January 29, 2010 NHSBA Legislative Bulletin

Proposal to Mandate Board Training

NHSBA testified in opposition to SB 372, requiring school board members to complete a minimum of 3 hours of training and instruction annually in the education laws of this state and another 3 hours in education policy. NHSBA opposition to the bill focused on the requirement for all school board members to receive training, and that it represents an Article 28-a unfunded mandate. The association highlighted its training efforts, noting that 125-150 board members participate in regional training offerings every year. Of the close to 1,000 school board members statewide, approximately 935 sit on boards of NHSBA member districts. The training offered by NHSBA is provided as a free service to these member school boards. It was also noted that if annual training were required of all board members, it may have an unintended consequence of inhibiting people from running for school board seats. These volunteers have jobs and families, and school board work is time consuming. Imposing additional obligations may result in more people being reluctant to participate in this important public office.
The bill now awaits further review from the committee.

______________________________________________________________________________

Proposed Requirement to Assess Body Mass Index

The House Education Committee held a public hearing on a bill requiring that body mass index be assessed in all pupils in grades one, 4, 7, and 10.

HB 1479 requires the nurse of every school to conduct a body mass index assessment for all pupils in grades one, 4, 7, and 10 who have not opted out for religious reasons. The assessment shall not include the pupil's name, address, phone number, date of birth, social security number, or any other personally identifiable information about the pupil. The results of the assessment shall be provided to the school board, superintendent, and the department of education. The school shall retain the assessment results as part of the pupil's school health record and furnish a copy of the assessment results to the parents or legal guardians of the pupil. The bill now awaits further review from the committee.

______________________________________________________________________________

Labor Bills in House Education

NHSBA opposed two bills impacting labor relations with district staff that are both scheduled for votes on committee recommendations next Tuesday, Feb. 2nd.
HB 1411, which requires any person who is part of a school district's educational support personnel to receive notice if such person is not to be rehired. The bill also requires that educational support personnel be eligible to receive unemployment compensation benefits as of the end of the school year in which the decision against rehiring is made; and
HB 1412, which requires that all school employees receive due process protections and just cause as part of any disciplinary action.

ACTION ITEM

It is important to contact House Education Committee members and express your concern with these labor bills. Specific mention should be made that:
HB 1411 would extend notice requirements to ALL educational support personnel who have been employed for one or more years in the same school district by requiring in writing on or before April 15 if they are not to be rehired. It also makes them eligible to receive unemployment compensation benefits. Educational support personnel is defined as teacher's aides, food service staff, custodial and maintenance staff, security staff, health care staff, library, computer, and audio/visual staff, clerical and administrative staff, and transportation staff employed by a school district.

HB 1412 mandates school districts to provide all employees with due process protections as part of any disciplinary action and would not allow discipline of any employee without just cause. The phrase "just cause" has no specific meaning, but instead is left to outside judges/arbitrators to apply in given circumstances. That is exactly the reason that school districts in NH have long resisted its inclusion in collective bargaining agreements, or in the alternative, have strictly limited its application to specified disciplinary actions. And, the NH Supreme Court has determined that it is an issue that school boards are not required to bargain because of its likely intrusion on the exercise of legitimate managerial rights. In short, the phrase "just cause" is an undefined phrase, subject to unilateral interpretation by outside forums, and has been recognized as potentially encroaching on governing bodies ability to manage the personnel systems in public schools.
___________________________________________________________________________

House Action

The House met in session on Wednesday and approved several bills:
HB 1127, enabling a school district treasurer to appoint a deputy treasurer with approval by the school board.
HB 1265, requiring the school board to develop and implement a policy to address air quality in schools, specifically addressing methods to minimize emissions from motorized vehicles on school property.
HB 1289, requiring annual investigation of air quality in public schools using a checklist provided by the Dept. Education. This bill also encourages districts to implement the EPA Tools for Schools program.
HB 1324, establishing a definition of a geographically isolated small school and providing a procedure for such schools to petition the department of education for approval of an alternative staffing plan.

HB 1383, requiring a course in financial literacy for high school graduation, was voted down by the House and killed.
______________________________________________________________________________
Proposed Suspension of Building Aid
SB 486 has been introduced in the Senate and referred to the Senate Education Committee. The bill is in response to the interim report of the Building Aid Study Committee, the committee that was created last June during final budget deliberations. As you recall, last December the Committee recommended a suspension of building aid to prevent any further obligation for state funding, thereby capping the state's financial commitment to only those projects currently approved and receiving funding. SB 486 prohibits the Department of Education from making any building aid grants for projects approved on or after June 30, 2010 until June 30, 2012. As of today's Bulletin, a public hearing on the bill has not been scheduled.
______________________________________________________________________________

School Accountability System
The Task Force to Develop a Performance-Based Accountability System met this week to review the Department of Education's progress on implementing School Accountability Site Visits as required under the Adequate Education statute. By FY 2013, annual site visits to 10% of NH's schools will be required, with the purpose of auditing the input-based reports of how the school meets the requirements of providing the opportunity for an adequate education. (For more information on the input-based system that is to be implemented by the end of this year, June 30, 2010, see the NHSBA December 21, 2009 Bulletin.) The Task Force also reviewed and discussed possible details of a "Multi-Level System for Performance Accountability" that was presented by Deb Wiswell (Dept. Education) and Scott Marion of the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment, a non-profit organization located in Dover, NH.

There are two approaches for demonstrating that a school is providing the opportunity for an adequate education: an "Input System" based on school approval standards, and a "Performance System", which the Task Force is to make recommendations on. Discussion of a performance system focused on a possible two-level approach: one level consisting of a limited set of common indicators and a second level that would be locally determined indicators. Level one indicators could include state data such as test participation rates, NECAP scores, attendance/truancy data and graduation/dropout rates. The second level of data could be a limited set of locally determined goals, or targets, as indicators. These would be identified locally and incorporated into the performance measurement system for that school/district.

These discussions are very preliminary and the Task Force will be continuing its review. Additional meetings are scheduled for February 19 and April 2. An interim report is due in April, and a final report in November 2010.
____________________________________________________________________________