House Education Committee adopts substitute for HB 43 to waive hours after Lakeside High roof collapse

The Ohio House Education Committee adopted a substitute for House Bill 43 and favorably reported the bill after testimony from Ashtabula school leaders about a December roof collapse at Lakeside High School.

The substitute authorizes the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce to waive no more than 24 hours of instructional time related to a declared state of emergency so that Ashtabula Area City Schools will remain eligible for state funding in the 2025–2026 school year. The bill also requires graduating seniors affected by the waiver to demonstrate competency under existing state graduation standards, either by assessment or by credential. The substitute contains an emergency clause.

Committee members framed the change as narrowly tailored. Vice Chair Odioso moved to adopt substitute bill 1360781-4; the chair ruled the amendment in order and members adopted the substitute without objection. Later, Vice Chair Odioso moved to favorably report HB 43 as a substitute and recommend it for passage. The committee recorded 10 affirmative votes and no negative votes; the rule will remain open until 5 p.m. the same day.

Superintendent Lisa Newsome and Principal Doug Weatherholt of Ashtabula Area City Schools testified in support. Newsome said the district temporarily relocated students across multiple buildings and that the high school suffered extensive structural damage. “We are sitting at a total of seven [calamity days]… We built in for the high school eight, so we are sitting on just one if these 19.5 hours would be waived,” Newsome said, describing the hours missed and explaining the district’s operational effort to return to in‑person instruction. Weatherholt said the roof collapse followed approximately 5.5 feet of snow and left the building unoccupiable; he said staff worked to relocate classrooms and restore services and that lack of Internet and phone service (because the server room was in the damaged building) further complicated recovery.

Both district witnesses told the committee that extending the school year to make up the missed days would cost the district roughly $400,000 and risk low student attendance, noting the district’s high percentage of students eligible for free and reduced‑price lunch. Newsome and Weatherholt said making up the missed instruction through remote learning had limits and that the substitute’s competency requirement for seniors addressed graduation concerns.

Representative Miller asked whether the measure was a single‑district, single‑year carve‑out; an LSC analyst clarified it is uncodified and applies only to the Ashtabula district for the specified school year. Representative Byrd and others raised broader concerns about the long‑term decline in required instructional time since 2014, but members agreed the substitute as drafted was intended to be a narrowly targeted relief measure.

The substitute’s adoption and the favorable report move the bill forward to the full House with committee recommendations.

Votes at a glance: The committee voted to favorably report HB 43 (substitute) with 10 affirmative votes and no negative votes; the rule remains open until 5 p.m. the day of the vote.

What’s next: The bill, as favorably reported, will proceed through the House process; committee staff left the rule open to 5 p.m. for any further filings.