Representative Hope Duke

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:38:59)

said, Representative McKenzie did a good job of summarizing this, just add some transparency and some local control to the districts, and I appreciate y'all's support. And being a member of the committee, I make a motion to pass. Thank you for the motion. We

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:38:43)

control and promote transparency? It absolutely increases local control and just, you know, transparency for the public and for the people that administer the district to just know what's going on.

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:38:25)

they have to go before the board, and they have to get approval to do that, and they have to get approval from the commissioner

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:38:20)

and the principal wants to work for them as well, or their husband has that company, then now

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:37:45)

they're able to contract. If the school district is in a contract, they are also able to be an employee with that company or whomever without any notification or any approval. The superintendents and the assistant superintendents have to get permission from the commissioner to do so. This is just adding that piece to them as well. So that if they work with one, if they're not contracting with their district, if that company is not contracting, then they don't have to get permission to do that. But if they're under a contract, the school district is under a contract with this entity,

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:37:39)

it right now. Well, I'm sorry. Thank you. So right now, the curriculum directors and the principals and assistant principals,

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:37:12)

They can not, right now, they can't do it unless they get it. Well, they can right now. If this passes, they cannot do it unless the board approves and the department approves, just like the same thing for assistant superintendents and superintendents. So it's just a

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:36:56)

section. They're going to be in this section. They're going to be included in this section on the ethical guidelines as an administrator. So just so that whenever they're, just to make sure that if they are working for a company or if a family member is working for a company, that there's just that clarity with the board and with the department.

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:36:10)

think that is an important piece to just know the people that have influence in your district and making decisions if they've got a family member or if they themselves are working for a company that is contracting with your district and with that I'll

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:36:20)

do my best to answer any questions Thank you. Are there

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:35:39)

that they have to come and have that step of knowing that that is happening and also again it still goes to the commissioner in making sure that they approve it too and so i haven't had any opposition that i'm aware of with this um it does add a little bit of paperwork i did talk to the department about that and they recognize it may add a little bit of additional paperwork to it but they were my understanding fine with that because it just adds again it's just a transparency piece to make sure that everyone knows what is going on and serving on the school board in the past I do

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:35:05)

you can still get a waiver from the state board of education from the commissioner to be able to work for a company that's contracted with your district or to provide a service with like a company that your family or that you are involved with or spouse is involved in but the extra layer to this is it adds a school board to that as well and I think that's important too it's just a transparency piece so the school board is aware if one of those people in that new definition is working with a company that is contracted in their district they can approve it it just says

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:34:22)

And particularly the way things have just kind of changed in education, a lot of our principals and particular curriculum directors, that wasn't even a position that we had many years ago, they have a lot of responsibility and authority, as they should, and some influence. And even though they may not be directly involved in presenting contracts and stuff to the board, they do have a lot of, you know, insight and input into what they're going to use and what they're going to do. And so it deals with their responsibilities there, admins the definition there. And then it also, sorry, it also adds for two other, one piece we have in granting a waiver, because you still may get a waiver with this if you have a principal or assistant principal just like a superintendent and assistant superintendent currently does.

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:33:56)

yourself? Oh, I am Hope Duke. District 12, Northwest Arkansas, Benton County. Okay, so this is a pretty simple bill, to use the phrasing that everyone likes to use around here. It does do some things I think are pretty important. It just adds a lot of transparency back to the public. It deals with the ethical guidelines for administrators and amends the definition of administrators. And what it does is it adds principals, assistant principals, and curriculum directors to that definition. And the reason why I think that is important is as we grow as a state and as school districts have grown,

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (1:33:47)

Okay. I hope I have as many motions. Well, I guess I can make my own motions, so I don't have to have as many motions. Can you quickly recognize

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (23:08)

And as legislators and as people, you know, kind of charged with setting the course for our next generation, we owe that to them to make sure they understand the importance of finding out why our founders did this, what their intent was, and why it set us on the course, in my opinion, and I think probably y'all's too, to be the greatest nation in the world. And so with that, I am closed, and I make a motion to pass. Representative Duke has closed for

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (22:33)

You may not agree with it. We don't all agree with each other and why we bring certain bills and why we do certain things, but it doesn't mean that we don't need to understand where they were coming from and why they made the choices they did. They made decisions to make the United States of America a certain type of government and have the restraints and the duties of that for the citizenry there. And we need to know, our students need to know that. And I am all for debate. I am all for those kids engaging and having those conversations and exploring in a greater, deeper way because we're not giving that to them right now.

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (21:58)

So we often, we heard here with some of the testimony members that they gave, when we all see the videos and the clips of citizens who do not have a very good understanding of our government and how it works, But even more so, as I emphasize here, it's not just those dates and it's not just those events. Those are important, and I would agree that those are covered somewhat in our standards already. What this bill does is it hits 6th through 12th grade. It embeds it in there, so it's not just targeted to just a couple of classes when they're juniors or seniors. It also emphasizes in here looking at the intent and what they believed and what motivated them.

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (21:47)

Representative Duke, would you like to close for your bill? Thank you, Mr. Chair. Thank you, members, and thank you, you all, coming down here and adding a lot of context and data to an idea that I had, and I really do appreciate that.

Education Committee (House) — March 18, 2025 (12:08)

But if DESE would like to comment on that, or if you all would like to have them do that, that is my understanding, is that they would be able to work with the districts to make sure there wasn't