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Superintendent updates board on field trip, state bills and a new teacher grant
Summary
Superintendent Dr. Finney reported on a March field trip for TSA competitors, summarized state legislation of interest to the district (including proposed cell-phone limits and a school-safety omnibus), and described a $1,000 creative-teacher grant being established in Harris County.
Superintendent Dr. Finney gave the board a multi-part update that included an overnight student trip, a package of state bills the district is tracking, and a new local teacher grant.
Dr. Finney said Harris County Carver Middle School will send eight students to an overnight trip for the Technology Student Association state conference and competition on March 12, and he praised the school for providing an in-depth itinerary.
On state legislation, Dr. Finney said several measures that could affect district operations passed one chamber and crossed over. He identified House Bill 340, described in his update as the "Distraction Free Education Act," which he said would "ban access to cell phones for kids, students, and, I think, grades k through 8 during the school day." He noted the bill passed the House unanimously and raised the practical question from a trustee: "How do they propose monitoring that?" Dr. Finney answered that legislators often set requirements without operational details, saying, "politicians on these bills don't always give us ideas on how to monitor it, but they will give us requirements that we have to adhere by."
Dr. Finney also discussed House Bill 268, which he called an "omnibus school safety initiative" that could bring grant funding for school resource officers and other safety measures and could include funding for a mental-health coordinator at each school under the QBE funding formula. He said the district is watching whether the bill will provide an "additional $50,000 per school to be used as we need to use it," and that staff are working on behavioral threat-analysis requirements he said the bill would specify.
He described Senate Bill 63, which he said passed the Senate unanimously, and summarized the district's reading of the bill: it "would require school systems to offer the PSAT, SAT, pre ACT, ACT, and all AP exams to homeschooled students in the same way that we offer it to our students in high school." Dr. Finney added that the bill text requires public schools to publish testing dates and prohibits additional fees for homeschool students.
Dr. Finney also announced a local grant being established in memory of a late teacher: "Professor Von Oop's scholarship" (in memory of Susan Jeffers), a $1,000 creative-teacher grant administered with the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley; he said Mr. Dave Jeffers is working with the foundation and the district on application requirements.
Why it matters: the legislative measures discussed could change district policy, funding and testing access; the local scholarship establishes a recurring classroom grant that will be available to Harris County teachers.
Quotes "It went from I think it went, unanimously from, the house to the to the senate," Dr. Finney said of the proposed cell-phone bill.
"This one's gonna be interesting because it's gonna come along with all of the, safety grant funding that we're hoping for," he said of House Bill 268.
Ending Dr. Finney said weekly legislative updates will slow down as crossover day passed and more bills either advance or fall out of consideration; staff will continue to monitor language and report to the board as bills move through the session.
