ISD: COMMON SCHOOL CALENDAR S.B. 549 (S-2): FLOOR ANALYSIS
Senate Bill 549 (Substitute S-2 as reported)
Sponsor: Senator Ron Jelinek
Committee: Education
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Revised School Code to do the following:
-- Require an intermediate school district (ISD), in cooperation with its constituent districts and applicable employee groups, to adopt a common calendar for all of its constituent districts and ISD programs by July 1, 2008.
-- Require the calendar to identify the dates at least of a winter holiday break, spring break, and professional development days for at least the next five years.
-- Require an ISD board and each constituent district to comply with the calendar, beginning with the 2008-2009 school year.
-- Provide that a school district or ISD would not have to comply with the common school calendar until after its collective bargaining agreement expired, if that agreement were in effect on the bill's effective date and conflicted with the common calendar.
-- Make exceptions for a year-round school or program in operation on the bill's effective date; an international baccalaureate academy; and a public school that operates grades 6-12 at a single site, and aligns its high school curriculum with advanced placement courses as the capstone of the curriculum.
-- Permit an ISD or school district that began operating a year-round school or program after the bill's effective date, or that was operating or began operating a school or program on a trimester schedule, to apply for a waiver from the bill's requirements.
Proposed MCL 380.1284a Legislative Analyst: Curtis Walker
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have no fiscal impact on State government.
The fiscal impact on school districts subject to a common calendar is indeterminate. If the common calendar allowed better coordination of services among districts, there could be some cost savings. For example, multiple districts potentially could coordinate teleconferenced or other forms of professional development on the same days and share in the presenter's fees. In another example, an ISD could provide one common set of instructional time to all districts because of the common calendar, rather than providing additional instructional days based on the variable calendars of pupils' resident districts.
On the other hand, demand for possibly the same services to be provided across districts over an inflexible time period could lead to higher costs. For example, if several districts use the same contractor for specific building maintenance and currently stagger the contractor's visits, a common calendar might not allow the same scheduling flexibility.
Date Completed: 6-25-07 Fiscal Analyst: Kathryn Summers-Coty
Analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent. sb549/0708