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On Monday evening,
several legislative committees held additional meetings so more
bills could be heard an acted upon. The House State Government and
Tribal Affairs committee held a public hearing on HB 3292,
which would require governing bodies (including school boards) to
record all executive sessions. Requested by the Attorney General
and the State Auditor, this bill is a solution in search of a
problem. Washington has almost 2,000 local governments (school
districts, cities, counties, library districts, public utility
districts, water districts, public ports and more) and violations of
the executive session provisions of the Open Public Meetings Act are
very limited. Granted, when there are violations — or perceived
violations — they become big news, but mainly because the news media
continues to be the major proponents of loosening executive session
and Public Disclosure Act provisions (including limiting the current
attorney-client privilege laws). The news media cares more about
selling newspapers and garnering ratings than ensuring confidential
matters remain confidential. The Committee spent nearly two hours
hearing testimony on the bill, with the vast majority of the
comments in opposition to the bill. Local governments were, for the
most part, unified in its opposition to HB 3292. The Open Public
Meetings Act requires that the public’s business be done in the
public — unless there are compelling reasons not to do so. Those
reasons are clearly spelled out in law and any attempt to break the
seal of confidentiality of executive sessions is of concern. The
main points of concern with HB 3292 are: the chilling effect
recording executive sessions would have on discussions; the
practical matter of how local governments would record its executive
sessions and the potentially large financial burden to accomplish
the task; and the security of the recordings. It is unclear if this
bill will move; however, there will be continued attempts to make
major changes to the Open Public Meetings Act and the Public
Disclosure Act. It is incumbent upon locally elected officials to
do their best to comply with these important laws and not give
anyone reasons to make drastic changes to current law.
Also on Monday
night, the House Education Committee met and held a public hearing
on three bills: HB 3113, HB 3299 and HB 3082.
• HB 3113 would
extend the current provisions delaying the math and science WASL
graduation requirements to students not meeting standards in reading
and writing. Additionally, the bill would authorize local school
districts, in certain circumstances, to adopt local graduation
requirements that students meeting state standards on the reading
and writing WASL.
• HB 3299 would
repeal the requirement that the State Board of Education change
state graduation requirements to require three credits in
mathematics. Instead, the State Board would be required to make
recommendations on the issue, leaving the decision up to the
Legislature to approve or reject.
• HB 3082 would
establish a competitive grant program to support environmentally
related culminating projects.
The House Judiciary
Committee held a public hearing last night on HB 3001. HB
3001 would attempt to extend Title IX gender equity provisions to
public community athletic programs. While the concept is sound, the
bill as introduced is impractical — and potentially costly. Rather
than prohibiting community athletic programs from engaging in
practices that would discriminate on the basis of sex, HB 3001 would
require school districts, public parks and other local jurisdictions
that rent facilities or fields to community athletic programs to
monitor the programs to ensure compliance with new
anti-discrimination provisions. WSSDA argued that other entities
(the Human Rights Commission, for example) should monitor these
programs, not school districts or other local governments that have
limited resources and other priorities. We raised the concern that
a simple solution to complying with the provisions of HB 3001, if it
was adopted, would be to stop allowing any community athletic
programs from using school district facilities — and that does not
serve anyone’s purpose.
The House Capital
Budget Committee also met on Monday night and took testimony on
HB 3291, enacting the Community Schools Act of 2008. The bill
would provide assistance and incentives for school districts to use
surplus facilities for coordinated services for children and
families, rather than to let the facilities sit unused — or be
forced to sell the property.
On Tuesday morning,
the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education held a public
hearing on three bills previously heard and adopted by House policy
committees: HB 2523, HB 2597 and HB 2809.
• HB 2523 would
create the position of world language supervisor in OSPI.
• HB 2597 would
require the Department of Early Learning and OSPI to develop a
kindergarten readiness assessment.
• HB 2809 would
require the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) to report
data and recommendations for strengthening the corps of K-12
mathematics and science teachers. Additionally, PESB would be
required to examine and report upon other states' differential pay
programs for teachers in high-demand subject areas such as
mathematics and science.
Finally, on Tuesday
afternoon, the House Education Committee held an executive session
and passed out thirteen bills previously heard in Committee:
• HB 2869 -
Extending the national board for professional teaching standards
bonus to certificated principals.
• HB 2884 -
Requiring policies on and limiting the use of mechanical, chemical,
and physical restraint of students.
• HB 2954 -
Authorizing certain school districts and educational service
districts to designate a district treasurer.
• HB 3103 -
Expanding the list of crimes that require dismissal or certificate
revocation for school employees.
• HB 3082 -
Creating the sustainable environment culminating project grant
program.
• HB 3212 -
Monitoring and addressing achievement of groups of students.
• HB 2635 -
Regarding school district boundaries and organization.
• HB 2709 -
Authorizing school districts to establish a price preference to
purchase locally grown food.
• HB 3166 -
Concerning the design of the state assessment system and the WASL.
• HB 2976 -
Approving the segmented mathematics assessment as an alternative
assessment.
• HB 2548 -
Regarding the basic education funding allocation for certificated
instructional staff.
• HB 2886 -
Increasing the number of school nurses.
• HB 3317 -
Regarding standards and curriculum in mathematics and science. |
