When complicated pieces of legislation are rammed through the process without careful vetting, it’s not uncommon for lawmakers to identify and then bring back suggested changes to those measures. That’s the case with SB 1108, Luna’s anti-teacher bill, and SB 1110, his pay for performance bill, both of which are now law.
The House Education Committee has printed several “trailer bills” introduced by Sen. John Goedde (R-Coeur d’Alene) and Rep. Bob Nonini (R-Post Falls) designed to clarify and improve sections of SB 1108 and SB 1110.
If passed, these bills would make a number of changes, some of those changes include:
- assuring employees who are issued supplemental contracts for extra days would be provided the same rights to due process for that supplemental contract as the employee has under his or her contract status;
- removing the requirement that the local education association certify at the commencement of each year that they represent a majority of employees;
- requiring that if the board imposes a settlement on June 22nd, that offer must reflect the “last best good faith offer proposed by the board during negotiations;” and
- providing local school districts to ability to add measures of student growth and leadership positions for pay for performance, if those additional measures are first approved by the State Department of Education.
Last week, Rep. Ken Roberts (R-McCall) introduced HB 315, a measure that would reinstate a portion of the 99% protection for school districts for FY 2012 before completely eliminating it in FY 2013. Additionally, his bill would do away with the section of SB 1108 that allows school districts to terminate employees after October 1st and provide terminated employees with severance pay.
If lawmakers hope to complete their work and sine die sometime in the next week, they’ll need to move quickly to get these three measures through the process and to the governor’s desk.
