Legislature(1993 - 1994)
03/22/1993 03:00 PM House HES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 210 - HIRING OF SCHOOL CHIEF ADMINISTRATORS Number 282 REP. TERRY MARTIN spoke as PRIME SPONSOR of HB 210. He said the major purpose of the bill was to allow school districts more flexibility in using their money, not to take it away. He noted that, at statehood, most of Alaska's laws concerning education were modeled after California laws, and at that time, the state had a few large school districts and many smaller Bureau of Indian Affairs and military schools. He noted the movement toward local autonomy and single-site school districts over the years, but said the state did not realize the high administrative cost of such districts. He said the law requiring a superintendent at each school district was antiquated and expensive and needed to be eliminated. REP. MARTIN noted the St. Mary's school district, which was attempting to contract out administrative services to get out from under the high cost of on-site administration. He said districts in the Aleutian Islands got a special waiver allowing them to share a superintendent. He stated his bill required school districts to have at least 500 students, or 1,000 under an amendment he said he planned to offer, before they would be able to hire a superintendent. He said smaller districts could hire one superintendent in common. He noted the Yupiit school district, consisting of three villages, which now spends 65 percent of its budget for administrative costs. He said he receives many calls supporting individual superintendents, but single-site school districts are a problem because they cannot spread out their costs over many different schools. Number 355 REP. MARTIN continued, referring to legislative efforts in 1992 to make the Anchorage School District's superintendent reveal his contract to the public. When the contract was made public, it astounded the public with its generous provisions for the superintendent and his family. He encouraged the HESS Committee to use its powers of subpoena to make public the contracts for more school superintendents and demonstrate how their ability to negotiate high pay and benefits was impeding districts' ability to pay for teachers. REP. MARTIN noted one small district in Southeast Alaska that had among the lowest average teacher salaries in the state, but also the highest superintendent's salary. He said the state had an interest in seeing that state education funds went to serve children, not administrators. He said 17 of the state's 54 school districts are in Southeast Alaska, which has 11 percent of state enrollment. He asked why a single island needed four different school districts. He said Klawock was seven miles from Craig, and asked why the two districts could not share a superintendent. He said HB 210 would eliminate mandatory single-site superintendents and allow more flexibility. He stated the bill would cost the state no money. Number 386 CHAIR BUNDE referred to one superintendent whose contract included payment of expenses for an airplane. Number 394 REP. JERRY MACKIE testified against HB 210 as the representative of a district that includes many single-site school districts. He said the bill was incredibly arbitrary. He said the bill would apply to 40 of the state's 54 districts, and to all 12 of the school districts in his district. He stated he wanted a thorough study of the bill's effects before passage. Number 400 REP. MACKIE displayed maps of Southeast Alaska to demonstrate to committee members how school districts are scattered around a large area in communities that have little in common culturally. Before any change in the educational delivery system, he recommended a thorough study taking into account each district's individual nature, geographical location, composition of students, and funding effects of any organizational plan. He said the bill attacks non-urban school districts for only one factor, average daily membership. Number 420 REP. MACKIE said he did not want to see problems fixed without first identifying the problems. He commented there might be some cases in which there might be a possibility of consolidation of some services to save money, but mandating the elimination of superintendents for single-site school districts was inconceivable. He stated for the record that HB 210 was a bad bill. He said school districts needed someone in charge and the current system was good, and it needed some improvements. He said there was a need to cut spending, and some districts would have to do their part. Number 444 REP. TOOHEY disputed Rep. Mackie's assertion that Southeast Alaska communities were all unique enough to warrant their own different schools, saying that the Girdwood, Mountain View and Turnagain areas of Anchorage were different, but each was served adequately under a single Anchorage School District. She said the state needed to control its education expenses, not by cutting teacher salaries. She said that while no one liked change, it had to happen, and a school serving 200 children did not deserve its own superintendent at $82,000 per year. Number 450 REP. MACKIE commented, "That may be fine if it doesn't affect your district, but lately we're dealing with a lot of things that affect my district, and I take exception to that." REP. TOOHEY said she understood, but she asked Rep. Mackie how he could justify having four different schools on Prince of Wales Island, each served by its own superintendent. Number 458 REP. MACKIE answered that there were four different school districts on the island, and each needed its own superintendent. REP. BRICE asked Rep. Mackie how school districts would hire and fire superintendents if more than one community were served by a single school district. He asked how school boards would function, and how community input would be preserved. Number 474 REP. MACKIE answered that numbers taken out of context can lie. He said he wished he had more time to refute Rep. Martin's arguments. He expressed for the record his personal feeling, on behalf of those he represented, that HB 210 was bad legislation, and arbitrary, and that there was life outside of other areas. REP. MACKIE said, "These are real people, real children, real communities, with their own ideas, their own traditional history, and background in a lot of things. And anytime you say, `Oh, yeah, well the numbers say these superintendents are making too much money, let's stick 'em all together and we can save 'em all a bunch of money,' I assure there's a lot of things that, you know, we could take a look at numbers throughout all the state government and make that kind of a case, without any regard whatsoever for how the background and history and how the people in these communities feel." Number 480 CHAIR BUNDE said Rep. Mackie had a right, and indeed an obligation, to state his case. He said that he viewed HB 210 as a major change in the educational system, and that the bill was not on a fast track and would be discussed in detail. He said the committee would welcome Rep. Mackie's help in remaining at the meeting for a thorough discussion of the issues. REP. MACKIE thanked Chair Bunde and said he hoped that superintendents could testify on HB 210 to explain their sides of the issue. CHAIR BUNDE assured Rep. Bunde the bill would have a thorough investigation. REP. B. DAVIS asked if the committee planned to take action on HB 210. CHAIR BUNDE said the committee would continue to discuss the bill. REP. B. DAVIS said HB 210 addressed important issues that should be dealt with by a different bill. She said committees have studied the problems of single-site school districts. She noted the $100,000 that had been appropriated to encourage such districts to find ways to cooperate voluntarily and said the committee should wait for the report. She stated that the committee should take a long time during the interim to deal with the changes that everyone agreed needed to be made. Number 524 BOB WEINSTEIN, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE SOUTHEAST ISLANDS SCHOOL DISTRICT, testified in Juneau in opposition to HB 210. He said that since his district had been the subject of bills, debates, and Anchorage Times editorials, he decided to testify on HB 210. He said he had been with the district 19 years, 12 of them as superintendent, during which time he had seen many changes in the district, of which he was not frightened. He said he understood the need to reduce state spending. He displayed a map showing the boundaries of his district, encompassing many islands, which included 17 schools, eight of them not on Prince of Wales Island. He disputed facts asserted in the editorial concerning the district's use of an airplane. He said the district was not laying off English teachers. He asked committee members, if HB 210 passed, who would perform the duties that superintendents are trained and certified by the state to perform. He urged the legislature to perform a comprehensive study before making a misinformed decision on school district consolidation. Number 562 REP. TOOHEY asked if his district had 418 students. MR. WEINSTEIN said the district served 437 students, at 17 schools, with 418 in 1992. He said the student body population had reached 600 students in some years. REP. TOOHEY asked how many school buildings the district had and inquired as to their construction. MR. WEINSTEIN answered that some of the buildings were old trailers or converted cook houses, and there were schools in 17 separate communities. TAPE 93-42, SIDE A Number 000 CHAIR BUNDE asked how many districts would be on Prince of Wales Island if there were a 1,000 student minimum. Number 005 MR. WEINSTEIN said he did not know the exact enrollments of all the single-site school districts. He said there were three regional school districts in Southeast Alaska. CHAIR BUNDE said it was conceivable that all of the island's districts could be folded into a single district, and all of southern Southeast Alaska would be folded into a single district. REP. VEZEY offered the information that Craig and Klawock had about 160 or 190 students each, and Hydaburg had about 150 students, making a total of about 520 students. Number 030 REP. G. DAVIS asked Mr. Weinstein whether his district had a boarding program. MR. WEINSTEIN said there were several, including the Mt. Edgecumbe boarding high school in Sitka. He said there were programs allowing students from smaller communities to attend school in Juneau, Sitka, Ketchikan, Petersburg and Wrangell, in which boarding families are paid a small fee to cover the student's living expenses. He said his district participated on a limited basis in that program. Number 048 JOHN HOLST, SUPERINTENDENT OF THE CRAIG CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, testified via teleconference from Craig in opposition to HB 210. He said he wanted to retain local accountability of school districts to their local boards of education and communities. He said Craig had 356 students, not 190. He stated his duties far exceed those of the superintendent of the Anchorage School District, but are typical of a small district superintendent's duties. They include teaching senior English, and managing curriculum development, special education, staff development, finance, and program development. He said cutting the superintendent's job in Craig would not necessarily save money, as the district would have to hire an additional site manager or principle. Number 093 CHAIR BUNDE asked a clarifying question about whether HB 210 would require Craig schools to have two principals. He asked the salary differential between a principal and a superintendent. MR. HOLST said that a principle was paid about $12,000 per year less than a superintendent. Number 110 STEPHEN T. MCPHETRES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, ALASKA COUNCIL OF SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS, testified in Juneau in opposition to HB 210. He said that as long as there were separate school districts, there had to be chief administrators for those districts. He remarked it was not a single-site district issue. He listed the different responsibilities of rural school superintendents: recruiter and supervisor of staff, budget officer, bus transportation director, special education director, vocational education administrator, mandated reporting for DOE, report cards, PL874, enrollment, reports, audit reports, mandated in-services, physical plant maintenance, federal programs director, implementation of strategic plan, conduct long-range plans, curriculum supervisor, community relations, implementation of school board policy, classroom teaching, supervision of student activity, coaching, supervising capitol projects, supervising summer programs, and meet with parent advisory committees. He said it takes a well-trained professional educator to fulfill all these responsibilities. He stated he wanted to discuss the issue further. Number 145 CHAIR BUNDE commented that he might dispute whether it took a trained professional educator to fulfill those duties. He noted that the North Slope Borough (NSBSD), with 2,000 students, had a superintendent to fulfill those functions. MR. MCPHETRES interrupted to say that the NSBSD superintendent had supervisors, directors and assistant superintendents to help carry out those responsibilities. He said he knew, as he had been superintendent of the district for 10 years. CHAIR BUNDE asked at what point a district needed an assistant superintendent. He said the Anchorage School District had lots of officials to help the superintendent. MR. MCPHETRES answered that it depended on the mandated duties for the superintendent, which made it quite a subjective question. CHAIR BUNDE said he assumed that each district had the functions that Mr. McPhetres had earlier listed. Number 168 MR. MCPHETRES said that a superintendent would need an assistant in a district with 1,000 students, and a lone superintendent would be working at his capacity in a district with 500 students. Number 176 ROGER STEPHAN, RESEARCH ANALYST FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, testified in Juneau in favor of HB 210. He read a statement, which is on file in the committee room. In summary, the statement said that the DOE believed each school district, regardless of size, needed a superintendent or equivalent either directly or in cooperation with another district, such as was being accomplished in the Aleutian Region and Unalaska. He said HB 210 would affect 29 of Alaska's 54 school districts, and there would be no savings to the state because the foundation formula is based on students not employees. There is no guarantee money saved on superintendent's salary would not be spent on other administrative costs. CHAIR BUNDE asked whether the DOE's official position was to oppose HB 210 and support single-site school districts. MR. STEPHAN stated, "As it stands, yes." Number 200 CHAIR BUNDE said he believed in the need for superintendents, and while the bill supported the role of superintendents, the committee was deciding how many superintendents the state should support. He announced the committee would not get to HB 174 during that day's meeting and apologized to those who had come to the meeting to testify on HB 174. He said the committee would continue its discussion of HB 210, though it was likely not to finish discussing it, either. He asked Rep. Martin to make a summary statement, addressing some of the questions raised about his bill. Number 219 REP. MARTIN said that HB 210 was not meant to save money, and would not. But, he stated, it is clear more money is going for administrators, not children. He said he wanted HB 210 and HB 174 considered separately, noting that if the committee dealt with the issue of the number of superintendents this year, it could maximize the money used. He said school boards would not be straddled with superintendents. He noted that only two school districts had taken up the legislature's offer of $100,000 to try to learn to cooperate and consolidate with each other, and HB 210 would force districts to share superintendents. REP. MARTIN described the Yupiit school districts, which wanted to reduce its 65 percent administrative costs; and another district which he said was happy to have consolidated. He said the high level of state funding even for school districts would encourage the growth of more smaller districts. He noted that the legislature has made several efforts to address possible consolidation of school districts, but has been assailed with calls to go slowly. He said the issue deserved discussion but could not be delayed indefinitely. He stated he could not blame any member of the legislature from crying foul when consolidation cost his district money. REP. MARTIN again encouraged the committee to obtain copies of superintendent contracts around the state, which might reveal that the educational funding system was being misused. He encouraged passage of HB 210. He said DOE statistics showed the true enrollment in state districts, including the four school districts on Prince of Wales Island, handle 1,093 children. Number 280 CHAIR BUNDE said he would like to hold HB 210 until Thursday, April 1, 1993, and consider HB 174 on Tuesday, March 30, 1993, for discussion. REP. MARTIN offered information on how much revenue was available to small school districts, including information that showed that some small communities were very rich. CHAIR BUNDE said there was still much work to be done and noted that the session was in its 72nd day. He ADJOURNED the meeting at 4:55 p.m.
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