Senate Education committee advances bill to restore school staff‑allowance flexibility

The Senate Education Committee voted unanimously to send House Bill 305 to the full Senate with a due‑pass recommendation, moving a proposal to restore staff‑allowance flexibility for traditional public school districts to the floor.

House Bill 305 would restore a 9.5% staff‑allowance flexibility that districts can use to hire fewer full‑time equivalent certificated staff than their salary‑based apportionment would otherwise fund and redirect those funds to other pressing needs. Representative Sonia Galaviz, who introduced the bill to the committee, said the flexibility lets local school boards “meet the needs, the most pressing needs within their schools.”

Supporters told the committee the flexibility was effectively reduced beginning with a 2016 statutory change that cuts a district’s flexibility by 1 percentage point if that district’s average class size exceeds the statewide average by one or…