Education Committee- House

with me and uh we'll have a prayer some weeks if you would Thank you, Representative. Couple of housekeeping items this morning, uh, members, we, I had sent out a message of the bills working here actually we're only gonna be hearing SB 89, uh, so don't blink because you might miss um the committee meeting this morning, um, we do have a group with us, uh, Mr. Shane Broadway, um, otherwise known as Mr. Saline County, uh, has brought us our friends from leadership Seline that did I get that right? Leadership Celine, so, uh, an amazing group of, of folks who are, um, continuing the, the great. of leadership in Saline County, so it's, I think it's class number 19. Did I get that right? So members, if you would recognize them for being here this morning. And with that I'm going to yield the chair to Vice Chair McKenzie for uh SB 89. Representative Brooks, Chairman Brooks, you, you are recognized uh to introduce yourself. Thank you, Mr. Chair, Keith Brooks, State Representative District 78. Uh, I bring to you, uh, Senate Bill 89. This is by Senator English. Uh, she had other bills to run this morning, so I'm gonna run that for her. Uh, this is just a, a very simple, um, government transparency bill for our school boards that passed the Senate unanimously, so just very simple. It really only does a couple of things. It requires school board uh to uh post the agenda at least 24 hours before the meeting, uh, and 2 hours before a special meeting that requires posting. Of meeting minutes no later than 24 hours after a meeting has ended. And with that, I'll be happy to take any questions. Are there any questions by the committee? Representative Meeks, you recognize. Thank you. I, I, I just wanted to double check, um, if a school board post a an agenda 24 hours prior to a, a meeting with that agenda listed, would that, uh, give a school board any opportunity to Prohibit or stop anybody from coming and bringing a concern or issue before that school board at, at that meeting. So for example, we're gonna have a school board meeting tomorrow night. I post the agenda and I as a concerned parent show up at that meeting the next night. Would that prohibit me or or create an opportunity for a school board to say, sorry, you're not on the agenda, we're not going to listen to your concern. Uh, I can't answer that question specifically. This doesn't deal with that, uh, with new agenda items, uh, but that's something I will definitely get an answer for. There are, uh, maybe other legislation down the road relative to uh uh to speaking at school board meetings. I'm sure some of you have have heard wind of things like that. Uh, so it doesn't, uh, deal, uh, specifically with that. Representative Duke you recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just I wanted some clarity. Um. I think this is a great bill, but on, um, on the uh the posting of the minutes, is it upon approval of those minutes or is it after that. Yes, OK, so that would likely be at the next board meeting, correct? Is that correct? That is a good question. It wouldn't be 24 hours of the meeting, they just had, it would be 24 hours of the meeting which they approved the minutes. Which I, I mean, I think that I just want to have clarity that that's what that means is for the approval of the, uh, Representative Brooks, minutes are officially approved, but they are still a living document. There's still a document that is produced, so is it the will of the bill to the, the documents that are that are stenoed then are placed publicly online. That is correct, that they're voted on and recognizes the performance of the previous uh meeting at the next meeting, but those minutes still do exist even though they exist regardless of when they're approved. OK. uh Follow up. Yes, you recognize. So which one are we? I think there probably needs to be some clarity on that for school boards on that because the way I read that was it would be the next meeting that they would have, and they would have that approval, which because sometimes there are mistakes in those and or is it 24 hours following. I don't really have strong feelings. I just think it needs to have some clarity on that. For the boards. I would agree that there needs to be clarity and if I need to pull this bill down for a momentarily to get the Senate sponsor to, to provide some clarity for me, I'm happy to do that. Representative Cozart, you recognized for a question. Yes Thank you, Mr. Chair. Representative Brooks, our chairman Brooks, um. I offered an amendment on the other end and to uh the, the gentleman that was actually brought this bill to Jane English and yourself and I was turned down on it and I think it addressed a lot of the problems that we're gonna have with this bill if we don't do something a little bit different, uh, I will still offer that amendment to you if you pull it back to consider, uh, what you're doing. I have that on my desk. I don't have it here, but would that be this bill or would that be SB9? Oh, I'm sorry. That's right. That is SB 90. Yeah, I believe that this, this one, this one is relatively nebulous in terms of scope and, and the impact SB 90 might have a little bit more attention to pay to it I got a little ahead of myself. Yes, it is S390, so sorry about that. I'll pull that back. but I do have that amendment. I'm always, always happy to entertain that. Representative Mayberry, you're recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I just have a question. I mean, Unintended consequences. What if there's a tornado that hits. What if the secretary who posts that is sick and in the hospital suddenly had a car accident that night, couldn't get it posted. I. Things happen and so I don't know if you're gonna make an amendment, um, if there could be, you know, Outside of some extraordinary situation that they would be posted by 24 hours. There's no, uh, you know, there's, there's no consequences necessarily within this legislation that would, um, I guess punish them in any way, obviously things happen. There's really nothing you can do to control I know that we can write into code every potential eventuality of, of a sick child or sick mother or uh tornado or a snowstorm. I don't know that we could, could codify that necessarily which wouldn't really be the intent, but I, I think they're, um, given that there's not a consequence to it not being posted, I don't know. Why that would be an issue. I guess if there's no consequence, then why have it? Well, That would be a good question, uh, obviously you're an amendment already. You know, just the outside of some extraordinary circumstance or something, that's all. Thank you. Thank you. OK. Representative Vaut, do you have a question? Yes, um. I'm trying to figure out how to pose the question, I'm sorry, sir, um. Maybe you can change it to, uh, let me see if I can find the line. I'll come if somebody else is in, I'll come back. Let me find the line, sir. Represented Beck you recognized for a question. Thank you, Mr. Chair. um, so. What if it weren't approved? So you're saying that. This if if the minutes weren't approved in the meeting, if I just if I just didn't approve them, then they wouldn't be posted, correct? By the technicality of, of the language, I guess that's true, but I believe every school board would have to approve minutes uh as part of their typical process. I, I just for the purpose of, I'm sorry, Representative Beck, I'll let you continue your train of thought. The minutes, uh, clarity from Bill sponsor, uh, minutes would be, would be posted no later than 24 hours after their approval. So to answer the question, it's not 24 hours after the the preceding meeting that's 24 hours after their approval. And again it's, I, I don't know, I don't know a, a school board that that doesn't approve their minutes as a part of their regular course of business. I think that may have helped cause a little swirl, but I think we're on a better footing now. Yeah. Uh, are there any other questions from the committee, uh, Representative McGruder, you're recognized for a question. I, I love the bill, uh, everything you're doing, I just wish there was some type of uh Consequence involved for not uh posting it uh the minutes, uh, they, they dish we have some very large districts and we have some small districts uh and sometimes they just get complacent because there's nothing in place, but I would like that if possible. OK. I, I, I will agree to, to pull the bill and have a discussion with the Senate sponsor, um, as it's already passed that in, so I'll have a discussion with Senate sponsor on what that might look like, uh, and then go from there and if the if the committee is amenable to that, then we'll, we'll pull the bill down, we'll work on that one issue. Are there any other issues that the committee sees because I think we've clarified the approval of the issue. So emergent situation plus. consequence. We all feel good about that? OK Representative Duke, you have a question? Well I'll try to form this as a question. I think that's how the bill reads. I just wanted to have clarity on it because I think there was just a little bit of confusion, I think it's we were initially going through it. So wouldn't you agree that that's how the bill reads I would agree that that's how it reads, yes, but I would also agree that it appears that they're the will of the committee is, is for a little bit more teeth in the bill. One more update from our sent the bill sponsor consequences are from department after the rulemaking promulgation process. So the swift hammer of justice will come from our friends at ADE following the promulgation of rules. Representative, you're recognized. You sure? OK, uh, let's make sure any other questions from the committee and I, and I would say that the, the bill does not uh explicitly say anything about consequences, but I would imagine that the, uh, the code that it refers to probably allows for promulgation of rules relative to consequences for school boards, correct. Any other questions from the committee? We have no one signed up. Is there anyone that would like to speak for or against the bill? OK, I'm gonna entertain a motion if there is one at the time. Sorry, we got a motion to pass on the floor. Representative Meeks is that a similar or different motion? of the well, well, I believe that we perhaps have gotten to a different place in the last 3 minutes. I think in, in, and that's, that's simply by the goodwill of the committee helping me get there because sometimes when it's your first bill to run into a session, you feel like you're just jumping back on the bicycle one more time and you guys have been gracious to hold, hold me as I get the training bills off and I appreciate those in leadership. Count, yeah.