Under the Dome: July 

The June 2 legislative deadline for bills to pass out of their house of origin has come and gone as the two-year legislative session winds down at a frenetic pace. With such deadlines come the opportunities for bills (good and bad for schools) to die in the process. The following bills are a high priority for CSBA, including sponsored bills, and are still pending:

AB 2513: Autism training and information
Pavley, D-Agoura Hills
This bill would require the Superintendent of Public Instruction to convene an advisory committee to develop recommendations that would identify the means by which public and nonpublic schools, including charter schools, may better serve children with autism. The advisory committee would be required to seek input from the Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders Institute (MIND Institute) at the University of California, Davis.
Position: Co-sponsor

AB 2951: Capital facilities fees
Goldberg, D-Los Angeles
This bill would undo the 1988 legislative compromise between public entities and municipal utilities that requires public entities to pay their fair share of fees to cover the ongoing costs of utility services, but protects them from the imposition of discriminatory charges by requiring that such fees be negotiated with utility districts. Specifically, AB 2951 would allow utility districts to unilaterally charge public entities any rate determined by the utility district for capital improvements, regardless of whether or not they benefited from any improvements or new infrastructures. This would reverse the 1988 legislative compromise and would expose schools to excessive costs for utility district capital projects.
Position: Oppose

AB 2954: School districts: charter school petitions
Liu, D-La Cañada Flintridge
This bill would allow the governing board of a school district to deny a charter school petition if the charter school would have a negative fiscal impact on the district. AB 2954 would also authorize the governing board of a school district to require that a charter petition describe the method by which the charter school will provide free and reduced-price meals to eligible students as a condition of approving a petition.
Position: Sponsor

SB 696: Instructional materials
Escutia, D-Whittier
This bill would extend the operation of the current adoption provisions to Jan. 1, 2010, and would require the state Board of Education to annually solicit recommendations from school districts regarding the adoption of instructional materials. SB 696 would permit a school district or county office of education that recommends instructional materials to use those materials, unless the state board, within 180 calendar days, makes written factual findings that the instructional materials lack certain specified criteria. The bill would also require the state board to consider and make a determination as to whether to adopt those instructional materials within one year of the receipt of the school district or county office recommendation of adoption. If they fail to make a determination, those instructional materials would be deemed to be adopted for four years, or until the next regular adoption of materials in that category, whichever comes later.
Position: Sponsor

SB 958: Declining enrollment
Simitian, D-Palo Alto
This bill would modify existing law pertaining to declining enrollment districts by allowing them to claim the greater of the average daily attendance of the current year or the average of the prior three years. Current law allows districts to claim the greater of the current or prior year ADA. This bill would provide declining enrollments districts with more time to adjust to the loss of students.
Position: Co-sponsor

SB 1446: Charter schools and declining enrollment
Perata, D-Oakland
This bill would address issues related to districts experiencing declining enrollment and the impact of charter schools on those districts. Specifically, SB 1446 would restore the protection districts lack under the current declining enrollment formula when students move back and forth, by allowing districts to base the adjustment to the declining enrollment formula on the net loss in average daily attendance to charter schools. Additionally, if a student attends a district-sponsored charter school for as little as one day in the current year, state law requires that the district subtract that student’s full ADA from its prior year ADA for declining enrollment purposes. SB 1446 would limit that subtraction to the fraction of ADA claimed by the charter school in the current year. (Note: These provisions were previously in SB 1266; however, that bill was amended and used as part of the bond package.) Position: Co-sponsor

SCA 8: Parcel tax vote threshold
Simitian, D-Palo Alto
This bill would place a measure on the statewide ballot to seek voter approval to lower the vote threshold for parcel taxes from the current two-thirds to 55 percent. If passed by voters, school districts would then be able to place parcel taxes on the local ballot with a 55 percent threshold, which conforms to the threshold for local school bonds. Position: Co-sponsor

The following bills that CSBA opposed did not pass out of their house of origin and are no longer active bills:

AB 1779: Elementary schools: physical education
Karnette, D-Long Beach
This bill would have required that students in grades one to six participate in at least 20 minutes of physical education each school day, if mutually agreed upon through collective bargaining. If a mutual agreement were not reached through collective bargaining, the students would have been required to have physical education at least three school days each school week and 200 minutes over 10 days.

AB 1896: High schools: curriculum requirements
Coto, D-San Jose
This bill would require a student to be enrolled in either a college preparatory course of study or a career technical course of study, unless the student and his or her parent or legal guardian request that the student be enrolled in a general course of study consistent with current graduation requirements. Any student enrolled in grades nine to 11 and in the career technical course of study was to also be enrolled in college preparatory classes. The bill would have allowed a student and his or her parent or legal guardian to request in writing that the student move from any one course of study to another throughout the student’s time in high school. The school would have been required to grant the program transfer request.

AB 2656: Underperforming school districts: academic crisis and management assistance team
Arambula, D-Fresno
This bill would have established an Academic Crisis and Management Assistance Team to provide, at the request of the Superintendent of Public Instruction or county superintendent of schools, academic and management assistance to any school district under his or her jurisdiction that is identified as being in Program Improvement or subject to corrective action under the No Child Left Behind Act. AB 2656 would have identified the roles and responsibilities of the academic experts and the areas in which their assessments would focus in assisting the school district.

AB 2859: Local educational agencies: administration
Arambula, D-Fresno
This bill would have transferred authority for low-performing school districts from the state to county offices of education. Specifically, AB 2859 would have required the county superintendent of schools to maintain responsibility for the academic achievement of students attending a school in the county. It would also have required school districts with 50 percent or more of its schools ranked in deciles 1 or 2 on the Academic Performance Index and identified for Program Improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act to perform school reform activities under the direct supervision of its county superintendent. The authority of the county superintendent over these school districts would have increased depending on what PI year the district was in.

SB 1411: Interscholastic athletics: transfer eligibility
Ortiz, D-Sacramento
This bill would have required all voluntary interscholastic athletic associations of which secondary schools are members to permit a student to retain immediate eligibility to participate in any sport after his or her first transfer from one school to another school for any reason other than disciplinary action. Retention of eligibility would not have applied to a student who transfers during the athletic season of his or her sport.