LEGISLATIVE NEWSLETTER

February 13, 2009

CRITICAL WEEK COMING UP

This was a very busy week at the Capitol. All bills have to be out of committees (except Appropriations) by Tuesday, February 17, and must either be killed or crossed over to the other chamber by Friday, February 20.

Several bills critical to board authority were heard this week.

SB2320 would grant collective bargaining rights to all public school district employees. Support staff individuals and NDEA testified in favor of the bill. One individual was asked by Senator Flakoll if they support using a portion of the 70% of state money going to teacher compensation to improve support staff salary and benefits and this individual said they would. NDEA was not asked this question, so it is unclear if teachers would support sharing the 70%. NDSBA and NDCEL opposed the bill and asked the committee NOT to burden school boards with five more bargaining units. If the bill passes, each group of support staff could form units and boards would be in endless negotiations. It would also give these units the same impasse and fact finding rights as teachers. We do not believe the Fact Finding Commission is equipped to handle the potential volume of hearings this could create.

There is also a real danger that if schools have to create a negotiated agreement with support staff, those at-will employees could change to contracted status with nonrenewal and discharge rights. Since school districts are still the ONLY political subdivision required to bargain with any of their employees, we believe an expansion of bargaining rights of school employees is unfair and unnecessary.

NDSBA testified that districts are doing all they can for support personnel and must remain competitive to recruit and retain employees. After districts budget for federal and state mandates and 70% of all new state money to teacher compensation, they allot as much as possible to support staff.

The Senate Education Committee will be looking at amendments to this bill before voting it out of committee on Monday. We will support amendments that make it more palatable but will continue to OPPOSE passage of SB2320.

Please contact your senators this weekend and explain the burden this would place on local boards! This will be very close, so every senator’s vote is critical!

HB1519 was heard in House Education. This bill requires a grievance clause with COMPULSORY BINDING ARBITRATION in EVERY negotiated agreement. This would mean every grievance brought to administration or the board that is not resolved to the employee’s satisfaction would have to go to an independent arbiter whose opinion would be binding. North Dakota—being primarily an “at-will” state—is not even set up for such a process. NDSBA Legal Counsel Gary Thune testified as to the gravity of such a requirement. He also spoke of the slippery slope the state would be going down by mandating what has to be in negotiated agreements. When the state does this, it takes the “negotiation” right out of the process.

The House Education Committee gave HB1519 a DO NOT PASS recommendation by a vote of 8-6. Please contact your representatives and ask them to vote NO on HB1519.

Senate Education heard SB2289 and SB2357 on Wednesday. These two bills were introduced on behalf of a West Fargo teacher who was discharged for striking a student. SB2289 prohibits school boards from having corporal punishment policies stricter than state law. This means the policy must contain the word “willfully” when referring to the infliction of pain. NDSBA has always recommended that language because it is law. The bill also requires identical corporal punishment policies for all buildings in the district (although they may vary among grade levels of elementary, junior high, middle school, and high school). The bill would have required that the policies be “consistently applied.” NDSBA Legal Counsel Gary Thune explained to the committee that this could be interpreted to mean that if you ever fired a teacher for corporal punishment, you would have to always fire a teacher--regardless of the circumstances and investigation results.

An amendment was adopted by the Committee which removed that language and replace it with language that requires guidelines detailing how all incidents are to be investigated. NDSBA supported the amendment and thinks the bill is more acceptable in the amended version. The Committee gave SB2289 a DO PASS recommendation on a vote of 4-1.

SB2357 requires school districts to hire an administrative law judge to preside over and make a final determination in all teacher, principal, and assistant superintendent discharge hearings. NDSBA submitted opposition testimony stating that elected board members must make the final determination in discharges. Testimony by the bill sponsors and NDEA indicated that the hearings are inherently biased when an employee of the district presides over the hearing and makes a recommendation to the board.

There has been some discussion about an amendment which would only require an administrative law judge to preside over the hearing to be sure the law is followed and each side is treated fairly during the hearing. NDSBA believes such an amendment would make a better bill. It would quell perceptions that the hearing process is not fair. The amendment would have to make it clear that the law judge will NOT make a final recommendation to the board and the school board will make the final decision after hearing the evidence presented. NDSBA would support such an amendment.

While there will be costs involved in hiring the law judge for the hearing, boards will be in better legal position to defend the process.

HB1171, which removes qualifications for and monitoring of home schooling, had a very long hearing in House Education this week. NDSBA opposes this bill. The Committee appears divided and has not voted on it yet.

Floor votes on these bills will occur this coming week. You can track the status of bills on NDSBA’s webpage by clicking on bill tracking and then on the bill number. Many bills have been amended, so be sure to refer to the latest version of the bill.

After next week, we will know the status of all the bills we are tracking—which ones failed and which crossed over to the other chamber.

PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LEGISLATORS THIS WEEKEND!

Everyone has access to bill topics and texts, hearing schedules, and bill status reports at the Legislature’s Web site. NDSBA’s Web site includes this weekly Legislative Newsletter, hearing schedules for the upcoming week, and the list of bills NDSBA is tracking. Updated information will be posted Thursday or Friday each week depending on when information becomes available.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

ND State Web site: www.nd.gov

ND Legislative Information Web site: www.legis.nd.gov

Legislature Toll Free # 1-888-635-3447

Bismarck Legislative # 328-3373