ORLEANS PARISH SCHOOL BOARD LEGAL and LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE Orleans Parish School Board Administrative Office 3520 General DeGaulle Drive, Suite 4050 New Orleans, LA 70114 June 11, 2015 2:30 PM (Notice: This meeting may be convened up to 30 minutes prior to the posted schedule to facilitate the orderly conduct of business) Committee Members: Ms. Leslie Ellison, Chair Mr. Nolan Marshall Mr. Seth Bloom, Ex-Officio Mr. John Brown, Sr. AGENDA Call to Order Ms. Leslie Ellison Adoption of the Agenda Additions/Deletions/Modifications REPORTS/PRESENTATION(S) ACTION ITEM(S) Action Item No. 1: Approval of Disciplinary Hearing Officers and Procedures (Henderson Lewis, Ph. D.) Rationale: (Provided in support documentation) Recommendation: That the Orleans Parish School Board approves the BESE approved list of Disciplinary Hearing Officers (DHOs), more specifically those Disciplinary Hearing Officers located in the Metropolitan New Orleans area, as required under La. R.S. 17:443 relative to the discipline of tenured teachers and administrators pursuant to said statutes. DISCUSSION/INFORMATION ITEM(S) Legislative Update Stan Smith RECESS TO EXECUTIVE SESSION Litigation Matters: 1. Chad Neyland v. Orleans Parish School Board, et al, CDC No. 2002-13269, Personal Injury. 2. Ronald Lee v. Orleans Parish School Board, OWC No. 14-05727; Worker s Compensation. Page 1 of 8
3. Gwendolyn Rayford v. Orleans Parish School Board, OWC No. 13-04220; Worker s Compensation. RECONVENE FROM EXECUTIVE SESSION/ROLL CALL: EXECUTIVE SESSION REPORT/ACTION ITEMS Litigation Matters: 1. Chad Neyland v. Orleans Parish School Board, et al, CDC No. 2002-13269, Personal Injury. Recommendation: That the Orleans Parish School Board approves settlement as recommended by the General Counsel. 2. Ronald Lee v. Orleans Parish School Board, OWC No. 14-05727; Worker s Compensation. Recommendation: That the Orleans Parish School Board approves settlement as recommended by the General Counsel. 3. Gwendolyn Rayford v. Orleans Parish School Board, OWC No. 13-04220; Worker s Compensation. Recommendation: That the Orleans Parish School Board approves settlement as recommended by the General Counsel. ADJOURNMENT Page 2 of 8
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Orleans Parish School Board Legislative Report June 2015 The legislature is in the final week of the session, ending June 11, 2015. Committee meetings were finalized last week and activities in this final week have been focused on getting all bills through the House and Senate and with a heavy focus on the budget. Primary Items impacting education include. MFP Final resolution still pending The MFP was heard Thursday, June 4 by the Senate Education committee. The committee expressed great concern over the budget overall, the fact that the MFP included the additional $50 million when every other department was taking cuts and the fact that the House approved and forwarded the MFP to the Senate without full funding. There was also concern that the process creating the MFP failed to include information proving the school districts needed the additional funds. The Senate Committee could amend the MFP and elected to defer it back to BESE. If BESE does not send a new MFP that is approved before session ends which at this stage is nearly impossible then last years MFP will remain in effect. The Senate has passed its version of HB 1 with no increase in MFP funding, other than increases tied to increased students. It also includes approximately $5 million in additional funding for the high risk pool to served special needs students. In the final 2 days of the session, the House and Senate will be working on finalizing the budget. There is still the possibility of an increase in funding of all or a portion of the resolution adopted by BESE. However, this possibility is considered remote in light of the budget challenges facing the state and the governor s threat to not support any measure that would result in an increase in taxes. HB 180 (Bouie) - Rejected The announced intent of this legislation was to prevent the construction of school facilities on landfills. OPSB was supportive of the intent of the bill, however, the wording in the legislation was broad and would have created a difficult scenario for school boards in urban settings to build new schools. When repeated efforts to seek compromise wording for this legislation were unsuccessful, the bill was defeated through a concerted effort by our team of technical experts who made an excellent presentation during the two hours of debate on this bill in Senate Education. HB 166 (Bouie) - Rejected Page 5 of 8
This bill called for the automatic return of schools to the original school district from the Recovery School District one year after the school is no longer designated as a failing school. This bill was approved in House Education but failed in the full House. HB 359 (Bishop) - Rejected This bill required public schools in Orleans Parish to offer sex education instruction in certain grades. The bill was approved in House Education Committee but failed in the full House. HB 326 (Bishop) and SB 31 (Morrell) - Rejected These bills called for a survey of public school students in Orleans Parish regarding risk behavior. HB 694 ( Abramson) - Approved This is the bill that adds unimproved property to the list of property available for charters with improved property. There was an effort in the Senate to clarify the bill so that it was clear that it applied to only surplus property. This effort failed 15-18. The author lobbied heavy against the amendment. However Senator Claitor provided a good amendment which clarified the limits for the purchase price for the school board to reactive the property from a charter if it is no longer used for education. HB 695 (Abramson) Approved This bill provides clarity to legislation enacted in 2014 with regard to loading and unloading students off schools buses to help ensure the safety of the students. SB 267 (Claitor) - Approved This bill provides for implementing weighted funding for schools districts that share state MFP revenue with charters. Senator Claitor has long been an advocate for ensuring that students with disabilities are adequately served and that the funds appropriately follow those students. He sponsored this bill at the request of the Louisiana Development Disabilities Council (LDDC). This bill cleared the Senate will little opposition. Before the bill went to the House, the Department of Education scheduled a couple of meetings with interested parties DOE, charters and OPSB to discuss the bill. As a result of these meetings, a series of amendments were crafted to be added in House Education. One item that was not added during these discussions was a request by charters to defer the effective date by one year. DOE did not take a position on the deferral and Senator Claitor and LDDC opposed. The proposed amendments were added in House Ed and Rep Leger successfully added an amendment to defer the effective date for 1 year until the 2016-17 fiscal year. The charters argued that this was necessary to not impact their budgets that are already in process or have been prepared. Page 6 of 8
This bill, as amended was heard in the House on June 8. On the House floor, an amendment to remove delayed implementation was approved by a vote of 69 39, making it now effective for the 2015-16 fiscal year. The primary issues that won over the arguments were 1) the legislature has not yet approved the MFP (in fact, at this point the MFP has not been fully funded by state revenues) and schools will have to adjust their budgets to reflect the final MFP as well as true up to the October student counts, 2) the constitution requires equitable funding and distributing funds on an average basis violates the constitution and 3) in 2012, DOE was directed to address this issue and craft a solution and it is still being discussed in 2015. The bill has been concurred in the Senate and is headed to the Governor for approval. The original target of this legislation appears to be Type 2 (state) charters who have been accused of historically underserving students with disabilities. Simulations prepared by DOE reflect that most Type 2 (state) charters and OPSB charters will receive less state MFP as a result of this bill. The simulation is based on the weights in the MFP formula of 22% for at risk, 60% for G/T and 150% for students with disabilities. Type 5 charters are not impacted by this legislation; they are already subject to weighted funding. OPSB network schools would receive approximately $1.7 million of additional state MFP through weighted funding. The primary reason is that the funds imbedded in the state MFP for non-public students with disabilities who are being served by OPSB would remain with OPSB where previously a large portion of these funds were distributed to charters. HB 373 re Common Core Approved This bill represents a compromise to address the common core standards. It provides that BESE shall develop state standards for required subjects and provide a process for the development of state standards for English language arts and mathematics (ELAM). The standards shall be posted no later than February 21, 2016 and adopted by March 4, 2016. The process provides that BESE shall immediately begin reviewing and developing state standards for ELAM and that they shall hold one meeting in each congressional with respect to the standards. The Speaker of the House and President of the Senate will appoint one member from their bodies to attend these meetings and to report back of the status of the review and development of standards. The standards must be developed in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act. Should the Governor suspend or veto any of the standards, BESE shall undertake a review and make any necessary revisions. SB 43 (Appel) Approved This bill sets forth the process for BESE to adopt state content standards for elementary and secondary education and the extent to which these standards can be amended or suspended by the Legislature or Governor. Page 7 of 8
HB 543 (Schroeder) re Assessment Approved This bill retains present law requiring assessments based on nationally recognized content standards and requiring that student achievement standards be based on national test scores. It limits the number of questions that can be based on the blueprint developed through processes conducted by a consortium of states funded by organizations dedicate to political advocacy. The proposed laws would become effective if an when HB 373 and SB 43 become effective. Other The inventory tax credit issue is still under consideration with a current proposal of a reduction of the tax credit by 28%. Depending on how the credit ends up being structured, it may not have an initial impact on school funding. There could be a longer term consequence if the reduction in the tax credit impacts the retention of business in Orleans Parish or the ability to recruit new businesses. Page 8 of 8