Pub. 6 2016-2017 Issue 2

12 S.B. 180 Charter School Start Up Grants Sen. Stephenson This bill removes the repeal date for charter school start-up grants. The charter school start-up grant program allows newly approved charter schools and expansions to hire legal counsel, financial advisors, and staff, lease office space, implement a marketing plan, etc. by awarding these schools up to $300k. This grants requires a $2.5 million ongoing appropriation. S.B. 186 Education Reporting Amendments Sen. Fillmore This bill amends reporting requirements for a LEAs' percentage increases and decreases due to employee benefit adjustments and wages, LEA fee waiver information, and the State Board of Education’s annual report about UPPAC fund uses and balances and other required reports. S.B. 190 Education Computing Pathways Sen. Okurlund This bill creates the Computing Pathways Grants program, administered by the STEM Action Center; authorizes the STEM Action Center to work with the State Board of Education to adopt rules for the administration of the grant program, establish a grant application process, and establish a review committee. It also requires the STEM Action Center to annually report on the grant program to the Education Interim Committee. S.B. 220 Student Assessment and School Accountability Amendments Sen. Millner This bill modifies the school grading program by removing the curve previously used to allocate letter grades to schools, and replacing SAGE with the ACT for high school students. It also placed greater emphasis on growth ELL students, and students scoring in each school’s bottom quartile. S.B. 234 School Turnaround Amendments Sen. Millner This bill amends the School Turnaround program, more specifically the designation of a low performing school, the partnership requirement between the local school board of a low performing school and the turnaround expert, the turnaround expert contract requirements and the turnaround plan, the implications established by the USBE if the low performing school fails to improve, extensions granted to low performing schools, and the Turnaround School Teacher Recruitment and Retention Program.