Education- House & Senate

Allow them to succeed in in the profession that there have and we do have a a guaranteed transfer associate of arts and teaching that we are we have an Emma you with most of our institutions they've signed on to that and we do have some variables there so if a student knows they're going to be a math teacher then some of those education courses may need to vary a bit in their freshman sophomore years of to take more of those education math courses so there are some that are given Trent guarantee transfer for any education degree but we we do have a standard package of that a student could opt for and all they have to do is reach out to the Department hiring is that right yes that's correct in my last question manager if I may of one of the best kept secrets deal in the state of Arkansas a concurrent courses. And as I'm going to cut it to high schools across the state. Disproportion number of the students who I represent in my district still unaware of concurrent credit. In the chair ask about how do we get the word out. I'm not satisfied that our counselors or so what are superintendents assistant superintendents attend the meetings to which you refer and therefore it is not going is not getting to the level where children are taking advantage of these concurrent courses there still so many children who are out there who could benefit from it. But I obviously don't know about it and so I'm just wondering are we going to do what we did for the lottery and that's put on the television put it on the radio reach out to the community so that they're aware of this very very important program is there any plan for that. That is certainly an option what we have been doing so far is focusing our efforts on making sure that the educators the teachers who are advisors for this program are committed and passionate about teaching and that they will make sure that they spread the word in their particular building but there certainly is a Rome for more advertisement absolutely and also with the expansion of the career coaches were hoping that that will help this as well and also now that the two young ladies that stood up in the back they actually go out to the districts and talk directly to students because we now that that's the most important because we can do about this but if the students do not hear about it and the pathway that's what's most important. Thank you and thank you secretary keep for your messages where I appreciate thank you very much messaging. Thank you just a follow up on Senator Chesterfield I think Department of higher ed getting together with the two year colleges association why couldn't you send a letter to every student that says you are eligible to take concurrent credit concurrent classes at this institution the institutions themselves should be sending letters I'm not sure why you couldn't do that that letter than to go to the parents it could go to the students and says you are eligible to attend a concurrent credit class through. Its mountain college Ozarka college S. U. B. B. AS you Hebron springs a issue Mountain Home why can't those institutions send a letter to all those students in high school that says you're eligible to take this let us help you enroll you let us help and roll you could that not happen that's actually a really good idea so we'll talk about that okay Mr Welsh's in the audience did you hear me will you take that on for me because I think that's the way you do it and then the parents are aware and they have a letter from the institute of higher ed where they would be attending not concurrent class and let's get him enrolled and that should be on the two year colleges and your department to get that done so I'm gonna put you two in charge of that okay. Representative back you're recognized. Thank you madam chair thank you guys for being here I appreciate I appreciate you being here I also appreciate the program. Two questions the first one is concerning the if if the students is hypothetical thing here to have a student who is really a go getter and they jump into this program quickly is it feasible that that individual might possibly when they graduate from high school. You have the two year associate's degree at the same time. That's a very good question we are looking right now we're we've been working with the universities and colleges to make sure that the concurrent classes that are offered within the education lower level classes or can they can current there are others. And go along with that to make them eligible for an associate's again it would have to be. I'd go getter and I'm sure it would almost be. It would be attainable I'm sure Dr Markham has her thoughts to on that but I think it could be done this is a new initiative this is only about our third year that we hope to someday that to be to that point the reason I ask questions we had a technical program we had a student do exactly that which I thought was absolutely great then my second question is what do you guys hearing as far as the main obstruction roadblock for the for the students right now as far as getting involved this program are actually just entering education in general. Sometimes it's the requirements for the concurrent credit and some of the looking hopefully at flexible admissions and I know that we've been talking with Dr Markham steam about those things trying to limit some of those barriers. Thank you represent Godfrey. Thank you madam chair and I'm over here this act to your left. I thank you so much for your presentation for this important work a couple questions I think the person you you touched on briefly but just want to clarify that CTA the certificate teaching assistant that students are able to achieve is there a a partnership with local school districts to help place students impair professional positions or is there any kind of are there any limitations on the job responsibilities of SCTA becoming a professional or is that just kind of a you know once you have your your teaching assistant certification you can get engage with with districts on your own and and become a pair professional in the capacity that's needed by districts we are working with send districts to help place students and but again this is fairly new so we've only placed one so far but we hope that with those career coaches in one of our staff that we can help I'm better placed them and really meet the needs of those districts who need those I'd pair pro have decisions that is certified teaching assistant lands because these people that are coming out with the CTAS have some of that And pedagogy and that knowledge that they can really bring to the table and their trains somewhat because it's all job and added as they've gone through high school and so a lot of times your pair professionals surges it takes sixty hours of college credit or you pass the praxis pair vote pro exam so there's really no formal training so we feel that these are more of your high quality you're happy and proficiency level and will bring a lot to the district and so that's conversations with the district personnel as well yeah and I think there's a great opportunity for that I think districts would appreciate having this high quality candidates my second question. But the payment of chair is about I'm just at a pathway for licensure that you haven't mentioned that I wonder if you've considered and that's teachers who may have let their licensure expired or lapsed I know that you know with COVID there been teachers to kind of step out of the profession to care for their own kids or to you know come to be part of a a co op with other students or or just teachers who prior to K. that may have taken several years off to be home with their families or or other opportunities that have led them away from the classroom I wonder if you can speak to first the process to kind of re activate a teaching license especially with several new licensure requirements for signs of reading and other licensure requirements that may seem a little bit daunting to teachers who want to get back into the classroom but may not know where to start to kind of re engage with with those requirements and then two if like some of these other pathways there any incentives to do so. I'll speak to have license renewal the pathway to renewing an expired teaching license actually is not very difficult it requires sixty hours of professional development depending on how many years that license has been expired OR thirty six hours if it has not been expired I think maybe more than two years but thirty six hours of professional development. current background checks so if they have not had a background check within the last year The New background checks and payment of the license fee and apply for renewal. That's pretty much it so we wanted to make the renewal process pretty seamless so that it is not a barrier for teachers who are interested in coming back to the classroom and renewing that license. And those thirty six or sixty hours a professional development is that all available on ideas or to teach I think people just kind of don't know where to get started with getting that PD if they're not you know involved with the school building anymore so all right it is available online Arkansas ideas at no cost and so if someone is interested in renewing we hope that they call the department of education and get in touch with our licensure unit to get specific directions on what's required to renew their license but yes those PT hours are available on Arkansas ideas thank you in speaking take your science of reading questions since they already have a license maybe a case six license or IP for they do not have to take the test they just have to go the proficiency route I have and that's that six dates of training thank you thank you manager. Representative Deffenbaugh. Thank you madam chair A man Mr here on day for your bachelor degree plan did everyone of you all say something about teacher retirement or that connect with the retirement system or did I miss that on that here no Sir you did not if they went through and got their certified teaching assistant and finished high school with that and started working in a school district in nineteen noncertified position that night would be part of teacher retirement as they're working as a pair professional and that teaching assistants. Okay as they can finish their four year degree okay thank you. Representative McKenzie. Thank you madam chair to your left upper. A couple of questions can you give me some numbers as far as these different routes to licensure what kind of percentage or numbers we have us of people taking advantage of which different program. We don't have numbers right in front of us because this is fairly new and we just started at through this process but we can try to get you the numbers that you would like yeah appreciate that along with a D. the geographic areas to is where we have more areas of interest of this I also noticed that we have a couple these programs are hundred percent online have you had feedback from your school districts yet as far as these different road to licensure and these which they are finding the best success with as far as finding good teachers are you finding any problem with a hundred percent online as far as that the dissatisfaction with the districts on their knowledge and skills he to me is baggage but the ones that are doing the online and working within the district already seems to be the most success because a lot of times we hear that teachers get through a program as they go to their internship and teaching wasn't what they thought and then we lose them quickly and so I have I think the retention rate is there for someone that's working in a district and going through the hundred percent online programs it has referred it's basically job ended okay one final question if I may um when you're getting those figures for by looking at wondering about is so with regard to our our universities and colleges here what kind of percentage of kids are we having entering the traditional program education degree and are we not do we have enough kids what is the problem with their teacher They're out the different need for teachers throughout the difference at the areas of the state are we are we have a less interest in the degree programs and that's why we're needing to I I like these ideas by wondering but I there was a time when a lot of kids for choosing education agrees are we lose every having less interested now in the spring we have about eight hundred and I have. Fifty H. come out of the programs of traditional programs and you know at the department we have our apple program that's the nontraditional route we have currently six hundred and thirteen and their and so when you look at the supply and demand that's coming out of our programs that are completing it I think that's where we are trying to make these initiatives at a younger age and go to high school students because they may have already made their mind up points I got to college to go a different route source supply demand what is that right now I have supply and demand we're working on shortage areas as we speak and hope to have that same because we do want to look at it geographically it's different different places but we still have some districts that are at. Still have some vacancies and we're working hard to try to put them with the right people to get people hired we have sent out and the universities have worked with us a lot on giving as the names and the information at their latest grads and we've put it in a spreadsheet and set out to the districts so we're trying to do everything we can to try to connect to get people. And I was teaching positions but again it goes back to we are not having as many go through the traditional programs as we have in the past okay thank. Representative brown. You know you need to push a button and then don't push anything I will turn you on representative brown okay thank you yes ma'am when I see red I think stop I know it's bad words green should be taught red should be you're waiting but that's not how the systems that it should it should be backwards I agree go ahead. Thank you for for presenting this program and I think it's very encouraging and should encourage a lot of students. But kind of a follow up on representative loves question I see that you you said that the step program. As a loan repayment program for people who teach in Arkansas so I see accountability there but then the two previous programs on the chart here the scholarship program and the grant program so as soon both of those are are monies that are given at the head at the beginning of the school year correct. It. A yes so is there any kind of accountability to of for these students to actually go into teaching and to teach in Arkansas. I'll take the take one of those representative brown the Arkansas future program it's not specific to teaching so that's that's for all our Kansans in a variety of feels there is a requirement that they are employed in the state of Arkansas when they complete or it converts to a loan and they have to repair that so that's for a variety of occupations once they complete we are less concerned with what they're doing then the fact that they are employed and generating revenue for the state so there's there is some accountability with Arkansas future so which one is that the teach grant or it's the our future program it's under the community college option I'm looking at this chart it was the first one okay the associate degree. This collar ship program Arkansas geographical critical needs minority teacher scholarship. Well if you're looking at the graphic that's on the screen yeah he our future grant is not listed there. It is listed online a previous live. Yes. So the our future grant is listed on the left side under two year associate's degree and is also listed on the right of the very first one on the right so everybody's eligible for that. All our Kansans are eligible for that and then we have a defined list of a degree programs education to be one of those so it's then converts to a loan repayment they have to repay if they fail to okay I have employed in the state yes what if they don't graduate. If they don't graduate the it is not converted to a loan. Okay and then how about looking at the graphic Arkansas geographical critical needs minority teacher scholarship a scholarship program and then the next one the teach grant. In the federal teach grants and you do not have to teach in Arkansas but you Miss teach and I have property school in a shortage area. Otherwise. What's it what is what's the accountability there the accountability is at that if you're teaching in high poverty school at the end of so many years you will get three thousand seven hundred sixty four dollars paid at the end of that year per year what you're teaching him that how poverty and that shortage area okay so you have to do the work to get into okay yes and then the the scholarship program any kind of accountability there different scholarships have That they will repay their loans some is up to the Ian's and after five years and that district signs off on it then they'll pay up to seventeen thousand five hundred on that one forgiveness and. Again that very well okay let's talk apples to apples I'm talking about the first one on the list out the critical needs minority teacher scholarship yes okay that is through a particular Scholarship program with a particular university. And that must be in Arkansas in a geographical critical needs area. And again at the end of that year then it would get paid up to fifteen hundred per year okay thank you that's what I want right that's okay thank you all right thank you representative makes you're recognized for a question and I have represent of life and then we'll move on to the agenda all right thank you thank you ladies I'm actually right here in front of you so used to fund I have kind of a two part question it's related next levels kind of follows up local representative brown was just asking and can you give us an idea of where we are or what specialties are the currently the critical need areas what parts of the state maybe you were saying also what are critical needs areas and then secondly is this program tailored to go after and encourage students to pursue those type of teaching degrees for example traditionally stem has been a high critical need area and we're as English and history had. My understanding been fairly well taken care of so we don't want to do is have a hundred twenty percent of of the need F. and history teachers only fifty percent of the need and mathematics teachers so are you can tailoring the program to try to fill those needs to be the second part of a question thank you. The highest need and it continues to be a high shortage area in special education teachers and we are not that cross state and again your stand your math your sites yes and we try to encourage as much as we can and we're looking at how we can encourage more the stem classes okay do you interact with students to let them know that Hey you know if you're considering. Option a or option be really needs a over an option B. and there's a greater opportunity of finding a job more flexibility if you choose to teach be that if you refuse to teach at eighty to cover any of that with the students in our program advisors the two that just as they do go out and speak with students and they go through those I have critical needs shortage areas yes your worries and seen and and need in case six that we haven't in the past okay Sir each year we have needs in a lot of areas not just are standard of course looking at our spring grads we did not through the traditional programs graduate very many and that was math and science all right thank you. Thank you representive love life questions. Thank you madam chair This question I know that you all stated that you I don't have your data together but I want to I want to talk about minority teacher recruitment and not and specifically minority male teacher recruitment because usually that's where we see a shortage so we saw a shortage and special ed teachers. How is your minority male recruitment. In this area working and do you have any numbers especially and I want to know not only just for African American minority I want to know for a Hispanic. R. D. what do you see in that in that area of teacher recruitment. Well it is as you mentioned a it is a great need Two Hispanic recruitment we have a virtual career fair coming up actually it's Saturday morning to recruit Hispanic teachers for those districts who we targeted districts who had already mentioned that they have a need for Hispanic teachers because they have a lot of Hispanic students and they want teachers who look like their students but we opened up the registration for that particular career fair to any school district so that is in partnership with Arkansas United so we have that virtual career fair on Saturday targeting the teaching profession as far as minority males we have not targeted our recruitment efforts for a minority males the way we need to that is something that we have discussed with our equity department to come up with some ways that we can recruit more males to the mails period to the teaching profession and we have. Several meetings coming up with them to try to get some to get a game plan together but we do recognize that it is an issue in our state we've attended a couple of conferences to try to get some ideas on what we can do and to form some partnerships with states who have been successful we have successful programs that maybe we can mayor here in Arkansas but that's something that is on our agenda to address okay can we get a follow up on on after you have your meetings because I that's I'm very interested in that because no one of my district has a high number of Hispanic students. In so I'm I'm real concerned about teaches that look like my students but number two I just I want to know about the The minority male recruitment piece because that that's important to me as well thank you can't categorizing II as yet it focuses on recruiting a diverse student population within that program. Hi thank you. All right thank you thank you all for being here preset the the presentation and Dr Martin all follow up with you on that other with that and I'll help you obviously help with that perfect thank and thank you ladies so much for that presentation was excellent thank you. all right moving on to the next part of the agenda item eight. Mr came hi. You will come to the table state your name for the record in the matrix proceed. Sorry madam chairman trying to get that slideshow seven Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. I am by Tim Kaine and the director of academic facilities and transportation at the department of education today I'm going to present to you all an update on the use of ESR funds as it pertains to facilities and transportation. Our vision of the department of education is to transform Arkansas. To lead the nation instead of focusing to cation. Our mission at the department of ed is to provide leadership support and service to schools districts and communities so every student graduates prepared for college career and community engagement. All right. Yes Sir A. R. P. funds Esther stands for elementary and secondary school emergency relief. There were three different allocations of funds there was S. R. one Esther two and A. R. P. yes Sir which is the which is the latest and the largest amount. There are four. For federal requirements. For expenditure of ESR funds any expenditure be it on facilities or transportation or learning loss or technology or any expenditure has to meet these for federal requirements the first one is that the expenditure must prevent prepare for and respond to COVID nineteen. If it doesn't do that and then it's not eligible. The suspended sure must also be reasonable the cost must be reasonable it must be necessary. And then it must be an allowable expense must meet all for those. Okay. All facilities projects and bus purchases must also receive prior approval per federal requirements so not only does it have to meet the four requirements on the previous slide it also requires prior approval from our division. Prior approval applications are submitted for review by the Division. The Division reviews it for compliance with the four requirements that were on the previous slide. We have to go was to primary goes that we try to keep centers we go through this process of reviewing these applications these prior approval applications the first is to ensure audit compliance in the future. Important so we want to do a thorough review and that's to protect the district as well as as well as the state. We also want to do it in a timely way. Because we understand that districts have deadlines and goals and we try to do our best to turn that around but and I has that we wanna we wanna be assure that a we're not gonna have any audit issues in the future. As of August twenty fifth. Prior approval that we've given. We have done two hundred forty eight facility projects have been given prior approval an estimated cost of over ninety two million dollars. As of August twenty fifth we have approved four hundred and thirty five bus purchases for an estimated cost of over forty six point six million dollars. In this slide here is a is a pie chart that is showing the number of S. or facility projects and bus purchase purchases that have received prior approval. In the buses make up the largest number if you look over though on that right side of that pie chart that is our facility projects and you see their HVAC leads with a hundred nineteen projects followed by additional space in the in force. This slide is a break down of facility projects and bus purchases as of August twenty fifth and it's broken down by dollars and on this Pogge R. E. C. that HVAC is the largest followed by buses and then additional space. Those are the different types of projects that we that review the. This can close my presentation but I'll be glad to take any questions thank you what do you mean by floors floors is one of the eligible allowable uses of ESR funds is to replace carpet. With an epoxy floor or some type of tile that to easier to clean is there a claim okay all right. S. C. ninety one. That's me madam chair okay I'm sure which came to explain jobs presentation I have questions related to covert nineteen to record you have the Secretary T. I know this program I to see another option on the agenda so if I'm out of place please tell me a yeah I'll we'll put you back we're going to do at the end of the meeting yes ma'am I did said under another sure thank yes can be under other business. All right C. twenty nine. Thank you madam chair good morning good morning you're recognized for a question yes can you I know that on this last slide that you have a you have the different kinds of projects can you be more specific as to the. What exactly of the type requested have been submitted by the school districts can be a little bit more specific of the same additional space for us. Yes ma'am I'll be glad to do that as far as HVAC that most of those are HVAC replacements or upgrades to the HVAC system that's currently there additional space is. To add space in order to ensure social distancing so it has to be able to prove that their social distancing their. floors like we just talked about is you can replace carpet with with the with either a proxy flooring or or tile that's easier to clean and we do have a few others that are that are not as many that we get such as touchless faucets and and that allows for touch free you saying bathrooms we also are getting some for contact tracing with cameras that are an allowable use. Follow up chair yes. Of so if I were to tell you give you this example could you tell me of this is a hypothetical if you could tell me whether or not this would qualify for of your S. the funding. Of the floor payment plan within a school facility of the needs of partitions to separate rooms to make it difficult to teach learn and test because of the noise so if a school wanted to utilize of this funding in order to make sure that the of teaching and learning takes place in a particular room would that qualify for this type of funding. Well ma'am that that would depend on the specifics it would need to if I could go back to. To this live here it must be baby be preventing preparing form responded COVID nineteen so what that argument can be made and if they can show that it's reasonable the cost is reasonable and necessary so then fought may I make. Malar one more. Yes one more question they were made because I have one which question and I would just like the me just follow up dance several months ago I S. of US secretary key to provide me madam chair with a list of the partnership funding that had been distributed for the state of there were X. number of dollars that have been distributed I will I'm still waiting for that report is to the of amounts that have been distributed by the department by school district in the amounts that the each school district has received for that type of funding so I would appreciate it Madam sure if I could get that it's been several months since I ask for that I'm yet to receive it so I would appreciate it if I could get that information a representative thank you can send it to our staff and they will send it out. Yes if that's okay you look at that for you all right thank you so much of I have represented McKenzie and. You're recognized for a question. Thank you madam chair just trying to look at myself can you let me know about where we because I'm not sure the total figure that's available what percentage are we right now at where this the the schools so submitted you've approved those funding. issues and then how much more do we still have to have in the pipeline to expect. It's hard it's hard to ensure that where we're at because a lot of the districts are using it for non facility and transportation Our lease I do know that most of the S. R. funds I believe it's been spent they're still districts with S. R. T. funds but they're still substantial amount of this Sir I'm sorry your PS of funds life. So they don't have to have required approval from you for all the fund to be spent just if it's going to be what is what is a breakdown on what has to come through the department to be approved for spending yes ma'am what has to be per se prior approval is any facility project rainy bus purchase which falls under my teams privy thank you. All right representive Deffenbaugh. Thank you Mister chair Mister Kane of the. Have a question for you here What if the school district wants to receive approval with some of these funds to replace our roof how do you how would you go about that. We'll representative that is that it's been a it's been a long discussion. We have received differing interpretations from the US department of ad based on questions that we've asked another state to mask Currently though most recently we have gotten the okay from the US department of ad officially last week to allow groups to be eligible under certain conditions and if I can read what they what they sent us distributors for accuracy. They said using ESR funds to install the new roof in order to read the building a mold could be an allowable use of funds if the cost a reasonable and necessary. So that is that is the latest information we have it will also require prior approval. we're also going in order for it to be reasonable and necessary we're also going to Require that districts they can replace roofs must must submit evidence that the roof designed for replacement is contributing to an for your air quality in the form while. Okay so that is that is. Braniewo somewhere we'll look forward to reviewing those. Okay thank you all right thank you represent Cozart you're recognized. Mr Kane is is there someone that goes up to specs those request we have somebody looks that if they if they ask for rules and say that there's mold under leaks and stuff like that we have a someone's informant actually goes out and checks at a. No Sir we we don't have the resources to check everyone there was a case somewhere of the we it was a very complex application looked at several items. In there and we we did someone send someone there what the climate that idea shared will require a third party to to look at that as far as Rick Scott that's what I would think if it's something borderline and it's questionable and we need somebody to put eyes on the project so yes thank you. All right thank you see now for the questions thank you so much for your presentation item after doctor Welch you're recognized feel state your names for the record in Mr Broadway. Representa Springer yes thank you madam chair would you I would also like to get a break down as to the four hundred two hundred and forty eight facility projects that have been estimated at a cost of ninety two million seventy one. thousand nine hundred eighty six thousand eighty six cent break down why school district and location in the state of Arkansas okay that they'll have that they'll send that to me and then I'll send it out to you and to the members of the committee thank you. Thank you thank you yeah. Okay good morning if you're the second answer the record or glad to have you with us today thank you madam chair Chuck Welch president the Arkansas state university system thank you madam chair Shane Broadway vice president for university relations for the issue system. Well thank you madam chair I appreciate the opportunity to provide an update on Henderson state university up as we have stated from the beginning this is definitely a multi year recovery this is not something that the institution got into overnight is not something that we're going to get out of overnight but we are making progress in almost every area of the institution we certainly didn't anticipate doing that in the midst of a pandemic that has clearly thrown some Kinks into the plan but at the same time I'm still very pleased with the response we've gotten from our faculty and staff you know there continues to be obviously a lot of. Pain and wounds I guess if you will among the faculty and staff and even the students that have had to indoor what the university went through over the last few years and quite frankly the biggest problem that we have is on those who insist on reliving the past or those who insist on saying I told you so we're trying to settle scores or those are just generally want to share falsehoods and misleading statements we have to dispel those on an almost daily basis I got a call from division of higher education week before last there been a report that Henderson wasn't going to make payroll last month absolutely not true one hundred percent I've been told that we are going to strip it down and make it a community college absolutely not true I've been told I'm going to close the doors absolutely not true so I really do appreciate the invitation to sit here with you today and kind of talk through some of the troops and some of the facts about what's going on at the university just as a timeline reminder the higher learning commission which is our regional accreditor for national accreditation approved what they call change of control which was for the university to enter into our system in November of two thousand and twenty and then on February first of this year this body approved that merger it was signed by governor Hutchinson and they officially became a member of the aviation system on February first two thousand twenty one on February seventeenth just a little over two weeks later moody's investor services which does the bond ratings for higher education institutions and you may recall that back in July of two thousand nineteen moody's actually double downgraded Henderson's bond rating and change their outlook to negative but on February seventeenth two weeks after you approve them join in our system moody's changed their. Outlook from negative to stable. And the reasoning for that was because of the additional services that they were going to have and because of the way that our own campuses handle our budgetary matters now moody's commented that it was going to be a long term recovery they recognize that as well but they also recognize that we are implementing the types of measures that are necessary to have a sustainable and effective institution I wanted to cover just a few areas today that I think are or were probably some of the most visible the first with financial aid you may recall that when we began assisting the university back in August of two thousand and nineteen financial aid was in a really bad place this was right before school started and they had had they had about ten percent of student financial aid packaged I think I may have told you at that time that there were about a thousand students awaiting just financially verification at Henderson while at the same time our Jones for a campus I think had seventeen or something like that a dramatic difference obviously a much larger campus so one of the first things that we did was we moved the financial aid office to the division of student affairs it had been House under finance and I'm not quite sure what the rationale was for doing that and putting it in the financial business department we knew they needed to be focused on the finances of the institution and so we moved financial aid into student affairs where it's most commonly found at most colleges and universities we brought in some assistance from a national organization known as pro ed to help us with that and one semester later in the spring of two thousand twenty we had every student packaged and awarded on time before the start of the semester or at the beginning of the semester. We have now effectively turned over that entire office I think there might be one employee remaining that was there previously we were able to do that in some respects because as we did some cutting in other areas of the university and had employees who were good employees we move them into financial aid and gave them the appropriate training so it resulted in some savings for the institution. You may recall that in we had audits for two thousand seventeen eighteen and two thousand eighteen nineteen for financial aid and had fifteen findings we had an audit for nineteen twenty and had one it was a finding that was related to an error that was made with an individual is having to do some things manually so dramatic improvements in terms of audit findings in the way that financial aid was being managed we are now transitioning financial aid to a new ERP system B. R. P. is basically system that operates all of our records it will allow for much less manual operations eliminate a number of those steaks and really assist us will continuing to award on time and accurately although that's been happening either a even under the antiquated system I mention the ERP system it's actually an institution wide initiative is actually a system wide initiative all of our campuses are moving on to a uniform ERP system the purpose for that is so that we can have greater efficiencies so that we can have fewer errors so that we can have much more automation Henderson in particular because of the system that they were on which was a dos based system was having to literally do budgets and other things through an excel spreadsheet I mean so there was lots of room for errors now I want to say that there were many institutions that were on that dos based system at one time that was the system that everyone was on but we've been able to get them transition they could have never done this on their own from a cost standpoint but because we did it collectively as part of the system all of our campuses will actually pay less on an annual basis for the new system and they were paying even for the old system including Henderson. which will be a a tremendous improvement the financial component of that system actually went live in July and we will continue to roll out the other modules and components as we move ahead so that's really extreme positive probably more so for that campus than any of the other campuses in our system. Now enrollment obviously is one thing that we've had to take a very close look at and there's just lots of information there that has to be discussed and it's been that over the course of the past two years now I will tell you that if you saw some numbers last year there were individual saying Henderson was down twenty one percent well that was extremely misleading Henderson was engaged in concurrent enrollment activities that resulted in about five hundred students being enrolled in concurrent enrollment as we begin to look at that we realized Hey it was generating no revenue for the university because the way it was structured beat was actually costing the university money because of having to operate the system and see those students were not ultimately matriculating to the university so we made the decision last year to actually get out of the concurrent enrollment business and Henderson we still have one school district Arkadelphia that we work with but the vast majority of those students are now operating through our a issue Three Rivers campus it saves us money it freed up time that some of our existing staff had to focus on other issues and it just made sense in terms of looking at what is going to help with the financial sustainability of the University. We moved the office of admissions to student affairs where it's most commonly located it was actually located in the provost's office under academic affairs again can't quite explain why that change was made but it was and like financial aid we have had a significant number of staff changes in admissions to where we have almost all new people that are in that particular office we are really attempting to ramp up faculty and staff engagement we kept hearing from the faculty that they had been excluded from the recruitment process and the and as someone who has a daughter that's going to that right now that's a senior in high school and looking I can tell you that faculty engagement is one of the most critical pieces to enroll but I think sometimes we get caught up and it's all about the admissions people but really it takes everyone in terms of finding a way to address that we were contacting enquiries so if a student fill out an inquiry form and Senate and say Hey I'm interested in Henderson they were not contacted intellect actually applied for admissions well guess what applications went down that's what typically happens if you don't have that proactive approach and so we've definitely changed that we've implemented an organized admissions counselor protocols we didn't feel like account our admissions counselors were appropriately trained us to be able to do their jobs and so now we are and cross training them to do those we have set new schedules for both our call center staff as well as the central university call and you could call the university and get someone on the phone and I know these may seem like minimal things but when you've got a student that's considering multiple institutions if you don't have to particularly students that we have service campus like Henderson that have multiple at risk categories or are first generation college students you have to have that personal touch or you will lose those students we are board will vote this for. Friday to move Henderson to test optional admissions which means that it missions decisions or no longer be based solely or even in part on ACT scores this is a national trend my daughter has now applied I think for about six or seven different universities outside of the State of Arkansas and none of them are utilizing ACT or SAT for admissions purposes so we are also Arkansas state made that change in our most recent board meeting our board will meet up next week so are enrollment was down if you take out the if you take out the concurrent enrollment it was down I guess probably nine percent something like that last year it's going to be down another six to seven percent probably this year but that's very misleading and I want to explain to you why you don't. I can make in Rome it looked like any number we wanted to look like it anytime I want to be just go out and buy students we can just go out and proper numbers up you've seen universities and colleges do this in the past unfortunately sometimes we get caught up in Racine to have that that number in the newspaper about how many students that we have but it doesn't tell the true story I remember telling my Arkansas state trustees probably seven or eight years ago enrollment is down on the Jones were campus and it's the best financial picture we've had in five years and they looked at me like I had seven ai bulls but it's all about the mix it's all about who's coming who's paying who's retaining what kind of students that you have in two thousand sixteen and seventeen. Henderson's net tuition revenue was fifty four hundred dollars so we were netting fifty four hundred dollars after we scholarships what we were given by eighteen nineteen that was down to forty seven hundred dollars was seven hundred dollars per student last the lowest net tuition revenue of any university in the state of Arkansas now we got it back up in nineteen twenty to forty nine oh six were incrementally get it back up but that's a process that we're gonna have to continue slowly rebuilding. The most significant figure that when you talk about enrollment is the percentage of budget spent on scholarships. That's the percentage of your tuition fees that are spent on scholarships the university average in two thousand nineteen two thousand and twenty was nine point four percent. Henderson's number was twenty three point six percent. So we were basically giving away almost a fourth of that that is not sustainable so you could actually see a Roman decrease if you injured scholarship allotments if you change your net tuition revenue and actually see a better financial picture for university and that's what we're trying to work towards that's not gonna happen overnight you can't just go out and immediately blow up your scholarship programmer you could have been even worse affect in terms of recruitment that's why we made the decision to contract with Ruffalo Noel Levitz who is kind of the gold standard for admissions consulting and assistance to help us develop a financial model to manage that scholarship expense to evaluate our scholarship awarding strategies are we awarding too much here and not enough here what is the gap where do we where is the sweet spot if you will to bring students in we are looking at trying to help we can manage and control those enrollment yields how we can focus on net tuition earned the cost of that because I know that's the first question you how to consult and how much is seventy seven thousand dollars it's less than one percent of our institutional aid budget so we can spend less than one percent and remedy some of those challenges that we've had what they're actually doing as a financial aid optimizations schedule so every it's in real time will really be able to tell exactly where we are in our scholarship categories exactly where we need to be and we're we're missing out so we're really excited about some of the data that we're getting there and what we expect that to be so yes the moments now that's really not that surprising considering covid considering some of the bad publicity that the institutions had but quite frankly considering the approach that was being taken to enrollment we've got to do some significant changes there we are doing significant changes there but we're already seeing the better returns for fall of two. And and twenty two. The finance office the business office like those other ones I mentioned we've had almost complete staff turnover. this is not been a situation we've gone it terminated a lot of people many of these have been folks decided to retire or folks decide Hey I'm gonna move on or folks decided I don't want to work that hard maybe in some instances but they left of their own accord I read a Fleming who is our chief financial officer has been around higher education for many many years work to the Division of higher ed in finance work to you CA worked at the old community college worked in the U. of a system Bernadette Hinkle who is our current controller Henderson is the former CFO at Arkansas tech she's been at the cooperative extension she's been at multiple other Arkansas universities Smith you have a system she was also at universities outside of the states we feel really good about the expertise that we have there we brought in external accountants to conduct a review for us to help understand where are the gaps in terms of our protocols and the things that we weren't managing correctly and needed to be doing our legislative audit knock I don't think I'm at liberty to say a lot here but you'll see me Thursday when we're sitting up here but we've had our exit interview for the most recent legislative audit and I think you'll see considerable improvement over what we saw in the most recent audits that next year's audit Henderson will actually be part of the A. issue system consolidated audit which will add another level of protections and insurance they're moving forward one of the things that we've done in the finance office is right at the very beginning we have set up debt service and payroll reserves those are priorities we're gonna pay our debts and we're going to pay our people and so we set up those reserves to ensure that those funds are there and then we manage everything else from that point and that was not something that was happening at the university prior to that. we did make a payment on the six million dollars it wasn't a big payment is two hundred fifty thousand dollars we made this year but we wanted to make a statement that look we're paying attention to this we're serious it's going to take us time when the middle of a pandemic we don't know what next year looks like we don't know what this year looks like with what's happening but definitely are working towards that developing models for what that will look like moving forward. We implemented an energy performance contract one of the real challenges the university was facing I had to do with critical maintenance and just constant calls that maintaining the campus and so we entered into a energy performance contract to try to repair those most serious of issues with as it related to critical maintenance to help reduce that annual cost and that's obviously offset by the savings that you get when you enter one of those esco contracts we changed Henderson Henderson health insurance plan when we arrived they were self insured and had zero fund balance which is an incredibly dangerous place debate we moved in we moved the university to fully insured plan that keep in mind we higher education institutions are not funded for our health insurance plans we are like K. twelve we aren't like state agencies we have to fund those are sales and if there's a significant increase in the plan calls we don't we don't we don't get funding from the legislature there's not any kind of saving there we have to go find a way to make that happen and so we had to reduce that risk we are currently in the process of of working with through their shared governance councils to hopefully move them on to the issue system health insurance plan which will actually it'll increase the calls for employees only about probably about twelve to fifteen dollars a month it will decrease the family premiums for those on family plants by by almost six hundred dollars a month. So I significant change their and here's the good news it actually helps our plan Henderson's actually had a lower cost per plan member than our other institutions so we have that volume we reduce that risk it helps our entire plan you may remember that one of the discussions we talk about frequently was how they had spent up almost all the days cash on hand and on June thirtieth of two thousand nineteen the university only had seven point three three days cash on hand on June thirtieth of twenty twenty one year later we had gone from seven point three three to thirty eight point two one that's not great I mean most of our campuses are hundred and fifty plus but it's certainly an improvement and again these are going to be incremental improvements as we move forward we've already implemented one optional voluntary retirement incentive program had some success in the staff side we're implementing a second one this year with hopes that will have some success on the academic side so that we can address that and we announced at the faculty convocation this year that we were going to enter phase two of the academic planning process what is academic planning will it's a process through which we can look to change to downsize or even to eliminate academic programs that aren't viable or productive now no one wants to have to do that but if that's something that needs to be done district of the university that's what we'll do we'll also though look even in the absence of canceling programs at re shuffling resources to ensure we're gearing them in the right places that we are focusing on those programs that are growing those programs that are more directly related to the needs of our citizens and to the state of Arkansas and to ensure that we are putting those resources into programs that offer the best chance for future in Rome. It increases and success. We had an interim chancellor as you may know Dr jim Borsig who had joined us and we had contracted with him for one year with the option for going up to a second year you may recall that I had begun a permanent chancellor search and had to discontinue that we had the first round of covid unfortunately doctor Borsig as you may have seen in the news has some some serious health issues that's another one of those rumors it was rumored that had nothing to do with this health that he was just getting out while the getting was good absolutely are not true and we would appreciate you keeping him and his family in your prayers he is continuing to help me remotely as we work through this temporary transition but we have launched re launched the search for a permanent chancellor and we are looking for and I was asked this question last week by the faculty Senate what are we looking for and my response was we are looking for a visionary who has the courage the expertise the energy and the ability to transform a university I want Henderson to become that university that looks like what the modern future university must look like that is more adaptable that's more flexible that maybe is not all things to all people but is focused on the right things that are going to be in the best interest of our students and our state you know there's probably a lot of universities that will like to be able to do that have that transformation and make themselves into that model future university they're hamstrung a little bit by political considerations not necessarily this politics but campus politics or those cultural considerations I think with what that universities been through with the changes that were implementing this is the right opportunity to utilize and develop that method so we're excited about it I can tell you some thought we won't have anybody interested I've got calls this afternoon ahead calls last week from an. Visuals who are highly qualified highly interested who realize what could be and realize that you know Hey there's nowhere to go but up I guess if you will but B. we're already putting the foundation in place and one of the things that I'm saying to those candidates and I'm saying to that campus is this is going to be an institution that is collaborative that is sufficient. That is analytical no longer are we going to operate on anecdote which unfortunately was happening far too often and strategic but most importantly we're going to be a university that is sustainable if you didn't hear a single thing I said to date but that here that we are working to make the university sustainable could we have may be sped up some of these process these and made things look a little better a little quicker probably but if it's going to have to turn around and reduce some of this three or four years from now it's not worth it we want to do it the right way and if the same kind of made the analogy this morning tearing it down to the studs and rebuilding and quite frankly that's what we're doing in a lot of those areas it is going to be painful for a little longer but we're going to get there and I will tell you that I've said this publicly the faculty and staff and the students have been truly remarkable in their resilience we rarely get complaints. Even when they don't like some of the things we're having to do because they understand where the university's been and I understand where we're trying to go and I think that perhaps there's a feeling that there's hope for the first time in a long time and and so I want to commend those faculty and staff I think sometimes we get caught up in all the sensationalism of the negativity and everybody talking about this is that the other and we forget those thousands of students and those hundreds of employees who have had to whether all of this who have gone through every bit of this and stuck with us and continue to fight and move the university forward and I think that's what makes the university special and what's allowed us to do that you may have seen this week we got a grant from the Wingate foundation one that a half million dollars I think for scholarships for students with financial need that's going to be an extreme help to help kickstart some of our other efforts the private foundation of Henderson's races significant amount of funds for students with critical financial needs and that's going to be another area that we're going to focus on is how do we help fill those gaps for our students to ensure they can enroll in college persisting college and ultimately be successful so with that I'll be happy to take questions but again I just thank you for allowing me to talk about it because our folks I think sometimes get beat down I want to make sure they get the property address or working their tails off and you'd be proud of what they're doing to advance the University with that madam chair of the happy to answer any questions thank you six seventy four. Thank you madam chair of thank you Dr wells for that very thorough examination of the the road back for Henderson do you the. Answer quite a few questions for me especially in your last bit talking about the academics of evaluation is taking place of whether there will be departments that might have to be phased out or merged the the only question I really have is. As we were years several years back looking at reorganization of campus is that you know should of baby been recommended to be part of a system Henderson status I've told you was the biggest push back that I that I received and the main argument was will Henderson it you know has a regional appeal peel and it's system would not understand that regional mission in light of that and and I and I guess what I hear is that Henderson probably will interstate will still maintain that kind of an appeal to the region your regional influence so in light of that Some of the concern that I've heard over the years is that a pretty large part of the bond indebtedness is tied to the the dormitories and the quick question had come up over the years of whether there was an over build of dormitories what what is the current occupancy rate of your dormitories and and I don't have that number with me represent Larry I can get it to you I know that pre pandemic it was running in the high eighty percent last fall it was asked I want to say a high sixties and I'm I'm averaging here now keep in mind last fall we did not mandate freshmen live on campus because the code so that and that was the case and all of our campuses that have housing we saw fairly considerable decline because we didn't mandate that housing while we are not saying that out loud this fall we're continuing to work with students particularly those that have great concerns about living on campus but To answer your question I think what you're what you're asking I probably wouldn't build as many beds is there there but there and so we're trying to figure out what that looks like we're actually partnering with the medical school in our Jonesborough campus that is going to have some of their read residents of the students are out doing their clinicals and even some of their factory that will live in some of our residence halls to help fill some of those we're looking at changing our occupancy patterns so if you had really cheap doubles then you raise that price little bit making a single students will pay a premium for single right particularly in some of those some of those residence halls that are older and less desirable those newer ones fill up pretty quick where our gaps or in the old ones nobody wants to live in the community bathroom door I have all living in those but nobody wants to do that anymore so I'll get those exact numbers to you but that's clearly an area that we're focused on we've actually done fairly considerable review to of what that housing market looks like in that package that was some of the money that we used in terms of stimulus recovery to help cover for that gap do the same thing that the Jones for a campus but that is an area that you know I I think that being in the upper eighties to ninety percent would is where we need to be where we'd like to be particularly when you consider we take some off line on purpose to because you have to constantly repair and fix some of those but you know enrollment obviously affects that and that's another one of those instances where enrollment is an enrollment is an enrollment because you want to have those individuals living on campus so that comes with your scholarship packages as well I'd like that you may have a follow up but I want to add one more thing to that to your to your comment if I may if you want to okay what you made a comment about Henderson not wanting to join the system and I think there were certainly some that there there was a lot of angst about even what happened but when the higher learning to. She came back into their follow up visit in July of this year they came back to do what they call focused visit and follow up at the conclusion when they did their exit interview after having interviewed administrators faculty staff and students the chair of the committee said to me one thing I can tell you is there was not a single solitary person that had something negative to say about this merger on campus not everyone they said that everything that had been promised have been done everything we promised we would do like the regionalism like taking away the name like taking away the traditions has not happened he said I'm not sure I've ever seen that but you are to be commended on that so I definitely think largely individuals on campus understand why we did it I understand why it's important to the institution and are accepting that so I appreciate that thank you followed madam chair a quick one thank you several analysts sure understand in in my comment was related to the task force that right right right senator English and I co chair and I think bam two thousand seventeen as we were looking at this issue of whether they're you know should be less independent right universities and the push back there but thank you very much everything that you've done in the system is done I have related to you that that I've been privileged to to teach some ad job courses at Henderson and and it's a very unique campus I've always found the students to be extremely engaging even when they're not in the classroom if you're just walking across campus statement they engage you and so there is a I think a lot of uh fertile ground there for for grocery for improvement Preciado thank you to thank you manager represent. Representive makes thank you I'm my question is related to something you said that kind of caught my attention was that Henderson and a lot of colleges are moving away from that the test scores of ACT aspire so I guess my question is. Is the test still relevant all we can do that you know is there any reason to continue to invest in that and then be does that create some sort of concern with the university that we no longer have a a certain standard or candle stick by which to judge admissions environment obviously I you know I can understand if you're going to be you know brain surgeon you probably should score well on one of those tests but maybe there are certain fields that we don't necessarily need a high test score that are not as academically driven so can you kind of explore that a little bit deeper and you know does that bring a concern that nama sudden we're gonna have universities are inundated with students who are not really quite ready for it the university experience and what that would mean for the campus I think that's a great question representative makes and I think that let me clarify a couple things High school grade point average is the greatest predictor of college success and has been for years and we have seen that on our campus is that we've looked at this if a student performs well in high school they tend to perform well in college and unfortunately the students who don't perform as well on standardized standardized exams tend to be those students who come from historically underrepresented populations students that multiple at risk categories or students who are first generation college students I'm I'm speaking generally and broadly here and as you probably know that's most of the students we serve in the state of Arkansas so while we may not say you have to have that ACT or SAT that's not going to be a considerations for admissions and if your GPA is not at a certain level you can have that ACT and SAT to help overcompensate because we also have students who gives off a lot in high school but performing really well on the ACT I'm not point that anybody here and and that helps to tell that story they're all they're used for scholarships still almost exclusively and we still have to have a standardized exam for placement purposes because we've got to make sure the students prepare so I think your point is is very valid but I do think there's still a place for it but I think we have to have a more holistic approach to admissions because I feel like we've been excluding students who are very capable based on this one exam that you know may not tell the full story and so it's taking a holistic approach to mission certainly still have to have it for other purposes but it's all about how can we make sure we give students the best chance for success will obviously monitor this and continue but I will be quite frankly I'll be surprised if there's very many universities in the country at all that are using it for admissions in the next two or three years thank you okay thank you and the C. twenty nine. Thank you madam Springer thank you madam chair hello doctor hello good to see you were good to see you thank you so very much for that report I really appreciate the work that you've done over the past year for the university as you know I am absolutely. Findus thank you so much you mention out into you mention about the student loans did you can you give us a follow up on the accounts receivables yes so that we implemented a new student count receivables policy and that policy is still very much in effect as you can imagine we get a lot of teeth gnashing about that will keep you let me do it for this account you look let me do it for that but we've made significant approving all have exact numbers here but I I think you will see Judit on to me here but I think you'll see in our upcoming legislative audit that in those findings you won't see mentions of that is you did in the past so we're making progress one thing that's really going to help with that issue two is the new ERP system because that was all having to be done manually it was really hard sometimes to cover when you're manually calculated with the financial aid going to be into that you could have some mayors but it's it's significantly better in the policies being followed yes ma'am thank you I should mention that. Thank you all right see no other questions thank you so much for being here any longer please tell everyone they're at Henderson that we appreciate the work that they're doing on behalf of the students saying that's what's critical is making sure that the students feel like they're not losing their university and the a lot and I I think that's really important so we're gonna get him there yes I know and and you're right it can shine we've got lots of small schools in Arkansas that shine absolutely all right thank you so much thank you for being here all right I didn't G. we have consideration of these interim study proposals. we combats these and moved about sin and adopt seconds all those in favor say aye. Oppose ayes have it that is done okay the final thing is we're gonna have the Department of it come up and give us an update on quarantine policy I had several members reach out to me and ask about this and so I think it's important for us just to have a quick updates I'm gonna limit folks to one question so let's just have the septic may fort K. the manager of Johnny keep part of education. so the quarantine policy this year is similar in nature as it was last year. The this definition of a close contact is someone who is confirmed to have been within six feet four fifteen cumulative minutes or longer within a twenty four hour period of of an infectious a person who is determined to be positive for covert. if you have a previously recovered within the last three months after having previously tested positive for COVID nineteen and you are of a symptomatic then you do not have to quarantine. If you have been exposed and if you're close contact but both the infected person in the close contact were wearing masks a consistently and correctly during the time of potential exposure you do not have to be quarantined. Individuals who are fully vaccinated may not have to quarantine if there has been at least two weeks that has passed since the dosage with the final dose was administered and the person is a symptomatic that's critical if if a person even if they're vaccinated if they are a symptomatic then they would be subject to quarantine as well now if The. The. The last late last year there were some CDC changes to the quarantines that if no symptoms develop an a quarantine person then they contest after five days and then upon seven days of continuing to be a symptomatic they can return to the learning environment we're working closely again this year with school district the points of contact they are working locally to identify the close contacts when a positive cases identified in notifying the parents staff and students as appropriate whether they need to be home and stay home or if they need to see testing or other medical medical treatment as appropriate for the situation so that that it is a brief description of the quarantine process that we have provided guidance for districts this year. Okay and if you are testing positive it's ten days is that correct. It's ten days again with with testing there is a provision that after five days you can be tested and then returned except a seven. Okay okay all right as long as you are a symptomatic that is. Okay that is enforcement that you know at any point that someone to become symptomatic then right then they need to fulfill the whole term be passed be tested again to determine if of those symptoms are indeed an indicator code okay. All right let's see I'm gonna go to represent of Godfrey. You're just taught us so many times not to such an extent of so sorry there you go thank you thank you and thank you secretary Katie one thing that I've been saying aye we started school and schools are reporting and their case numbers and their quarantines I've seen a couple of districts provides the metrics that have been particularly helpful one of those is the number of close contacts that are caused at school versus close contact that happened outside of school and so I'm wondering if that is something that the department is giving guidance on or could provide guidance or even a requirement to to kind of delineate that the school based close contacts person is out of school close contacts because I do think that is it's it's helpful to see what's happening at school what's happening outside of school and then at the second metric was that and schools are reporting on the number of quarantines that were avoided because students were following the mask wearing policy either by the district or or that and the both students wearing masks requirement that that you discuss so I'm just wondering if those are just metrics that school districts are coming up with on their own or if that's something that you could kind of standardized across all districts because I do think that's really helpful I'm in communicating what kind of exposure is happening at school and also I'm kind of what we're able to avoid as far as quarantine scope because of mask wearing. No those are excellent metrics in those are metrics that are used when a district has a console to with the department of health to determine the extent of the positive cases in the district result of community spread or the result of in school spread of the difficulty with standardizing that across the state from districts the districts that do that typically are your larger districts that may have a more personal resources that they can dedicate to pursuing and compiling that data will be very difficult in smaller districts as a matter fact spoke to West Fork last week and their point contact was I was overwhelmed to the point that not sure if they can continue in that role just because of the numbers they were saying so it to to create that is a standardized approach I think would be a little overwhelming for most of the districts but the districts that do have that data it is very helpful especially when they are trying to determine their the proper response whether they need to to shift to a classroom a a wing and a building a whole building or grade level or what they need to across the district. A. Sorry I just have one question Senator Chesterfield you're recognized yes thank you madam chair is there any penalty for not reporting. Not reporting that you have that you have called it what is what is the penalty for not telling your immediate supervisor or someone is already that you have tested positive. Hi Senator I'm not aware of of any The certainly not at state level there may be district policies that if that becomes a violation of district policy then there may be ramifications from that but nothing that we've issued. Mark or. If you're yeah if you're not second questions you can jump back in the queue I'm just trying to. Representative Bragg. Thank you madam chair of my understanding is is the health department has the legal authority to set these guideline rules and a school board would not have any ability to to make any changes and is that correct. Thank you represent Bragg you know we we had a lot of conversation about the topic over the last several weeks especially since the right before the beginning the school of the the authority of the health department has issued a memo clarified and no from doctor Mero to me last week has authority that precedes the advent of code ninety of this is the authority they have for all communicable diseases within that authority within that statutory and regulatory framework there is a responsibility and duty by school personnel regarding the reporting and exclusion of individuals that may be affected by it either by positive cases or by exposure to positive cases so we have advised districts that that that the there is a responsibility for district personnel superintendents and and schools under the direction of school board to to follow what is in that state law in in those rules. Okay thank you. Right thank you Rep I'm gonna get to the Senate see I don't know who this is C. ninety one. To see ninety one as me madam chair okay Senator Lance or less let belt the brass tacks can a school board make an individual decision about quarantining or is it a state mandate they have to follow. Right now there's a state mandate that follow right now so when the governor said. That server principles that put control in the hands of local government I'm gonna put you back in the queue okay we're gonna one question each then you can get back in the queue the C. ninety. The C. ninety. Okay you're recognized. Senator key to the lot of studies have been done on quarantines and most of them are just modeling so we have been quarantining far a year now previously. Do we have any. Evidence data particular to the quarantines in our state that the quarantines are effective in other words do we have a data that says you know we quarantine shoot I'm so sorry accidentally push it so sorry could you country but again Sir. Okay my apologies okay no problem Sir it so. Again the the data I'm looking for the data that says quarantines are effective award last year we quarantine X. number of students and of those X. number of students that were quarantine we know how many of them actually came down with COVID because if we're going to have outcomes it seems like if we're going to quarantine the. Thousands of kids that we are that there would be evidence that that these quarantines work given the fact that though that my understanding is that apartment of education does not enforce quarantines all we do is send the kids home so they're still going to football games still going to all other activities still engaging in church and all the things they do so I'd like to see the evidence that quarantines are working in school do you have that. Senator of we don't have that at the Department health may have that information what I can give you is is the results from Lasko year which simply was we one of the few states in the nation that had in person learning all year with the multiple not just masks and quarantines but the multiple layers of protection the guidance that was issued and we were successfully able to complete the school year as far as epidemiology epidemiological data I think that's what you're asking for and that would be a question for a doctor American history okay thank you what I heard you say is no you don't have the date we don't have that's just quarantine for thank you. If you have any data from last year though that might be helpful you can send it to us and we'll get it out to members of human if you have anything like that representive Cozart that would make you want to ask the data that you gave this morning can you send that out to this also. Just what you brought to us this morning you have that in a written form or forms that we could you know somebody ask us a question about policy we apologize for the I'll check I think we sent that out last week did you okay to all the to all the membership not just the the the Committee members here but a tall membership of the house and Senate if you did not receive that please let us know I'm a miss that Prasar thank you. Okay C. ninety one. Thank you madam chair up so going back to the question we said before there's a statewide mandate don't quarantine and other COVID nineteen policies the governor when he calls in a special session so that is conservative or puts control in the hands of local government he also said local school districts are all different across the state if you have different options on this is that reflect the wishes of parents in their constituents local school districts make the call and have options to make sure their school safe environment so can you explain to me why the governors wrong about that sentiment when it comes to quarantine and why you believe that a statewide government mandate is the way to go when it comes to taking that power control from both the local school districts and the individual parents what is the best decision senator I believe if if yes before my belief which would constitute an opinion I'm simply stating to the committee this morning what's in the law and the law says that the department of health in consultation with the governor has the authority which preceded covid to address infectious diseases in the way that that I mentioned madam chair can we interrupt to. To expand on the question or is that an appropriate. Well I think what you're asking is the policy and an opinion but if you want to provide the membership with whatever you have as far as written policy I think the juxtaposition question is probably better answered by the executive branch itself not necessarily. I doubt if I may because he made this call to put it on the special session the legislation I guess my question beat is that as you as a member of the executive branches Come cabinet for lack of a better word. You talk about the authority of the executive branch department health to to enforce these but there there's a difference between the authority and actually put a policy in place for example due to the court case you have the authority to mandate mask across state under the same law I could argue that that little is being expanded beyond its scope that's a different argument what you do not enforce that as an agency what you do enforce these guidelines for it comes quarantine you do in for someone to come to certain remote learning so what COVID nineteen. Requirements are put in place and you do have those rules in place and you came to the property owners and they always are forcible and what is the punishment for those rules of school districts doesn't listen to you. So the. Consequences for district that does not follow the law as committed to by a superintendent when they submit to us there are standards for and and meeting their standards for accreditation into could result in a probationary status of the district that is something that would be determined by the Arkansas a board of education. Senator Chesterfield you're recognized for a question manage your term will no more questions I move we adjourn. I don't know there's another question. I want it thank you. And Senator Solomon you're recognized for a question yes Director key the a lot of businesses and schools I think are offering incentives far people who received the vaccine and it would appear that sometimes those incentives what identify people who have or have not had in which would seem to violate HIPAA law since you are identifying people do so do we have any policies on on what schools are doing are you aware of any schools that are in violation of the law by making taking actions that would effectively identify people and share their private health information. We are mainly. We made a deal for a but we have had no reports of any violations of either have by or for but when it comes to student privacy okay thank you. Thank manager all right I'm in it close this down and I appreciate that if you have any other questions I'll direct you to go offline and and direct them to the department of education or to attend the public health committee meeting that's this afternoon to talk about the quarantine policies because those quarantine policies are being sets by the department of health and. The last thing that I wanted to say is. One as I would like to have a meeting Senator Eads I'm gonna put you in charge of helping us with a meeting and northwest Arkansas I would like that meeting to be we're gonna put together a meeting on graduate medical education and this is something that I'm very passionate about and I think we need to hear the plans that are proceeding because we have allocated a large sum of money to expand graduate medical education three Washington regional hospital and then the second thing I want to add to that is I would like for us as a committee jointly to a tent to visit the name image likeness a center that the University of Arkansas has developed and hear a firsthand reports about name image and likeness and how they are rolling that out as a follow up to the very important work that these committees did on that issue this past session so I will work with you Senator Eads and anybody I will also Senator Leding sorry you're on point on this too okay. So I will get that together and have that meeting up there all right if there's no other business to come before the committee we are adjourned.