Senate Education Committee reviews electronic voting process, schedules DPI and CTE briefings

At an organizational meeting, Senate Education Committee Chair Todd Beard described the committee's new electronic voting process and laid out a schedule of joint informational briefings with the House Education Committee and the Department of Public Instruction (DPI), including a Career and Technical Education (CTE) presentation by Wade Sick.

The committee said the electronic roll call will use a vote icon visible next to members' video windows. A staff member demonstrated the interface and told senators, "So inside of walls, right next to that little fire icon, just to the right of that, there's a vote. It'll be a vote icon...And so this is where you can vote." The staff member explained that for attendance votes the interface will present a single affirmative option.

The new voting practice matters because it changes how attendance and roll calls are recorded and how late arrivals can be handled. Chair Todd Beard asked members to be mindful of recording status before proceedings begin, saying, "So we wanna make sure before we begin anything that that's that we're up and running." He emphasized that the committee's role is to gather information and to ask questions of presenters rather than to debate them during testimony.

On attendance adjustments and reopening votes, the committee provided procedural clarifications but left some technical limits unresolved. The clerk said she could "go back in and fix" attendance if a member arrives after an attendance vote and the chair includes that member; staff also said they would need to check whether regular roll-call votes or amendment votes can be reopened once closed. The transcript records the clerk or staff offering to confirm the precise reopening procedures after checking the system.

The committee also set its near-term schedule. Beard said the Senate Education Committee will meet jointly with the House Education Committee in the Coteau Room at 9 a.m. for an informational session with DPI that will run until about 11:30 a.m.; it will reconvene at 1 p.m. after lunch for another DPI session running until about 2 p.m.; and at 2:30 p.m. "Wade Sick will be in to give us information on CTE," Beard said. The chair indicated he expected a full day of briefings and said he may schedule two or three of the five bills currently assigned to the committee for next week but was not planning any Monday meetings.

No formal motions or roll-call votes were recorded during the organizational meeting. The clerk and staff were asked to confirm whether the electronic voting system permits reopening of closed roll-call votes and to adjust attendance records when members log in late. The meeting adjourned after the scheduling announcements.

The session consisted mainly of procedural orientation, introductions of committee members and staff, and scheduling and technical instructions for the committee's work this session.