CSSB 143(CRA) am H: "An Act relating to ethics and budget training for school board members; relating to the terms of office of municipal school board members; relating to the size of the city council in second class cities; and providing for an effective date."
00 CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 143(CRA) am H 01 "An Act relating to ethics and budget training for school board members; relating to the 02 terms of office of municipal school board members; relating to the size of the city council 03 in second class cities; and providing for an effective date." 04 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 * Section 1. AS 14.07.020(a) is amended to read: 06 (a) The department shall 07 (1) exercise general supervision over the public schools of the state 08 except the University of Alaska; 09 (2) study the conditions and needs of the public schools of the state, 10 adopt or recommend plans, administer and evaluate grants to improve school 11 performance awarded under AS 14.03.125, and adopt regulations for the improvement 12 of the public schools; the department may consult with the University of Alaska to 13 develop secondary education requirements to improve student achievement in college 14 preparatory courses;
01 (3) provide advisory and consultative services to all public school 02 governing bodies and personnel; 03 (4) prescribe by regulation a minimum course of study for the public 04 schools; the regulations must provide that, if a course in American Sign Language is 05 given, the course shall be given credit as a course in a foreign language; 06 (5) establish, in coordination with the Department of Family and 07 Community Services, a program for the continuing education of children who are held 08 in juvenile detention facilities or juvenile treatment facilities, as those terms are 09 defined in AS 47.12.990, in the state during the period of detention or treatment; 10 (6) accredit those public schools that meet accreditation standards 11 prescribed by regulation by the department; these regulations shall be adopted by the 12 department and presented to the legislature during the first 10 days of any regular 13 session, and become effective 45 days after presentation or at the end of the session, 14 whichever is earlier, unless disapproved by a resolution concurred in by a majority of 15 the members of each house; 16 (7) prescribe by regulation, after consultation with the state fire 17 marshal and the state sanitarian, standards that will ensure healthful and safe 18 conditions in the public and private schools of the state, including a requirement of 19 physical examinations and immunizations in pre-elementary schools; the standards for 20 private schools may not be more stringent than those for public schools; 21 (8) exercise general supervision over early education programs that 22 receive direct state or federal funding, including early education programs provided by 23 a school district for students four and five years of age, approve an early education 24 program provided by a school district that complies with the standards adopted by the 25 board under AS 14.07.165(a)(5), and revoke approval of an early education program if 26 the program does not comply with the standards adopted by the board under 27 AS 14.07.165(a)(5); 28 (9) exercise general supervision over elementary and secondary 29 correspondence study programs offered by municipal school districts or regional 30 educational attendance areas; the department may also offer and make available to any 31 Alaskan through a centralized office a correspondence study program;
01 (10) accredit private schools that request accreditation and that meet 02 accreditation standards prescribed by regulation by the department; nothing in this 03 paragraph authorizes the department to require religious or other private schools to be 04 licensed; 05 (11) review plans for construction of new public elementary and 06 secondary schools and for additions to and major rehabilitation of existing public 07 elementary and secondary schools and, in accordance with regulations adopted by the 08 department, determine and approve the extent of eligibility for state aid of a school 09 construction or major maintenance project; for the purposes of this paragraph, "plans" 10 include educational specifications, schematic designs, projected energy consumption 11 and costs, and final contract documents; 12 (12) provide educational opportunities in the areas of vocational 13 education and training, and basic education to individuals over 16 years of age who 14 are no longer attending school; the department may consult with businesses and labor 15 unions to develop a program to prepare students for apprenticeships or internships that 16 will lead to employment opportunities; 17 (13) administer the grants awarded under AS 14.11; 18 (14) establish, in coordination with the Department of Public Safety, a 19 school bus driver training course; 20 (15) require the reporting of information relating to school disciplinary 21 and safety programs under AS 14.33.120 and of incidents of disruptive or violent 22 behavior; 23 (16) establish by regulation criteria, based on low student performance, 24 under which the department may intervene in a school district to improve instructional 25 practices, as described in AS 14.07.030(a)(14) or (15); the regulations must include 26 (A) a notice provision that alerts the district to the deficiencies 27 and the instructional practice changes proposed by the department; 28 (B) an end date for departmental intervention, as described in 29 AS 14.07.030(a)(14)(A) and (B) and (15), after the district demonstrates three 30 consecutive years of improvement consisting of not less than two percent 31 increases in student proficiency on standards-based assessments in language
01 arts and mathematics, as provided in AS 14.03.123(f)(1)(A); and 02 (C) a process for districts to petition the department for 03 continuing or discontinuing the department's intervention; 04 (17) notify the legislative committees having jurisdiction over 05 education before intervening in a school district under AS 14.07.030(a)(14) or 06 redirecting public school funding under AS 14.07.030(a)(15); 07 (18) establish a reading program to provide direct support for and 08 intervention in the reading intervention programs of participating schools as described 09 in AS 14.30.765 and 14.30.770; 10 (19) annually convene, either in person or electronically, a panel to 11 review and comment on the effectiveness of the programs created by the department 12 and the regulations adopted by the board to implement AS 14.03.410, 14.03.420, 13 AS 14.30.760 - 14.30.770, and 14.30.800; the panel 14 (A) shall provide recommendations and guidance to the board, 15 the department, and the legislature on how to integrate early education and 16 reading programs created under this title with tribal compacting or programs 17 focused on cultural education within the department; 18 (B) shall discuss support for reading in Alaska Native 19 languages and other non-English languages; 20 (C) must collectively represent the regions of the state and 21 include teachers of grades kindergarten through three, school administrators, 22 parents of students in grades kindergarten through three, stakeholders from 23 Indigenous language immersion programs, representatives from early 24 education stakeholder groups, and researchers of best practices for improving 25 literacy performance, including best practices for instruction of Indigenous 26 students and students whose first language is not English; 27 (20) provide school board ethics and budgeting training to school 28 board members who are required to receive the training under AS 14.08.041(g) 29 and AS 14.12.045. 30 * Sec. 2. AS 14.07.020(a), as amended by sec. 16, ch. 40, SLA 2022, is amended to read: 31 (a) The department shall
01 (1) exercise general supervision over the public schools of the state 02 except the University of Alaska; 03 (2) study the conditions and needs of the public schools of the state, 04 adopt or recommend plans, administer and evaluate grants to improve school 05 performance awarded under AS 14.03.125, and adopt regulations for the improvement 06 of the public schools; the department may consult with the University of Alaska to 07 develop secondary education requirements to improve student achievement in college 08 preparatory courses; 09 (3) provide advisory and consultative services to all public school 10 governing bodies and personnel; 11 (4) prescribe by regulation a minimum course of study for the public 12 schools; the regulations must provide that, if a course in American Sign Language is 13 given, the course shall be given credit as a course in a foreign language; 14 (5) establish, in coordination with the Department of Family and 15 Community Services, a program for the continuing education of children who are held 16 in juvenile detention facilities or juvenile treatment facilities, as those terms are 17 defined in AS 47.12.990, in the state during the period of detention or treatment; 18 (6) accredit those public schools that meet accreditation standards 19 prescribed by regulation by the department; these regulations shall be adopted by the 20 department and presented to the legislature during the first 10 days of any regular 21 session, and become effective 45 days after presentation or at the end of the session, 22 whichever is earlier, unless disapproved by a resolution concurred in by a majority of 23 the members of each house; 24 (7) prescribe by regulation, after consultation with the state fire 25 marshal and the state sanitarian, standards that will ensure healthful and safe 26 conditions in the public and private schools of the state, including a requirement of 27 physical examinations and immunizations in pre-elementary schools; the standards for 28 private schools may not be more stringent than those for public schools; 29 (8) exercise general supervision over early education programs that 30 receive direct state or federal funding, including early education programs provided by 31 a school district for students four and five years of age;
01 (9) exercise general supervision over elementary and secondary 02 correspondence study programs offered by municipal school districts or regional 03 educational attendance areas; the department may also offer and make available to any 04 Alaskan through a centralized office a correspondence study program; 05 (10) accredit private schools that request accreditation and that meet 06 accreditation standards prescribed by regulation by the department; nothing in this 07 paragraph authorizes the department to require religious or other private schools to be 08 licensed; 09 (11) review plans for construction of new public elementary and 10 secondary schools and for additions to and major rehabilitation of existing public 11 elementary and secondary schools and, in accordance with regulations adopted by the 12 department, determine and approve the extent of eligibility for state aid of a school 13 construction or major maintenance project; for the purposes of this paragraph, "plans" 14 include educational specifications, schematic designs, projected energy consumption 15 and costs, and final contract documents; 16 (12) provide educational opportunities in the areas of vocational 17 education and training, and basic education to individuals over 16 years of age who 18 are no longer attending school; the department may consult with businesses and labor 19 unions to develop a program to prepare students for apprenticeships or internships that 20 will lead to employment opportunities; 21 (13) administer the grants awarded under AS 14.11; 22 (14) establish, in coordination with the Department of Public Safety, a 23 school bus driver training course; 24 (15) require the reporting of information relating to school disciplinary 25 and safety programs under AS 14.33.120 and of incidents of disruptive or violent 26 behavior; 27 (16) establish by regulation criteria, based on low student performance, 28 under which the department may intervene in a school district to improve instructional 29 practices, as described in AS 14.07.030(a)(14) or (15); the regulations must include 30 (A) a notice provision that alerts the district to the deficiencies 31 and the instructional practice changes proposed by the department;
01 (B) an end date for departmental intervention, as described in 02 AS 14.07.030(a)(14)(A) and (B) and (15), after the district demonstrates three 03 consecutive years of improvement consisting of not less than two percent 04 increases in student proficiency on standards-based assessments in language 05 arts and mathematics, as provided in AS 14.03.123(f)(1)(A); and 06 (C) a process for districts to petition the department for 07 continuing or discontinuing the department's intervention; 08 (17) notify the legislative committees having jurisdiction over 09 education before intervening in a school district under AS 14.07.030(a)(14) or 10 redirecting public school funding under AS 14.07.030(a)(15); 11 (18) provide school board ethics and budgeting training to school 12 board members who are required to receive the training under AS 14.08.041(g) 13 and AS 14.12.045. 14 * Sec. 3. AS 14.08.041 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: 15 (g) Within 30 days after beginning a term, each regional school board member 16 shall receive training provided by the department on the topics of school board ethics 17 and budgeting. 18 * Sec. 4. AS 14.12 is amended by adding a new section to read: 19 Sec. 14.12.045. Required training for school board members. Within 30 20 days after beginning a term, each school board member shall receive training provided 21 by the department on the topics of school board ethics and budgeting. 22 * Sec. 5. AS 14.12.050 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: 23 (d) The governing body of a municipality may by ordinance alter the terms of 24 office provided for in this section. 25 * Sec. 6. AS 29.20.130 is amended to read: 26 Sec. 29.20.130. City council composition. Each first class city has a council 27 of six members elected by the voters at large. Each second class city with a 28 population greater than 1,000 has a council of seven members elected by the voters 29 at large. Each second class city with a population of 1,000 or less has a council 30 size, established by ordinance, of not fewer than three members and not more 31 than seven members, elected by the voters at large. The council of a first or second
01 class city may by ordinance provide for election of members other than on an at-large 02 basis for all members. 03 * Sec. 7. AS 29.20.300(a) is amended to read: 04 (a) Each municipal school district has a school board. Except as provided in 05 (b) or (c) of this section, members of a school board are elected at the regular election 06 for three-year terms and until their successors take office. Members are elected at 07 large unless a different method of election has been approved by the voters in a regular 08 election. 09 * Sec. 8. AS 29.20.300 is amended by adding a new subsection to read: 10 (c) The governing body of a municipality may by ordinance approved by the 11 voters alter the terms of office provided for in (a) of this section. 12 * Sec. 9. Section 2 of this Act takes effect on the effective date of sec. 16, ch. 40, SLA 13 2022. 14 * Sec. 10. Except as provided in sec. 9 of this Act, this Act takes effect immediately under 15 AS 01.10.070(c).