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Senate panel advances bill to bar felons from school boards and let board members substitute teach
Summary
The Senate State Affairs Committee reported SB204 out of committee after sponsor testimony and two student public witnesses said the bill would improve student safety and ease substitute-teacher shortages while barring people with felony convictions from serving on school boards.
Chair Kawasaki convened the Senate State Affairs Committee on May 12 in Juneau and heard a second reading of Senate Bill 204, a measure that would bar individuals with felony convictions from serving on school boards and allow school board members to serve as substitute teachers in their district under locally determined emergency rules.
Senator Mike Crock, the bill sponsor, summarized the measure as allowing districts to set the length of emergency substitute teaching by board members and explicitly disqualifying people with felony convictions from board service. "This bill is pretty simple," the sponsor said during his summary of the bill.
Two students from Tok provided public testimony in support. Jeffrey Allsup, a former student representative, recounted that in 2022 a community member with multiple felony convictions was elected to a school board, which he said led to legal action and the member’s removal. "Someone with a criminal history like this former school board member would never be allowed to be employed with any school. So why would we let someone who cannot work inside of the school run the critical decisions regarding multiple schools within the district?" Allsup said.
Holly Beeman, a recent high school graduate, described her experience and shock that state law allowed someone with a violent criminal history to hold a school board seat while being barred from entering school buildings. She also argued that permitting board members to serve as substitutes could help districts facing staffing shortages and help board members stay connected with students.
After testimony, Senator Tilton moved that the committee report the committee substitute for SB204 (CS for SB204 34-LS1187 backslash g) out of committee with individual recommendations and the attached fiscal note. With no objection, the chair reported the bill from committee.
Next steps: The committee reported SB204 out with an attached fiscal note and did not take additional amendments at the May 12 meeting. Any further changes would be recorded in subsequent committee actions.
