[Local-Maine-Schools] Fwd: Ld 1274 and the Charter bill ld1553 (Dick Gould)

[Dick Atlee]

Looks like Mr. Langley didn't get the message....

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Ld 1274 and the Charter bill ld1553
Date: 	Tue, 24 May 2011 20:39:23 -0400
From: 	ricchard gould <perf3170rag at myfairpoint.net>

Hi

LD 1274 had a vote of 8-5 Ought to pass as amended (OTP-AM) ought to
pass as amended

The charter bill also passed , but I am not positive who voted and I
forgot to write it down, but I will get it tomorrow when I am down there.

Sorry to take so long getting this to you, but I had a
major issue to take care of as the School Committee Chair.

Underline text is new language and yellow is deleted.

[Since this forward is in plain text, I've denoted these changes 
literally, in upper case; I'm not sure what the reason is for the 
duplication of the phrase "calculation of salary costs" in item 4 - DA]

I just got the vote from Rep. Pete Johnson and it is below.

The final vote on the OTP-AM motion is 8-2-3 and as follows:

Majority Report = OTP-AM (8 members):  Sen. Langley, Sen. Mason, Rep.
Richardson, Rep. Johnson, Rep. Maker, Rep. McClellan, Rep. Wagner and
Rep. Nelson.  Rep. Soctomah supports the majority report.

Minority Report #1 = OTP-AM (2 members):  Rep. McFadden and Rep. Edgecomb.

The "minority report" committee amendment is the same as the "majority
report" except that the provisions that require state and local funding
to follow the student will be removed from this amendment to the bill.

Minority Report #2 = ONTP (3 members):  Sen. Alfond, Rep. Rankin and
Rep. Lovejoy

Dick


SUMMARY FOR LD 1274

This amendment to the bill amends several provisions
of the EPS Funding Act to more equitably allocate state funds that are
appropriated for EPS.

The bill makes the following changes.

1.  It amends the definition of “property fiscal
capacity” in order to base the local school administrative unit’s fiscal
capacity on the most recent certified state valuation or the average for
the 3 years prior to the most recently certified state valuation, which
is, whichever is lower.  This change provides a more accurate
determination of a school administrative unit’s fiscal capacity while
protecting those school administrative units that are experiencing
increasing property valuation



2. It amends the staffing ratios established to determine the
calculation of salary and benefit costs for school-level staff positions
by providing a 10% reduction in the staffing ratios for school
administrative units with a total school population of less than 1,200
students. This change recognizes that school administrative units with
fewer than 1,200 students still have to provide certain levels of
instruction, support and administrative positions that do not conform to
the existing staffing ratios, which are based on enrollment assumptions
that do not apply to approved smaller school administrative units.

[THE FOLLOWING IS DELETED]
3. It amends the EPS per-pupil rate calculated by the Commissioner of
Education for each school administrative unit by removing the reduction
of federal Title I funds from the calculation for teacher salaries and
benefit costs. This change reflects the fact that federal Title I
funding is one of several sources of revenue that are allocated to
school administrative units and expended to support essential programs
and services.

[THE FOLLOWING IS ADDED]
3.  Beginning in fiscal year 2012-2013, it amends the additional
weights to be applied to the per-pupil count for economically
disadvantaged students in a school administrative unit from 0.15 to 0.25.

4.  Beginning in fiscal year 2012-13, i[PRECEDING TEXT ADDED]t amends 
the regional
adjustment in the total operating allocation for school administrative
units based on the regional differences in teacher salary costs for the
labor market areas in which school administrative units are located by
removing the benefits costs for teachers and other school-level staff
from the calculation of salary costs. calculation of salary costs. This
change addresses the inequitable treatment of school administrative
units with lower teacher salary costs relative to statewide averages due
to local economic circumstances.