senate version of the bill or the .5 increases proposed by the Governor in his budget in February. We have received assurances from the budget chairs that they will make every effort in the conference committee to get the divisors to the current FY 12 level. The final day for this session has now changed to May 16 and that is the day that we will know the final details of the budget. Stay tuned. Flexible School Calendar Act of 2012 (HB 360 by Rep. Davis) On Thursday, the Senate took the same action as the House and successfully moved to override the Governor's Executive Amendment that would have allowed an opt-out provision for school systems. The bill is now law and will be forwarded to the Secretary of State's Office for final enactment.  Specifics about the bill... Gives local boards of education flexibility by allowing them to use the equivalent of instructional hours (1080 hours) as an alternative calculation to meet the 180 full instructional day minimum This bill mandates a start and end date Provides that the first school day begin no earlier than the Monday two weeks before Labor Day and end no later than the Friday immediately before Memorial Day.  Mandates a start and end date for school year 2012 -2013 and a start date only for the 2013 -2014 school year…covering two summers, but not locking in an end date certain for the second school year.  States “No local board of education may reduce the amount in any cell of any employee salary schedule, or otherwise reduce the compensation of any employee, based upon this act or upon any future modification to its calendar or schedule pursuant to this act. Salary appropriations in all future Education Trust Fund budgets shall be based upon the number of contract days allocated by the Legislature, or the hourly equivalent. This language helps to ensure that employee salaries will not be adversely affected.