BASA AdminiScope, August 2020

territory to another adjacent school district. Only 10% of the electors in the defined transfer area need to sign a petition to require the proposal to be placed on the ballot at the next election after the board of elections certifies the proposal. The district set to “lose” territory is required to fund the election. To this date, four districts have been impacted by this incredibly flawed legislation. Most recently, Bowling Green City Schools had eight issues appear on the August 4 ballot. If all eight issues would have been ap- proved, BG was set to lose $150 million of tax valuation and 200 students. As it stood, four issues failed and four issues were approved. Without any say in the matter whatsoever, Bowling Green Schools and its citizens lost territory to neighboring school districts due to approval votes of 48-20, 32-17, 1-0, and 1-0. To this date, no legislator has claimed responsibility for inserting this legislation into the budget bill without properly vetting the implications of this new law. BASA has worked to have language inserted into various pieces of legislation to sunset this law immediately with the passage of emergency legislation; however, at this point, legislators have not responded. We will continue to work with legislators so that they understand the importance of repealing a piece of legislation that gives too much power to small groups of citizens at the expense of Ohio’s schools. And the third issue that may come back to the forefront is the Cupp-Patterson school funding bill—House Bill 305. Unfortunately, the EdChoice discussion and pandemic compromised to put the Cupp-Patterson bill on the backburner and slow the momentum of the fair school funding discussion. However, with Representative Cupp assuming his duties as the new Speaker of the House, reviving the discussion surrounding HB 305 is sure to be a focus under his leadership. One thing is for sure—the last half of 2020 is sure to be as interesting, and challenging, as the first half. As always, the voice and involvement of our BASA members, will be vital as we tackle these issues and many more that have the power to help, or hinder, our goal to provide quality instruction and meaningful opportuni - ties for the students of Ohio.

Big Ticket Items to Be Addressed as Legislators Return in September by Kevin Miller

To say that it’s going to be an interesting fall would be an understatement—not only for you as school lead - ers, but also for Ohio’s legislators. House and Senate members will be returning for a lame duck session that will have them addressing some crucial pieces of legislation that will have serious impacts on Ohio’s school districts. And of course, all of this will be taking place under the specter of the arrest and conviction of former House Speaker Larry Householder for racketeering. Though he has been removed by his colleagues as Speaker of the House, interestingly, Representative House - holder remains on the November ballot for re-election. And because he is running unopposed, the chances that he remains a state legislator are fairly high. The only way that he can be removed from his position as a House member at this time is if he voluntarily withdraws from the election, which doesn’t seem probable, or he is ultimately impeached by either the House or the Senate. Political corruption aside, there will be major issues that will be BASA’s focus in working with legislators as they reconvene after Labor Day. One important piece is HB 606, which would provide additional liability for school districts in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. You already have extensive liability through ORC 2744.02 and 2744.03, but what HB 606 provides is additional protection which specifically notes that there is “no cause for action” if a student, staff member, or visitor contracts the virus. Basically, this means that no one could come back on your district and claim that he or she contracted the virus because of exposure to the virus in one of your buildings. HB 606 passed the House the end of May and was approved by the Senate on June 30. However, the Senate made changes with which the House will have to concur. In addition, in its present state, HB 606 is only effective until December 31 of this year, so additional changes will need to be made to make this bill the kind of legislation that provides the added coverage for Ohio’s schools. Three non-COVID-related issues will continue to demand the attention of our members if we have a chance of effecting positive change for the school districts we serve. The first is Ohio’s EdChoice Voucher program. This past spring, HB 197 “froze” the current eligibility list, keep - ing the list of eligible school buildings at 517 instead of growing to the 1,227 which were scheduled to become eligible this past February 1. HB 197 also specified a sixty-day enrollment period which began April 1 and ran through the end of May. However, the Ohio Department of Education determined that the legislation did not specifically eliminate the “rolling” application period, so on July 1, the application period opened back up. Fam - ilies in those 517 districts can continue to apply for vouchers with funding being on a pro-rated basis. There are also loop holes in the “freeze” which allow siblings of previously eligible students to apply for vouchers, whether their building is currently eligible or not. If EdChoice legislation is not addressed, the current freeze will expire and those 1,200-plus school buildings will once again become EdChoice eligible schools on February 1, 2021. Millions of dollars will continue to be fun - neled away from public education and to private and parochial schools with little to no accountability required of those schools. With EdChoice advocate Senator Matt Huffman seemingly being the heir-apparent to the Senate President position in 2021, the uphill climb to defeat performance-based vouchers will become steeper. Your continued involvement in the EdChoice discussion, whether you have an EdChoice-eligible building or not, is critical to upholding Ohio’s system of public education. A second major issue to be addressed is the repeal of the Territory Transfer legislation which was literally “snuck” into last year’s HB 166—the budget bill—to the detriment of Ohio’s schools. Remember that this new law allows electors living in a township that is split between two or more districts to petition for the transfer of

Instructional Support for Returning to School Scholastic is proud to partner with The Buckeye Association of School Administrators to ensure that all children have access to the resources they need for virtual or in-school learning. We offer a variety of comprehensive instructional programs and tools to aid your work, including those that offer personalized and social-emotional learning supports to accelerate all students. For programs and solutions specific to your needs, contact your Scholastic Education Partner s :

Kim Marron

kmarron@scholastic.com

216-339-4547

Kim Marron

kmarron@scholastic.com

216-339-4547

A

Page 6

Page 7