The House Committee on Education reported some bills out of the committee to the House Floor.
Senate Bill 40 would require the inclusion of protocols for response to after-school emergencies in school crisis response plans. The bill was reported to the floor of the House with the recommendation that it pass.
Senate Bill 630 would establish the Accessibility and Equity in Public Education Enhancement Act.
Seth McKenzie with K-12 Incorporated said the program could work similarly to Omaha, Nebraska. They opened up the Omaha Virtual School which is a blended model. The district wanted to serve the students that they were losing to the outlying districts. Within a span of about three weeks the school had almost 200 students enrolled in the school. Counties could decide if they needed to have a few face to face meetings or a fully virtual options. About 60 percent of those enrolled at this certain school are homeschooled currently. There is an alignment team that would make sure that the curriculum would be adherent to the testing standards of the state. Those who have satellite internet is where there isn’t a regulatory standard currently and would be a policy question.
Delegate Hornbuckle (D-Cabell), Delegate Moye (D-Raleigh) and Delegate Folk (R-Berkeley) wanted to know how much it cost. Mr. McKenzie said the contract in Nebraska was just over $600,000.
Delegate Dean (R-Mingo) moved to amend the bill to make it so if a student transferred to or from the school they must go by the current transfer rules. The amendment was adopted.
Delegate Moye moved to amend the bill to so that online teachers in a public school classroom would be sure that a certified teacher would be in the classrooms. The amendment was adopted.
The bill was reported to the House floor with the recommendation that it pass as amended.
Senate Bill 401 would allow the county board of education base employment decisions on individual’s qualifications. This would let them turn seniority to the wayside in the hiring process.
Delegate Cooper (R-Summers) said, “This bill’s intent is to give counties the ability to hire how they see fit.”
There were two amendments from the committee. One was a technical amendment and was adopted, the other was rejected.
Delegate Wilson (R-Berkeley) moved to amend the bill so that teachers could access their personnel file in cases of a teacher transfer. The amendment was withdrawn.
Delegate Wilson spoke in support of the bill and Delegate Cooper spoke against it.
The bill was rejected.
