Education Committee - Senate
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Bills discussed (20)
| Bill | Title | Sponsor | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
|
SB373
· 3 mentions in agenda, chapter, transcript
Matched: “…avis Sen. Jim Dotson REGULAR AGENDA Number Sponsor Subtitle SB373 Irvin TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS FINANCIAL EDUCATION COMMISSION.…”
|
TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS FINANCIAL EDUCATION COMMISSION. | Irvin | Died in House Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB484
Act 726
· 3 mentions in chapter, transcript, agenda
Matched: “SB484 Irvin TO REQUIRE THE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATI…”
|
TO ESTABLISH A PROCESS WHEREBY A VACANCY IS FILLED ON A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF … | Irvin | Notification that SB484 is now Act 726 |
|
SB390
Act 695
· 2 mentions in chapter, agenda
Matched: “SB390 J. English TO ESTABLISH THE STATE APPRENTICESHIP AGENCY ACT…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE STATE APPRENTICESHIP AGENCY ACT. | J. English | Notification that SB390 is now Act 695 |
|
SB482
· 2 mentions in agenda, chapter
Matched: “…STUDENTS IN A VIRTUAL SETTING TO MEET CERTAIN REQUIREMENTS. 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. |
|
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. SB358 J. Dotson TO A…”
|
TO CREATE THE BABY OLIVIA ACT. | Bentley | Died in Senate Committee at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
HB1370
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…Irvin TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS FINANCIAL EDUCATION COMMISSION. 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. |
|
HB1561
Act 473
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TO FILL A VACANCY ON A SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS. HB1561 Painter TO ESTABLISH THE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PROTECTION…”
|
TO ESTABLISH THE RESEARCH AND EDUCATION PROTECTION ACT OF 2025. | Painter | Notification that HB1561 is now Act 473 |
|
HB1633
Act 475
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “AGENDA (Revised 3/19/25 @ 7:40 AM) Removed HB1633 from Regular Agenda Senate Committee on Education Wednesday…”
|
TO AMEND ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS FOR PARTICIPATING IN EXTRACURRICULAR ACTIVITIES FOR CERTAIN STUDENTS WHO TRANSFER SCHOOLS; … | Brooks | Notification that HB1633 is now Act 475 |
|
SB149
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…LOYMENT TAX ACT TO WAIVE THE "REASONABLE ASSURANCE" CLAUSE. SB149 J. English TO AMEND PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE…”
|
TO AMEND PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003. | J. English | Died in House at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
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: “…UNDING AMOUNTS UNDER THE PUBLIC SCHOOL FUNDING ACT OF 2003. 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: “…EDUCATION OF CERTAIN STUDENTS; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. 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. |
|
SB40
Act 891
· 1 mention in transcript
Matched: “you. So Senate Bill 40 for what we, the amendment has done is I worked, let me jus…”
|
AN ACT FOR THE BUREAU OF LEGISLATIVE RESEARCH AND THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL APPROPRIATION FOR THE … | Joint Budget Committee | Notification that SB40 is now Act 891 |
|
SB425
Act 722
· 1 mention in chapter
Matched: “SB425 J. English TO AMEND VARIOUS PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE…”
|
TO AMEND VARIOUS PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING ENHANCED TRANSPORTATION; AND TO DECLARE AN … | J. English | Notification that SB425 is now Act 722 |
|
SB436
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…RNING ENHANCED TRANSPORTATION; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY. 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. |
|
SB450
Act 915
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CH OR AN ATHLETICS PERSONNEL MEMBER WHO RECRUITS A STUDENT. SB450 B. Davis TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO INCLUDE…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO INCLUDE A HUMAN FETAL GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT DISCUSSION … | B. Davis | Notification that SB450 is now Act 915 |
|
SB451
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ARDS DURING THE ARKANSAS ACADEMIC STANDARDS REVISION CYCLE. SB451 Hester TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND THE DEPARTME…”
|
TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES AND THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO ESTABLISH REGIONAL … | Hester | Died in Senate at Sine Die adjournment. |
|
SB467
Act 645
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…ICE ACT; AND TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT OF 2015. SB467 C. Penzo TO MODIFY THE DEFINITION OF "HEALTHCARE PROVIDER"…”
|
TO MODIFY THE DEFINITION OF "HEALTHCARE PROVIDER" REGARDING STUDENT ATHLETE CONCUSSION EDUCATION TO INCLUDE CHIROPRACTORS … | C. Penzo | Notification that SB467 is now Act 645 |
|
SB470
Act 646
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…CATION TO INCLUDE CHIROPRACTORS OR CHIROPRACTIC PHYSICIANS. SB470 J. Dotson TO REQUIRE AN ADULT APPROVED TO OVERSEE THE ADMIN…”
|
TO REQUIRE AN ADULT APPROVED TO OVERSEE THE ADMINISTRATION OF A STATEWIDE STUDENT ASSESSMENT TO … | J. Dotson | Notification that SB470 is now Act 646 |
|
SCR3
· 1 mention in agenda
Matched: “…TECTION ACT OF 2025. 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. |
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- October 2, 2026
Senator Jane English
Unverified
0:14
about you. All we do in here every day is all about you. So my first is Tracy Powell and
Lexi McKee. And Baylor Phillips. And Ellen Wright. Alex Wayland. Is it Michelle or Michael? Michelle, Michael. Wayland And Jake Hurst. And Sophie McFall.
Glad to have you all with us this morning. Thank you very much. 01 of your teachers is with you too? Oh, nice to meet you. Would you
introduce yourself? Um That Oh, OK, very good. Thank you. We're glad to have you with us. OK, this morning we will have a, have a busy schedule. So Senator
Ervin, um, would you like to present Senate Bill 373. You
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
1:28
identify yourself, you'll be recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee, um, if you look at some 373. Uh, and, and what I did was get the amendment engrossed in this bill, I was able to do that. Um, this is working with the, I'm
sorry microphone just a little bit closer to you, yeah. Senator Missy Irvin, District 24. So, uh, this was the Arkansas Financial Education Commission that we worked with the treasurer of the state of Arkansas when Dennis Milligan was our treasurer and uh they wanted to, um, uh, they wanted to revise this, uh, the makeup of this board, um, what we've done is just give them a little, you know, I would
say great latitude, um, in order to make these appointments, um, and then one member who's also designated by the Secretary of State, um, our current treasurer, uh, John Thurston, you know, came from the Secretary of State's office and the Secretary of State's office deals with franchise taxes and actually does have a lot of financial. Components and aspects to the Secretary of State's office. So I thought that was a good addition, um, and then they meet 2 times a year, um, and this was
just wonky language uh that we're striking one to be held in the spring and one to be held in the fall. It was just too subscriptive and so it gives them a lot of flexibility as to when they, when they can um have their meetings. Um, I would just say that the this financial education commission has done some really great work, um, and, and especially in regards to curriculum, uh, educational financial literacy education
curriculum that's a shared in our schools and uh I really appreciate the work that they've done. Are there any questions from
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
3:35
the committee? Senator Murdoch, I'm sorry. Thank you, Madam. Good morning. Good morning. I look at this, I look at the back page on page 2, where they're striking out, I guess this was the previous way it was
done and specifically it talks about the makeup was one member of the three. To be a female one member of the 3 to be racial minority appointed by the treasurer, all that stricken out with his added one member is designated by the Secretary of State. With that being stricken out, what are, what are we doing to ensure that we have diversity on this board to make sure that everybody is represented. Yeah, I've had discussions with
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
4:19
the treasurer about that, um, and the Secretary of State
as well, um, and I would just um, the Arkansas Bankers Association, you know, uh, Laurie Trogton and I've talked specifically about that. They, they have done, I would say the females in the banking industry have really stepped up, um, and so I trust that they're, they're gonna make sure that they have a good, uh, range of diversity on this commission, um, and they do already an existing, so
nothing's changing from the existing membership. We're just adding one. Uh, is all we're doing and just giving them that flexibility because I don't want it to be subscribed to just one. It could be everybody could be a female. Everybody could be a racial minority, and I don't want to, I don't think it's good to
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
5:09
subscribe to just one, right? It says at least that so what to be clear what we're doing, Dean, we're relying upon Uh, the banking association and these other people that may
designate, we're relying upon them to provide the diversity and the inclusion. it looks like it that you and I would want it to look like, um. Versus I, I guess my issue is just why we would strike it out. It could be done, I guess more than one way, and this is a way that's being suggested the way that was there, uh, headed in writing and specifically made sure it happened the other way we will be hoping it happen or
depending on somebody else that happened and um OK, thank you. Senator
Speaker 26
6:05
Flowers. Good morning, Senator Ervin. Um, you know, I'm
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
6:09
new to education committee, so I just ask a simple question. What, what does the Arkansas Financial Education Commission do besides what you said earlier about curriculum and Financial
Education for students. What, what, what exactly does this commission do? and they have
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
6:30
had reports and I know Ms. Jansen is in the in the audience. I'm sorry, Ms. Jansen, I think is in the audience
with the treasurer's office. She can speak, I think a little bit more about that. Will not cheer allow
Senator Jane English
Unverified
6:47
her. Yes. He identify yourself, you'll be
Speaker 34
6:52
recognized. Hi, I'm Fran Jansen, and I am the director of the
Arkansas 529 and AB programs but also help oversee the financial programs of the state treasurer's office. So in that capacity, that last capacity, I assist the treasure in, you know, helping direct the the actions of the commission and just superfast the mission was formed in 2021, uh, under former treasurer Dennis Milligan, and it was to the goal
was to bring together people who represented not only, uh, it's kind of a mix of state government, private sector, and nonprofits from around the state who could kind of come together and put their heads together to try to move the needle just a little bit on making financial education better in our. and so the first year, uh, well, technically 22 we spent, you know, taking care of the business that we, you know, did
the the rules, promulgation and You know, the goals and the mission flash forward, then we had the unfortunate passing of treasure Lowry, so everything just went dark for a year. I mean, the commission still met because it may not have been spring and fall, but, but we still met um and just to continue, you know, staying in touch. So last year when I'll be honest, the biggest traction
that commission started, uh, was put into place last. Year when Larry Walter was appointed and we spent almost a year traveling the state and having an all we we went to about 10 different cities, um, and we met with community leaders, but then also You know, mom and pop shop owners, anybody who had their hand or their ear to the ground
on what are financial barriers in the community, and what would you do if you, you know, could make a difference. So we did this listening tour. We listened to them and then we also met with college and high school students to get their take because they're the future, obviously. So The long winded answer of the primary thing that we're doing is the committee took all those recommendations and ideas from the state talking to her and has come up with three ideas or 3
initiatives that were in the process now with now Treasurer Thurston, and we have the first AFEC meeting in 2 weeks, we're going to put forth and hopefully get past a a free financial education platform that anybody can access. There's not going to be any selling on it. It's not going to be associated with any bank. It's not going to be associated with, you know, any financial, the whole point is to
is to create a resource that's free for everybody regardless of where they are in the state, and will customize. A financial literacy program for you based on your current understanding of finances.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
10:20
So it's, it's not just for K through 12, ma'am, but for all citizens. In fact,
Speaker 34
10:27
one of the commission members is one of the ones that was appointed is with
economics Arkansas, and so she brings to it the the the K through 12 representation, and she certainly opened up a lot of doors for us when we were trying to make these appointments with these high schools to go talk about the, you know, to get In input, um, but so, but that was the whole idea. It wasn't just K through 12. It was, you know, the college, the person in adulthood, the person who's in their 50s who's trying to take care of their family and take
care of their parents, you know, just all the different Situationss there
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
11:12
could be. So it helps people to understand investments I mean, if that's what you're looking for, what are
Speaker 40
11:19
you talking about how to make a budget? Why, you
Speaker 34
11:23
know, how, and then we're also creating um we're hoping, I mentioned that we had 3 initiatives that were hoping to start working on this year. One of them is a savings initiative, so it's going to be
a way to encourage and and reward people. To start saving even if it's $5 a month. We boredom how? It, it is a um it's a national platform, and I don't want to It, it, it's a, it's almost like the gamify it. They would reward, you know how like you like you see credit cards and if you, you get reward points or something like that. So it's like, hey, good job, you, you
know, you saved an extra $5 this month. We're going to put, you know, we're going to match that and put $5 in your savings account. None of this is state money. None of this is all nonprofit, so that's where those funds would come from. Anxious to see that up and running. I will, I will let you know
Senator Jane English
Unverified
12:27
when it launches. Thank you. Thank you very much. Are there more questions from the committee? Is there anybody in the audience
who would like to speak for or against the bill. I don't see any. So what is the will of the committee?
Motion in 2nd on paper all post, thank you very much. You passed that.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
12:55
Thank you. Thank you members of the committee. Do you want me to go or
Senator Jane English
Unverified
13:02
do my second one? Can it quick? Don't know. Uh, let me see, you could go ahead and present Senate Bill 484. Does it have an amendment?
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
13:19
Senate bill, um, There's an amendment that's actually, yeah, the bill and um It's what
The amendment needs to be adopted. Should you like to explain the
amendment. Yes, thank you, Missy Irvine, uh, District 24, um, The amendment is, uh, it was just easier to rewrite the bill
for the the BLR drafters, um, so the amendment is is is really the bill because we revert, we flipped, um, we, we flipped the way that these vacancies would be appointed um to retain local control, so, uh, the amendment is really just the new bill. So however you want me to proceed with the amendment or the bill. OK. I. Second, is her second.
Speaker 59
14:23
I like to hear this is the bill, right? Yeah, this is the. Second
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
14:33
all in favor. opposed. Thank you. Go ahead. OK, thank
you. So Senate Bill 40 for what we, the amendment has done is I worked, let me just tell you the backstory about why this bill is before you right now. Um, currently in, in my Stone County judge is very supportive of this bill. He can't be here today because of
the tornado damage in 56, Arkansas, and so he's meeting with folks from FEMA today, so he can't be here to testify in support of the bill, but um we have had a situation happen. In Stone County where, um, there, there have been vacancies on the school board, and these appointments have been made by the school district, um, in order to align uh votes in order to shut down one of our rural schools just to be frank about it, and these rural schools are
incredibly vital and important to um the stone to Stone County and uh so this this bill fixes that situation. Um, I worked with all of my constituents there in Stone County, but I think it's a good bill um for anybody in the state of Arkansas, um, so what this does is says that if there is a vacancy on the school board, then uh then there's a process here of making sure there's some disclosure to the to the public
and to the parents and everybody in that school district that number one, there is a vacancy, um, and that It should be published and that people can apply for that position, um, and then it would be the quorum Court that would can fill that position, um, because we wanted to remain, we wanted to retain local control over that school district, so that's why we flipped it in the amendment. We put theorum Court
as making the the vacancy appointment through a process that we've outlined here and then the the secondary would be the 2nd Secretary of Education can make that appointment, um, uh, because there could be a corm court which through by ordinance I've spoken to Josh Curtis and the folks at the Association of Counties about this, but if the quorum Court decides not to make that appointment, then they're kind of the escape hatch that the Secretary of Education could make that appointment. So I'm really following the model of when there's a vacancy on the
quorum Court of a JP it's the governor that makes that appointment. And so, um, this is kind of a combination of those ideas about retaining a local control through Quorum Court and through the JPs that represent that county and that community, um, to make that vacancy that appointment for a school board position with the secondary being the Secretary of Education if the Corm court doesn't take action.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
17:30
I have, I have a question here, as I'm reading through this, basically I, I'll look at Pulaski
County, and I think if we have 4 school districts here and if we had a school board vacancy. I can't, I, I would have a hard time with the corum court figured out who to put on a school board.
So I'm just thinking about larger larger areas well, and that's
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
17:56
why we did the I call it the escape hatch. So the, the
corm court could just decline and pass an ordinance to decline that cause that appointment and then it would go to the Secretary of Education to make that appointment. Um And, you know, which kind of follows suit. We felt like the Secretary of Education could be, there are more tightly understanding the world of the schools and the school districts, and so, uh, the Secretary of Education can make those appointments.
Senator Murdoch. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
18:33
you again, Senator. Uh, so along the lines of what the chair lady said, I, I tend to agree that Taking it away
from the elected board by the community that the remaining board members, uh, what's the reasoning why not let them. Um, fill that vacancy first. Let them be the first line, that's how it is currently
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
18:55
and it's created some, some problems, um, it's kind of the fox guarding the hen house, in my opinion. The school board is
supposed to be, uh, the ones in charge of those, uh, that that administration and the superintendent and and so what what has happened in our case is you have school board members who have kind of had this agenda. and then they recruit, they appoint somebody that aligns with their agenda, so it would be like us if there was a vacancy in the Senate, then the Senate gets to pick the next senator to fill that vacancy. Well, that's gonna, you're gonna pick somebody who's going to
align with the way you believe or your agenda, and I don't, I don't think that's correct. I don't think that's right. And that's what's happened absolutely has happened in this case, and so that's why there needs to be be a degree of separation, um, there, uh, of course, the members of that school district and on the school board can have influence with their own JPs and their own quorum courts and their own county judges, um, or with the Secretary of Education,
that still can exist, but it, it, it creates that degree of separation that I think is really, really important. I don't think that if there was a senator that became vacant. the members of the Senate get to choose that position, OK that makes sense? So that,
that is exactly how I've equated this, but that's what's happened in my county, OK, so let
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
20:31
me ask you this. As it relates to specifically the court doing it, which is a body that represents
the community, so I I I get that thinking. So the third part is you say send it to, it will go to the Secretary of Education. I don't even know that that would even be. Fair, honestly, to a person in Little Rock having to make a decision because how he or she will have to make that decision. It's going to be from it's gonna be input from that community because it's representation and tax so you, you're gonna want to have that input from the
community and of course the Secretary of Education, not being from that said community would be, you know, way away so the quote unquote I I get. that as a Fall back, but even with the courts when they go to the governor for appointment, it seemed like there should be another local option for the people to have, but I do understand. I do appreciate your Certainly appreciate your response as it relates to the local members making that
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
21:41
decision. Well, and I mean, the other one could be the governor, but I mean you have the same situation with the governor, but the governor does make appointments to vacantorm courts, um, when there's a corm court, uh, when there's a corm court vacancy if a JP is vacant, the governor does make that appointment, so this is a lot better than the original because what
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
22:02
I was looking the original bill before this came, so I do agree with that. Well, and this fine lady is the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
22:11
one that helped me with the amendments, so, um, she's here
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
22:24
to testify for the bill. Thank you. Senator Flowers. Thank you, Madam Chair. Senator Irvin, I have the same concern as Senator, as our chair and Senator Murdoch and because of Multiple school districts in a county. Um All the
Quorum court members do not represent necessarily the school
district with the vacancy. And I would suggest and ask you
why not allow Either. Well, in other words,
have the municipality or the The electorate of that school district, whether
it be a municipality. So city council.
Or Forum court if it's out.
In the county As opposed to just Restricting it To County Quorum Court. Our Department of Education secretary, I note that the secretary of the Department of Education. Appoint. I don't know if
they do that routinely or not, but a point when the state has taken over
the school district, a superintendent or a superintendent and can and even in the case of the Pine Bluff School District. Appointed The initial board members after Uh, relinquishing. State control, right. So I'm, I'm just of the opinion that it should be left to that. Uh, corporate Uh, governing body.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
24:18
Within the school district. Why is So great point, and we did look at that and to your point, when to when if a school is taken over, it is the Secretary of Education that does appoint all of that, so that, that's another reason why we, we went to the Secretary of Education to make the appointment versus the governor, um, because they're very familiar in that space, um, it's a great point and that's why there's the escape hatch of the Secretary of Education being able to make that appointment
because you do have areas around the state where the school district may be in multiple counties or there could be a combination of cities or counties and our, uh, in our instance and in very rural areas, you may only have one city, but it's going to be a very small city that's not going to represent the people that are out in the county that are affected by the decisions of the entire school district. So, um, so that's why we left it with the corm court, but again, the quorum core, if it's like a
Pulaski County situation, they can just create an ordinance and decline that appointment and then it would kick right to the Secretary of Education. So we, we tried to write the bill to accommodate all those different scenarios that you're gonna find across the state, but I, I, I appreciate the concern. I, I agree that we, I think it is a good idea to retain a local control aspect of this, which is why we went the Corm court versus a city wouldn't work in
all those circumstances, it may and area, but I think it would be difficult in other parts of the state that were very, very rural like where we live. And so, um, but, but I think the reason why we wanted to keep it local control is because as citizens, the constituents and the citizens need to have a local redress. They got to talk to somebody locally and advocate to say, hey, I voted for you as my JP. I want you to hear my input.
The same would be true with the city council. It just, it just wouldn't be applicable with the situation that
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
26:36
we're trying to address. Go ahead. Well I'm also concerned when you leave it just entirely to the quorum court. Those members not being um representative of necessarily the school district. Would they
We limit it to appointing. Only an individual. To fill the vacant vacancy from that school. Voting Base, the school zone. Where the vacancy exists,
how would, how would that work? Madam Chair, may I have
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
27:17
Miss Carr? Uh speak Yeah. You identify yourself.
Speaker 81
27:26
I'm Renee Carr from Fox and Stone County. And what I'm Renee Carr from Fox in Stone County and Senator Flowers, your, your last question was uh referred
Speaker 82
27:39
to who, who would be their appointee. What would their where would
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
27:44
they come from? I mean, would they come from the school zone that has the vacancy, yes. And so I go back to my first uh Comment about.
The quorum court members. Don't necessarily represent. May not necessarily represent. Individuals in even that school district as a whole. are Certainly It, I don't know of school
districts. And school boards. That have Multiple County
Quorumquats within the The district. I think I looked at that one
year. I, I didn't see that that's over in Cross County where they have a School district outside in the county. And one within the city of Wyn. So we have two different You know, school voting. Uh, areas.
And so my point is Number one, Why not have The language Read Either, and I don't know cause it might not have the one JP representing a school district, so you
wouldn't want that one person just, I mean, I don't know, he might want them, but um. Why not have the Governing body.
That is that. That the school district is made up of. Might be the city council, you understand what I'm saying? That Where the vacancy. Comes from, but certainly I'd like to know whether this Limits them. If it is the quote unquote. To an appointment of someone from the school zone.
Where the vacancy. Comes from. May I
Speaker 88
30:16
respond? You asked me to repeat myself. Did
Speaker 82
30:18
I make it clear? I understand there are some situations, I think you referred to one where um a school district crosses multiple county lines, um, I can think of Jasper. They have two isolated campuses, and I think they're in 2 or 3 different counties, and so I think the divide here is kind of understanding we're we're approaching it from a
rural perspective where we don't have a city. We're not incorporated to have city government in two of the schools that are represented, while the larger school does have a city council, so I, I think that's why you wanted to put it, um, that it would be um quorum court because you're certainly going to have representation there of your area. Now, I can't speak for larger areas where where you are, but I do
know that in the rural areas, the quorum Court, those JPs know their constituents, and they're very in tune with with people and their backgrounds and their, their interest in schools and and that kind of thing, so um approaching it from where we're at, um, I don't have the same concern, but I understand where you're coming from. Well, does this
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
31:37
bill anticipate, or is there a statute? That already requires
Speaker 90
31:47
That the vacancy be filled by someone who resides within the School board zone. That is
Speaker 92
31:55
vacant. Yes, I believe that's a current requirement. Do we know
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
31:58
Somebody is there someone here that knows. Yes ma'am. An authority on this? And they filled out so we can have another
Yeah, but is there a statute is what I'm asking
Senator Jane English
Unverified
32:22
the table and identify yourself. I mean, I want
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
32:25
to know is there a statute? I think somebody from the Department of Education should be able to respond to this. I can look
Speaker 98
32:33
it up. I can try to look up. I can try to look up the statute
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
32:37
for you. Yeah, I'd like to know because that makes all the difference in the world.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
32:41
I mean, you got a quorum court and that's where we would want. You want you definitely, definitely want somebody if there's a vacancy
from that school zone that's the person that has, it has to be somebody that resides from that. Just that school's
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
33:02
own district to fill that spot. where the vacancy is. We're not changing that, but I'm not sure that in the in the
case of uh schools that have been taken over. Where the department ends up appointing maybe an initial board of uh school board that they are necessarily
I'm on page 2, yeah, page qualified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
33:31
elector of the school district. And um
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
33:34
school district zone be filled by OK, that clears that up. Thank you, Mr. um, but
still, OK, that's resolved, ma'am. But I'm still concerned a little bit about those multiple. Or in and maybe language.
could be inserted or amended to Address that area where you're from Jasper, where you have multi-county. In in one school. And then the Other areas that have multiple districts. Within a county. But not necessarily in the county but one within the municipality of the county. And then you understand what I'm
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:29
saying, yeah, if, if that were the I, I do, and that's Uh, yeah, I
do understand what you're saying and, and like on page 3 of the bill, it says that um the quorum Court of the county in which the school district's administrative offices are located or which there's an or the Secretary of the Department of Education. What line are you
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
34:55
line? I'm sorry, the amendment doesn't have numbers on the lines.
It's under section if you look under B, if you go down to B, little I and second little eye. The Secretary of the Department. So it's either or like or if the quorum Court doesn't want to do it or if there's a situation like you've described, then it would
default to the Secretary of the Department of Education. So
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
35:25
it, there's actually a provision in here for Petitioning but the electorate to
Fill the vacancy or uh. Uh, I'm not sure, but
I didn't read all your bill and especially the remember we just got
Speaker 111
35:49
it, so, yes, yes. Are you saying Senator Flowers, if I
Speaker 82
35:53
might address that, um, this bill adds the requirement that someone interested in filling that position would get a petition and 20 signatures.
The same requirement that currently exists if you're going to run for school board. So that's another, you know, kind of a public disclosure thing where that they can show that there is some support for them
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
36:20
they can then submit the petition to the Court. Yes, ma'am. Yes, or,
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
36:24
or to the Secretary of Ed if education, if, if the corn Court declines. Yes, ma'am. And that's
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
36:31
optional and if nobody petitions, then it's just left
to the discretion of the form court members and and and our The Secretary of the Department of
Speaker 82
36:43
Education. I believe that there would have to be if someone is gonna be appointed they would have to fill out a petition and get 20 electors to sign it in order to be appointed.
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
36:56
Even by the quorum Court or the secretary. OK. OK, that makes sense. Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Senator Dodson.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
37:14
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um. This shouldn't do that. Um,
just as far as the overall bill is concerned, I This or the amendment. is certainly better than the original, the original version of the bill in my opinion, but What, why are we not leaving it with The The school board directors.
Currently as it is and just adding that backstop in there, uh, for either the quorum Court or the secretary of the Department of Education, adding them in as a layer if somebody doesn't want to, uh, or if there's not a majority of members still left if there's multiple vacancies that creates a minority of the district. It would be it seems like it would be a lot simpler just to leave them as that local. Voice there, but if they're unable to or refuse to fill the vacancy within a given period of
time, um. kick it to the on on a Uh, to either the
corn port or to the secretary of the Department of Ed and I'm not
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
38:27
sure if you were in here whenever I, I made the analogy to if there was a member of the Senate that became
vacancy and then and the senators, the existing senators, get to a point that position, you're going to appoint somebody who's going to align with your agenda. And so that's what's happened in
my our county and, and that's, that's why we're bringing the bill forward from you. This is a constituent driven issue of a real situation that's happening in my county because you would then appoint a senator who would align with your agenda, and that's what's happened in the school district. So if you leave it to the school district to appoint somebody at school board to appoint somebody to that school board, you're just picking, you're picking your player, right? And so I get that. solve
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
39:17
and I, I often don't agree with a lot of what the school boards decide to do, and I don't even agree with the the appointments of vacancies that they have made in the past and in some of the districts that I'm familiar with. However That is what they were elected to do. And so to make those decisions, uh, they are the most locally in tune with the local district, uh. Needs are or or desires of the local electorate and the
constituencies they represent in that local area even more so than probably the quorum Court or or even certainly statewide. Appointed official like the Secretary of Education with all due respect, I greatly appreciate our current Secretary of Education, but They're not necessarily the ones in that that local community that could best address that need necessarily and so anyway I That would be my suggestion is
to leave them as that first layer, but I understand that's not the intent of what you're trying to do with
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
40:30
the bill, so thank you. I, I, I appreciate that. I mean, my response again would be, I'm not, I don't think there's a school board was elected to do that. I think the school boards elected to represent their constituents and the parents of the of the kids that go to that school. And Sometimes that doesn't happen and so in You know, they have an agenda
that's different from from what those constituents and they can always unelect them, but as you know that that's very challenging to to undo because of the way those things are structured. So, you know, again this is something that we feel like your your counties are that local control and uh being able to, they, they know those communities, they know those schools, they are, they are very familiar with that. I think that they're gonna act in the best interests of the school, but I think most importantly, they're going to
act in the best interest of their constituents and the citizens that they represent, and so I, I think the school board members are elected to do a job of create to make sure that there's accountability and oversight and to make sure that the school is well run, um, I'm not sure I would. I understand your point. I just, I feel strongly about making sure that you have a degree of separation there when you make a vacancy appointment and, and we
have that the quorum Court does not get to meet and decide which JP they're going to appoint. The governor appoints a vacancy on the quorum Court. And so the school district, this is the only thing that we've ever allowed for this to happen in this space. And I, I think there is a, there should be a a separation there. Do you and In your research, you may know
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
42:19
the answer to this or you might not, but do you know like under current law.
The district directors are the one they're the first level that does stuff and then it goes to the quorum court. How many instances do we have where the quorum court it gets to that level where the quorum court is making those appointments. I mean. Over the last 10 years or so, I mean it don't most of them get filled by the district before they go to the corn get kicked to that second level right now. Or I'm aware of it's been
Speaker 82
42:58
several years ago, maybe in the year 2014 and I don't remember the circumstances in our own county where it eventually was decided by I think multiple um, well, you, you know, if you've lost a board member, you have a you have an even number of board members to make that choice, and I think there was a tie and maybe the core court decided it, eventually was decided by I think multiple um, well, you, you know, if you've lost a board member, you have a you have an even number of board members
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
43:20
to make that choice, and I think there was a tie and maybe the core court decided, OK, and, and so I'm just trying to read through. The current law here, says the
countyorm Court, which doesn't necessarily designate with like Your add-on here is the county quorum Court in which the school district's administrative offices are located, which is probably an important clarification in the law as far as designating that that was requested by the Association of
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
43:47
County. Yeah, I mean, I get
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
43:49
that as far as a clarification, which it makes sense, but I don't have an overlay of all 239 districts in the state to know, I mean,
many of them have cross-county boundaries and And so sometimes They Administrative offices may be located in a county where the majority of the school district doesn't actually reside, so I mean you might have. A county school district administrative office only one that I have reference to is I know Springdale crosses into Benton County a little bit in their their footprint. Now their administrative offices is in Washington County and the majority of that district's in Washington County, so this
example wouldn't necessarily apply, but if by chance they had moved their administrative office. north into Benton County than the Benton County Quorum Court would be making the decision for for Washington County School District, um, and so I don't know where there might be some other examples throughout the state because we've got 75 counties and 230 40
some odd school districts that cross those, and
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
44:59
that's why we made the secondary. It could be
either or the Secretary of Ed. So for that specific issue that you're just discussing, it could be either or. Well, who would be
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
45:11
the, who would be the deciding factor in that? Would it be the
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
45:16
quorum Court, would just basically say, because by ordinance, I think they can just declare a vacancy and kick it to the secretary bed. That's what the Association of. are in that scenario, our
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
45:27
Benton County Cor Court might want to appoint the members of the Springdale school board, I mean.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
45:37
I, I, I don't know. I mean that's a local issue, right, if they reside in that school districts
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
45:41
I, I, I don't know. I mean that's a local issue, right, if they reside in that school district's just the challenges I have with with Bill or the amendment, I guess
on the bill right now, so I don't know exactly how to work through all those, but those are some of the things I see on it. Thank you though. Are there other
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
46:02
questions from the committee can she give her testimony before I. I need to go gavel in public health.
Sorry, so if she can give her testimony and then I'll just pull the bill back down after she gives her testimony and then come back after I get them gaveled in and let Senator Clark go, is, is that OK? You're going to do what? Pull the bill down? Well, I would like for her to give her testimony before that happens. I just have to go gavel in public health committee. OK. And then we'll take
you up later. That'd be fine as I mean that would be fine. I
Speaker 82
46:43
Go ahead. All right, um, so as the crux of the matter is that school boards wielded a whole lot of power, and usually it's just 7 members or, you know, it could be a few more. But um, it only takes 4 votes to decide very critical decisions. And so how would you love it? Wouldn't you love it if you only had to find 3 other people to support you to pass a bill.
That's what happens in a local school board, so that's why this issue is we're trying to address it. Well, what happens when a school board seat is vacated. Typically, I believe that a school board member who has someone who aligns with them or the superintendent finds someone who There's no public notice of a vacancy. And they are able to select that remaining board is able to
select who will go on the board. So what I have seen is sometimes that person who's selected has an agenda. That agenda may be to fire a coach. It may be to close a school. But the, the body is so small that these board positions are just very critical that we get an independent partial impartial
board member who can make decisions that are best for the children. So this bill, um, Increases our odds of getting that type of person to fill a vacancy. And it also Provides the public notice so that so that anyone in that area will know that there is an open Board seat and it provides the mechanism for which they would apply for that open board seat.
They know the steps to take and so I, I do think the quorum Court will have input from their constituents from parents, and I think that they will make a good decision on it, so I hope you will support the bill. Thank you. Are there
Senator Jane English
Unverified
49:12
further questions from the committee. Not seeing any people signed up
to speak for or against what is the will of the committee. Motion. Is there a second? 2nd Beg pardon. Yes, discussion on the motion.
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
49:39
Thank you. I, I agree with, you know, what's happening. I actually had never really thought about that before with school boards and even having served on a school board for 9 years, um, we've seen some of that happen, um, I don't know, it's like hard to know if this
is the best answer, but I felt, I think it's better than what we currently have. And so there may be some kinks to work out that we may have to come back next session and I mean, cause I agree, I mean, I think, I think there's probably several school districts that cross county lines, and that may you know, a situation may arise from that where we see maybe we need to clean up a little bit more, um, but I agree just the fact that they're electing or not electing, but voting on who will serve in their in a body of
5 or 7 with them. Um, I understand the conflict in that and so, um, So I just wanted to say I think I, I acknowledge the problem and maybe we may have to clean it up a little bit more, but I think this is better than what
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
50:40
we currently have. Senator Murdoch. Uh, thank you, and I concur with Senator Davis that the bill does address, I think, some issues, and, but I think it also brings out some things as well, as we know, and I didn't think about this when we were talking, Senator Irving, city councils,
they do appoint there, so it is being done, which way is best, you know, um. It's, it's hard to determine because When people elect people to these various boards of councils, then those become those people that are trusted to handle that. That portion of government that we've given them that authority to handle. So if there is a vacancy. To Senator Dodson's point, maybe they should.
be the ones to, you know, to to to replace that, but to your point, you made a great counterpoint to that. So I do think there's an issue that needs to be cleaned up. I don't know. What the best answer is, I do not think that it's a good position to put. Statewide people in it. I don't, I don't believe that as a result to the court and then put the governor in that, I mean, I know the governor makes appointments. That's different than an elected
position by the local community and then the governor or the Secretary of Education or whomever. get involved in that. I don't think it's fair to them, to be quite honest, quite honestly, so, um. I don't know, but I do appreciate what what you've done that you're trying, and I know what you're
trying to fix now. I know about local politics and how, yeah, so I feel you for sure. Other comments.
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
52:31
I, I didn't, sorry, I didn't get the chance to close for the bill, but I will defer to the committee, um. Just completely defer to the committee, and I, I would love to continue working on this bill. So with your input and Happy
to do that. I hope you will give it a chance to get. Do you want to work on the
Senator Jane English
Unverified
52:51
bill before we vote? Do you want to take it
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
52:56
down? I mean, the reason why I would say I would, I would continue to
work with you to make amendments on the House side. I would love to do that. I just know where we are in session and we're trying to get bills through the Senate. So they have a motion on the
Senator Jane English
Unverified
53:10
floor, so. All in favor all opposed. Well, we have a roll call,
I guess because we have I heard two voices. Only two voices.
Speaker 157
53:34
Senator Dodson. So they're about to? No. Senator Bryant. Senator Bryant. Senator Murdoch. Senator Murdoch, I. Sarah King. Sara King? No. Senator Davis. Senator Davis, I, S Sa flowers. Senator Flowers. Senator Sullivan, Senator Sullivan, I.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
54:07
I have enough votes. Thank you. You get to work on it. Thank you. OK, I'm gonna let you take over here while I do this apprenticeship thing fast. You do? You run the bell? Yeah.
Senator, if you would introduce yourself. And the bill
Senator Jane English
Unverified
54:48
number and you're free to proceed, Senator Jane English from District 13 and there's
a Senate Bill 390 basically this is an act to establish the state apprenticeship agency. So over time, uh, Arkansas's experienced great significant growth in registered apprenticeships and as the state continues to promote apprenticeships as a workforce development recruitment tool,
um, and retention strategy, we need a greater oversight from the state in this effort. Transitioning to a state apprenticeship agency will provide a more effective system with less reliance on federal oversight following
Speaker 149
55:27
Arkansas to better serve its business program sponsors and apprentices. Members, do we have any questions?
This it's just creating a new board. Our agency, is it no, it's,
Senator Jane English
Unverified
55:50
it's the same people that are on the that have been in there. OK. And signed
up to speak. For Bill Rogers. Rochelle, Rochelle, I'm sorry. OK, uh, you can go ahead and have a seat. We have a question for the sponsor first. Senator Murdoch here recognized.
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
56:19
Thank you, chair. I'm sorry. I was just getting to it. It crosses out a lot. So
basically you're going from a What we had was a council, a working group to a Actual now agency or uh yeah agency is
Senator Jane English
Unverified
56:36
the Labor Department runs the apprenticeship programs. What we're doing is looking at the state running our apprenticeship programs here in the state of Arkansas just like Alabama does in other states do.
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
56:49
Right, but you started with a coordinate steering committee, so
Speaker 150
56:56
that's right, so now you're going to the next level which is an agency to put in place kind
Senator Jane English
Unverified
57:01
of what you've studied, if you will or already inside of an agency. It started the the skills development. OK, but that
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
57:09
evolved kind of from the committee, the steering committee. That you had the steering committee that was in place, OK.
Remembers, any other questions? Mr. Rochelle, you're here to speak for the
bill. If you would introduce yourself, and you
Bill Rochelle
Unverified
57:38
may speak for the bill. Uh, my name is Bill Rochelle.
Speaker 178
57:41
I'm the chapter president for Associated Builders and contractors of Arkansas, um, we're one of 67 chapters throughout the country that represent the commercial construction industry, about 52 of those chapters have registered apprenticeship programs and so the last couple of years I've reached out to
them just to see, you know, there's some states that are state apprenticeship agency. There are some states there are the Bureau of Apprenticeship Training, the DOL, uh, and most all the states that are in red. really prefer the state apprenticeship agency model, um, it gives our office of apprenticeship, a little freedom, a little flexibility, um, to be able to pivot to create some programs that will benefit our members, so uh I know you guys have a lot of work to do, so I think the biggest takeaway from this is I have
more confidence in you folks here in the state of Arkansas and this body to govern the apprenticeship agency and also our office of apprenticeship folks to To administer that program, so that's what I'm here today to to say. Thank you. Members, any questions? Saying no questions. Thank you
for your testimony. Do we have any others who
would like to testify? Singing no others, Senator. You're welcome to close for your
bill. I'm closed for the bill. motion to pass and make a motion to pass a second 2nd. All in favor say aye. Senator, your bill is passed. Thank you very much. Can
Senator Jane English
Unverified
59:12
I'd like to do? Just for the record, if you introduce yourself again
and the bill number. 425. And you are welcome to proceed. This is the uh bill to amend the
Senator Jane English
Unverified
59:30
uh Transportation enhanced transportation for the adequacy. I think we've had a lot
of discussion on this and we had a meeting yesterday, I believe. member does anybody have any questions? No questions. Anybody
here to speak for or against the bill? Saying no one, this is sure going different than the last
time. So saying no one is big for or against the bill. Uh, is there, we have a motion. I move motion we have. Have a
second. Discussion on the motion. Senator Murdoch, you're welcome to proceed. Thank you,
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
1:00:21
chair. I thank you, Senator, for bringing this back and and doing what you did so that we would have time to meet with BLR after meeting and
discussing with various people, there is, there is a real disconnect as it relates to the understanding of the allocation as it is in this bill and where it came from, what um I found out. Is that Mining of the school districts and not just in that I represent, but many. Um, superintendents don't agree with what this is at the end of
the day. Now I know this evolves from. The spring adequacy and some of those discussions that made up this document. I get that, but my problem and the reason why I can't support it. It's, it's just because the lack of from the input I'm getting. The input from the superintendents, their ability to be a part of it, I guess what I should have done during this before now it's actually AAEA.
Come because I know they represent the leadership of these school districts, and I think they supported this bill, I think. I think that's what the statement was. I don't remember exactly, but I'm very concerned that This bill is going forth with this amount of money moving around as it is and we we we did meet Senator Flowers and I with BLR and it's a Very, very complicated situation, almost seems to be.
Um, secret, you know, for some reason and it's just, it's just not a lot of comfort or confidence in what we're doing here, um, and just hadn't gotten to that level of just real confidence in how we're doing what we're doing. I'm sure something needs to happen and there's an effort being made. To make that happen, so I'm not casting the spurs on anyone. I'm just saying that the level of confidence is not there from the the leadership in our school
districts and this is going to affect them. And their ability to educate. Our children And so this is a part of the process and I just think, so I'll continue to work on it. After it moves out of here, if it moves out and try to get to some level at least of understanding. But anyway, uh, that's where I am right
now. I appreciate that, Mr. Murdoch, and I also appreciate the chair's leadership and making sure everybody had an opportunity to speak on this and
study the bill. That's a good thing. Senator Dodson, you're recognized
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:03:13
for a question. No, I'm sorry, discussion on the bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um You
know, the reasons I was not. Happy with this bill still remain, and it's primarily for the districts that I represent or the one district that will be affected by it primarily, so that that's why. I'm not supportive of the bill as is. I think there's probably
a lot of work that still needs to be done, probably on the formula, um, and we, we may not have the opportunity to really do that during session here, obviously every couple of years this picks winners and losers and goes back and forth and so I'm not really sure what the long term solution is for for everybody, but um. For right now I'm, I'm not supportive of the bill as is.
Any more discussion on the vote on the. Seeing no discussion, we have
a motion before the floor do pass with a second. All in favor say aye. All opposed. Roll call please.
Speaker 157
1:04:43
Senator Dodson. Senator Dodson? No. Senator Bryant. Senator Bryant Senator Murdoch, Sarah Murdoch? No. Senator King. So can I. Senator Davis, Senator Davis, I, Senator Flowers. Senator Flowers?
Unknown speaker
1:05:14
Senator English, Sarah English, I. of the bill does not pass. Sorry. Thank you.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:06:18
If you identify yourself, you'll be recognized. Good
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:06:25
morning, Madam Chair, members Committee, Kim Hammer, state senator of District 16 have a guest with me that can help explain the bill if she could recognize or police. On A no. There you go. Thank
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:06:41
you, Madam Chair and committee. My name is Karen Walters. I'm superintendent at Bryant Public Schools.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:06:49
And Madam Chair, this will be Senate Bill 482. Right. And I think there's a handout that will help explain the bill and make it easier to follow along.
Senator Sullivan, thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to make a motion that we expunge the vote on Senate Bill 485 for 25 that we just uh where it failed before the committee. I second. Well, I can't make a second you
Speaker 204
1:08:06
make it. Yeah. There was a transportation bill that just failed.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:08:19
OK. We explained the boat. Ocean, we
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:08:31
yes, I. Opposed Thank you. OK. All right. Go ahead. All right, if
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:08:44
you would let Superintendent Walters go through the bill, I think we've worked with the department
be on this bill, and so, but I think for the sake of time
and then get right to the questions, let her
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:08:59
explain the bill, please. Go ahead. Thank you, Madam Chair and Committee for letting me speak. I want to thank Senator Hammer for bringing this and the department for their work and helping us to get this bill where it is today. I've provided a handout to you that kind of goes through the a summary of the of the changes, um, I'm gonna very quickly go through this, so it will be um As quickly as quick as we can,
so the general summary is it strikes through the opportunity school choice. And this part of the code, I think there is some confusion to districts and parents about those two things, I think it's unnecessary, and I think that striking that out will make the language more clear for for everyone. There's also a part of the bill where it talks about board to board transfers currently, if the board has given the superintendent the authority
that they can approve board to board transfers, even if I approve them, we still have to put it on our board agenda and so within this bill, one of the changes is that if it's approved, it doesn't have to go on the board agenda. It would only go to the board if it was a denial and the parent would have the opportunity to appeal that. And looking at the timelines, it is June 1st for the timeline to submit a school choice application and the school district has until June 30th to
give parents an answer. The applications must be time stamped, uh, and another part of this bill, the change is to clarify that the state Board of Education cannot overturn a district's decision if it is for capacity. In addition is explaining what capacity means, and we worked very closely with the Department on that language, uh, and if you have very detailed questions about that. I may have to ask them to come up and help me, um,
but Currently, I'll just say in our example at Bryant, we want to grow students and we do accept school choice students, but at some point, sometimes we are having to deny because we are full. We have already had our transition conferences for our pre-K students, and we're going to have 35 kindergarten students that are in CBI classrooms, that's a very specialized, uh,
special education classroom. You can have 10 students in those classrooms. We're already gonna have to add 2 teachers and 2 classrooms. I don't know where we're we're gonna do that space we're having those conversations and so we're trying to make it more clear that, you know, if we meet the definitions of capacity in the bill that we can deny a school choice application based on that. Um, you'll also, uh, see in the bill and I won't go through
every, every, every section, I rather just talk about it in general, but you will also find that there are some language to clean up about uniformed service members. I think it includes National Guard. If I'm not mistaken, but I, I believe that, uh, Taking out the opportunity school choice, making the deadline the same again, I think that's going to be simple. It also clarifies for parents that they can email, they can mail, they can hand deliver the
applications right now it's done online and I think there's still um Some misunderstanding parents don't understand. They have to fill out the application with both districts, the resident district and um the uh receiving district and so I think that that that clarifies it and hopefully a lot of this language is is clean up and it's, it will make it easier for us to implement this. The the intent of the of what we were trying to do was not to limit school
choice, uh, not to make it difficult for parents, we want it to be easier, but again, once we reach those capacities, if we don't have room, then, then we, you know, don't have room, so. I think that's pretty much it. And share
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:13:17
that's the explanation of the bill with the handout. I think that takes it play by play. I would say that we've been working on this for a couple of months with the department bed and the department bed. I think I can say supportive of it.
They're OK with it. Uh, so anyway, we've worked with the Department to arrive at the finished product of this bill, and we'll be
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:13:42
glad to take questions. Uh, Madam Chair, if I may, I did forget one important point, forgive me, uh, it also specifies in the bill that if a student is under expulsion or has been recommended for expulsion that the uh resident district. Uh, must provide that information to the receiving district.
As a superintendent, I don't have the authority that I can expel a student. I can recommend them for expulsion, but it's only an expulsion once the board acts on it, we have had some situations in the last couple of years where a student was recommended for expulsion in a district before the board acted on it, they moved districts and As school districts we're not sure what we can say and what we can't say because I really can't say they've been expelled because the board didn't act. But we feel it's important that
the receiving school district have that information in our case, the reason for the expulsion was act of violence and it was information that we definitely needed to know, so that is another piece of the bill I don't want to. Come across as I'm trying to hide that, but that is another piece of the bill that I think is important. And
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:14:54
Madam Chair, if I can hit 3 summary points and I'll let Superintendent Walters, correct me if I mischaracterize anything in the bill. Number one, it's not limiting school choice, but
it's identifying two areas that have become problematic. One is, well, 3, actually 1, clarity to the parents to know the timelines and also to make it easier for them to be able to communicate that request to the school district 2, it is addressing the issue that if a school is at capacity and they have legitimate reasons to turn that down, that they would not be overridden by the state board
and then the third thing is that it would, as she mentioned, there are some that when the student knows that they're about to be expelled from school quickly try to move, and when they do, um, that that becomes then an issue for the receiving school district if they don't know it, so this put some transparency on it so to help avoid that and those would be the the main points I think that leave anything up. No, you're correct. OK. And so,
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:16:06
Madam Chair, with that, we'll be glad to
take questions. The questions from the committee, Senator Sullivan. So is this problem particular to your district are are many districts having the
same problem, and if so, who is their voice? There's someone here to testify from the school board association or
superintendents association who can verify that multiple districts are having this problem.
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:16:38
Oh, I'm gonna make sure I understand the question. Are you
asking about the expulsion, I'm just asking about the bill. So if if the bill in general, if
it has, I understand the Um State the Department of Education is for it. I'm wondering about the extent of the problem. So it's the same problem that you're outlining in the bill. There are several that appears. So are those
same problems across the state are particular
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:17:09
to your district. I don't think they are particular to my district senator. I can't say that it's all districts because for districts that are losing students the capacity issue may not be an issue for them, but for districts that are are growing students, then yes, it is an issue
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:17:26
for all of us. It is not specific just and and that's the question, is it, it is not just specific to Bryan. I think you could say that it is a situation that applies to multiple districts across the state and as the superintendent
said, depends. Are you on the receiving end or are you on on the giving end, but I would also say this, you know, the, the capacity issue is just one component within this bill. The students transferring before disciplinary action is taken so as to avoid. That I think that is, that is probably applicable to all school districts that have to deal with that, so we're addressing multiple points in here, so
and I get the part about the expulsion issue. I understand that's pretty
straightforward and pretty easy to understand. How will this affect the school choice students who are in private schools are in homeschooled and they're transferring. What's the impact on them of this. Any Let me give you a scenario and you tell me if this is what you're
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:18:27
thinking, OK, so if there is a student that is in a private school, but they're a resident of the Bryant School District, and they decide they're no longer going to private school but they want a school choice to Benton. Is is
that the type of thing that you're, there are two issues there that in district and the outer district. So what's the impact of private schools are for a student
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:18:54
who's out of district. So your question is a little bit of a noise limitation. We got the wind blowing, so I'm gonna repeat the question because she's sitting next to me and then you make sure it's right. How is this going to affect in a scenario that you have a student who wants the school choice into Bryant, and they're coming
either from a private school or from some other school and they're wanting the school choice into Bryant. How is that going to affect how would this bill affect that student? Is that that's the Yes, and there are two scenarios,
one in district and two out of district, and they want a choice
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:19:32
in. OK. So it would not have any impact on private school or home school students. I mean, the, the law, the law is the law, no matter what that situation is when you say in district Center Sullivan,
Speaker 229
1:19:44
do you mean with schools within my district, is that what you mean? Like a
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:19:49
uh like a bent to a Bryant scenario from a from a from a school to a school is one scenario. The other scenario is a student in a private school to in this case say those two situations, and again, what's the impact of that student. So, no, that student would be treated as
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:20:06
if they were had been at a public school, so if there was a student that resided in the Little Rock School District, they were going to say Little
Rock Christian, they decided they wanted the school choice to Bryant. They would follow the same rules as somebody that had been at a
at OK, yeah, I understand that's that that's the last question, so um you're wanting to say the state school board has no uh cannot
Speaker 232
1:20:31
overrule a school district and your decision on these. Well, the capacity issue, yes,
Speaker 233
1:20:36
that's what part of this bill is about. If you go,
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:20:40
I have gone back at least 2 years, and I think it's closer to 3 years.
And the state board. Has sided with the parents each time when they've get the multiple scenarios, but in the end
you don't want them, the state board, you're saying they should not have jurisdiction over your district in order to overrule your school board's decision. If I, if I can show them the capacity that's in this bill
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:21:06
if I can prove that we have that capacity, then no, I don't think they should be able to make a decision where I'm going to have to get a portable
building to put kids in because don't have any space I mean that's not overruling means
you make a decision, they disagree with it, and they have, they overrule it and you're creating a scenario where they can try to overrule in the district says no. So you're, you're trying to exempt your districts from the authority of the state school board. OK. Yes, for capacity issues, Madam Chair.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:21:48
Could we have Secretary Oliva come to the table. Yeah You
Speaker 238
1:21:57
would identify yourself, you'll be recognized. Jacob Oliva, Secretary of Education. Go ahead.
Speaker 242
1:22:06
Do, do you want me to address your question, Senator Sullivan, um. I think what this bill is doing if, if we go kind of go back a little bit of history and time when we're looking about creating options and school choice for families. We want to make sure that we're providing
as many options as we can. When we pass, um, Arkansas learns we expanded parent empowerment. Well, one of your questions was, is this limited to Bryan School District other superintendents asking the questions as as we worked with superintendents and stakeholder work groups to seek input for implementation because once the bill gets signed into law, we had to develop a lot of rules around implementation. One of the biggest questions we did receive was about capacity, like how can a district make sure that they're serving the
students in their community while while um making sure they're being good stewards of school choice, cause when I talked to superintendents, they want to serve as many families as they can. What they don't want to do is create a financial undue hardship and not be able to serve the students in their community because they're being um maybe school choice friendly, and you still want to always have seats because families are going to move, you know, one of the things that you would never want to do, and I don't want to speak for a superintendent, but just in my former role is tele
family that got transferred in the military. Sorry, we're full, right? So we, we needed to find capacity, which is why they came up with a number of about 90% because we got a safe seats. Families are going to move within a school year. We're going to be good stewards and support those families, so I think the question is, is whether or not um. If there's a condition of why the school district chose not to approve a school choice, there would have to be qualifying factors to determine why they didn't do it. What we don't want
is a school to get a citation on accreditation because they're not in compliance with class size amendments or capacity issues because we forced them to take students that they that they were able to show determination they didn't have room for, so this is, it, it's really actually a system of checks and balance. cause we're gonna always, I'm just gonna say I'm gonna always side on the side of parents and students and say let's serve as many students and families as we can, but I also understand the safeguards at a district needs to make sure that they can
actually properly serve those students as well, so that's what this bill is trying to address. Well,
I think you answered another question for me too. Are you hearing this problem across the state, and your answer would be yes. Yeah, my, my point was a little shorter than that, that
we're setting up a precedent where a school can override the state school board. I don't know if it's necessary that school
Speaker 242
1:24:48
is overriding the states, the school board is that if there was an appeal that came to the state board that the
school district at the local level said because of these determinations, they were not able to approve it. It wouldn't need to go to our board because there would be nothing for our board to approve because they'd be following the law and the statute said that these terminations already happened. Thank you. Senator Dawson. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, So I
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:25:26
I'll be honest, when I started going through this bill last night. After the 1st 10 pages of striking out stuff I liked. I just said this is a no, and I didn't ever make it to the, the last 16 pages of the bill because I was just flat opposed, so it would have been great to have this cheat sheet a little sooner, um, I'm sensitive to the capacity issue, and I think we need to address that and I'm just not entirely sure this
bill as is this this is very extensive in striking through things that have been working well. And then maybe trying to rewrite them into other sections of code. And I cannot process that right now in this short amount of time to figure out if I like the things that are being put back in. As much as I hate the things that are being taken out. There are some things toward the back of the bill that I've scanned through now that That I do like addressing some
of the capacity issues and But I can't get there on this bill as is. Unless it's narrowed down to just addressing the capacity issues for right now. Those other issues maybe we can address them. Individually, if if they're brought in, but as of the moment that's kind of where I'm at on it, um, and I I don't know how to get beyond
that in in the period of time that we have this morning, uh, but. Appreciate you taking a stab at it and and uh and I do think we need to address the capacity issue because I'm sensitive to it. We face it in Bentonville, uh not, not, not every year, but every day as far as capacity issues and in the current law that requires you to, to, uh, you know, maybe put buildings, mobile buildings up. I mean, that's a reality and I, and I'm
very sensitive to that and I think we need to narrowly address that maybe without the The entire expanse of the bill, but I don't know if you have any, any comments or feedback on that, but I'm. Open suggest any, any
Speaker 248
1:27:44
uh Uh Anything you might say to change my mind, I guess that gives you heartburn, yeah, the 1st 11
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:27:50
pages striking through all of that, um. Opportunity school choice because these are some of the things that uh
You know, many of us have fought for many years to make sure put into law and And I can't. Sit here in the amount of time I've got to try to see how many of those you've added back in to other sections and and and overlay that to ensure that everything is being addressed in a proper manner, um, so anyway I will tell you that I am not
Speaker 248
1:28:21
the author of the cheat sheet, uh, unfortunate enough that we have a staff attorney, Mr. Jeremy Lester, and he's
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:28:29
wonderful. He is actually, uh, Also in the National Guard, a Jag, and he is with Uncle Sam today. He could have explained this much better than I, so I hated that he could not be here. What I remember hearing from him is that it is struck through in this section, but it's because it's, it's in other sections of the code and what I understand, understood from him is that was the confusion because where it was in the code with the opportunities school choice and the school choice. That's what
caused confusion with parents and with Superintendents and in school districts in general, so I don't think that it's it that it's totally taken away, I think it's taken away in this section of the bill and Malsfod is shaking her head yes at me, so
Speaker 201
1:29:13
I, Madam Chair, can we, I think Courtney'd
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:29:16
like to come up. Would it be all right if Courtney comes up? Thank you. I did, I.
Speaker 254
1:29:32
Courtney Salas Ford, Department of Education. I just wanted to help address Senator Dodson's question, and it is exactly what um Superintendent Walter said, but what we found in that having opportunity school choice in a separate section of law was that amendments were made in previous sessions, changing things like the timeline or dates that the school district had to respond, um, and we ended up with conflicting provisions in for public school choice, opportunity school choice, and so I did work with
Jeremy Lasseter at the at the department to make sure that when we repealed opportunity that we included every specific provision of that into the public School Choice Act. So every student who's in a level 5 school district can still choice to a non-level 5 school district. Every student in an F school can either do an intradistrict to a non-ev school or if there's not one in their current district, they can do an interdistrict to a non-F school in another district. um, what this does though.
by combining them is making sure that there's only one section that talks about January 1 to June 1 uh application dates that is, uh, the school has until June 30th to respond. 15 days if it's on an immediate, um, if the parent has requested an immediate implementation. So it wasn't about doing away with anything. It was just about creating consistency throughout the many, many, many sections of code that addressed school choice. I appreciate that and
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:31:00
so. If I understand you correctly,
you've gone through this entire
thing, worked with them to make sure that we are not losing any student choice opportunities for parents and students right now to be able to transfer between districts or even potentially intradistrict, um, but as far as public school choice is concerned, parents still have all the exact same opportunities. It'll just be clarified in this section and it addresses the capacity. issue as well. That is correct.
Are there any other components to this that other than the clarification and clean up, consolidating it into one and then addressing the capacity issue. Are there any other components that I'm missing or unaware of like being able to deny for Right, so I would
Speaker 252
1:31:58
say, yeah, the only new components would be that, um, the denial based on expulsion, the
revocation based on expulsion. Try to find the Where is that if we um if the student is found to have excessive excessively violated,
Speaker 254
1:32:16
um, district policies or handbook, um, resulting in disciplinary action page are you on? Page 13. If the
Speaker 252
1:32:30
student is deemed truant, um, down at the bottom, it's subsection L1 if the student is
Speaker 254
1:32:37
deemed truant by a court, um, so they've gone through the whole truancy process, um, or again if they're expelled by the non-resident school district for a violation, um, of that school district's code of conduct, etc. and I think to what Secretary Oliva said. We we were seeing this consistently across the, the state where students were Swapping districts to try to avoid, um, expulsions and things and so we just wanted to create that consistency that if that is in fact what was going on, that
they can't just go to another
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:33:11
district to avoid that. So you're saying it's a common practice right
now that a student is about to get expelled, expelled. They transferred districts. They're forced the receiving district is forced to receive that student and the uh the district that is giving them up cannot inform the receiving district. That there's been a problem or an issue in any way.
They take that student and then it resets the clock for that student to have to go through that entire process, the new district and then Conceivably as soon as they're about to be expelled another time they can go to another district and reset the clock again because they,
Speaker 254
1:33:54
you know, the receiving district, if that was Bryant, they can't expel a student based on something that happened at the prior school district, um, so they would have to have a new reason to expel them,
Speaker 262
1:34:03
but this just prevents that, yes, that and the
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:34:06
receiving district is completely unaware that there may have been a problem, and
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:34:10
that's the reason for the transfer, and I'll say this in superintendent backed me up. I think that I think the parents have learned how to gain the system, and that's part of what this is trying to address is um to to keep The parents know how to work the system so that before the student actually hits the Disciplinary action. Of the board, they transfer out and then it, it's just a shell game of moving from school to
school. I don't think that's fair. I don't think that's fair to any of the schools that are involved in that loop where it's just consistently moving to avoid those disciplinary actions, I think you would hear, I think you would hear stories, around the state of some schools that have had to receive or unknowingly receive some students that have had some serious issues, and they have transferred. Serious issues into the school where they're going, it just becomes a disciplinary problem
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:35:11
Is that fair or yes, I think Senator Hammer did a great job. I would add, I don't think it's a situation where the the district where the student has been doesn't want to tell the new receiving district. I think that they are uncertain about legally what they're comfortable in sharing. I think that because it is not an expulsion that Like I said, legally, I, I cannot do that as superintendent. I can recommend it, but it's not an expulsion until the board acts on it. So I, I believe districts are just
leery of what can we say, what can we tell them, and I think that this language would alleviate that. It's not, I don't think that people are intentionally not telling, I think they're just kind of afraid. And in regards to the truancy, I would add, you know, kind of goes back a little bit talking about different counties when we send a student that's not ours, if they live in another county. There's also some some jurisdiction issues there that our juvenile judge is not able
to do anything with that student because they don't live in Saline County, so that's another issue, and if they're truant, if they live, you know, somewhere else, we don't provide transportation if you're a school choice student. You know It's an issue of, well, we can't, it's not like we can say, OK, cause sometimes the juvenile judge will say, OK, Mom, they're going to have to ride the bush. You're gonna have to put them on the bus so they
Speaker 216
1:36:39
can get to school. Well, and those situations we can't do that, so that was another reason for the truancy
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:36:46
piece. So one more question here. Is there anything within here that Say a student
is I mean if we're we're codifying all this obviously for the capacity issue we talked about that a second ago and it makes perfect sense that uh you know, they couldn't appeal up to the state board for Being overridden like they can right now potentially um because we don't have that 90% threshold capacity in the statute,
but if it was then that would just be a denied appeal for the capacity issue. I get that. When it comes to the expulsion or or other things like that. Is there anything in here that would prohibit a parent from appealing up to the state board and saying no, that. That That I don't know what we call it district that's losing the student to transfer, but the non-receiving school district, uh, they were wrong and they get
to appeal that up because they got denied from the receiving school district denied them a transfer. Because they received word on the back end um from the the sending school district, I guess, uh. I don't
Speaker 264
1:38:01
know if it's in this part of the code and, and we saw sort may correct me if
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:38:07
I'm wrong, but I believe the way that the law is written now, if I recommend the student for expulsion and they want to board to board transfer to.
I'm sorry, say that again. I couldn't hear you if they want if they want a board to board transfer school choice to Benton, Benton. I've got that that parent can go to the board at Benton and ask for a hearing. Am
Speaker 201
1:38:32
I correct in that? Under the expulsion piece or under school choice under expulsion piece. So
Speaker 255
1:38:37
I think it's another part of I was gonna say, I think that is current, but I also think there's a bill out there that's proposing to change that. So I'm not sure if that bill has gone through yet or not
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:38:51
if, if you recommend a student for expulsion, and then they go to another district that receiving district does not know about that. This bill would allow them to know about that. And under this bill, you, you've notified the other district that they're recommended for expulsion. They get over there and that receiving school district denies them because of that. Recommendations because you had the recommendation for expulsion.
Is there an appeal process beyond the receiving district that goes to the state board, or is that just flat out denied, uh, where the parents can't go somewhere else. Because now they've been recommended and their they're blacklisted because there's a
recommendation for expulsion on their record. Well, so currently
Speaker 254
1:39:39
under state law, a district can choose not to take any student that's been expelled. From, from another school district. So this, I will say extends that to having been
recommended for expulsion to try to prevent that school hopping, as we'll call it, um, and so what we've said in here is that if The parent does file an appeal, if that denial, if they appeal the denial and the denial was based on a factual determination of expulsion recommended for expulsion or meeting capacity than our state board cannot overturn that because again, they would be that would be the new language
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:40:15
under this would say the state board could not over,
could not overrule that if there is a recommendation for
expulsion. I haven't been expelled, but there's just a recommendation at that point, so Um All right, I'll have to think about that, so.
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:40:35
Math address that, so in that situation, if the parent feels that it is unjust, their best due process is to go before the board because they get to present their case are we talking about the school where it happened,
where it happened, not the one that they're trying to go to. I'm going to be very transparent with you if I received a student that was recommended for expulsion and I didn't have all the facts. It could be that it's not something that I would expel them for, but if I can't have all those facts and I have to worry about student safety. I'm gonna, my board's gonna look at me and say, what do you think? And I, and I would say to them, I recommend that, you know, We not accept this student, they need to go to their resident
district to have their hearing because that's really where their due process is. That's where all the facts are, the statements, the witnesses at Bryan, I can't, I can't tell a teacher at Benton that they've got to come to my board meeting for the hearing. Does that
Speaker 269
1:41:38
make sense? and I get that, and I think that does make sense.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:41:43
However, I think they're probably also needs to be another level of appeal that takes it out of the hands of of each of the districts that's an impartial arbiter, that's where the state
board, so if the parent feels like there needs to be an appeal process and what I'm understanding you're saying is that's not included in here
Speaker 252
1:42:03
right now. Right, but being that we typically don't want the state board getting into those factual determinations of things like expulsion,
Speaker 254
1:42:09
um, because again, they're not at the school district where that that act happened. We, we don't want to have student expulsion discipline hearings at the state level. Um, if the parent wants that due process, then they go back to the school district
where it happened. They have their hearing at the local level and then either they were expelled, in which case it's a factual determination that our board would not overturn or it's not expelled and then they have
Speaker 255
1:42:35
the right to go ahead in school choice.
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:42:38
And so under the current law, if they're expelled, that's a factual
determination that the state board would not
Speaker 255
1:42:45
overturn. That is not the current case, but under no and under the current situation, expulsion is not a reason for denial, so a school district, Bryant could
Speaker 254
1:42:54
not deny a school choice application even if that student had been expelled under school choice, but there's another law that says they can choose not to. accept a student if that student has been expelled, but it, it conflicts with the school choice law. So again, we have, we're trying to create that consistency and that either they're expelled and you have to take them or you're not expelled in. Or whatever, I just confuse myself, but consistency in that if a student is expelled, another district is not forced to take them under any
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
1:43:25
currently that we're but current law somewhere in the statute says that if there's a finding of fact and they are expelled, then the receiving district can deny on that, and there is no appeal to the state board to overturn that currently. OK, so that part of it is not changing. We're just the recommendation for. is what's being
added or contemplating to be added to the law under this proposal, and Senator Dodson, to
Speaker 229
1:43:49
give you an example that happened this year, it says that we are not required
Karen Walters
Unverified
1:43:55
to accept that student, but we can, and I had an instance this year that we did at a neighboring superintendent that called me about a situation told me that he was going to be recommending the student for expulsion. It was not a disciplinary action that we would have expelled for at Bryant. Um, I asked the family to come in and meet with me. I met with the parents. I met with the student and we accepted that student, he's been with us and we haven't had any issues.
So You know, if parents will be honest with us if they come and sit down, you know, we will look at those things, but it's the issue that we're trying to address here is where I had this situation where the student came in, parents didn't tell us anything, and we found out. From other means that the student student had been recommended for expulsion for a very violent act. And that's what I'm trying to keep from happening and I can't tell you that it's happening,
you know, 25 times a year, but if it happens once and something
Speaker 201
1:45:01
happens, that's what I've got to try to keep from happening.
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:45:11
Thank you. OK, is that all the questions? Unfortunately we don't have a quorum here. We can't vote. So you might want to
Speaker 153
1:45:23
come back again on Monday and I think we'd be glad to come
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:45:28
back on Monday, give everybody a chance to absorb. I think it's a bill that can be defended. I would ask the chair this if she would consider if there are people who speak for or against the bill, could that possibly be granted today, and then that way if there are things that come up that haven't been addressed through our explanation, we can know what those are. We can do that, yeah, so.
Speaker 170
1:45:49
Yeah, so if we have people come up and speak.
And then we have a quorum later. What's the chances we're gonna ask those same questions of
those same people again. I don't know the answer to that. If you want to come and speak, I'm OK with it. I'm just saying they may have a great opportunity to speak 2 or 3 times. I'm, I'm at the mercy of the committee. Well, what would you like to do? Would you have one person against
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:46:19
the bill and then I would suggest you might want to wait till Monday and come back. That's fine. I can, I can do that. Beg pardon.
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
1:46:30
Yeah, a week from Monday. OK. Madam, Madam Chair. Here's what I'd like to request. Uh, I'd like to request. Let a One who wants to speak against it, come and speak against it, and then I will pull the bill and come back Monday week, and we'll see where we are. Is that acceptable? That sounds good. Thank you. Um Gary Newton. Medicare
Senator Jane English
Unverified
1:46:54
but I would defer until there's a form.
OK. All right. Very good. All right, thank you. Well, folks, we don't have a quorum here, so I think we're probably finished for the day. Thank you very much.
Agenda
Call to Order
SB373 Irvin TO AMEND THE ARKANSAS FINANCIAL EDUCATION COMMISSION.
SB390 J. English TO ESTABLISH THE STATE APPRENTICESHIP AGENCY ACT.
SB425 J. English TO AMEND VARIOUS PROVISIONS OF THE ARKANSAS CODE CONCERNING ENHANCED TRANSPORTATION; AND TO DECLARE AN EMERGENCY.
SB482 K. Hammer TO REPEAL THE ARKANSAS OPPORTUNITY PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT; TO AMEND THE LAW RELATING TO TRANSFERS OF STUDENTS BETWEEN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS; AND TO AMEND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHOICE ACT OF 2015.
SB484 Irvin TO REQUIRE THE SECRETARY OF THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TO FILL A VACANCY ON 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, Mar 19, 2025 | Agenda | 2 | Official source ↗ |
Speakers
Senator Jane English
Unverified
Senator Missy Irvin
Unverified
Senator Reginald Murdock
Unverified
Speaker 26
Senator Stephanie Flowers
Unverified
Speaker 34
Speaker 40
Speaker 59
Speaker 81
Speaker 82
Speaker 88
Speaker 90
Speaker 92
Speaker 98
Speaker 109
Speaker 111
Senator Jim Dotson
Unverified
Senator Breanne Davis
Unverified
Speaker 157
Senator Dan Sullivan Chair
Unverified
Speaker 149
Speaker 150
Bill Rochelle
Unverified
Speaker 178
Senator Kim Hammer
Unverified
Karen Walters
Unverified
Speaker 204
Speaker 207
Speaker 229
Speaker 232
Speaker 233
Speaker 238
Speaker 242
Speaker 248
Speaker 201
Speaker 254
Speaker 252
Speaker 262
Speaker 216
Speaker 264
Speaker 255
Speaker 269
Speaker 153
Speaker 170