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Chair presents voluntary path for school-district mergers, requires facilitated discussions and reporting
Summary
At the March 24 Advent House Education meeting, the Chair and Legislative Council staff reviewed draft 3.1 proposing voluntary merger study committees led by facilitators, guidance using a common map, new reporting duties and protections that would bar school closures for the first three fiscal years of a new union district.
The Chair opened the March 24 Advent House Education meeting to review draft 3.1, describing it as a voluntary path toward larger union school districts that would require facilitators to organize mandatory discussions among school districts.
"We have been spinning our wheels for a while, unable to sort of come together around one thing or another," the Chair said, framing the draft as an attempt to use existing statutory tools rather than creating a process from scratch.
Legislative Council staff walked members through the posted draft, which would require each Cooperative Service Area (CSA) to have at least one facilitator responsible for forming and running study committees to examine the advisability of creating a union school district. Staff said facilitators would group districts using criteria in the bill and could use a shared map (referred to in the draft as the Conlin map) as guidance.
"The requirement for each CSA to have a facilitator, at least one facilitator, who is responsible for organizing and facilitating study…
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