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Minutes for SB362 - Committee on Education
Short Title
Requiring local boards of education to document and consider the school needs assessment and state assessments in the budget process.
Minutes Content for Thu, Feb 10, 2022
Chairperson Baumgardner opened the Hearing on SB362 - Requiring local boards of education to document and consider the school needs assessment and state assessments in the budget process.
Tamera Lawrence, Revisor, gave an overview of the bill. (Attachment 1)
Proponent Testimony:
Mike O'Neal, Kansas Policy Institute (KPI), asked the question "How do we get boards to assume their proper role in developing budgets that meet the needs of our students?" Last session, a provision supplementing the law requiring annual building-based needs assessments was passed. KPI conducted a recent analysis of 25 of the largest school districts and found only two marginally complied with the needs assessment requirement. The responses were woefully inadequate and quite disappointing. Even with those two districts, there is no documentation that the information generated would be sufficient to inform the decision regarding allocation of sufficient resources to improve student performance. The Building Needs Assessment form provided to districts by the Kansas State Department of Education (KSDE) is highly relevant. A reference was made to the KSDE Kansas Accounting Handbook which makes a strong statement concerning the importance of the instruction portion of the budget, coupled with the local board's constitutional and statutory directive should result in budgets that are built from the classroom up.
Proficiency and attainment of our statutory educational goals by all students should be the overriding consideration. Simply providing more funding is not the answer. Accordingly, SB362 would add additional teeth to the reforms passed last session. Unfortunately, if the Legislature does not compel transparency on what is clearly required by law, it will probably not be done. SB362 is intended to insure the original intent of the long-sanding requirement for building-based needs assessments informing the budget decisions by locally elected boards is fully met and transparent. (Attachment 2)
Dave Trabert, CEO, Kansas Policy Institute, provided in-depth analysis of KPI's audit findings. Two districts completed the recommended forms but didn't identify needs. The districts were Coffeyville and USD500 Kansas City. Five districts defiantly ignore needs assessment requirements. They include Blue Valley, Gardner-Edgerton, Garden City, Shawnee Mission and Iola. Eighteen districts sent documents that ignore barriers to closing achievement gaps. They include Hays, Andover, Auburn-Washburn, Derby, DeSoto, Dodge City, Emporia, Geary County, Goddard, Hutchinson, Lawrence, Olathe, Salina, Maize, Manhattan-Ogden, Pittsburg, Topeka, and Wichita.
KPI concluded that this audit indicates general disregard for the purpose of the building needs assessment. The State Supreme Court in 2016 cited the fact that about a quarter of students were below grade level on the state assessment somehow 'proved' that schools were underfunded. There is nothing to indicate that this sad state of affairs will change without legislative interventions. That is why the provisions of SB362 are necessary to give the kids a fighting chance. (Attachment 3) (Attachment 4) (Attachment 5)
Dr. Walt Chappell, President, Educational Management Consultants, LLC, said passing this bill into law will help assure an equal educational opportunity for each K-12 student in Kansas. To achieve this goal, (1) it is necessary to identify the learning needs and achievement level of each student in each school, (2) verify what instructional resources are necessary in that school building to teach the students enrolled, and (3) develop a budget which will pay the costs to teach each student so they achieve the State required, measurable objectives. All budgets must be built on the actual cost to teach students who attend each school so they can learn and demonstrate their use of basic skills. Some school buildings are sub-standard and it will take more funds to bring them up to "State Standard" for curriculum offerings, teachers to teach stated objectives, plus computers, vocational training equipment and access to the Internet as well as student needs attending each school, especially special needs students. Passing this bill this Session will help assure the unique instructional needs of students in each Kansas School building are met each academic year. (Attachment 6)
Neutral Testimony:
Mark Tallman, Associate Executive Director, Kansas Association of School Boards (KASB), stated KASB supports the concept of using student achievement data to support budget decisions by local school districts but KASB have serious concerns about the bill. First, it requires the currently mandated assessment be published on the district website. Second, the bill would require the Board of Education of a school district to review state assessment results and document the barriers that must be overcome to have each student achieve grade level proficiency, any budget actions recommending reallocation of resources that should be taken to address and remove such barriers, and the amount of time the board estimates it will take for each student to achieve grade level proficiency on the state assessments.
Additional KASB concerns include:
- They do not believe current law requires any particular format for a needs assessment, nor has KSDE required a particular instrument or format.
- School districts are already involved in multiple projects that require developing needs assessments and impact budgets.
- The process of using data to identify strengths and weaknesses and develop strategies to improve educational outcomes should be part of all of a school board's decision-making, from budgets to staffing, curriculum to support programs, and operations of facilities.
- KASB disagrees with singling out a report on state assessments alone.
- The bill refers to having students receive grade level proficiency. The State Board of Education is not designating "grade level proficiency" on state assessments.
Included with this testimony was a chart showing Kansas assessment results for several groups of students meeting the Level 2 and above benchmarks, which sometimes are considered "grade level". School leaders have no idea what will happen to future funding, to change student demographics and needs, to economic and social factors affecting families, communities and school staff. Asking for a long-term prediction of academic results is asking for nothing more than an educated guess. (Attachment 7)
G. A. Buie, Executive Director, USA-Kansas and Kansas School Superintendents Association, believes the school district remains accountable to the patrons of the district and supports the idea of keeping the public informed. This bill references a needs assessment to assist the school board when preparing the budget of the school district. However, school board members are not responsible for creating the budget for the district. That usually falls to the superintendent, treasurer, or a budget team. He added that most districts use committees comprised of administrators, teachers, directors, school board members, parents and students to gather the information needed to prepare the budget. (Attachment 8)
Chairperson Baumgardner requested the list of school districts using committees to gather information to prepare the budget be provided to the committee.
Neutral Written Testimony:
Deena Horst and Ben Jones, Legislative Liaisons, Kansas State School Board. (Attachment 9)
The Chair closed the Hearing on SB362.
The next meeting will be February 14, 2022, 1:30 pm in room 144-S.
