nhsba

Legislative Bulletin
February 26, 2010


A Brief Summary of Education Issues at the State House

_____________________________________________________________________________
Legislature on Break
The Legislature took a break this week, and no hearings or work was scheduled. Activity resumes next week with many hearings, and both the House and Senate are scheduled to meet Wednesday for votes on committee recommendations.
___________________________________________________________________________
Bill Requiring "Notice" to Education Support Staff to be voted on by House
HB 1411, requiring notice of the decision against rehiring to be provided to educational support personnel, will be voted on by the full House when it meets on Wednesday. Proposed language requires written notice to education support personnel and non-certified employees of the intent to continue, or not, that employment into the next school year. Such notification may also contain "special circumstances as defined by the employer". There is NO COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION since the committee vote was tied at 10-10.
Without a committee recommendation, the House will be provided two statements, one in support of the bill and one in opposition. NHSBA opposes this bill since it interferes with local policy and bargaining matters by mandating written notice to education support personnel and non-certified employees, a significant change in local employee/employer labor relations and an intrusion into local control issues. It also provides a vague reference to "special circumstances" that may be included in the notice, leaving this subject to possible different interpretations.
Please make sure your local legislators are aware of your position on this important bill.
___________________
___________________________________________________________
Mandatory School Board Training Bill to be voted on by Senate
SB 372, requiring school board members to receive a minimum of 6 hours of annual training, will be considered by the full Senate when it meets in session on Wednesday. The recommendation for the bill is interim study. Refer for Interim Study is a committee report used in the second year of a session. A report may be submitted with findings and recommendations, but any legislative recommendation/proposal would have to be submitted as new legislation next year.
_________________________________________________________________________
Public Hearing on Proposed Suspension of Building Aid - March 2, 2010
SB 486, prohibiting the Department of Education from making any building aid grants for projects approved on or after June 30, 2010 until June 30, 2012, will have a public hearing before the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, March 2nd at 10:15 in room 103 of the Legislative Office Building (LOB). This bill is in direct conflict with the NHSBA resolution that was adopted unanimously at the January 2010 Delegate Assembly: "The NHSBA supports the full and traditional funding, by the NH Legislature and the Governor, of State Building Aid, a program that has effectively created local and state partnerships in financing school building improvements that benefit all students of New Hampshire, and which should be considered a significant part of fulfilling the State's Constitutional duty to provide an adequate education to all children."
______________________________________________________________________________
School Accountability System
The Task Force to Develop a Performance-Based Accountability System met last week to review components of the new NH Accountability System, considering proposals for the design of the performance based accountability system, as well as hearing about 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 each school meets the requirements of providing the opportunity for an adequate education.)

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 currently considering and scheduled to make recommendations on. Their 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 still preliminary and the Task Force is continuing its review. There are on-going discussions as to whether the second level of locally determined indicators should be optional or required. If required, schools would have to provide a rationale for selecting the goal, how it leads to improving student achievement, and how it can be measured. The Task Force is scheduled to meet again on April 2. An interim report is due in April, and a final report in November 2010.

______________________________________________________________________________
Pupil Safety and Violence Prevention Act - HB 1523
HB 1523 revises the statute on pupil safety and violence prevention to include harassment, intimidation, bullying, and cyberbullying. The House Education Committee has voted 19-1 to recommend an amended version of the bill that will be considered by the House sometime in March.
The proposed revision broadly defines bullying: "Bullying, harassment, or intimidation in schools has historically included actions shown to be motivated by a pupil's actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry or ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical, mental, emotional, or learning disability, gender, gender identity and expression, obesity, or other distinguishing personal characteristics, or based on association with any person identified in any of the above categories." This is then related to a further statement that, "Bullying, harassment, or intimidation shall also include actions shown to be motivated by an imbalance of power, based on a pupil's actual or perceived characteristics, behaviors, or beliefs, or motivated by the pupil's association with another person and based on the other person's characteristics, behaviors, or beliefs." Cyberbullying is incorporated into the bill, defined as, "...conduct ... undertaken through the use of electronic devices."
School boards will be required to adopt written policies prohibiting bullying, harassment, intimidation, and cyberbullying, involving pupils, parents, and the community in the development of the policy. Furthermore, the bill lists fourteen components that are required of the policy, including procedures for reporting cases and providing notification to the parents/guardians of victims and perpetrators, written procedures for subsequent investigations, and requirements for principals to develop a response to remediate any incident, impose discipline, reduce the risk of future incidents, and recommend strategies for protecting pupils from retaliation. School districts are also required to annually report substantiated incidents of bullying, harassment, intimidation, or cyberbullying to the department of education, which will prepare annual summary reports. Finally, districts must provide educational training programs in support of their efforts to reduce and prevent bullying. Such training will be required within six months of the adoption of the bill, and annually thereafter, for school employees, regular school volunteers, parents, legal guardians, relative caretakers, or employees of a company under contract to a school who have significant contact with pupils.
NHSBA supports this bill with reservations. Though NHSBA supports efforts to curb bullying in schools, the definition contained in the bill is very broad and potentially vague, and the bill includes many mandatory components of policy, which has been traditionally under the purview of local school boards.
______________________________________________________________________________
Senate Public & Municipal Affairs Committee to hear bills on budget limits and spending caps
SB 487, relative to charter limitations on the growth of budgets and taxes and to the validity of certain city and town charter provisions, and SB 488, relative to the adoption of local spending caps, are scheduled for public hearings before the Senate Public and Municipal Affairs Committee on Thursday, March 4, at 9:30 and 9:45 am respectively.
____________________________________________________________________________
For the complete text of any bill, go to the general court web site and enter the bill number, e.g. HB1523, SB405 or CACR27, and make sure the Session Year is 2010.

For more information on specific legislation, please call Dean Michener, NHSBA Director of Governmental Affairs at 603-228-2061, or email: [email protected].


Dean Michener
NHSBA Director of Governmental Affairs