During its March 10 monthly meeting, the Warren County R-III School Board heard a legislative update focused on education issues from State Rep. Bart Korman, including his take on controversial House Bill 628 that could affect teacher tenure and pay. “We have a huge amount of education bills filed,” Korman told the board. Among the bills he recapped were the Student Protection Act introduced by Rep. Chris Kelly of Columbia that strengthens the ability of schools to remove teachers who abuse students and the controversial HB 628. Chairman of the House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee Rep. Scott Dieckhaus, of Washington, has introduced the latter bill proposing to change laws regarding teacher contracts, eliminating tenure and tying teacher and administrator evaluations and compensation to student academic performance. Korman said Bill 628 is getting traction, especially since the sponsor (Dieckhaus) also is chairman of the committee. “It probably will come to the floor for a vote.” said Korman, who told the board that there is a lot of hesitation on the entire bill package from some members, specifically the proposed four-tier compensation system. “Basically, it puts teacher salaries on a bell curve, so you have to have some in the higher section, most in the middle and some at the lower end,” he explained, noting that the tier system has been the part of the bill that he’s received the most negative feedback on. “There’s a strong call to reform tenure in some way, shape or form, so what’s in the bill now will be a starting point for that discussion,” he said. “We can expect a ton of amendments once it comes to the floor.” Budget Discussion “Of course, everyone wants to know where the foundation formula (state funding for school districts) is because there’s such a tight window between when the state passes its budget and when you need to have your own budgets established,” said Korman. “With no guarantees, it looks like the exact same dollar amount from the last couple of years will be in the state budget this year,” he said. On the transportation front, Korman told the board that Gov. Jay Nixon is withholding about $70 million, and to date, has released more than $17 million for schools in the current budget. “The governor still is holding onto more than $50 million in this category, which leaves schools in a bind on paying for transportation,” he said. “This withholding amount likely won’t come back next year in the appropriations process, so don’t expect any funding increases next year from the amount you truly now have from the state versus what was promised.” The legislator said one of the brighter aspects of the state education budget situation is that the governor put in an additional $3 million for the Parents as Teachers program. Board secretary Jan Sutherland asked Korman about what he is hearing from the Senate side about the fate of the $189 million additional federal stimulus money for public schools. “There are some senators who — because it’s federal stimulus money with some strings attached — would like not to accept it,” Korman responded. “We passed it in the House because it helps our budget situation and our schools.” Sutherland asked if the state formula funding level would be affected if the Senate votes not to accept the stimulus money. “That will probably be looked at again, because it’s a huge dollar amount for this budget we’ve got now,” Korman said. “That will change a lot of things.”