Board hears legislative briefing: vouchers, fitness tests, food-dye limits and new instruction day

The board’s legislative liaison, Mister Dunn, updated members on bills the General Assembly recently signed that affect K–12 operations.

Dunn said the legislature approved an increase in state-funded vouchers by 15,000 students; he described the change as raising state costs by about $112 million and bringing the program’s total to roughly $260 million. He also noted the legislature restored the presidential fitness test for students, placed limits on school nutrition programs selling foods with certain petroleum-based synthetic dyes (e.g., Red 40), authorized hunter education as a PE or safety credit for grades 5–12 if approved by the Wildlife Resources Agency, and enacted a requirement that Nov. 7 be recognized as Victims of Communism Day with 45 minutes of instruction for high school world-history and geography students.

Dunn said the district will likely need to update policies to reflect several of the new laws and that administration will return with recommended policy adjustments; he thanked a staff member (Valerie Speakman) for support in tracking legislation.

Student board representative Abigail separately reported that the state is piloting a benchmark-testing reduction program in 10 districts for 2027–28, modeled on Hamilton County; the pilot could reduce benchmark tests from three to one for qualifying schools and students, and the draft rule she described would allow exemptions for students at or above the 40th percentile.

What remains uncertain: Dunn gave high-level descriptions of the laws but did not cite statute numbers on the record; the board asked the district to bring any needed policy changes forward for review and action.

Speakers cited in this article include Mister Dunn (legislative liaison) and Abigail (student representative).