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Superintendent outlines state bills affecting funding, meals and safety
Summary
Superintendent Matt Degner briefed the board on multiple state legislative items the district is monitoring, including competing school funding proposals, a bill on school meals (House File 851), a math initiative, and proposals affecting school safety funding and nonpublic extracurricular eligibility.
Superintendent Matt Degner told the board March 11 that district staff are monitoring a set of state-level proposals that could affect funding, school meals and safety.
Degner summarized two competing school-funding proposals under consideration (described by staff as 2% and 2.25% plans) and said the Senate moved a proposal that tightens the definition of student grooming and that the legislature is considering the creation of school-safety assessment teams. Degner said the district views the safety-assessment proposal as complimentary to local processes the district already uses.
He said the governor’s math initiative appears likely to pass and that the district expects to see statewide math-planning requirements similar to existing literacy plans. Degner also flagged a bill identified as House File 851, which would change state requirements for school lunches; he said the proposal’s interaction with federal nutrition requirements is unclear and could put federal funds at risk if state changes require a federal waiver that is not granted.
Degner described proposals on cell-phone policy and parent exemptions; he said the district is watching language on parent exemptions closely. He also noted bills that would require public districts to allow private-school students to participate in extracurricular activities the private school does not offer.
On school-security funding, Degner said there is discussion on allowing the management fund to be used for security infrastructure and salaries for security personnel; the district supports expanding allowable uses to help pay for upgrades such as weapons-detection and door-monitoring systems but said the fund is limited and the policy change would be complex.
Degner reminded board members of a legislative forum scheduled for Friday at 4 p.m. in the boardroom and invited members to bring questions and priorities to that session.
