REPORT FOR FEBRUARY 7
 

On Thursday morning, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education held a public hearing on nine bills of interest to school board members: HB 2598, HB 2635, HB 2709, HB 2811, HB 2918, HB 3129, HB 3263, HB 3269, and HCR 4408.

• HB 2598 – Directing OSPI to issue a request for proposals for development of an online mathematics curriculum.

• HB 2635 – Making changes to the process for resolving school district boundary disputes.

• HB 2709 – Authorizing school districts to establish a price preference to purchase locally grown food.

• HB 2811 – Creating the healthy student grant program.

• HB 2918 – Creating workgroup to study whether or not Washington should enter into the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children.

• HB 3129 – Regarding online learning programs for high school students to earn college credit.

• HB 3263 – Requiring dual credit strategic planning.

• HB 3269 – Creating a roving early intervention specialist pilot program.

• HCR 4408 – Providing Legislative approval of the statewide strategic master plan for higher education (which includes impacts on K-12 education).

Immediately following the public hearing on these bills, the Subcommittee moved into executive session and gave a “Do Pass” recommendation to each of them. All nine bills were amended to include “Null and Void” clauses before being adopted. A null and void clause simply states that if funding is not provided for the bill, the bill will become "null and void." Each of these bills will now move to the full House Appropriations Committee for its consideration.

The Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee also met this morning. (Most of yesterday's planned executive action was postponed until today.) They held a public hearing on three bills: SB 6872, SB 6674 and SB 6908.

• SB 6872 – Enacting the community schools act of 2008.

• SB 6674 – Authorizing certain school districts and educational service districts to designate a district treasurer.

• SB 6908 – Encouraging the meaning and history of the pledge of allegiance to be taught annually.

These three bills, along with the following six bills, were moved to executive session and passed out of the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Committee today:

• SB 6929 – Restoring local control to public schools by repealing the common school code. As adopted by the Committee, a workgroup would be established to review all of the education statutes and make recommendations on which statutes need to be kept and which of them should be repealed.

• SB 6418 – Requiring policies on and limiting the use of mechanical, chemical, and physical restraint of students. As adopted, WSSDA would be required to facilitate a workgroup to come up with recommendations regarding the use of restraints on students.

• SB 6588 – Authorizing the transfer of accumulated leave between the common school and higher education systems.

• SB 6450 – Requiring the reimbursement of school district and Educational Service District costs incurred while assisting with performance audits.

• SB 6930 – Regarding bonuses for nationally certified teachers who become principals or superintendents.

• SB 6466 – Creating a task force to study teaching Spanish and Chinese in public schools. As amended, the task force would be required to study and provide information on “world languages” rather than being limited to Spanish and Chinese.

Finally, the House State Government and Tribal Affairs Committee has scheduled an additional meeting this evening to take action on HB 3292. HB 3292, heard on Monday, would require governing bodies (including school boards) to record all executive sessions. When the bill was not brought up in the Committee during its regular meeting on Tuesday, it appeared the issue would die before tomorrow’s cut-off date.  Apparently the bill would not have been able to secure a majority vote of Committee members earlier in the week, but with the Attorney General and the State Auditor (requesters of the bill), and the House Majority Leader (prime sponsor of the bill) pressuring members, it appears that the bill will be able to be adopted this evening. Local governments continue to remain very concerned about this bill — and continue to question the need for the bill.

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Legislative Reports are prepared by WSSDA's Governmental Relations staff team: Dan Steele (360/252-3010) and Sheila Chard (360/252-3011). If you have questions, comments, or concerns, please contact us.