On Friday
morning, the Senate Public Education subcommittee met to take up a very lengthy
docket. They made recommendations on several bills that will be before the full
committee for a vote on Thursday.
HB324 (D. Bell)
establishes the Board of the Virtual
Virginia School and requires that the School be open to any student in the
Commonwealth. The bill would result in federal, state, and local funds, up to
$6,500 per pupil, being transferred from local school boards to the Virtual
Virginia School. There are also other significant problems with this legislation
and VSBA strongly opposed the bill in subcommittee. The subcommittee
recommended carrying over the bill to 2015. The Chairman of Education will
write a letter to the Chairman of Finance to look at the funding challenges.
HB333 (Greason) would repeal the so-called “King’s Dominion
law” and allow local school boards to set their own calendars and determine the
opening date of the school year. The subcommittee recommended reporting
3-2.
HB610 (Robinson) is another take on the Labor Day bills. It allows
a local school board to set their school calendar and opening date. However,
the division must close schools from the Thursday before through Labor Day or
Friday before through the Tuesday after Labor Day. The subcommittee was very intrigued by
the concept of this bill. They recommended reporting 3-2.
HB577 (Stolle) allows a school board to set its academic
calendar for any school within the division that has failed to meet full
accreditation status. Additionally, it allows the school board to set its
academic calendar for the entire division if more than 15 percent of all
schools within the division have failed to achieve full accreditation status.
The subcommittee recommended reporting on a 3-1-1 vote.
HB515 (Minchew) requires
principals to attempt to notify the parents of any student who violates a
school board policy or compulsory school attendance requirement if the
violation could result in a student’s suspension, long-term suspension or
expulsion. VSBA has concerns with the language of the amended legislation
because it could be construed to place a significant burden on principals to
notify parents of minor infractions even when the teacher or principal has
decided not to suspend the student. Due
to the concerns of VSBA and several stakeholder groups, the subcommittee
recommended passing by indefinitely on a 4-0-1 vote.
HB751 (Rust) changes the “shall” to “may” in the
Code section dealing with the discipline of students for possessing drugs.
Current law requires students to be expelled for these offenses, but does allow
either a lesser punishment or no punishment if the facts of the particular case
warrant it. The subcommittee
unanimously recommended reporting HB751.
HB786 (Wilt) prohibits
the dismissal or probation of an employee on the grounds that they possessed an
unloaded firearm in a closed container in their vehicle or in a locked trunk, a
knife with a metal blade in their vehicle or an unloaded shotgun in a firearms
rack. The possession of a firearm on school property in these limited
circumstances is not prohibited by law but, currently, a school board may
choose to prohibit it. This bill would effectively prevent school boards from
exercising their authority to prohibit firearms on school property in these
circumstances. VSBA strongly opposed this bill in
subcommittee. The subcommittee did not recommend reporting the bill on a 3-2
vote.
HB887 (Peace)
requires the Board of Education to develop model criteria and procedures for
establishing a Governor’s Career and Technical Education School. The
subcommittee unanimously recommended reported HB887.
HB930
(Greason) reduces SOL assessments in
grade 3 through 8 from 22 to 17 assessments. It requires local school boards to
certify instruction and the completion of local assessments in the other
Standards of Learning subject areas. Further, the bill creates the Standards of
Learning Innovation Committee. The committee, led by the Secretary of
Education, will include a variety of stakeholders that are tasked to make
recommendations on the Standards of Learning assessments, authentic individual
student growth measures and alignment between the Standards of Learning and
assessments and the School Performance Report Card. The bill also allows the
Board of Education to make future further reductions in the number of SOL
assessments in grades 3 through 11. VSBA has worked extensively with Delegate Greason on this legislation and strongly supports the bill. The subcommittee recommended
reporting on a 4-1 vote.
HB1086 (D. Bell) provides that when a student with a
disability who lives in one school division enrolls in a full time virtual
program offered by another a school division, the school division in which the
student is enrolled must provide special education services to the student.
The subcommittee recommended reporting 4-1.
HB1110 (Toscano) was not taken up this week at the request of
the patron.
HB1115 (Greason) expands Virtual Virginia by authorizing DOE
to contract with local school boards that have developed virtual courses to
make those virtual courses available to other school boards through Virtual
Virginia. VSBA has been working with Delegate Greason on this legislation and
strongly supports the bill. The subcommittee unanimously recommended reporting
HB1115.
