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Committee backs bill restoring staffing flexibility for Idaho school districts
Summary
Representative Sonia Galaviz asked the House Education Committee to strike a one-way penalty in Idaho code that reduces local districts’ 9.5 percent staffing flexibility when average staffing exceeds the statewide average; the committee voted to send House Bill 305 to the House floor with a due-pass recommendation.
Representative Sonia Galaviz presented House Bill 305 to the House Committee on Education, asking the committee to strike a provision in Idaho code that permanently reduces a district’s staff-allocation flexibility when a district’s average class size exceeds the statewide average by one support unit.
“...the flexibility that some districts have is nicknamed ‘use it or lose it’—it punishes some [districts] pretty significantly,” Representative Sonia Galaviz told the Committee, urging restoration of the statutory 9.5 percent discretion that school districts may use when allocating certified positions.
Spencer Barzee of the Idaho Department of Education reviewed data the sponsors submitted showing how the penalty has applied since 2016. Barzee said the 9.5 percent flexibility was created during the 2009…
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