Committee trims school safety advisory board to improve quorum; House Bill 42 sent to floor with due pass

Representative Ted Hill presented House Bill 42 to the House Committee on Education, proposing to reduce and reconfigure the School Safety and Security Advisory Board to address chronic quorum problems and make the advisory panel more functional.

Hill told the committee the existing board, established in Idaho code, had 13 members and ‘‘has been problematic’’ because it often could not achieve a quorum. He said the bill aims to keep a broad set of stakeholders engaged while narrowing voting membership so the board can meet and make recommendations. "We'd like to maintain the broad spectrum of stakeholder representation," Hill said. "You need to talk to the FBI, law enforcement, whatever. Whatever the school threats are."

Matthew Reiber, Strategy and Planning Officer for the State Board of Education, told the committee the board’s invitation list would remain broad and that non-voting experts would continue to…