October 25, 2006
Senator Henry H.R. “Hank” Coe, Co-Chairman
Representative Jeff Wasserburger, Co-Chairman
Senator Kit Jennings
Senator Charles Townsend
Representative Debbie Hammons
Representative Del McOmie
Representative Lorraine Quarberg
Representative Dave Zwonitzer
Representative Steve Harshman
Representative Becket Hinckley
Senator Robert Peck
Representative Patrick Goggles
Representative Kurt Bucholz
Senator Charles Scott
Dave Nelson, School Finance Manager, Brenda
Long, School Finance Analyst, Matthew Sackett, Associate Research Analyst, Joseph
A. Rodriguez, Staff Attorney
Others Present at Meeting
Please refer to Appendix 1 to review the
Committee Sign-in Sheet
for a list of other individuals who attended the meeting.
This was a one day
meeting of the Committee in
Co-Chairman Coe
called the meeting to order at 8:40 a.m.
The following sections summarize the Committee proceedings by
topic. Please refer to Appendix 2 to
review the Committee Meeting Agenda.
Upon motion by Representative
McOmie and seconded by Representative Quarberg the minutes of the September
20-21, 2006 meeting of the Joint Interim Education Committee were approved as
presented.
Senator Boggs,
Committee Co-Chair and Representative Harshman, Committee Co-Chair addressed
the Committee and presented the Committee with Appendices 3, 4 and 6. Representative Harshman gave a summary of the
history of the Education Merit Scholarship.
The scholarship was implemented within six months of passage into
law. The Committee has developed four
levels of merit scholarship and a need based scholarship. The Committee has delegated much of the
administration of the scholarship to the WDE.
The success curriculum has been a big topic since implementation of the
scholarship. The Merit Scholarship
Committee is recommending three bills to the Committee. Representative Harshman discussed the
proposed bills with the Committee. The
success curriculum will not fully affect students until 2011. This will be a phased in process. By 2011 all students qualifying for the
scholarship must be proficient with PAWS.
Students will by default be required to take the success curriculum and
if they are not interested they will need to opt out of the curriculum. The actual program expenses are very close to
the initial projections. When the
program is fully loaded the estimate is an annual cost of about 16 million
dollars. Senator Boggs reported that it
looks like the account will be fully funded by 2008. This program may be the legislation of the
century.
State Superintendent
McBride addressed the Committee. Dr.
McBride presented the Committee with Appendix 7. This program will benefit the children of the
state for generations. The success
curriculum starts with full day kindergarten.
Other key parts supporting the success curriculum are the extended day
and summer school programs. The WDE is
recommending only one success curriculum instead of the two they were authorized
to prepare.
Senator Scott
indicated that the merit scholarship program is an accomplishment of a lifetime
and was truly a team effort. Senator
Scott urged the Committee to keep the success curriculum requirements
rigorous.
Joel Kupe of
Rollin Abernethy of
the
Jim
07LSO-0129.C1,
Hathaway scholarship eligibility (success curriculum)
The bill was handed
out to the Committee and is labeled as Appendix 5. Dave Gruver of LSO discussed the bill with the
Committee. Mr. Gruver specifically
pointed out that the bill deals with border students, addresses the PAWS
proficiency requirement which does not kick in until the graduating class of
2011. The bill outlines the success
curriculum for those students graduating in 2011. The bill further outlines the annual
reporting requirements.
07LSO-0130.C1, Curriculum
choice
The bill was handed
out to the Committee and is labeled as Appendix 13. Dave Gruver of LSO discussed the bill with
the Committee. The concept of the bill
is really simple. The success curriculum
is the default curriculum for every student and in order to avoid that the
parents will need to opt out for their children.
07LSO-0131.C1,
Hathaway scholarship program
The bill was handed
out to the Committee and is labeled as Appendix 14. Dave Gruver of LSO discussed the bill with
the Committee. This bill is the cleanup
bill. Most of the issues have been dealt
with by WDE through rule and regulation.
All other non success curriculum changes regarding Hathaway program
should be made in this bill before it goes to the legislature.
Senator Jennings, Subcommittee
Co-chairman, reported to the Committee regarding the October 18, 2006
subcommittee meeting in Lander. The
subcommittee is not recommending any major substantive statutory changes. The recommended statutory changes are minor
and provide clarification. Senator
Jennings provided the Committee with Appendix 15 which is 07LSO-0267.W1. In addition the Subcommittee is requesting
that the WDE develop a procedure manual for filing a charter application.
Mike McVay, A&I
Budget Division Administrator addressed the Committee at the request of the Committee. The actual issue addressed by Mr. McVay is
how the 85%-15% is paid on community college employee health insurance. At this point A&I is not anticipating
any money being taken away from either the University or the community colleges. If the employee's salary is being paid out of
the general fund then the state will pay 85% of the health insurance premium. The problem is that they have been paying 85%
of the premium for all community college employees even though only 61% of the
salaries are paid out of the general fund.
Although they have indicated to the community colleges that they will
not reduce the 85% in this biennium they have interpreted the statute to mean
that they should only pay 61% of the 85% premium. They have informed the community colleges that
unless the statute is changed they will only pay 61% of the 85% premium in the
next biennium. The cost of this decision
to the community colleges is about 12 million dollars per year.
Larry Picus, Picus & Associates and Mary Kay Hill from the WDE
addressed the Committee and presented the Committee with Appendices 16 and
17. There are some fairly large alternative
schools that get a large amount of funding.
The initial intent in the funding model was that alternative schools would
remain small settings, addressing children with a special need, as part of
student at-risk program strategy. The proposal
is that if alternative schools go above 50 students they be funded as regular
schools with all students being classified as at risk.
Larry Picus, Picus
& Associates and Terry Wigert and Chuck Mitchell from the WDE addressed the
committee. There is a lot of interest in
this issue. They provided the Committee
with Appendix 18, and 19. The student is
treated and funded as if they are going to their home school. The accountability for the child’s
performance is in the child’s home school district. The WDE representatives walked the Committee
through the proposed bill. Based upon
the discussion at the previous Committee meetings the bill was aptly
drafted. The Committee discussed whether a task force
needs to be implemented as part of the legislation to further study the issue
of virtual schools.
Dave Nelson of LSO
addressed the Committee and provided Appendix 20. This bill simply extends funding for these
programs into the next school year. The
second component is a clarification of the intent surrounding enrichment
programs. In addition the instructional
hours were modified in the bill.
Senator
Ann Meyer,
speech/therapist from
Suzy Delger provided
the Committee with Appendix 12. She is
advocating for those professionals who go above and beyond what is required for
employment in a school district. Ms.
Delger echoes the plea made by Ann Meyer that these individuals should be
recognized in the same fashion as national board certified teachers. These individuals are not being paid in the
same fashion as teachers. They are
rewarded by the districts for national certifications but they are asking the
state to reward them as well.
The next meeting is
December 4th and 5th in
There being no
further business, Co-Chairman Wasserburger adjourned the meeting at 3:35 p.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Senator Coe,
Co-Chairman