March 27, 2009 NHSBA Legislative Bulletin

Legislative Bulletin
March 27, 2009

A Brief Summary of Education Issues at the State House
-Please note: Dean Michener will be away and unavailable next week:
there will be no Bulletin on April 3rd.

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House Education Bills

The House acted on several bills that have been in the Education Committee.
Adopted bills include:

HB 143, relative to parental placements of non-resident pupils in public schools and stipulating that no pupil shall be enrolled in a non resident district prior to the execution of an agreement between the resident district and the non resident district that allocates program and financial responsibilities of both entities if a 504 accommodation is required;
HB 154, relative to changes in the truancy statutes, requiring that school board policies on truancy include provisions "which define administratively excused absences and identify a system of intervention steps designed to reduce the number of habitual truants in the school district. The policy shall also designate an employee in each school as the person responsible for truancy issues";
HB 332, establishing a commission to study school discipline;
HB 509, requiring school mental health personnel to obtain written consent of a parent or legal guardian prior to conducting any psychological evaluation or examination on a child.
HCR 7, a legislative resolution that encourages the NH department of education to work with local school districts to devise and implement teen dating violence education policies and urges school districts to incorporate dating violence education into health education curriculums.

Defeated bills include:
HB 123, requiring a financial literacy component within the high school economics course;
HB 136, relative to procedures for withdrawing from a cooperative school district (HB 615, relative to withdrawal from a school administrative unit, was retained by the Education Committee);
HB 367, relative to procedures for evaluation of home schooled students (HB 368, relative to annual goals in a home education program, was retained by the Education Committee).
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Labor Update

Unfortunately, the recommendations of the House Labor Committee were adopted on roll call votes, thereby killing two bills supported by NHSBA. HB 231 reflected a specific NHSBA resolution to repeal the "evergreen provision" adopted last year that continues the terms of "any pay plan" in a contract after its expiration when a new contract has not been settled. HB 500 would have repealed the provision allowing "union authorization cards" to replace elections when employees choose an exclusive representative for organization. The results of the roll call votes can be viewed here, choosing a SEARCH on 2009 SESSION YEAR for the NH HOUSE, and then scrolling to either HB 231 or HB 500 in the Bill No box.

The House also defeated, on simple voice votes, two other bills opposed by NHSBA. HB 305, giving non-emergency public employees the right to strike, and HB 46, implementing binding arbitration. However, the House Labor Committee has retained HB 631, relative to collective bargaining and dispute resolution, as a means to "thoroughly review 273-A with a clear focus on the end process."

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Accountability for an Adequate Education - SB 180
The Senate has approved this bill that establishes an accountability system to ensure schools are providing the opportunity for an adequate education (see March 13 Bulletin for details). The bill now goes to the House and will likely be assigned to the House Education Committee for further review and consideration.
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Retirement Update: HB 223 - HB 532 - HB 591 - HB 641
The Senate approved HB 223, the bill that delays the effective date for the implementation of employer assessments for "spiking" (excess retirement benefits due to severance packages). The bill now goes to the Governor for approval.

The House split on recommendations reported last week on important retirement bills.
The committee's proposed amendment to HB 532 was rejected, and the bill subsequently passed 189-185 as originally introduced. The bill amends RSA 100-A:1, XVII, excluding extra or special duty pay from a member's earnable compensation, thereby excluding these payments from their pension benefit. The bill now goes to the Senate.

The committee's recommendation to kill HB 591 was adopted, thus defeating the bill's intent to limit a new retiree's initial pension benefit to no more than 100% of their highest salary.

The recommended amendment to HB 641 was adopted. Employer assessments for "spiking" are to be phased in over a four-year period with employers responsible for 25% of the actual spiking cost in 2010, 50% in 2011, 75% in 2012 and the entire costs of spiking in 2013 and beyond.
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State Budget Update - HB 1, HB 2
The House Finance Committee continues to work on the state budget, and NHSBA remains concerned over funding levels for many categorical state aid programs. In addition, Division I will be recommending more reductions in the state share of retirement contributions. The current employer contribution rate for teachers is 8.93%: by statute, the state funds 35% and the local district funds the remaining 65%. The resulting cost for school districts is 5.8% of teacher payroll with the state paying 3.13%. Effective July 1, 2009 the teacher rate increases by 20% to 10.70, of which the state would pay 3.74% and local districts pay 6.96%. However, the proposed reduction is to lower the state share of employer contributions from 35% to 30% for FY 2010 and 25% for FY 2011. This would mean significant cost increases to local districts beginning immediately this summer. The state's contribution on teacher payroll would drop from 3.74% down to 3.21% in FY 2010 and 2.68% in FY 2011. The local district portion would increase from 6.96% to 7.49% and then 8.02% respectively for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011. It is also important to remember that these employer rate increases, adopted last fall, do not include any consideration of recent economic conditions. Last November, the actuary advised the NHRS Board that effective July 1, 2011, 20% to 40% increases could be anticipated due to investment losses.
In separate action, Division I is also recommending an increase in employee retirement rates. For Group I teachers and employees, the rate would increase from the current 5% to 7%: for Group II police/fire it would increase from the current 9.30% to 11%.
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Economic Stimulus Update
Statewide Informational Meeting: Tuesday, April 7, 1:00 pm
Governor John Lynch and the University of NH are offering a program on ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) to provide information on where to find details on the 80 or so ARRA funded programs that are expected to benefit our state. The program will be held at UNH Durham and aired live via video simulcast at seven convenient locations (Concord, Conway, Gorham, Keene, Littleton, Manchester and Rye). It will also be available via webcast to the first 500 registrants. Details and registration information can be found on the NHSBA web site at NHRecovery Info Program. Also note that web sites for both NH's Office of Economic Stimulus and the U.S. Department of Education (see US DoE recent information) provide current information regarding Stimulus funding, with information posted as it becomes available. Finally, an ARRA Implementation Discussion Powerpoint is available on the NH Dept Educ Stimulus web site.

School board members should be aware that the House approved SB 39, providing authorization for special meetings. The bill stipulates that "any town, village district, or school district, including those towns that have adopted RSA 40:13, may call a special meeting, without court approval, to consider an appropriate response to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 or any similar act adopted by Congress in 2009." A technical amendment giving the governor authority to waive, and adopt temporary, administrative rules must be considered by the Senate before the bill can go to the Governor for approval.

It is important to re-emphasize two issues noted in last week's Bulletin. The first is that approximately $30.9 million in Title I Grants to LEAs and approximately $47.4 million in IDEA Part B grants to states, will likely be distributed in two equal amounts; half this spring, and another half next fall. These will likely be additional monies distributed through existing formulas or procedures that have a dedicated purpose and will generally supplement, not supplant, local funding. Guidelines for acceptable uses of these Title I and IDEA funds can be found at Title I Stimulus and IDEA Stimulus.

The second is to stress the need for transparency and accountability on how funds are expended. The Stimulus Bill appropriates significant money for auditing and ensuring compliance with program provisions. It will be important for school districts to fully understand the need for careful accounting of any funds received through the Stimulus Program. As an example, there are existing requirements for accounting of Title I funds, but any additional Title I money received through the Stimulus will require additional separate accounting for how those monies are spent. It is also likely that, assuming $120 million of State Fiscal Stabilization Fund money is used to meet the additional requirement for Adequate Education funding, that separate/additional accounting will be required of districts for that piece of their adequate education grant attributable to Stimulus funds.
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For the complete text of any bill, go to the general court web site and enter the bill number, e.g. HB114, SB38 or CACR2 (no spaces!), and make sure the Session Year is 2009.

For more information on specific legislation, please call Dean Michener, NHSBA Director of Governmental Affairs at 603-228-2061, or email: deanm@nhsba.org.