Advocacy

 View Only

Advocacy Alert! Finding Middle Ground and Revisiting Consolidation

By David Wood posted 03-15-2019 09:20

  
Alliance_Header_Blog.png

Finding Middle Ground and Revisiting Consolidation

An amended Senate Bill 28 passed the Senate Education Committee on Tuesday, and we think it's highly likely it will be approved in both chambers and signed into law.

Senate Amendment 1 reinstates the five-hour classroom mandate but provides the flexibility many superintendents desired by carving out exemptions from the five clock hours requirement that includes:

  • Students enrolled in dual credit.
  • Participation in internships.
  • Students participating in youth apprenticeships.
  • Students participating in blended learning programs.

In addition, the drafted language would allow all districts to utilize e-learning days in lieu of emergency days and allow for two of the 176 school calendar days to be utilized as parent-teacher conference days.

Under the amendment, local regional offices of education or intermediate service centers would be tasked with ensuring that the school district's e-learning plan contains measures to provide non-electronic materials to students who don't have access to required technology.

The effective date is July 1, 2019.

While we know the amended bill is not perfect, we think it's a good middle ground that addresses many of the concerns we heard from superintendents across the state.

Senate Bill 28 was introduced by the Illinois Education Association. The Statewide School Management Alliance was opposed to that initial bill and worked with stakeholders to reach a compromise.

At the Senate Education Committee, both state Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill, and Sen. Chuck Weaver, R-Peoria, lauded the negotiations that took place behind the scenes, noting it landed in the middle.

We also want to thank the bill's sponsor, Sen. Jennifer Bertino-Tarrant, D-Plainfield, for her leadership and willingness to listen to our concerns. The end result was a bill, albeit not perfect, that is a better alternative for students.


Below is a brief overview of other legislation working its way through the statehouse.


Senate Bill 1838, Sen. Tom Cullerton, D-Villa Park
The legislation is another effort to consolidate school districts in Illinois. It isn't the first and won't be the last.

Gov. Pat Quinn thought he could save as much as $100 million through consolidation, but his attempt to do so backfired. In Jan. 2012, a task force he commissioned found it would actually cost $3.7 billion over four years to merge all of Illinois' high school-only and elementary-only school districts. The plan was immediately scrapped.

The high cost is because school districts often have different pay scales, and when they merge, the state is supposed to pay to make sure all teachers in the combined district are compensated based on the higher salary scale.

Cullerton's bill, which was approved Tuesday by the Senate Education Committee, creates a 20-person task force, called the "School District Efficiency Commission," to make a report next year on possible cost savings that could come with consolidation, and give voters a chance to weigh in.

"Optimal amount of enrollment" is one of the main factors the commission would look at.

The task force would be comprised of members of the Alliance, teachers unions, lieutenant governor, lawmakers from both parties, the Chicago Board of Education, special education groups, a representative from a rural and suburban school district and a parent's organization.

Eleven of 20 members would have to vote to adopt the report for it to proceed. Then, as currently written, the bill says a recommendation or reorganization of school districts into unit districts shall be placed on the ballot of the designated school district in the next general election in the same manner as if the commission's recommendations were petitions approved by the regional superintendent of schools.

In other words, if the commission makes a list of school districts it feels should merge, the question would automatically be put to voters. Not good.

Cullerton told the committee the word "shall" wasn't his intent and he will switch it to "may." One word can truly make a huge difference.

Also, in the legislation, it calls for drafting recommendations to reduce the statewide total number of school districts by "no less than 25 percent through the reorganization of school districts into unit districts," a number seemingly picked out of thin air.

The Alliance is opposed to this bill, but it's possible it will be viewed by many legislators as a more measured approach they could get behind. Stay tuned on this because negotiations will undoubtedly pick up steam.


House Bill 350, State Rep. Kathleen Wills, D-Addison
The legislation repeals the 3 percent-end-of-career pension limitation and returns it back to a limit of 6 percent.

Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, this bill has gained a lot of traction from both sides of the aisle. Thirty-six legislators, including Republicans and Democrats, have now signed on as sponsors in the House.

House Bill 350 was approved out of committee in February and has been placed on third reading in the House.

The legislation has our full backing, but we have also put forward language to create certain exceptions if the bill hits a roadblock. Click here to read about those exceptions.


Senate Bill 10, Sen. Andy Manar, D-Bunker Hill,
House Bill 2078, State Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Collinsville

Both minimum teacher salary bills have cleared committees. The Senate version is on third reading and the House version on second.

Both pieces of legislation are identical and phase in salary increases over five years, beginning at no less than $32,076 for the 2020-21 school year.

We continue to oppose these bills in their current form, but we are also working with the bill sponsors on an alternative.

One recommendation would be to attach a district's EBM regionalization factor, if less than 1.0. That would give the district a discount rate against the minimum teacher salary listed in the bill, along with exempting districts from the 3 percent cap that are affected by the minimum teacher salary bill.

It doesn't appear either of these bills are on the fast track, and we hope there is a good chance the final product will look different when it's all said and done.


Deadlines Approaching


More than 6,000 bills were filed in the 101st General Assembly, and we are now approaching a key deadline that pairs that number down significantly.

March 22 is the deadline for substantive bills to move out of Senate committees. For the House, the deadline is March 29.

In most instances, if a bill doesn't clear this hurdle it probably means it's dead. However, as we've seen many times before, lawmakers can always tack on amendments or put language into shell bills. We'll see.

Thank you for reading and have a great spring break.

Sincerely,
Diane Hendren
Director of Governmental Relations
Illinois Association of School Administrators
&
David Wood

Governmental Relations Specialist
Illinois Association of School Business Officials
0 comments
65 views

Permalink