Legislative Update
Senate Education Committee to hold hearing on April 25
The state Senate Education Committee will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, April 25 at 10:00 am on two bills and the confirmation of several appointments. The committee, chaired by Sen. John Jagler (R-Watertown, pictured), will meet in Room 201 Southeast of the State Capitol.
You can view the public hearing notice here.
The committee will hold a public hearing on the following two bills:
OSS: Critical Incident Response training session applications open
From the Office of School Safety (OSS): The first session of Critical Incident Response (CIR) training is scheduled for May 1st – May 3rd, 2023. There are 3 CIR training opportunities scheduled throughout the state in May & June 2023. The training will provide participants with best practices in crisis response and recovery techniques and the ability to further support school communities that may be impacted by a crisis event. CLICK HERE for more information and session applications.Priority registration will be given to participants serving in CESA Regions 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, and 12.
Dates & Locations: read more…
Assembly Education Committee to hear bill mandating financial literacy classes on Thursday
The Assembly Education Committee has scheduled a public hearing for 10:00 am Thursday, April 20, to take testimony on three Assembly bills, including a bill that would require students to complete a half-credit course in personal financial literacy to graduate from high school.
The committee is chaired by state Rep. Joel Kitchens (pictured), a former president of the Sturgeon Bay School Board.
The hearing will take place in Room 412 East, of the State Capitol. Bills scheduled for a hearing include: read more…
Two state budget hearings this week
The state legislature’s budget-writing Joint Finance Committee (JFC) continues their “road show” or series of four public hearings on the 2023-25 state budget this week with meetings in Eau Claire and Wisconsin Dells:- Tuesday, April 11, 2023 UW-Eau Claire, Davies Student Center
Ojibwe Grand Ballroom (Third Floor)
77 Roosevelt Ave., Eau Claire - Wednesday, April 12, 2023 Wilderness Resort, Glacier Canyon Conference Center
Sandstone Meeting Room
45 Hillman Road, Wisconsin Dells
WASB op-ed available for use in budget messaging
Earlier this month, the WASB sent an op-ed piece to media outlets throughout the state on the subject of the need for inflationary increases in spendable resources for school districts. We encourage you to adapt this column to your district’s situation and share it with your local media (newspapers, radio and TV stations) and the public. Testifying at a state budget hearing: how to prepare & what to expect
Before any votes are taken on the state budget, the powerful budget-writing Joint Finance Committee (JFC) holds a series of public hearings at locations around the state. This cycle, the public hearings will be located in Waukesha, Eau Claire, Wisconsin Dells and Minocqua (more details here).These hearings are a great chance for your board to provide testimony highlighting issues such as the importance of inflationary increases in spendable resources, special education reimbursement, etc. Based on what we are hearing, lawmakers are yet not sold on the need to provide inflationary increases in school funding and, while they understand the need to provide some level of increased resources to schools, they have neither embraced the governor’s proposal nor come up with a number of their own yet. It is of critical importance for public school districts to have a strong presence at these hearings so lawmakers can hear from you as they are deciding what level of investment to make in your school district. read more…
OSS: Additional grant funds available for digital mapping
From OSS: “The Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of School Safety (OSS) has replenished 2021 Wisconsin Act 109 digital mapping grant funds, with an additional $1,528,341.03 allocated to address unmet need. With replenished funding, OSS again seeks applications from Wisconsin public, private, charter, and tribal schools interested in obtaining digital mapping data.
“The grant announcement is available here: School Safety Grants.
“Please email schoolsafetygrants@doj.state.wi.us with any questions.”
82 school district referendums on the April 4 ballot
When voters go to the polls for the April 4 Spring Election, in addition to school board races and other local government races, they will find 82 local school district referendums on the ballot in 68 districts.
Of those 82 total referendums, 53 will be operating referendums to exceed state-imposed revenue limits. Overall, 43 of those referendums will ask for temporary (or non-recurring) authority to increase the district’s revenue limit, while 10 will ask for permanent (or recurring) authority to increase the district’s revenue limit. Operating referendums will be on the ballot in 51 districts across the state. (Two districts–Elkhorn and Fort Atkinson–have two operating referenda on Tuesday’s ballot.)
In addition, there will 29 borrowing referendums on the ballot in 28 districts across the state. Borrowing referendums ask voters for approval to issue bonds for major construction, remodeling or maintenance projects for school facilities. (One district–Oconomowoc Area–has two debt issuance referendums on Tuesday’s ballot.) read more…
Assembly passes two bills to require schools to report certain crimes
On Tuesday (March 14) the state Assembly took floor action on a pair of bills relating to reporting of crimes by schools as part of a floor calendar of bills focusing on crime. Below is a description of those bills and the Assembly’s action on them.
Assembly Bill 53 – Reporting of certain crimes and other incidents that occur on school property or school transportation. [Main author: Rep. Cindi Duchow (R-Town of Delafield)]
Beginning in the 2024-25 school year, AB 53 would require public high schools and private high schools participating in a parental choice (voucher) program to collect statistics on violations of municipal disorderly conduct ordinances and certain crimes, including homicide, sexual assault, burglary, battery, and arson, that occur on school property or on transportation provided by the school. The high school must collect statistics about the crime or disorderly conduct only if: 1) it occurred on a weekday between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.; 2) it is reported to law enforcement; and 3) a charge is filed, or citation is issued.
AB 53 further would require that the collected statistics be reported to the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) and be included on the annual school and school district accountability report (a/k/a “school and district report cards”). However, the DPI may not consider crime statistics reported by a school or school district for purposes of determining a school or school district’s performance on the annual school and school district accountability report (a/k/a report cards”).
Legislative Fiscal Bureau Budget Summary Posted
The non-partisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB) released its detailed summary of Governor Evers’ 2023-25 budget proposal yesterday (3/15).
Here are links to the documents:
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- Full Document Summary. (Entire budget)
- Agency-by Agency Summaries. (Each state agency summary is a separate document)
- DPI Summary (Summarizes just the items related to the Department of Instruction)
- Summary Tables
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Related Links
