House Bill 3901e1

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                                      HB 3901, First Engrossed/ntc



  1                      A bill to be entitled

  2         An act relating to education; amending s.

  3         24.121, F.S.; providing an additional

  4         requirement for school district receipt of

  5         lottery funds; amending s. 229.58, F.S.;

  6         providing a name requirement for school

  7         advisory councils and providing council

  8         responsibilities and duties; providing for

  9         certain council review; providing for the use

10         of funds; amending s. 229.592, F.S., relating

11         to school improvement and education

12         accountability; conforming provisions relating

13         to release of funds to school districts;

14         requiring notice of certain deficiency;

15         amending s. 230.23, F.S., relating to school

16         board duties; providing requirements for school

17         improvement plans; requiring local-level

18         decisionmaking policies; providing an effective

19         date.

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21  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:

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23         Section 1.  Paragraph (d) of subsection (5) of section

24  24.121, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:

25         24.121  Allocation of revenues and expenditure of funds

26  for public education.--

27         (5)

28         (d)  Beginning July 1, 1993, No funds shall be released

29  for any purpose from the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund to

30  any school district in which one or more schools do not have

31  an approved school improvement plan pursuant to s. 230.23(16)


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                                      HB 3901, First Engrossed/ntc



  1  or do not comply with school advisory council membership

  2  composition requirements pursuant to s. 229.58(1).

  3         Section 2.  Paragraph (a) of subsection (1) and

  4  subsection (2) of section 229.58, Florida Statutes, are

  5  amended to read:

  6         229.58  District and school advisory councils.--

  7         (1)  ESTABLISHMENT.--

  8         (a)  The school board shall establish an advisory

  9  council for each school in the district, and shall develop

10  procedures for the election and appointment of advisory

11  council members. Each school advisory council shall include in

12  its name the words "school advisory council." The school

13  advisory council shall be the sole body responsible for final

14  decisionmaking at the school relating to implementation of the

15  provisions of ss. 229.591, 229.592, and 230.23(16). A majority

16  of the members of each school advisory council must be persons

17  who are not employed by the school. Each advisory council

18  shall be composed of the principal and an appropriately

19  balanced number of teachers, education support employees,

20  students, parents, and other business and community citizens

21  who are representative of the ethnic, racial, and economic

22  community served by the school, provided that

23  vocational-technical center and high school advisory councils

24  shall include students, and middle and junior high school

25  advisory councils may include students.  Council members

26  representing teachers, education support employees, students,

27  and parents shall be elected by their respective peer groups

28  at the school in a fair and equitable manner as follows:

29         1.  Teachers shall be elected by teachers.

30         2.  Education support employees shall be elected by

31  education support employees.


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                                      HB 3901, First Engrossed/ntc



  1         3.  Students shall be elected by students.

  2         4.  Parents shall be elected by parents.

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  4  The school board shall establish procedures for use by schools

  5  in selecting business and community members. Such procedures

  6  shall include means of ensuring wide notice of vacancies and

  7  for taking input on possible members from local business,

  8  chambers of commerce, community and civic organizations and

  9  groups, and the public at large. The school board shall review

10  the membership composition of each advisory council.  Should

11  the school board determine that the membership elected by the

12  school is not representative of the ethnic, racial, and

13  economic community served by the school, the board shall

14  appoint additional members to achieve proper representation.

15  The Florida Commission on Education Reform and Accountability

16  shall serve as a review body to determine if schools have

17  maximized their efforts to include on their advisory councils

18  minority persons and persons of lower socioeconomic status.

19  Although schools should be strongly encouraged to establish

20  school advisory councils, any school district that has a

21  student population of 10,000 or fewer may establish a district

22  advisory council which shall include at least one duly elected

23  teacher from each school in the district.  For the purposes of

24  school advisory councils and district advisory councils, the

25  term "teacher" shall include classroom teachers, certified

26  student services personnel, and media specialists.  For

27  purposes of this paragraph, "education support employee" means

28  any person employed by a school who is not defined as

29  instructional or administrative personnel pursuant to s.

30  228.041 and whose duties require 20 or more hours in each

31  normal working week.


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                                      HB 3901, First Engrossed/ntc



  1         (2)  DUTIES.--Each advisory council shall perform such

  2  functions as are prescribed by regulations of the  school

  3  board; however, no advisory council shall have any of the

  4  powers and duties now reserved by law to the school board.

  5  Each school advisory council shall assist in the preparation

  6  and evaluation of the school improvement plan required

  7  pursuant to s. 230.23(16). By the 1999-2000 academic year,

  8  with technical assistance from the Department of Education,

  9  each school advisory council shall assist in the preparation

10  of and shall provide such assistance as the principal may

11  request in preparing the school's annual budget and plan as

12  required by s. 229.555(1). A portion of funds provided in the

13  annual General Appropriations Act for use by school advisory

14  councils must be used for implementing the school improvement

15  plan.

16         Section 3.  Paragraph (c) of subsection (4) of section

17  229.592, Florida Statutes, is amended to read:

18         229.592  Implementation of state system of school

19  improvement and education accountability.--

20         (4)  DEPARTMENT.--

21         (c)  Pursuant to s. 24.121(5)(d), the department shall

22  not release funds from the Educational Enhancement Trust Fund

23  to any district in which a school does not have an approved

24  school improvement plan, pursuant to s. 230.23(16), after 1

25  full school year of planning and development, or does not

26  comply with school advisory council membership composition

27  requirements pursuant to s. 229.58(1). The department shall

28  send a technical assistance team to each school without an

29  approved plan to develop such school improvement plan or to

30  each school without appropriate school advisory council

31  membership composition to develop a strategy for corrective


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                                      HB 3901, First Engrossed/ntc



  1  action.  The department shall release the funds upon approval

  2  of the plan or upon establishment of a plan of corrective

  3  action. Notice shall be given to the public of the

  4  department's intervention and shall identify each school

  5  without a plan or without appropriate school advisory council

  6  membership composition.

  7         Section 4.  Paragraph (a) of subsection (16) of section

  8  230.23, Florida Statutes, is amended, and subsection (17) is

  9  added to said section, to read:

10         230.23  Powers and duties of school board.--The school

11  board, acting as a board, shall exercise all powers and

12  perform all duties listed below:

13         (16)  IMPLEMENT SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT AND

14  ACCOUNTABILITY.--Maintain a system of school improvement and

15  education accountability as provided by statute and State

16  Board of Education rule. This system of school improvement and

17  education accountability shall be consistent with, and

18  implemented through, the district's continuing system of

19  planning and budgeting required by this section and ss.

20  229.555 and 237.041. This system of school improvement and

21  education accountability shall include, but not be limited to,

22  the following:

23         (a)  School improvement plans.--Annually approve and

24  require implementation of a new, amended, or continuation

25  school improvement plan for each school in the district.  Such

26  plan shall be designed to achieve the state education goals

27  and student performance standards pursuant to ss. 229.591(3)

28  and 229.592. Beginning in 1999-2000, each plan shall also

29  address issues relative to budget, training, instructional

30  materials, technology, staffing, student support services, and

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                                      HB 3901, First Engrossed/ntc



  1  other matters of resource allocation, as determined by school

  2  board policy.

  3         (17)  LOCAL-LEVEL DECISIONMAKING.--

  4         (a)  Adopt policies that clearly encourage and enhance

  5  maximum decisionmaking appropriate to the school site. Such

  6  policies must include guidelines for schools in the adoption

  7  and purchase of district and school site instructional

  8  materials and technology, staff training, school advisory

  9  council member training, student support services, budgeting,

10  and the allocation of staff resources.

11         (b)  Adopt waiver process policies to enable all

12  schools to exercise maximum flexibility and notify advisory

13  councils of processes to waive school district and state

14  policies.

15         (c)  Develop policies for periodically monitoring the

16  membership composition of school advisory councils to ensure

17  compliance with requirements established in s. 229.58.

18         Section 5.  This act shall take effect July 1 of the

19  year in which enacted.

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