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Tuesday was a busy day with multiple bills of
interest being heard in multiple legislative committees.
On Tuesday morning, the House Education Appropriations
Committee held a public hearing on five bills: HB 1757,
HB 1969, HB 2449, HJM 4020 and HB 2670.
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HB 1757 would create a Small School District
Contingency Fund to provide three-year loans to
small school districts in financial distress.
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HB 1969 would require state funding to school
districts for institutional education programs to be
not less than 90 percent of allocations from the
prior year.
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HB 2449 would amend the 2009-11 Operating Budget
by striking $1.5 million currently provided for
school district “Becca” truancy petitions and
reallocating the same amount for diversion and other
activities to eliminate or reduce truancy.
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HJM 4020 is a Memorial that would request
Congress to fulfill the federal commitment to fund
special education to 40 percent of total special
education costs experienced by the states.
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HB 2670, the first of several levy-related bills
to be heard this week, would enhance school district
levy bases by assuming Initiative 728 (Student
Achievement) and Initiative 732 (educator COLAs)
were fully implemented by the Legislature. The
I-728/I-732 levy base enhancement currently in law
is set to expire at the end of calendar year 2011;
HB 2670 would extend this sunset to December 2017.
The bill would also allow K-4 class size enhancement
funding to continue to be counted in calculation of
school district levy bases if the funding is
eliminated.
Also on Tuesday morning, the House Education
Committee heard four bills of interest: HB 2631, HB
2586, HB 2580 and HB 2392.
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HB 2631 would create the Dropout Prevention
Recognition Program to provide an annual award of
$10,500 to school districts for each student
prevented from dropping out of high school. The
funds would have to be used for specified dropout
prevention activities.
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HB 2586 would allow the State Board of Education
to grant waivers to school districts which choose to
use up to five percent of the required instructional
hours for kindergarten students for kindergarten
outreach activities, including home visits, special
educational events for parents and workshops for
parents.
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HB 2580 would allow a high school skills center
to request assistance from the State Board for
Community and Technical Colleges if it believes a
college is not following the law which requires
colleges to recognize dual credit agreements for
secondary career and technical education courses.
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HB 2392 would prohibit school districts from
using public resources for the purpose of supporting
or opposing a teachers’ strike. The bill was
requested by the Kent Education Association after
its recent strike in which the school district
called, e-mailed and mailed information to
constituents regarding the strike. KEA members felt
the information was one-sided, misleading and
anti-teacher and were concerned that public
resources were being used to oppose the strike in
this manner. WSSDA testified in opposition to the
bill, not because of the intent of the legislation,
but because of the specific language of the bill. We
argued that the language was too broad and could be
interpreted to mean that school districts would be
prohibited from communicating with its constituents
regarding a strike or potential strike and perhaps
could even prohibit a school district from
contracting for legal advice about its options
before or during a strike.
This afternoon both the Senate Government Operations
& Elections Committee and the House State Government &
Tribal Affairs Committee held public hearings on bills
of interest to school directors. The Senate Government
Operations & Elections Committee took public testimony
on SB 6367 and SB 6368.
SB 6367 would allow public agencies (including
school districts) to respond to public records requests
by providing an internet address where the responsive
records can be found on the agency’s Web site. There
remains an allowance for requestors to ask for and
receive hard copies of documents from the agency if the
requestor cannot access records through the internet.
SB 6368 would allow requestors and agencies
(including school districts) to meet in person before
filing a court action alleging a violation of the Public
Records Act (PRA). A requestor or the agency can still
file suit if they feel it is necessary; however, the
party filing the suit must include certification that
they have met, or provide an explanation of why they
have not met, with the other party. If one of the
parties files suit without conducting a conference in
good faith, the court has the discretion to reduce or
eliminate any award for costs, including daily
penalties. The House State Government & Tribal Affairs
Committee held a public hearing on
HB 2583, a companion to SB 6368. All three bills
(along with
HB 2582, a companion to SB 6367, which has not yet
been heard) were requested by a coalition of local
government associations (including WSSDA, WASA, Cities,
Counties and Public Ports) in an effort to positively
clarify Public Records Act provisions, rather than being
forced to continually oppose PRA legislation.
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