Education Committee - Senate
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Transcript
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Bills discussed (27)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
HB1806
· 6 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “…nal. This is not mandatory for the Department of Education, House Bill 1806 will allow DESE to provide an online portal for parents to…”
|
TO PROVIDE CURRICULUM TRANSPARENCY FOR PARENTS OF KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE TWELVE STUDENTS; AND TO ALLOW … | Vaught | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1312
Act 909
· 4 mentions in chapter, agenda, transcript
Matched: “HB1312 Brooks TO AMEND PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUB…”
|
TO AMEND PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003. | Brooks | Notification that HB1312 is now Act 909 |
|
HB1719
Act 905
· 4 mentions in transcript, agenda, chapter
Matched: “OK, all right. Um, let me see. Representative. You have House Bill 1719. 00, now it's on. Good morning.”
|
TO AMEND THE DAYS INCLUDED IN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF MATERNITY LEAVE DAYS APPROVED BY … | Vaught | Notification that HB1719 is now Act 905 |
|
HB1933
Act 912
· 4 mentions in chapter, transcript, agenda
Matched: “HB1933 McCollum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOAR…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS; AND TO CREATE A … | McCollum | Notification that HB1933 is now Act 912 |
|
HB1966
Act 914
· 3 mentions in chapter, transcript
Matched: “HB1966 Barnett TO AUTHORIZE AN INCORPORATED TOWN OR A CITY OF THE…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE AN INCORPORATED TOWN OR A CITY OF THE SECOND CLASS TO PETITION THE … | Barnett | Notification that HB1966 is now Act 914 |
|
HB1242
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…O PAY FOR INCURRED COSTS FOR APPROVED PAID MATERNITY LEAVE. HB1242 J. Mayberry TO AMEND THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SCHOOL NURSES A…”
|
TO AMEND THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SCHOOL NURSES ARE COMPENSATED. | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1874
Act 795
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “HB1874 B. McKenzie AN ACT TO AMEND THE USE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOP…”
|
AN ACT TO AMEND THE USE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUNDING THAT EXCEEDS THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT … | B. McKenzie | Notification that HB1874 is now Act 795 |
|
HB1986
Act 794
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…ANOTHER PUBLIC SCHOOL WITHIN HIS OR HER RESIDENT DISTRICT. HB1986 Nazarenko CONCERNING EXCUSED ABSENCES FOR CHILDREN OF FALLE…”
|
CONCERNING EXCUSED ABSENCES FOR CHILDREN OF FALLEN SERVICE MEMBERS AND CHILDREN OF FALLEN FIRST RESPONDERS. | Nazarenko | Notification that HB1986 is now Act 794 |
|
HB1017
Act 904
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ENTARY SCHOOL OR SATELLITE SCHOOL UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS. HB1017 A. Collins TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING PAID MATERNITY LEAVE…”
|
TO AMEND THE LAW REGARDING PAID MATERNITY LEAVE FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL EMPLOYEES; AND TO REQUIRE … | A. Collins | Notification that HB1017 is now Act 904 |
|
HB1180
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RT CARD TO INCLUDE A STUDENT'S CURRENT READING GRADE LEVEL. HB1180 Bentley TO CREATE THE BABY OLIVIA ACT. SB216 J. Dotson TO A…”
|
TO CREATE THE BABY OLIVIA ACT. | Bentley | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1283
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…AND DEVELOPMENT INSTRUCTION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS. Page 2 of 3 HB1283 J. Mayberry TO REQUIRE THE DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECON…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE DIVISION OF ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION TO INCLUDE DIGITAL MEDIA STANDARDS IN … | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1370
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ERNING THE TRANSFER OF A STUDENT'S PERMANENT SCHOOL RECORD. HB1370 J. Mayberry CONCERNING MAKING UP MISSED SCHOOL DAYS; AND TO…”
|
CONCERNING MAKING UP MISSED SCHOOL DAYS; AND TO REQUIRE A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TO INCLUDE … | J. Mayberry | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1483
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…avis Sen. Jim Dotson REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle HB1483 Gramlich TO ALLOW A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TO USE STATE FUN…”
|
TO ALLOW A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT TO USE STATE FUNDS TO PAY FOR AN ADULT … | Gramlich | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1495
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NTAINS A FOUR-DAY SCHOOL WEEK; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. HB1495 Hawk CONCERNING THE TRANSFER OF A STUDENT'S PERMANENT SCHOO…”
|
CONCERNING THE TRANSFER OF A STUDENT'S PERMANENT SCHOOL RECORD. | Hawk | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1684
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…L CALENDAR FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING UP MISSED SCHOOL DAYS. HB1684 McAlindon TO CREATE THE PARENTS AND TEACHERS HELPING STUDEN…”
|
TO CREATE THE PARENTS AND TEACHERS HELPING STUDENTS SUCCEED (PATHS) ACT. | McAlindon | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1903
Act 911
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…EAVE DAYS APPROVED BY A SCHOOL THAT OFFERS MATERNITY LEAVE. HB1903 Walker TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE TO PROVIDE…”
|
TO AMEND PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE TO PROVIDE SCHOOL DISTRICTS WITH FLEXIBILITY REGARDING ALTERNATIVE … | Walker | Notification that HB1903 is now Act 911 |
|
HB1919
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…estrictions designating areas as 'Members and Staff Only'. HB1919 McAlindon TO CREATE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL ACCESS AND TRANSPAREN…”
|
TO CREATE THE PUBLIC SCHOOL ACCESS AND TRANSPARENCY ACT; AND TO REQUIRE PUBLIC ACCESS TO … | McAlindon | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1945
Act 913
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TH FLEXIBILITY REGARDING ALTERNATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS. HB1945 McCollum TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CH…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT; TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE … | McCollum | Notification that HB1945 is now Act 913 |
|
HB66
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “recognized Senator Murdoch district 9 go ahead House Bill 66 16 1966 excuse me it just”
|
Pre-2017 bill | ||
|
SB205
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…C SCHOOL TO ADOPT A POLICY FOR ONE OR MORE STUDENT MENTORS. SB205 A. Clark TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CH…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT; AND TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL … | A. Clark | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB215
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LOYMENT TAX ACT TO WAIVE THE "REASONABLE ASSURANCE" CLAUSE. SB215 J. Bryant TO AMEND THE PERMISSIBLE USES FOR REAL ESTATE DON…”
|
TO AMEND THE PERMISSIBLE USES FOR REAL ESTATE DONATED BY A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT; AND … | J. Bryant | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB266
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…NING POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS. SB266 J. Dotson TO AUTHORIZE A PUBLIC SCHOOL TO ADOPT A POLICY FO…”
|
TO AUTHORIZE A PUBLIC SCHOOL TO ADOPT A POLICY FOR ONE OR MORE STUDENT MENTORS. | J. Dotson | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB436
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…E DEVELOPMENT BOARD RELATED TO SECONDARY TECHNICAL CENTERS. SB436 A. Clark TO AMEND THE ABILITY OF A STUDENT WHO TRANSFERS UN…”
|
TO AMEND THE ABILITY OF A STUDENT WHO TRANSFERS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT … | A. Clark | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB482
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CH OR AN ATHLETICS PERSONNEL MEMBER WHO RECRUITS A STUDENT. SB482 K. Hammer TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL…”
|
TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW RELATING TO … | K. Hammer | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB528
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ICE ACT; AND TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT OF 2015. SB528 Gilmore TO ADDRESS THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE OFFICE OF S…”
|
TO ADDRESS THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE OFFICE OF SKILLS DEVELOPMENT AND THE CAREER … | Gilmore | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB607
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…STRICTS; AND TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT OF 2015. SB607 Crowell TO ESTABLISH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A PUBLIC SCHOOL D…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE REQUIREMENTS FOR A PUBLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT THAT INITIATES AND MAINTAINS A FOUR-DAY … | Crowell | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SCR3
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…BOARD OF DIRECTORS. DEFERRED BILLS Number Sponsor Subtitle SCR3 J. Scott TO URGE THE ARKANSAS CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO P…”
|
TO URGE THE ARKANSAS CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION TO PROPOSE AN AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL UNEMPLOYMENT TAX … | J. Scott | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
Machine transcript
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- October 6, 2026
Senator Jane English
Unverified
0:00
Welcome to Senate Education and seeing a quorum. We will begin right away here. We don't have a whole lot of time. So Representative Brooks would you like to come and present
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
0:18
yours please? Thank you Madam Chair. Thank you Committee Keith Brooks, State Representative District 78. This morning I'm bringing to you House bill 1312. This is the House version of adequacy. So it matches what the Senate
passed out a couple weeks ago. The only change is that on the last page we strike through the language relative to sixteen and a half million dollars for PLC's. That goes back to the whole discussion about PLC's we had several months ago with the sole source contract. You'll have another bill coming up, 1874, by Representative McKenzie, that gives the department the authority to utilize those same exact funds for implementation of LEARNs, which has a number of different meanings to it. So all
we're doing in this House bill that's different from the Senate adequacy is striking that language out. And with that, I'm happy
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:08
to take any questions. Any questions from the committee? Anybody in the audience? Oh, Senator Sullivan. Is there
Speaker 11
1:15
any cost affected? I don't remember our previous discussion. There's no in terms of removing that PLC well on this bill in terms of Adam
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
1:23
there's no difference in in that cost of that adequacy bill and what you already passed out exact same okay same book yes yeah that's not that we didn't add
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:32
anything or take anything okay anybody in the nobody in the audience speak for against the bill? What is the will of the committee? Second? All in favor? All opposed? Thank you very much. Thank you Madam
Chair. Thank you committee. Is that the only one you
had? Okay. All right. Let me see. Representative Vought. Do you have House Bill 1719?
Oh, now it's on. Good morning. 1966. You're running
Speaker 24
2:33
1966? Oh, you are. Okay. I got it. Okay. All right. Go ahead. I was like, wait. I don't have 1966 here. Okay.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
2:40
I'm doing 1719, right? Right. DMVOT District 87. I know I have to do that for the record. So when we did the 12 weeks paid leave, we kind of left a little loophole where if you had a baby during Christmas, they counted that as two of your weeks. So I'm going to use my daughter as the example because this is what happened. She had a baby right before Christmas and those two weeks of Christmas are not contract days and they're not paid days but they use that as two of her weeks
of her four weeks that she could do actually at her school for paid leave that's how many weeks they do is four so she didn't get paid for the two weeks of the maternity leave that they counted against her plus she had to pay back into insurance for those two weeks so what we're doing is we're just saying if it falls within day one to the last day of the contract you have a baby and there's any kind of spring break fall break whatever that might be Christmas break those days would be now
considered paid days where they aren't already by contract so that doesn't include summer because we're saying from day one to day 178 or 190 whatever the contract days are that would be when this could take place and that's what the bill does doesn't add weeks doesn't add days it just makes sure that they
get paid for their paid maternity leave other questions from the committee no one in the audience to
Senator Jane English
Unverified
4:23
speak for against the bill. Have a motion on the floor. Do I
hear a second? All in favor? All opposed? Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Can
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
4:41
I do the next one? Yes, go ahead. That's 1806. Yes, ma'am. It's a short, simple bill that is optional. This is not mandatory for the Department of Education. House Bill 1806 will allow DESE to provide an online portal for parents to review the textbooks in use in their children's classroom.
A parent or a guardian would be able to use an online portal to search by district, grade, and classroom to find and view the textbooks in their children's classrooms. I read that twice, sorry. They could view summaries of the entire content as desired. HB 1806 will allow for the online portal to give parents and guardians access to view library materials at their student's library. Library materials would be made available to review as well with an opt-out option available for parents to opt out for their student to select
certain books. There was some questions around copyright. The content in the textbooks would be available through an extension of user rights of the school related to the copyright. Ease of implementation the books are pulled by the ISBN number to allow ease and implementing the portal for all schools. A simple list of the books they use they are using would allow vendors not one vendor but vendors
to identify by ISBN number, the textbook content that should be made also available. This is a may, it's not a shall, because we didn't find money right now to fund it. So we changed the word to if there is money available, then we could maybe fund this. So with that, I'll try to answer questions. I may have to look to someone to come to the table and help me.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
6:37
That's fine. Are there questions from the committee?
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
6:41
Senator Sullivan. So if it's May, why do we need a
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
6:49
law to do that? So we would like to get this implemented as soon as we can find the money to do it because we do believe that it would help parents see and be able to view what their children's textbooks are presenting or library books are presenting. we've done a lot of you know with library and textbooks and Trying to shore up some things that people are allowing to be seen within their libraries
and I believe that this would go hand-in-hand with that sir and There's got
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
7:19
to be a cost to doing this do we know the cost the fiscal impact The
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
7:25
1.5 The fiscal impact would be if it was a shall 1.5 Okay, yeah, she said there's companies that can
do it for less, just depending on the vendors. Did I get the number right, Senator Davis?
Yeah, thank you. Because I don't have it
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
7:56
with me anymore. Senator Davis. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yes, the fiscal impact says $1 to $2.5 million. But I'm wondering, it says shall three times throughout this bill. So I was just sort of, it says an online portal is required, and then it says DESE shall establish and maintain, and then the portal required by subdivision of the section shall provide.
And so I'm just wondering if it's, can I have somebody from the
Speaker 44
8:29
department? There you go. Greg Rogers, Department of Education.
Speaker 47
8:47
So when we first did it, it did have the shelves in there, but then when it was amended
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
8:54
to add if funding is available. So unless funding is designated and found for these, there's two different sections there. The implementation clause to start it in 2026 was amended to say if funding is available. And then there's another section in there too that said if funding is available. So with those two clauses there, unless funding is designated for this, we wouldn't begin to implement it until that time.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
9:25
Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay, so can you help me understand how school districts are going? This feels like a really heavy lift for districts to put in every single book. Like, I just think of librarians. So I think
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
9:42
at that time, it would depend on which vendor was selected and how it would be used, which is one of the reasons why we said if funding is available, because that's why when you saw the range there from $1 to $2.5 million would be, whichever vendor was selected, how they go about doing those books. Do they have someone from the vendor that comes in and works with the library?
Is it on the library in itself? A lot of those questions would have to be answered whichever contractor they were used, which is why you see that range in the physical impact. And another reason why it was but if funding is available because then would have to be established which contractor was and how it
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
10:23
would be processed. And then, would a parent, so it says if a parent can opt out, I mean, currently we get forms from the school district that allow us to sign to, like, opt out of personal classroom libraries with a teacher or whatever, but, so is there, like, a form then that you just, like, if I'm online and I see, I'm searching through, you know, a thousand book titles and I say I don't want my kid to have access to this book or this book or this book,
then is the librarian keeping up with a folder or something? Like every time my child tries to check a book out and maybe it's the book that I said they couldn't check out
Speaker 49
11:01
and then. That I don't know because once again, it would depend on the vendor and how they do that.
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
11:07
I wouldn't know that. Okay. Madam Chair, may I please have Austin come to the table? Because I think that's stuff
Senator Jane English
Unverified
11:19
he can answer. If you'll identify yourself you'll be
Speaker 56
11:22
recognized or in committee Austin Grinder Mullinex and Associates
I can tell you how one vendor does it. I imagine most
Speaker 57
11:27
of them are pretty similar It's by ISBN number and so they already have a library system that allows them to check out certain books and Whenever a parent says I don't want this book to be checked out then that would Integrate with their current library system and it would flag it when they try to check something out other other questions is there
Senator Jane English
Unverified
12:03
anybody in the audience speak for against the
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
12:05
bill what is the will of the committee are you closed for your bill Senator Murdoch sorry about a quick question I think it has been answered but there it won't be a cost to the district it's not a mandated with an unfunded mandate it will be funded and then the district can implement it after it's
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
12:37
being funded yes sir if we find the money yes sir
Speaker 73
12:39
it would yeah yes thank you senator Davis do you have another question what's the will of the committee do I hear a second don't hear a second yes you committee
Senator Jane English
Unverified
13:12
okay let me see who is Oh Senator
Murdoch did you have this one bill you're going to run
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
13:41
recognized Senator Murdoch district 9 go ahead House Bill 66 16 1966 excuse me it just
gives authority to a city of a second class to petition the state board for a establishment of a local public elementary school or satellite school so if the receiving district and the and the town agree in a town that's been consolidated say within the last 20 years then you can have if
if everybody agrees you can have a you can petition the state board so it's just an allowance to petition the state board in many communities you've had
consolidation and but they still have facilities or may have facilities they can use like for the elementary school
or some part of the educational process this allows them just a petition. Senator Dawson. Thank you Madam Chair. So it's a
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
14:44
petition to the State Board of Education and then the State Board would establish a school district? No, no, no, no,
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
14:54
local board and the and this is the city a second class or whatever class they will make an agreement then they will petition the state board oh so they come right you got a little town in your district used to have a school there maybe elementary school and they have the facility there and and there was in that and they've been consolidated with a school district a larger school district and a larger school district want to allow them to have that elementary school in their community this this will be a petition to allow it And it helps the small community have some life still.
Quite honestly, it could be twofold and allow the cuts down on the travel for children traveling on buses in rural areas. So this could work if everything works out. But this just allows a petition to do this.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
15:43
A petition. So would they still be part of the school district? It's just a petition to allow for a single elementary school or maybe junior high or high school, whatever. but but a single public school still remain so not creating a new school no no no no just
establishing a building in that local community in that community yes can can that
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
16:06
board of directors not already do this no not without an allowance and petition that i obviously i guess they need they need to go through a process this process allows them
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
16:17
to do that i mean And I guess I was under the impression that a school district could build a school anywhere within their footprint or have a school, open a school, if there's sufficient populace in that area without having to go through a petition process.
I mean, wouldn't that be, hey, I just talked to your school board members and say, hey, we'd like to see you
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
16:49
allocate the funds our direction. My understanding is that what makes this unique is the agreement with the city of that class, so that city is participating. Say even the city have a facility. Say the school district don't have one, but the facility has a community center or an old Army National Guard building or something that they want to utilize in their community,
and they can work the agreement out, and it makes sense. school and then the state board ultimately approves the the union so that this is just them being able to make application to the state board for such an occurrence and it just helps smaller communities to be vibrant and cuts down on travel in rural districts possibly all right thank you
Senator Jane English
Unverified
17:39
thank you so we're basically saying that
a community schools have been kind of
consolidated into a school district so what you're proposing is that a community out that's in that school district but away from where we consolidate the schools has the option of setting up a school in a community yes ma'am
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
18:03
so a real example and say
a school district say like West Memphis and Hughes I don't know if y'all familiar with the Delta I'm sorry but let's just say distance the school is maybe 25 30 miles from that community but inside the
community who used to have a school district then there are facilities there that are still usable for this particular case or the city has facilities in other cases that are usable and so they're still under the same school district everything is still the same it's just cuts down on travel gives that city an educational institution that they can use it don't You don't
waste a building a facility. So it's just something that could possibly be good a win-win if the state board approves it
Senator Jane English
Unverified
18:51
So what would that do for the all the costs for the district? No, you if you've got a new a building that they have to
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
19:00
maintain and no No, no, the agreement is that the facility won't be no cost to the district
that what they'll work that out but what this allows for is the city and input if the city in the school district could make it work so there's no it's all if that receiving district is that existing district if they want this there's not a mandate on a district
this gives a district an opportunity to do this yeah so it
Senator Jane English
Unverified
19:26
really be the the city's responsibility then for the maintenance it'll
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
19:29
be an agreement to build a way to be eligible it'll be an agreement between the city and that district if they can't come to agreement say it doesn't make sense the the facility is in too bad a shape or the cost is too much, then the district just don't make the petition. The district would make the petition. Yeah, it's an agreed-upon solution if it works for everybody.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
19:54
Further questions from Senator Davis? Thank you, Madam
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
20:01
Chair. I think this sounds like a great solution to let especially young kids elementary kids not sit on a bus for long periods of time and let them go to school there in their community where facilities are available and still usable and it really sounds like a community agreement them coming together to say this is what's best for our kids here and you know we'd like to support that and have them close to home would
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
20:26
you agree? I totally agree. Senator Dotson. Thank you, Madam Chair. So just going back through, I think I understand the bill, your intent, and everything like that, but there's two different words that are used here when referring to districts. One is receiving and the other is affected and so it seems almost as if there's two
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
20:57
different districts involved. No it's the same district the receiving district and
the affected district is the same thing. So what is the receiving? It's, now the way the intent like as you said we're talking about one district if you're under the Springdale School District and they're
receiving and they're affected when they're affected maybe the context of affected within the last meaning the affected district is the say in this case the district that was consolidated you look at a line line 5 on page 2 affected district resulted in a
consolidated because of consolidation within the last 20 years from the effective date of the section so the affected district is the previous district so this was a school district it could have
been a school district so the affected school
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
21:46
district is the one that doesn't exist anymore exactly and the receipt receiving is the one that existing right now good job that clears it up thank you thank you are there other questions from the committee are
Senator Jane English
Unverified
22:04
you closed via bail I'm closed a motion to pass there anybody in
Senator Jane English
Unverified
22:16
okay. Does nobody in the audience speak for or against the bill? We have a motion on the floor in a second. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Thank you very much. You passed your bill. Okay, let
Senator Jane English
Unverified
22:35
Oh, Senator Irvin, are you here? Yes, you want to come and
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
23:01
Yes, ma'am. House Bill 1933 for Representative Austin McCullen.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
23:09
yes okay go ahead thank you I'm Senator Missy Irvin district 20 you need a copy of the bill um I think I've got notes I think I'll be okay unless y'all ask any questions and then I'll need a copy of the bill okay um so representative McCollum is bringing forward this bill um which is it's really about accountability for school boards and setting up a process where there is a
recall the ability to recall a member from a school board what this bill does it just provides that level of voter engagement and thank you and accountability and sets up a process that's very similar to to what you have for mayors city council members and other local officials that can be recalled and school board members should be helped to that same standard. The process ensures that if a board member loses public trust, then voters have a mechanism
to hold them accountable, him or her accountable. School boards are not independent constitutional entities. Their authority is delegated by statute and so it is proper for us to utilize statute in order to make any policy changes to school boards. State, you know, has that, there are some safeguards in the bill. The bill requires a high threshold, which is 35% of eligible voters signing a petition before a recall election may
even take place, preventing abuse from that situation. It does limit recall petitions to one per elected term, balancing stability and leadership with the voter accountability. And the recall election aligns with the next school board election, preventing any unnecessary special elections or costs so that's the bill in a synopsis it's just providing a process and a pathway to have a recall process like we do very similarly for other locally elected officials
Senator Jane English
Unverified
25:18
are there questions from the committee senator
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
25:25
solomon so if uh if one if the vote passes and the school board member is removed then it's not an appointment there's an
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
25:42
election to fill that spot correct um well actually so yes that the so if there is a petition in this um and this goes through
and somebody is removed and a vacancy is created, then the vacancy then would follow the policy that we actually just passed in my other bill that came through here and off the House floor. So that vacancy then would be determined by the school board directors. The board of directors themselves would choose, but they would follow that public process that we outlined in my other bill. Help me
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
26:19
out. I'm not, I don't guess I'm following.
So you have a vacancy, someone is out. Yeah. Is that
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
26:29
vacancy filled by appointment? No, it's filled
by, it's filled by the school board of directors. So the board of directors meet. So we outlined in the other bill a process to fill that vacancy, which would be to, that they would let people know that this has taken place and then they would fill that vacancy. unless it happens at an election time
when the elections for the school boards are happening already. So it could be either one. It could be they could be elected during the normal time that we have a school board election for that vacancy, which is the most ideal situation. But if it happened in the off time, then it would follow the other process.
Speaker 10
27:15
Often we make those appointments, whoever was, and I'm going to call it appointed, the board selects somebody to fill that vacancy,
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
27:24
often they're not allowed to run in the general election. Would they be allowed to run, so they're going to be appointed by a board,
and then they can run again, they're eligible to run in the election or not? On my last bill, yes. There's nothing barring them from running? No, not that I'm
Speaker 134
27:44
aware of. Senator Johnson, did you have a question? No, we did change it. You got an answer?
Senator Jane English
Unverified
28:00
I can pull it up. Are there any other questions from the committee? Senator King. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
28:13
First, are we going to be meeting at 10 again, or is this that? Or 1030? 10. We're going to meet at 10 when we come. Okay, okay. 2.30. Session. So, I mean, just to, we don't have recall elections for our races or governor or any of the others, do we?
Do we have recall, we don't have recall elections, do we, for
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
28:41
senator and rep? Maybe I'm missing some. We do for their city council. There is a process for city council and for mayors. state offices are constitutional we're constitutional offices we're not created
by statute these are created by statute so there's a difference there
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
29:23
Madam Chair. Did you cover who pays for
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
29:34
So it would just, to eliminate any cost, there's no special election. It would just either have a vacancy, and then a vacancy would be appointed.
by that process, or they would just wait until the next election for school board. But the cost of the petition, I don't think that there's a cost really to voters having the ability to do a petition. I mean, there may be some cost, but it's not a cost to
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
30:07
the state. So they turn in the valid signatures and then that position becomes vacant on the next cycle?
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
30:17
If the recall is successful. But the recall would require a vote. The recall process, as it's outlined, allows for a vote. And yes, and then that would happen at the
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
30:35
next school board election. So we're not recalling. So if it's a four-year term and after one year petitions come back to say we're going to vacate that position the next election, even though it's typically four years or six years.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
30:50
Let me in. Do you mind if Gary Newton, can you come and discuss that? I apologize. Let me have him. He was present also with the House discussion. I apologize. Yeah, I
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
31:07
guess just maybe a fact scenario type situation or a scenario. You'll
Gary Newton
Unverified
31:14
identify yourself. Gary Newton with Arkansas Learns, what you said is correct.
The recall would happen in an election. The board would then appoint the person to fill the vacancy, and the replacement would be in the next school board election. So at a maximum, it could be a two-year period that the appointee could serve. But with the new bill, 1724, that's just been enacted, there are now four- and six-year terms. So if the person's automatically up in the next two years, there'll be no need for a recall.
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
31:53
So they had just won a four-year term, and then one year later, somebody gets frustrated and gets signatures, and they turn that into the clerk. that Person that was voted in a year ago would have to vacate that position and the board would put somebody else in until the next regular scheduled That would that's correct in this scenario. So the recall is not a vote of the people. It's a signature campaign No, it would be a recall election 35% is simply the threshold to get it on the ballot. So the recall election if it's not a regular scheduled election
is there any time that they would have to pay for a special election or no sir it was the recall election
Gary Newton
Unverified
32:34
also would only be in a school board election I got it thanks
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
32:46
other other question Senator Murdoch thank you madam chair just to make sure I got the timeline right so if in year one of a four-year term someone is recalled the petition is executed they're recalled, then how long are you saying they still stay in that seat? The recall
Gary Newton
Unverified
33:01
has been executed. The recall is not executed until the election. So just because they meet the threshold of 35% from the previous election, that simply gets it on the ballot for the next school board election. If the election is successful
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
33:19
that is when they're removed. So I'm
just trying to find the effectiveness of such of this if I'm not if I'm understanding correctly if we get if the community has determined someone to be ineffective and but the
bill that's told the board the sitting board does not have the ability to make an immediate immediate replacement appointment excuse me under if I'm understanding you correctly you're saying is that am i correct no sir okay that's why
Gary Newton
Unverified
33:52
it's the yes the 35 percent gets it on the ballot if the voters then decide to remove that no no before the
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
34:03
ballot before the ballot before the no one is removed until there's an election
until there's an election or appointment? No, sir. The 35% simply gets it on
Gary Newton
Unverified
34:17
the ballot to vote whether or not to remove the person, the elected official. If the voters, by a majority, decide to remove the elected official, then the vacancy provision comes in and the board appoints a replacement, but not until the people vote. So it's just a
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:36
matter of time of when the school board election would be set.
So if they were in a two-year or four-year, I'm not sure how often school board elections occur, but they're not every
Speaker 165
34:49
single year. In the new bill, they're every preferential primary, every preferential primary. So it's every two years?
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:57
Yes, sir. So it could be that they would be still in their position, but they wouldn't be removed until an
Speaker 159
35:04
election of the people. they are removed if the people vote to remove
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
35:11
them. They're immediately removed and then the board immediately, that's where I'm trying to get to. The immediate what removes them immediately? The
Gary Newton
Unverified
35:23
people's decision, a majority of the votes, voting on the ballot to remove this person. But there won't be an election except for every
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
35:30
two years. That is every two years. So then you could be left with a situation. So then you have that person still on your board or people.
Once the people vote to remove them, they're removed. And the board then replaces them. You don't understand what
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
35:52
I'm saying? I understand what you're saying. So if you get your 35% threshold
of petition signatures, like in October, you can't execute that until the election. Yes, until the election. So yes, they would be still on that board serving until the election occurred. But the election occurs at the same time as the other,
so there's not the cost of a
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
36:18
special election. No, I understand that. I was just dealing with the timing and the concern would be once you've alienated, if you will, that person or named publicly that person, And if that person isn't, depending on what the situation is, it could just be more egregious for that body. If, whereas, generally, well, I don't even know how the recalls go. My concern would be, once that's done, the time period in between execution,
if that's the right word, or application, maybe. Thank you. Are
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
37:09
there any other questions from the committee? senator dawson thank you madam chair so i'm just trying to think through
the timeline just so if someone has a four-year term and this is this is exercised in the first year of that four-year term but according to the bill
on page three lines uh nine through 12 it talks about if the school board election is less than 60 days after the petition is certified by the county clerk the recall election be shall be held at the next school board election following the next school board election so so say I guess it wouldn't be exactly in the first year it'd be in the second year right before the the right before the end of that uh that last 60 days so if somebody gets
that then they won't be on that election that immediate election right then it'll be two years and 60 days or two days two years and 50 days say um away that may be the end of their term already well they would
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
38:21
have like maybe one year they maybe would have one year left of that term I'm trying to think
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
38:34
through scenarios I think with the other bill that came through is either
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
38:37
a four or a six year term if I recall they have the option of four six year terms with the the school boards I'm trying to think through how that would work if they if that district only had a four-year term and it's within that 60-day time period then they would be on the ballot already at the same time they're being removed from the ballot in that scenario if they had a four-year term I mean
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
39:08
obviously there's all kinds of scenarios that we
could fill out here and I'm not gonna be I mean I don't have a crystal ball and can't predict that but I think the idea behind the policy is what I need to I think to be focused on is that you have a recall process in place that gives a greater level of accountability from school board members to the public and I think that's what we're trying to achieve here is having a recall process and a recall policy that provides a greater amount of accountability and and I think you know being
able to I think what they were trying to avoid was any unnecessary cost to call a special election and I respect that however it does create the scenarios that you're talking about that could play out as far as you know you're leaving somebody in place probably longer than desirable but right now you have no other option so they're just there. No
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
40:10
I mean I think this is this
is a very good concept bill
that I liked and supported, especially when there's annual school board elections because you wouldn't run into that situation until, I was just thinking through it as I was sitting here, the timing of it. They might be on the ballot. Annual school board elections, they wouldn't. They were five-year terms. They'd be out there five years. You'd just be coming up the next year. term yeah but a six-year term this probably wouldn't be the scenario but if it's a four-year term they might show up on the ballot twice once to remove and once for re-election at the same
time anyway just thank you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:59
think the idea behind it is a policy, a policy for accountability and the ability to recall somebody. If you have that ability and the voters have that ability to recall somebody, I think it provides more accountability for the person that's serving in that role to say, hey, I'm accountable to these
people. They could recall me, you know, and no matter how that timeline plays out, if I'm that person i don't want to be recalled so i need to be able to be more accountable to the people that i'm supposed to be representing i'll talk to them take their phone calls let them engage on the process and i think that's the idea behind this policy i think it's tricky very very tricky because of the elections and exactly what senator murdoch was talking about and how those things could play out and it'd be great if we were able to execute the petition immediately especially if it's
somebody who's really egregious in what they're doing, I like that idea. But then, you know, you bear the cost of the special election. So, I mean, you know, and who pays for that? And I think those are the things and kind of the policy ideas that you're trying to weave through.
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
42:23
Senator Murdoch. Thank you, Madam Chair. Along those lines, Senator Irvin, why not just do an appointment for that immediate situation,
allow for an appointment under the appointment rules that you had in that
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
42:38
17? Well, I mean, that's just if a vacancy occurs, you know, for somebody who may resign or for whatever other purpose. If you were able to execute on that petition immediately, then you would have to call a special election. And then who would pay for that? Because the petition process itself doesn't remove the person. It just says, we don't like you, and we want to be able to vote to remove you.
So you would have to have a special election, which would incur cost that either the school board or the county would have to pay for. And I think that's what the bill's sponsors trying to avoid, any special election costs or the designation or
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
43:23
need for a special election. And in other recall situations with other elected positions that allow for recall currently, it is only done upon an election. It's not done upon a threshold met.
The threshold is just for an election. So that's consistent with this here. I believe that's correct. I think I was thinking that the threshold is enough to take action, but the threshold just gets it to the people. Yeah, it just gets it to the people. It's been a few
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:51
years since I chaired city-county local, so I'm not sure if I can remember all of that. Are there any further questions from the committee? Is there anybody
Senator Jane English
Unverified
43:59
in the audience to speak for or against the bill?
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:07
Not? Are you closed? Yes, I know, I really appreciate all of the input and questions. I think at the end of the day, it's deciding do we want to have a policy for a recall process or not and what value that brings to the table. I would argue that it does bring value to the table. Even some of the scenarios that play out could leave somebody in that position longer than desirable. But I think the overall effect of having a recall policy is a good thing just for accountability from school board members to the people that they're supposed to be representing.
So, I think it's a good bill for that, and I would
appreciate your consideration and a good vote. So, I'm closed. What is the
Senator Jane English
Unverified
45:01
and a second. All in favor? All opposed? thank you you passed your bill okay let me see here we have um thank you pardon thank you
pardon yeah we've got julie mayberry's right behind you too
be fast okay all right um that's ranko but come quickly julie
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
45:37
committee uh jason as representative jason nazarenko house district four that's marion county and parts of baxter county uh excited to bring you house bill 1986 today as you see it addresses the absences for children of fallen uh service members as well as fallen
first responders so this this bill was brought to me by the veterans arkansas veterans coalition as well as the hearts of our heroes which is a group that deals with individuals who have dealt with tragic loss. And my good friend Sherry Briley, who also told me about this quite a few months back or possibly even a year ago, letting me know that it was coming. So I was very excited when I heard about it. I have a huge connection with this. I'll tell you a quick story about back in my days when losing a service member, seeing what those children go through
when that loss of that service member came about, sitting behind them in a memorial service, watching them weep with their mother just having to comfort them that's the children that this is focusing on for focusing on as i said service members and fallen as well as those of first responders so as you can see in the bill it has to do with excuse absences for certain considerations those certain considerations are if they're going to sponsored organizations which can be found on the resource page for military family engagement on the department of education there are some
requirements that the parents have to submit or parents or guardians have to submit in order for them to attend those events and there's also a safeguard in place for the children to be able to complete any school work that's required during that time that they're going to miss as well as that they can't miss during any time of standardized testing so a very good bill that's going to offer something great for our fallen soldier school children as well as those first responders with that I'll stop and answer any questions that anyone has questions from the
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
47:35
what is a fallen law enforcement or does that mean in the in the line of duty
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
47:41
it would sir that's what it would be focusing on is a service is that written down somewhere it's not written in there specific it gives the the definition of the children or the student and
how they fall in line with a with a family that they have to be actually connected you can see
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
47:57
that on page one yes if you have a service member
who dies in a auto accident as a result of fill in the blank they would still qualify even though it wasn't in line in their line of duty they
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
48:11
could sir but you know the intent of it is focusing on those tragic loss instances where like Gary Sinise's foundation Snowball Express what they do is they bring those children together that have gone through
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
48:22
that experience listen I understand that just not written down it's not in the law that they would be excused other children who have traumatic losses also
anytime a child loses a parent it's a traumatic loss and I get it just not written down. Yes, sir. Thank you.
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
48:45
Senator Bryant. I'm okay with the language. I think fallen service member captures in the line of duty regardless of the case. So I think the case could be made that if we're fallen as a service member, they've fallen during the line of duty. Yes, sir. And one of the, you know,
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
49:00
on that note, Senator Bryant, the one word that used to be used or kind of the
narrative or the definition would have been gold star children or gold star families, and you're probably more familiar with gold star that was the intent is we're focusing on gold star but because of saying gold star you'd be leaving out first responders and so that way we're trying to capture and that that was that language they chose to use was fallen service members and fallen first responders thank you any other questions from the committee is there anybody in
Senator Jane English
Unverified
49:37
audience to speak for against the bill seeing none are you closed yes ma'am I'm closed for
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
49:41
the bill and I asked for a good vote and appreciate everyone's support and questions what is the will of the committee do
Senator Jane English
Unverified
49:46
pass do I hear a second second all in favor all opposed thank you very much thank you thank you you committee. Okay.
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
50:09
Mackenzie. There we go. If it's all right, Chairwoman, it would be okay if I
have Senator Davis as well as the bill number.
1874. As well as Secretary of leave if possible.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
50:22
Okay. If you all would identify yourself, she'll be
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
50:27
recognized. Britt McKenzie, State Representative, District 7, Rogers, Arkansas.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
50:31
Breanne Davis, State Senate, District 25. Jacob
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
50:34
Oliva, Arkansas Department of Education. Thank you, Chairman.
Thank you, Committee. I'm here today to present House Bill 1874. This is a companion piece of legislation that just that goes well with
the adequacy bill that Chairman Brooks just presented and passed through this committee. This is the only supplemental to the adequacy bill that is necessary. Over the last four terms, we have run this supplemental with a dollar amount as well as a specific defined clause that the money goes to for professional development. That defined clause is professional learning communities. Over the past 18 months, we've learned well what professional learning communities really mean. It's a statewide contract with a single source vendor.
And since the last time we met as a legislature, the RFP process has happened. That vendor has fallen out of the RFP process. The Secretary and his folks at the Department of Education have done well to make sure those professional development monies go and block grants out to individual districts as they see fit as well as cooperatives. What this bill does is it comes back in and it removes that dollar amount and sets a to the maximum of language. They line on them in adequacy for supplemental funds. what we're now saying is for the implementation of learns and I'll let the
secretary go into more depth about that but specific to the the rigors we've now put into learns for literacy and numeracy as well as professional development and before the secretary goes I'll say this professional development is funded even with this bill to the tune of $41 per student what the sixteen and a half million dollars represented previously was top hat professional development money so money on top of money that this the department would go out and and fund a specific program that was wide-reaching to the
entire state every district that's represented this table will still have professional development dollars professional learning communities will still exist in your home districts it's kind of a ubiquitous term it's similar when you go buy a soda drink from a fast-food restaurant we call it a coke professional learning communities are ubiquitous to what teachers need for professional development this and the way that we would change this bill
does not change how your districts operate so secretary sure thank you and
Speaker 211
52:46
thank you for doing a great job explaining the background so there is a current
categorical in our line-item funding to support professional learning historically a percentage of that categorical was earmarked for the implementation of professional learning communities we've still been honoring that expectation as a state that that first half of the dollars of it's about 37 million dollar appropriation about the first chunk of that still goes to the district on a per student basis so that the district has the flexibility and autonomy to look at professional learning that works best for them
instead of earmarking the second half to do a statewide contract we can do an innovative approach to make sure we're tailoring and customizing the support that teachers need unique to the students in the strategies that they want to hone in on to better serve their students with learns implementation as we've implemented a statewide unified coordinated progress learning system districts are able to pull down data in real time and look at how they may want to support the learning that happens with their professional element of the
teachers to make sure that they're targeting students that they need so this would allow the districts to have access to more funds to better meet their
Senator Jane English
Unverified
54:06
all, but it is 9 o'clock and we have to stop for budget because budget's
Senator Jane English
Unverified
54:16
questions. Can I hear quickly questions from the community?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
54:21
I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was anyone to speak for or against the bill.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
54:28
If we want to pause and come back yeah, I think that'd be
Senator Jane English
Unverified
54:44
by 9:30 Thank you Yeah We're going to recess until budget
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56:58
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Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:30:58
We are returned from recess, Senator Davis, Representative McKenzie,
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
1:31:28
I'd like to move on with your bills. Thank you, Madam Chair. Breanne
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
1:31:39
Davis, State Senate, District 25. Britt McKenzie, State Representative, District 7, Rogers,
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:31:42
Arkansas. And I think we'll return the, is there anybody to speak for or against the bill? Correct. Yes. Oh, he might need that right here. And I think we have somebody to speak against the bill, Representative. Would you like a seat at the table? And identify yourself, and you'll be recognized.
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
1:32:05
There you go. Thank you, Madam Chair. State Representative John
Eubanks, District 46. I wasn't paying attention last week when this bill came to the floor, but I thought about it all weekend. And whereas nobody has asked me to come and speak against this bill, As someone that has been engaged with the professional learning communities from its very inception, I just felt compelled that I needed to come and share some information with the committee,
and I know that many of you have heard what I've had to say in the past. I spent 10 years on a school board, and one of the biggest complaints I ever got was We start a program and then in a few years, somebody else has another idea or they want to spend that money in a different direction and we change. You know, when we started this program, it started under Speaker Gillum and he sent a group of legislators to a solutions tree conference in Phoenix, Arizona.
and there were 1,500 educators there there weren't any legislators there had never been any legislators attend one of their conference what I witnessed was educators that felt like they were doing something that was really starting to change outcomes for students they were they were closing the achievement gap it was concentrated to begin with in areas where it was a high minority high
poverty populations in the schools we came back legislation was written to fund a pilot program that that because there was no emergency clause on that bill there was it was a need to do a special procurement and that's how solution tree was initially chosen the it was a four million dollar appropriation
for that first year we didn't even know if anybody would would apply to participate in this program but we did we had the school the state had a lot of schools and then they went through the process to choose which schools could participate and that continued each year we increase the amount until we've gotten up to I think the current amount is 16 17 million dollars so that they could have a cohort and each cohort is three years the school has to commit for
three years that they are going to participate in this program I don't the data that solution tree or the Department of Education has supplied it in meetings over the years as to whether this is a success or not. What I'm basing my feelings on, in my opinion, are the statements that I've gotten from teachers and administrators that have had this. I had the superintendent from Mountainburg tell me
this is the best professional development that the state of Arkansas has ever provided. And if we hadn't started doing this in our school, I would have retired. And I heard that from other educators as well. I had one district in my house district that applied and participated in the program. It's a little school magazine at, you know, four or 500 students tops. And they saw significant increases in achievement for their students.
The teachers loved it. I went over and met with them, because it was right in my district. But I've heard this multiple times from educators across the state. when we were having the discussion with regard to the most recent RFP, we had teachers, we had a group from McGee that drove all the way up just to testify about how good this program was for them. You know, I don't know what the, if this is gonna change anybody's mind
on the committee or not, but having been involved in this since the very beginning and actually seeing what the results are, and hearing it from the educators themselves, I'm still convinced that this is a way we need to go if we want to close the achievement gap, if we want to serve the needs of kids that are in poverty. I know that with LEARNS, there's other demands on the budget,
and I understand that people are looking for money to help fund some of those things, But I personally believe that this is something that ought to continue. I didn't agree with the business decision that Solution Tree made when they dropped out of the RFP. But I understand it. An audit had been asked for. It had drug on for some time. The hearing for, in review, on the contract itself was contentious, heated, and they felt
like their reputation was being damaged, and they work not only in the United States, but they work internationally as well. So they made that decision, like I said. I didn't agree with it, but it was made, and then it forced the department to have to come up with alternative plan, having a list of qualified vendors that the schools themselves could choose from. I still firmly believe in it. I still think it's
the way we need to move our state forward. Back in December, I was at the lighting of the menorah, and I met a young man there. He was Jewish. He just moved to Arkansas to take a position. And he had moved down from Illinois. And he introduced his mother and father and his younger brother were there. And they were just bragging on how hospitable the people in the South are. And I said, well, move. And the mother says, we can't. The younger
son was in, she said he's in high school, and it's the second highest performing high school in the United States. It's called Adelaide Stevenson High School, and that's where professional learning communities began, and that was where Dr. Rick DeFore was the superintendent and started this program, and, you know, that was 30-plus years ago. They're still following the program. They're still rated high it's still a high poverty area but they're getting good results the only the only
interest I have in this whole thing was if we're going to give kids a future we've got to meet their needs and we've got to meet them where they are and that was one of the things that this this program does they they have common assessments they they unpack the standards and I've heard Secretary Oliva when he was going around the state going to the co-ops promoting learns say the same daggone things that we need to do that and then what do we do if they're not getting the material well you got to do it in a timely fashion
and get them the assistance they need and if they are understanding it then you need to also get them enrichment so I think this is a mistake I think we ought to leave the money in the categorical like it is designated for professional learning communities like i said nobody asked me to come here i spoke with the speaker prior to coming down here he's had success in cabot schools he knows firsthand as do other members so with that i would ask that you recon you know think seriously about this if
this is the direction we need to go and
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:40:27
i will take questions if there are any thank you are Are there questions from the committee? Thank you,
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
1:40:36
committee. Thank you. No other speakers for or against? Are you all closed for your bill? Yes, Chairman, happy
to close. A lot of great things were said, and I tend to agree with what he said, except for the fact that you guys voting for this bill today doesn't change a district's ability to contract Solution Tree.
Last year alone, Solution Tree made $140 million from districts across the state. This is $16.5 million that sits on top of it. What we've done in the last two years, whether you like Learns or hate Learns, is we have put the onus back on students to make sure that they are performing as we need them to. This money is going to be better used to enforce the numeracy and the literacy standards that we're trying to get our students to achieve. The NAEP scores came out at the beginning of this session. Again, Arkansas continues to languish.
By us investing in our students' future directly through putting this money into districts to best help kids where they need help the most in literacy and numeracy, we are going to be helping. And I won't make light of the fact that, you know, we can use the anecdotal. I have met with my PLC captains back in my home district. One of the promises that PLCs were, whenever we started this eight years ago, was we'll train the trainers. And then the trainers are going to take over. And then we're not going to need these bloated contracts in order to achieve what we need. Eight years later, we're still paying in significantly to widgets and modules that have no,
and that's the other part of this, the University of Arkansas Education Policy Reform Department did a comprehensive study that there is no appreciable increase to student performance between tests and controls of the PLCs for schools that don't have the PLCs. If we can track it, we can hold it accountable. For far too long, we've let this program fester into something that we absolutely have to have while students fail. So, and I appreciate that this is a truly bipartisan cause.
Senator Chesterfield was one of the points on the spear this last year that asked us to continue to look at this contract and see where the value is and if students are really gaining from it. I appreciate the time and the consideration, but it's time for us to stop passing the buck and start investing in students. So with that, I'd
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:42:47
close. Do you have something, a question? Go ahead. Senator Murdoch.
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
1:42:52
Okay, I apologize. When you had gaveled back in, I just came down, and you had already started the process,
because I really wanted to ask a couple questions and just get a perspective, because this is a part of it. Now, if we could get the department to come to the table at the same time, the secretary, please. There's a couple things that I'm concerned about. I'm very aware of what was going on with these communities, these PLCs, and the initiation over the start of it through the processes and what my concern is as
a non educator but being living with one and being around it so often is the time it takes many times for
programs such as the one we're talking about now and others to mature and take effect in various places I'm always concerned when we here make decisions based on achievement and or grades or whatever happens because as the secretary and I have talked probably many times education is so different in different places in different ways that things apply I love that we still have
the opportunity to utilize these whatever you choose that a district chooses to use but we're doing
a lot of transformational things now under the second the new secretary and I'm totally okay with it because most of it is in the
name of accountability but here's what I'm concerned time this stuff don't happen quick and everything that I see gives with it some ability for quick
change and what I'm concerned about is continuity and our transformational things that we're trying to do that we don't allow people districts programs to be just blew up blown up because in Cabot they get it in another district it taken it's taken longer so they don't look the same for the same programs then so then we're either the district or the program is deemed unsuccessful and I'm
saying that I'm just I'm just seeing a lot of transformational things and I want to make sure as relations we're talking about this we're talking about professional development programs that we are considering all of those factors and we're not rushing for nothing besides excellence you know which takes time could you comment on that please uh secretary i think you know where i'm coming yes ma'am jacob
Speaker 209
1:45:43
believe our department of education um thank you senator murna for for the questions and i think kind
Speaker 211
1:45:50
of what you're alluding to is is it's kind of even codified on research it typically as somebody will say if you're going to change the culture in a school or look at some improvement over time it's about three years do you start seeing some garnering some significant gains their results what this bill does is it doesn't blow anything up it just says that there's other people in this space right so when we did a statewide
procurement to implement professional learning communities didn't have one bid go through the process to get everything across the finish line so what we did as an agency last year is we just took that earmarked part of dollars about sixty and a half million dollars prorated to the districts and did a a statewide request for proposals to see who can be qualified and create a menu of options because I don't feel like a one-size-fits-all approach will work for every district we actually had 17 excuse me different vendors apply and
we're able to put that out there in districts get interview with different vendors and solution tree was one of the vendors in fact if I was to share with you the top three vendors that most districts are still working with solution tree by far is one of the most sought-out requested because districts have invested in that they wanted to be able to keep investing at there's some other districts that may not have even been able to start with a professional learning community process because it was moving through different cohorts and this bill don't prevent that this bill doesn't prevent that and this allowed
every district the the start engaging in how do we want to operate you know collegiately around improving student learning. So to your point, there's some foundations to improving learning that's going to be on what we call effective tier one instruction. The teachers know their standards. Do they know the basic strategies? Are they using the science of reading? Are they looking at data and are they differentiating instruction based on the students that they serve? That is not going away. This is just opening up the menu to say let's make
sure everybody has a chance to participate in this process and that we have a process to make sure the work they're doing is going to have that return
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
1:48:01
on investment I appreciate the flexibility and the the opening of the broadening of it if you demand with for which we give people an opportunity to have other options so but anyway thank you are
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:48:14
there further questions from the committee so buddy
anybody else in the audience like to speak for against the
bill are you closed for your bill what is the will of
the committee do pass second is there any comment on the motion see none all in favor
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
1:49:04
but we're here we're going to be here if you'd identify yourself you will be recognized there you go state representative julie mayberry Hi, my name is Jacqueline McEwen. I'm a director of health services for one of the districts in our state, and I'm also a board member of the Arkansas Nurses Association, as well as a member-at-large for the National Association of School Nurses and a member-at-large for the Arkansas State School Nurses Association.
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
1:49:48
Okay, go ahead. Members, the very first thing I want to point out is... This is what, bill number what?
I'm sorry, 1242. 1222. 1242. The first thing I want to point out on 1242 is actually on page 2, line 3, this bill would not go into effect until the 27-28 school year. It's purposely written that way so that we have two years while we're discussing adequacy to figure out how to come up with the money that would be expected in that 27-28 school year.
I also want to note that we would also have another legislative session taking place before then if there's anything that we need to tweak in this. But this bill is absolutely needed because our school nurses need help. First of all, I would like to publicly thank Senator Davis for the efforts that she has made regarding teacher salaries. Thank you. My school teachers are very appreciative. I also want to publicly thank Senator Davis for all the work that she's done to increase salaries for our state employees.
Just to let you know, state nurses, if you are working for DHS, if you're working for our health department and you are a state nurse, an RN, your salary now thankfully is seventy five thousand starting salary seventy five thousand up to a hundred and eleven thousand dollars I am so happy that that we've recognized the importance of our nurses and to pay them what they're needed but let me tell you what our school nurses are making our school
nurses are ranging from thirty eight thousand to sixty six thousand they need
some help and that's why we need this bill. I'm gonna let our school nurse explain. I
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
1:51:45
am here today asking that you vote yes for HB 1242 to increase school nurses salaries. Most people carry the assumption that school nurses just get band-aids and ice packs all day long. I even had someone in my district state how hard can school nursing be? It's definitely easier than hospital nursing.
These thoughts about school nursing are inaccurate and misleading. School nursing is a specialized practice of nursing. School nurses provide continuity of care from physicians, hospitals, and school. School nurses are vital to the health and well-being of our students in any of our schools and see these students day to day and can provide insight on student behaviors, medical care, and compliance with care. School nurses work with students and families in their neighborhoods and help address social determinants such as access to care, safe
and healthy environments, and access to healthy food. As trusted members of the education and health community, school nurses address disparities in health every day. Healthy children equals academic success. The National Association of School Nurses state that school nurses benefit the schools in five ways. The first one being attendance. School nurses improve attendance through health promotion, disease prevention, and disease management.
Students with a full-time school nurse have about half the student illness or injury-related early releases from school where no school nurse is present. For example, last year in my school district, with an enrollment of 21,000 students, we had 180,000 student visits to the nurse office. Nine times the enrollment of my district. But guess what? We only sent 5,600 students home. The second one being academics.
The third benefit is time. The fourth, staff wellness. And the fifth being accountability. Registered nurses are required to complete a college education and pass a specialized licensing exam to accept a nursing job. Chronic health conditions continue to rise every year, And the school nurses are the ones that are able to keep these students in school so they can receive an education. School nurses are an integral part of the education system. However, they are the lowest paid nurses in our state and are often overworked and undervalued.
The majority of my nurses are bachelor prepared and all of them are registered nurses. Several have their master's and specialty certifications on top of being a registered nurse. I've had several nurses leave school nursing due to the pay and understaffing. I've also had several nurses that are qualified to do the job and apply, but pull back their application when they find out the pay. We want qualified nurses to care for our students. They are the only health care provider on campus who can provide support in emergency situations
and provide high levels of care for our students that have medical conditions. School nurses are licensed and educated, and we should be recognized as such. I have two high schools that have over 2,000 students each, with two nurses and a health aide at each location. One of these high schools has 146 medications signed into the health room, 1,386 students, which is 63% of the students in the school that have medical alerts. A medical alert is a medical condition that has been disclosed to our health team, and
they have seen over 11,000 students so far this year. The other high school has 1,968, which equals 82% of the school having medical alerts, and has had over 14,000 office visits so far this year. These schools have over 12 diabetics on each campus, multiple CBI students that need assistance, and they handle emergencies on campus that can happen anywhere at any time on their large campuses, as well as taking care of any student or staff member that walks into their
office and needs triaging. Multiple of our schools have medical procedures at school every day that enables our students to stay in school. One nurse in particular has had to do daily peritoneal dialysis in the classroom for a student so that he can attend school while awaiting a kidney transplant. Reviewing the data across the state, I found a percentage compared to the average nurse in our state, and it stated that the school nurse was making 43% lower than the average nurse in
our state. Let me state that again, 43% lower than the average nurse in our state. The state nurses just had legislation passed raising their salary, and I echo Representative Mayberry. I think it was well-deserved. The LPNs range from $53,000 to $79,000 a day, which equals $206 a day to $304 dollars a day. State RNs range from 75 to 111, which equals out to $289 a day to $428 a day.
This is based on working 260 days a year. I was able to gather more information to compare school nurses in our state to the new raise for state nurses. The information was gathered on regions northwest, southeast, northeast, north-central, southwest, and central Arkansas. The discrepancy of pay is from $60 to $110 a day difference on the low end of salary and $78 to $156 a day on the high end of the salary. We need more school nurses to help cover the care of the students. We have
reached a point where we cannot hire nurses to fill these gaps due to the pay of school nurses. My district is in direct competition to the multiple hospitals in our city. It is a challenge to keep staff when they can go to the hospitals and make more money, even working just part-time. I have nurses that cannot pay their bills, and I have had to help by providing grocery gift cards or other financial assistance. We mentioned to the House that school nurses are able to bill for nurse-only procedures in other states, and that is something that we are starting to work with DHS on how to get implemented in our state.
How this would work would be similar to the individualized education process, otherwise known as an IEP. To be able to bill for services in the special education program, they have to have doctor's orders to be able to bill for services such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, and physical therapy. In nursing, we have individualized health care plans, which you should have an example in front of you, that the doctor completes and signs for what is required for the student while in school. This would allow us to be able to bill for nurse-only procedures.
We have not been able to bill for nurse-only procedures in the past, and this would help
the district pay for these costs. School nurses provide services to all students in the school, all staff members in the
school, and any visitors that come onto the campus. On top of daily medications taking care of ill or injured students, our school nurses have to provide individualized health care plans for each student that has an acuity rating of level two up to level five. A level one is a student that has no medical conditions noted.
In my school district, we have around 20,000 students. Over half have medical conditions noted. We have one or two school
nurses on each campus that have to provide services to hundreds and thousands of students and staff, yet we are not being compensated for what we do. I often refer to school nursing as a Wild Western nursing.
We are qualified professionals that provide care to anyone that steps on our campus with limited supplies and on our own. In the hospital setting, you have a team of medical professionals and a safe practicing ratio of nurse-to-patient care,
such as 1 to 2 in the ICU setting and 1 to 7 in med-surg and anywhere in between those numbers. The hospital also comes with support with all the fancy equipment and supplies that are needed. On a school campus, you're relying on laypeople to sometimes assist you if they volunteer to provide support. School nurse pay should be a priority in this state if we are wanting to keep and maintain our school nurses and improve our educational system. Nurses that work in schools do so
because they care about the children in our great state. My question today for you is, why not support our school nurses and education since all data points to how school nurses make a direct impact on education by putting them at a higher pay scale and compensate for their education license and work that they do and the care that they provide for the whole school students staff and anyone that walks on to their campus thank you I'd
Speaker 252
2:00:52
also like to point out that I filed House Bill 1890 which went to
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:00:57
public health and I am not running that bill because there is an agreement from ADE and DHS that they will work on what that bill was asking to be done and that was is to require our school nurses to be able to bill Medicaid. On page 10 of that other packet that I passed to you, which tells you all that the school nurses do, you can see the services that our school nurses are doing every day.
And many of these services in other states, those school nurses are able to bill for. And I believe we're leaving money on the table. It is a revenue-neutral way of receiving some money for our school districts because the school districts actually pay the match. And so these are federal dollars that are out there that we're not billing for. And there is an agreement, and I would have no problem if Courtney Solis Ford
would be willing to come up and share that there is an email exchange between ADE and ADH or DHS that they are working on trying to figure out how to bill for that we'd be
Speaker 253
2:02:12
happy to take questions are there questions from the audience I mean from
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:02:21
the committee I guess one of my my questions is this why
in the world it is I've you know I've heard about this that Medicaid would be paying should be paying for the last four or five
Speaker 253
2:02:38
years I'm not understanding why that hasn't happened well I think it's because the
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:02:44
nurses have not been set up to be able to bill there's you know there's lots of paperwork that has done and and I think that's what this process
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:02:59
will will solve the questions from the committee. Senator Davis. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm understanding that they
confirmed that schools will not be able to seek reimbursement from Medicaid for services. Can we get that? Is anyone allowed to
Speaker 257
2:03:21
speak to that yet? Courtney Solis for Department of Education. So I'm speaking from information that I've received from DHS but so currently school nurses they can only bill Medicaid for vision and hearing screenings and personal care services the email to which representative Mayberry is speaking it
was from DHS saying that they agree to look at expanding that it my understanding is it would require an amendment to our state Medicaid plan so it's not just as easy as them saying yeah you can bill for that. There's paperwork. They have to submit that for approval to the U.S. Department of Human Services and get approval. But so currently they are very limited in what they can bill Medicaid for. And with or without this bill, they're able
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:04:05
to proceed with that to work on a state plan amendment? That is correct. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Are there other questions from the
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:04:17
committee. Is there anybody in the audience to speak for? You had
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:04:29
something else? Go ahead. Thank you. So, of course, I love our school nurses. We have RNs at all of our schools in Russellville that I'm aware of on every campus, and it's really great. The part where I struggle with this is that there are a lot of professionals that are in our schools you know if we contract
with like speech therapists OTs PTs that are providing services and so my concern is that long term I mean the school districts are not going to just pay for this mandate they're going to ask us to give them money for the mandate and then we'll have speech therapists and all the other ones in the schools doing the same thing and then we don't really have like what is our basis then and then how much you know how many tens of millions of dollars are we putting into our
adequacy funding and so I don't know if you can speak to that I mean this like I'm I under I understand your issue and I agree with it in theory I think in practicality it means a lot of different things at the expense of a lot of state dollars for people who choose to work in a school setting versus a hospital setting and and I don't mean that in any kind of disrespectful way like I'm grateful we have great nurses but I think there are pros and cons to you know where you choose um to do nursing right and so I think there's some pros to working in a school district
and and taking great care of these kids but I just wonder if you can
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:06:00
talk to that a little bit so so first of all I want to point out that OT and PT they they can already bill for Medicaid um our school nurses are not able to do that and we want to make that happen and I believe that there will be money there in the next two years once we figure that out to help directly our our school districts help raise those salaries okay but I do want to point out that looking back at our
reports from from BLR that a registered nurse the average salary in the state of Arkansas Well, the LPN is $36,000. The registered nurse is $50,000. But when you look at some other therapists, you have a speech language pathologist, the average salary is $64,000, the physical therapist is $67,000, and the occupational therapist is $76,000. And
I believe that we can work on getting those school nurse salaries up to where it should be.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:02
And I believe a lot of that is because those other therapists can bill for Medicaid. And those numbers that you just spoke to, those are
Speaker 218
2:07:12
ones that are working in a school district? Yes, yes. This is from BLR, from Julie Holt. Do
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:19
you know if there are 1099s contracting with the school district? You know, I know school districts do it different. Some, they're employees of the district, and then some are 1099s or work for a company that's contracted with the district.
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:07:33
So the ones in my district are employed by the district, and they all make more than my nurses do.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:38
Okay. And they can bill from, and all three of those therapists, professionals can bill Medicaid? As
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:07:43
long as there is an IEP with doctor's orders. Yes. Well, I like
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:07:47
the Medicaid path a lot. I think that makes a lot of sense. And we hope that it produces the amount that we need. why do we need
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:07:55
this bill? And I know you're going to say, well, why do we need it? So I'm just trying to answer this. It holds all of us accountable.
It's telling our school nurses, hang on for two more years. Please don't leave because they're now motivated to leave. We just gave increases to other state nurses, and they're going to say, but I could make $75,000 or more if I do this. And I think we're going to start seeing some leave. And they don't want to. They love these kids. That's why they're there. They love these kids. And they want to stay. And by saying in two years we're going to have this fixed,
either Medicaid dollars will come in or we're going to figure out how an adequacy to address this more. It means that this committee on the Senate side, I serve on the House side, We will have discussions over the next two years. It holds all of us accountable. It holds our school districts accountable because they're going to have to start looking at their budgets and say, oh, in two years, we need to do this. And it holds ADE and DHS. It says we're all in agreement that in two years,
we're going to come up with this funding to make it what we need to
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:09:19
do. And that's what this is all about. And I do want to add that you just did state, Senator Davis, that there are pros and cons. There are pros and cons to everything that we do. With school nursing, you are literally, when I say it's the Wild West of nursing, you are on that campus providing services to thousands of people, hundreds and thousands of people. You are the sole provider for all of those people. You have to write care plans for all of those students that have medical conditions.
In the hospital, you have a team. with the state nurses you have a team in our schools I'm their team as the director and I have over 60 nurses in my district so dividing my time amongst all of those nurses it can be difficult and I have nurses that are leaving due to the pay because they can go somewhere and work part-time and make more money or my nurses have to have two to three jobs and the time the benefit of being a school nurse you hear it all the time is well you have holidays off you have the summers off
well no they don't because they have to work to to make up and provide for their family you have another
Speaker 134
2:10:31
question yeah well i guess i don't have a question maybe just more discussion so i think there's more discussion not really questions so no i just Is
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:10:46
there anybody else in the audience who wants to speak for or against the bill?
Speaker 266
2:11:01
If you've identified yourself, you'll be recognized. I'm Cynthia Hines. Can
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:11:06
you pull your microphone closer to you? Can
Speaker 266
2:11:10
you hear me now? I'm Cynthia Hines. I'm coordinator of health services. for one of our large districts in the state. And my 52-year career, 47 of those have been in school nursing. I was a school nurse in my hometown for 31 years.
I came to Little Rock, started commuting, and I've been in this position for 16 years. I just want to say, with everything that's been said about our nurses leaving, I have that same problem as well. So there's going to come a time, because we're in a dire situation, there's going to come a time when we don't have enough nurses to cover our schools, and the districts are going to be needing to pay agency nurses, which is going to cost the district a lot more money because those agencies make a large profit, and they hire, they bill their nurses out
at more than twice of what our nurses make. So I just want to bring that up, that if we don't do something, we're going to continue to lose nurses who really do love their job. It's just they can't
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:12:31
they get. Thank you. Senator Sullivan. So the witnesses or school nurses have presented that this is a huge problem.
big the cliff is coming yet our local school boards aren't acting so why should the state this committee overrule what your districts don't want to out don't want to move on i don't
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:12:55
think it's that they don't want to move
on i think some of them may be unaware but i also when i've brought this to the attention to my leaders in my district they say what are other school districts doing how much are they getting paid
bring that comparison to me so they're
not asking for what does a nurse make they're just asking what other let me
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:13:16
rephrase the question then so if you're coming before this committee to force districts to adopt a pay raise why haven't you been making the same case at districts why come and have a state solution for a localized problem I
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:13:34
appreciate your sentiment and your experience with working with the schools however it doesn't work for
school nurses to do that and so we what
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:13:45
doesn't work for going to the board doesn't it does not work to raise the salaries I thought you just said that
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:13:54
they the salaries are pretty similar across school nurses in our state
which is very low for what nurses make compared to a dollar a day so when you're comparing nurses to nurses in the school district yeah but that's not what I'm asking you're asking why we don't go to the board right and that's what I'm trying to answer is that is what their
answer is okay and so there's no discussion further on how we can increase that then your
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:14:22
your recourse then is to override them by coming to the state legislature correct okay my other my other point
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
2:14:28
too just to kind of throw it out there is you know we had to put some state legislature in a place for our teachers which is wonderful and I'm glad that we did that because those teachers work very hard my grandma was a senior English teacher for 30 plus years my family all worked in education okay and it's well deserved
so we need to make this something that we are making a point that school nurses are valuable and important and we need to provide the support to them well and
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
2:14:58
I would take exception if the response to that is they care and we don't I would take exception to that I think we at the legislature care about our school nurses they are important functions to suggest or make the point that we don't care if we don't pass this bill I think is false what we're saying what I'm saying I can't speak for the rest is that this is a local problem it's not the same problem with every
district and every district needs to solve this on their own not that we don't care about nurses but we
Speaker 277
2:15:28
care about local control over a local issue thank you madam chair further questions
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:15:34
comments from the committee are you closed for your bill
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
2:15:41
members these nurses have been asking for help year after year if any of you have been here since 2011 you know that this is an
issue that is near and dear to my heart they keep going to the school boards and asking for help the school boards start looking to us as legislators saying help us find some more money this bill keeps us all on the same page saying we will all work together to find this funding for the 27-28 school year. Why am I so passionate about
this? Why do I keep trying to do things to help our school nurses? Because I have a daughter with spina bifida who now is finally in her last semester of college. When she was in my womb, I never even imagined that she would live to graduate from high school, let alone actually graduate from high school. I appreciate every single teacher that helped her get through high school with an above 3.5 GPA and with two college classes under her belt.
Teachers were fabulous, but without that school nurse who saw her every day, Twice a day, I could not have sent her to school, and therefore she never would have had the opportunity to be around those amazing teachers. A school nurse is integral to helping our students succeed and our staff. I appreciate a good vote.
Jacqueline Mcewen
Unverified
2:17:33
So what is the will of the committee? Do I hear a second? Did you second?
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
2:17:56
Senator Murdoch, did you second? Yes. Yes, okay. Discussion on the motion? Senator Davis. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just want to say, Representative Mayberry, I appreciate the passion and the work that you've put in this over the years.
This is my third session, and you're bringing a bill like this, And I want to say, I think this Medicaid option is really the best thing you've brought to us that makes sense in a way that's sustainable for districts and for the state to be able to pay for it, and it aligns with what other professionals are able to do in the school. So I think that's huge progress, and I really like that option, and I am willing to help keep the pressure on in the next two years with both agencies to ensure that we see some
kind of state plan amendment for nurses to be able to charge in this way. I want to be clear, these are hard votes because a lot of people care about this issue. I have people in schools right now that are helping take care of my kids, you know, like I've got four kids in public school, and so these feel personal, they feel emotional. It's hard for me to vote on bills like this because I agree with what you're trying to do which is why I love the option for Medicaid but I also have
to be concerned about impacts long term to the state and how we fund different things and so I have like dueling responsibilities and that makes it hard and it makes me feel bad you know because I know like I said I've got people back at home that are taking care of my kids and I value them I think they're absolutely fantastic, and they're a huge essential to the school day and to our kids. So I just want to say that me voting against this doesn't have anything to do with how I value nurses and what they do,
but I do love and am committed to helping you work with the agencies in the interim to really push that and stay on top of it. I am committed to doing that. I think that's
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:19:54
great. Thank you. are there other comments from the committee so
we have a do pass right did I hear a second second okay all right all in favor all
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:20:14
very much and I think we'll be working on this I
I think everybody feels like it's an important issue so we have it is 10:30 we have three bills left that we need to do but we will have to
Speaker 284
2:21:00
with the Senate yes the house bills yeah I think you've got 1903 1903 1903
Speaker 285
2:21:09
1903 1945 and then 1919 the last one, 1919 oh, 1919, I don't think we're going to worry about that was it 1945, 1945 or 1945? 1919 1919 if we pass,
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:21:59
Senate has a couple of bills
their house is meeting house education is meeting unless they have a couple
Speaker 283
2:22:14
we'll look at how the day is going we may meet first thing tomorrow morning is what
Senator Jane English
Unverified
2:22:22
we might do beg your pardon well they won't be meeting at 8 o'clock Nobody
seems to get here at 8 o'clock like we do, so
we might meet at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning.
Agenda
Call to Order
HB1966 Barnett TO AUTHORIZE AN INCORPORATED TOWN OR A CITY OF THE SECOND CLASS TO PETITION THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A LOCAL PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL OR SATELLITE SCHOOL UNDER CERTAIN CONDITIONS.
HB1242 J. Mayberry TO AMEND THE MECHANISM BY WHICH SCHOOL NURSES ARE COMPENSATED.
HB1719 Vaught TO AMEND THE DAYS INCLUDED IN THE TOTAL NUMBER OF MATERNITY LEAVE DAYS APPROVED BY A SCHOOL THAT OFFERS MATERNITY LEAVE.
HB1986 Nazarenko CONCERNING EXCUSED ABSENCES FOR CHILDREN OF FALLEN SERVICE MEMBERS AND CHILDREN OF FALLEN FIRST RESPONDERS.
HB1312 Brooks TO AMEND PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003.
HB1806 Vaught TO PROVIDE CURRICULUM TRANSPARENCY FOR PARENTS OF KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE TWELVE STUDENTS; AND TO ALLOW A PARENT TO REVIEW AND OPT OUT OF SELECTED LIBRARY MEDIA MATERIALS FOR HIS OR HER CHILD.
HB1874 B. McKenzie AN ACT TO AMEND THE USE OF PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUNDING THAT EXCEEDS THE MAXIMUM AMOUNT AWARDED TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHERS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003.
Recess
Reconvene
HB1933 McCollum TO AMEND THE LAW CONCERNING A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS; AND TO CREATE A RECALL ELECTION AND PETITION FOR REMOVAL FOR A MEMBER OF A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS.
Adjourn
Documents
| Title | Type | Pages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agenda — EDUCATION COMMITTEE - SENATE AND HOUSE MEETING JOINTLY WITH ADVANCED COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION, Apr 14, 2025 | Agenda | 3 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Representative Keith Brooks
Unverified
Speaker 11
Speaker 24
Representative DeAnn Vaught
Unverified
Senator Dan Sullivan
Unverified
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Speaker 44
Speaker 47
Representative Jon S. Eubanks
Unverified
Speaker 49
Speaker 56
Speaker 57
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
Speaker 73
Speaker 79
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
Speaker 86
Speaker 111
Speaker 94
Speaker 98
Representative Hope Duke
Unverified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Speaker 10
Speaker 134
Senator Bryan King
Unverified
Speaker 147
Senator Joshua Bryant
Unverified
Speaker 125
Gary Newton
Unverified
Speaker 165
Speaker 159
Speaker 181
Speaker 12
Speaker 190
Representative Jason Nazarenko
Unverified
Speaker 192
Representative Brit McKenzie
Unverified
Speaker 211
Speaker 213
Speaker 215
Speaker 221
Speaker 222
Speaker 180
Speaker 209
Speaker 243
Jacqueline Mcewan
Unverified
Representative Julie Mayberry
Unverified
Speaker 252
Speaker 253
Speaker 257
Speaker 218
Speaker 266
Speaker 267
Speaker 277
Jacqueline Mcewen
Unverified
Speaker 124
Speaker 284
Speaker 285
Speaker 286
Speaker 283
Speaker 289