Happy September! The Legislature does not return from their summer break until next week, so things are still relatively quiet in Trenton (for a few more days anyway!). This week, we saw a new education-related bill signed into law, and the State Board of Education conducted their regularly scheduled monthly meeting and hosted an “open topic” public testimony session.
Governor Murphy Takes Action On Education Legislation
Bill Authorizing School Districts to Submit Separate Proposals for Additional Spending for Subsequent Budget Year at Special School Election Now Law
On Wednesday of this week, Governor Murphy signed S-2837/A-4084 into law. Now, P.L.2024, c.60, this bill authorizes school districts without a board of school estimate to submit to the voters of the district at a special school election a separate proposal or proposals for permission to raise additional funds for the subsequent school budget year beyond the district’s authorized tax levy for that year. (Under current law, a school district may submit to the voters at the annual school election a separate question or proposal for permission to raise additional funds for the budget year beyond the district’s authorized tax levy). This bill would allow districts to submit proposals to voters at a special school election to raise such additional funds for the subsequent school budget year. Special school elections may occur in January, March, September, and December. A separate proposal or proposals may only be submitted on a date of a special election once during a school year.
State Board of Education Meets, Welcomes New Member, Takes Action on NJQSAC, and Makes Changes to Procedures for Public Testimony
Also on Wednesday, the New Jersey State Board of Education (“Board”) met for their regularly scheduled monthly meeting on Wednesday, September 4, 2024 at the Riverview Executive Plaza in Trenton. The Board welcomed its newest member, Ahmed Shehata, from Linden (Union County).
The State Board of Education voted to approve changes to how school performance is evaluated, placing a greater emphasis on student growth. The Division of Field Support and Services presented their revised proposal to the Board. In the Department’s initial proposal earlier this summer, the NJDOE proposed giving progress more points than achievement overall. After listening to last month’s public testimony and feedback from board members, the Department changed that to allocate the same number of points to each category. NJPSA offered recommendations at the oral public testimony session, some of which is reflected in the revised proposed amendments. In addition to amendments proffered to streamline and clarify rules, procedures, and operations, update terminology and rules to align to provisions throughout Title 6A of the New Jersey Administrative Code and Title 18A of the New
Jersey Statutes, and remove gendered nouns and pronouns throughout the chapter, the Department proposes to redistribute points to provide greater weight for indicators of more significance across the five key component areas of school district effectiveness. While the total points available for achievement and progress will be equal in the new point system, student progress will carry more points than achievement in both math and English Language Arts indicators. (There are no points allocated to Science for progress since the test is only taken once in elementary, middle and high school, which makes it hard to compare parallels). The proposed amendments will also decrease the point value for science in K-8 and K-12 districts since it is assessed infrequently. In 9-12 districts, the science achievement indicator will increase from zero now that a science test is given in high school. The previous point system gave science the same point value as math and English Language Arts in K-8 schools. The Department also proposed to delay the effective date of the proposed amendments to Appendices A and B until July 1, 2025. Therefore, the Department will use the existing DPRs through the 2024-2025 school year. The delayed effective date of the proposed amendments at Appendices A and B will ensure that the amendments do not go into effect in the middle of an evaluation cycle. The delayed effective date also will provide school districts and stakeholders ample time to become familiar with the new DPRs before they are used to monitor school district effectiveness. Click here for a summary of the rules proposed for readoption and the proposed amendments. The Board voted affirmatively to publish this proposed code in the New Jersey Register. Public input is accepted for 30 to 60 days after publication in the New Jersey Register. The code will then be adopted by the State Board after evaluation of input and subsequent revisions.
Amend State Board of Education Public Testimony Procedures
The Board voted, at adoption level, to amend its oral public comment and open topic public testimony procedures policy. Under the new policy, the oral public comment period will begin an estimated 30 minutes following the conclusion of the regular public business meeting agenda rather than at 2:00 PM (as is the current procedure). The Board further amended its oral public comment and open topic public testimony procedures policy by removing the previously
established two-hour time limit. This new policy will take effect immediately beginning with the first public testimony session following adoption of this resolution.
Adopt Interdistrict Public School Choice Readoption with Amendments, Repeals and New Rules
The Board voted to adopt amendments that are intended to streamline and consolidate language for clarity and alignment with the statute and for consistency with other chapters in the administrative code. The proposed amendments are intended to clarify issues and questions raised by choice districts and parents. Additional amendments implement a Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division decision that required the Department to enumerate the requirements for its review and approval of a sending district seeking to restrict student participation in the Choice Program. Other amendments were adopted for clarity and grammatical and stylistic improvements. The Division of Field Support and Services presented an overview of the readoption with amendments, repeals, and new rules at N.J.A.C. 6A:12, pursuant to N.J.S.A. 18A:36B-14 through 24 to the Board prior to the vote.
The State Board is scheduled to meet again on Wednesday, October 2nd. For more information about the NJ State Board of Education, please visit NJSBOE. The NJ Legislature is scheduled to be back in session on Thursday, September 12th. For questions or more information, please reach out to your NJPSA Government Relations team, Director Debbie Bradley and/or Assistant Director Jennie Lamon.
-Jennie Lamon, NJPSA Assistant Director of Government Relations