The Joint Committee on Education met on June 13, 2022. The committee received an update on the local school improvement council bill. It is the same bill that was passed out of the committee during last month’s interim meeting. Six changes have been made to the bill. Two of the changes relate to membership with one relating to service personnel membership which changes a shall to may relating to bus drivers being a member. The membership change clarifies that three parents, guardians, or custodians will be elected by the parents, guardians, and custodians of students at the school.
The third change states that minutes will be taken at all meetings. The next change is annual reports shall be made available for parents, teachers, students, and other parties on the board of education’s website. The fourth change requires that members of the local school improvement councils complete the training once a year and that schools explain the role of the council to members. Finally, public charter schools were added to be subject to local school improvement council requirements.
The committee also received an update on the middle school CTE Exploratory Program. The program offers a course that covers all 16 career clusters with hands-on experiences. The program was designed with consultation from middle and elementary teachers across the state. Each cluster will be taught for two weeks with extra focus on clusters already offered in the county. The program is 32 weeks long with 80 lesson plans. The program allows guest speakers in various careers to speak with students. The program can be offered all in one year or split up into parts to be offered in the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.
