Bill No.: SF0070                     Drafter:  DRN

LSO No.:   08LSO-0277                 Effective Date:  7/1/2008

Enrolled Act No.:    <enrnum>

Chapter No.:         <chptnum>

Prime Sponsor:       Joint Education Interim Committee

Catch Title:         School finance-amendments.

Subject:   The school finance omnibus bill continuing refinement and operation of the Wyoming system of school finance.

Summary/Major Elements:

• Forwards findings and recommendations contained with a series of Education Committee reports on education resource block grant model funding components;
• Extends summer school/extended day program on a permanent basis as an off-model supplemental resource for intervention and remediation programs addressing at-risk students, with program funding continued as a categorical grant which is cost-based and predicated upon model driven FTEs for designated at-risk student counts;
• Enrichment programs excluded from summer school program grant, with the biennial summer school program budget increased from $18 million to $20 million;
• Career-technical education grant program modified to reflect MPR report recommendations to provide funding for career-technical education demonstration projects connecting academic and technical curriculum grounded in academic and industry standards;
• Augments $500,000 WDE biennial budget for CTE grant program by $800,000, appropriates $150,000 for established steering committee to develop grant program parameters and to assemble a statewide strategic plan, funds an additional WDE full-time position for CTE programs, and funds and directs WDE activities for CTE development per MPR report;
• Permanently extends instructional facilitator financial assistance to augment professional development resources contained within the block grant model, to be distributed as a categorical program grant based upon school level attendance and configurations in accordance with prototypical school generated FTE positions as prorated to reflect dedicated legislative funding;
• Imposes program requirements and directs WDE to enforce program strategies and effectiveness requirements imposed by statute, and increases school year 2008-2009 program funding contained within WDE budget from $16 million to $21.9 million, $5.9 million short of the $27.8 million full funding amount;
• Continues WDE efforts to address at-risk resources and education program strategies by creating a study committee comprised of state, district and community representatives, with study efforts to include development of an at-risk continuum of services, alternative school policy and court ordered and institutionalized placement policies;
• Appropriates $300,000 for at-risk study efforts and WDE staffing and district support, with study efforts to be coordinated with block grant model allocation/use data effort;
• Establishes distance education program parameters and policies as recommended by the state superintendent's task force comprised of district, legislative and industry representatives;
• Block grant funding for distance education tied to district ADM, with inter-district funding arrangements authorized for students receiving distance education programs from nonresident districts;
• Revises existing distance learning incentive grant program to reflect the distance education program parameters and requirements and utilizes existing $500,000 within WDE budget for fund revised grants;
• Appropriates an additional $275,000 to establish state distance education program implementation and district technical assistance and authorizes additional departmental staffing;
• Addresses reported school district food service program deficits by providing a per meal subsidy based upon reported deficits and number of meals served, in response to data collected by WDE.  Subsidy program funded at $4.5 million for school year 2008-2009 on a temporary basis until subsequent model recalibration;
• Clarifies the maintenance and operations component within the education resource block grant model by providing statutory parameters on groundskeeper resources;
• Specifies that groundskeeper FTE computations are to based upon the lesser of actual school site acreages as defined by WDE rule and regulation or upon the facility guidelines and site acreages established by the School Facilities Commission, and grandfathers acreages acquired by districts on or before July 1, 1997;
• Directs WDE continuation of allocation/use study and data collection efforts for block grant model administration and eventual model recalibration, and continuation of assembling a block grant model resource guide;
• Provides for a longitudinal study over a ten year period of the Hathaway student scholarship program by the WDE on the long term impact of the scholarship program on Wyoming students, the results of which to be periodically reported to the Education Committee;
• Establishes a task force of school district and post secondary education representatives to review and evaluate the addition of sign language as fulfillment of foreign language requirements under the Hathaway success curriculum, with a report to the Education Committee by October 1.  Sign language is specifically included within the foreign language requirements of the success curriculum by 2008 SF0071;
• Appropriates $450,000 to WDE for a pilot program providing supplement funding to applicant school districts for student enrichment instruction during summer school sessions, to be selected by WDE from among district applications.  A report by district recipient on program implementation and program expenditures is required, to be compiled by WDE and submitted to Education Committee, together with program recommendations.