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Panel backs bill to restore 'staff allowance' flexibility for school districts
Summary
The House Committee on Education voted to send House Bill 305 to the floor with a due-pass recommendation. Sponsors and education officials said the bill would remove a permanent penalty in Idaho code that reduces districts’ 9.5% staffing flexibility when average class size rises above a statewide threshold.
Representative Sonia Galaviz, sponsor of House Bill 305 and a member of the Idaho House from District 16, asked the committee to remove statutory language that creates a permanent, one-way reduction in school districts’ staff-allocation flexibility.
"With staff allowance there is 9.5% flexibility allowed to districts to be able to make those decisions concerning their district where the highest need priority are," Representative Sonia Galaviz told the committee. She said the current code reduces that flexibility by 1 percentage point any time a district’s average class size exceeds the statewide average by one full student, and that lost flexibility can never be regained.
Spencer Barzee of the Idaho State Department…
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