DISTRICT BUDGETS
The 2nd Calculation of the 2025-2016 FEFP has been released by the Florida Department of Education. This calculation includes the certified millage rates and related information necessary for your district budget discussions. This information has been delivered to your district and we have also posted it on the FSBA website on our 2015 Session Resource Center page located at https://fsba.org/2015-
STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEETING
The State Board of Education will be meeting on Thursday morning (beginning at 9:00 am) on July 23 at the Tampa Airport Marriott. Among other items on the agenda, the Board will be considering approval of revised rules relating to the calculation of student learning growth (i.e. Value Added Model, or VAM) and its use in district teacher and administrator evaluation systems. The agenda – which includes links to these revised rules – is available at http://www.fldoe.org/policy/
SPECIAL SESSION – CONGRESSIONAL BOUNDARIES
Legislators will return to Tallahassee for a second Special Session that has been scheduled for August 10-21. Their sole task for this Special Session is to redraw the boundaries for at least eight of Florida’s 27 congressional districts. According to the joint proclamation issued by Senate President Gardiner and House Speaker Crisafulli, no other business is scheduled to be considered during this Special Session.
Earlier this month, the Florida Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers violated the state Constitution during the 2012 redistricting process, saying that some districts were the product of unconstitutional political gerrymandering. While lawmakers were specifically directed to redraw eight congressional districts, the changes will have spillover effects into neighboring districts. As a result, many more congressional districts will be impacted. Several factors further complicate this process. First, the court has ordered a very short time frame for legislators to complete their work, including adequate time for legal argument and court review of the redrawn maps. The tight time frame is necessary, in part, to allow sufficient time for candidates to file and qualify to run for election in the newly drawn congressional districts. Second, a similar challenge of the Florida Senate district maps is still pending in the circuit court and is scheduled for hearing in September. Many observers believe that this case is even stronger than the case that successfully challenged the congressional districts. As a result, incumbents occupying several state and congressional seats are considering alternatives.
2016 LEGISLATIVE SESSION AND INTERIM COMMITTEE MEETING SCHEDULE
Legislation passed in 2014 moved the start of the 2016 Legislative Session earlier in the year than the usual March start time. The 2016 Session is scheduled to begin on Tuesday, January 12, 2016 and is scheduled to conclude on Friday March 11, 2016. Prior to the start of the 2016 Session, the legislature will hold a series of Interim Committee Meetings during the following weeks:
- Wednesday, September 16 through Friday, September 18
- Monday, October 5 through Friday, October 9
- Monday, October 19 through Friday, October 23
- Monday, November 2 through Friday, November 6
- Monday, November 16 through Friday, November 20
- Monday, November 30 through Friday, December 4
REAUTHORIZATION OF THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCTION ACT (ESEA)
As we have mentioned in some of our FSBA Newsletters, Congress has been making progress in the reauthorization of ESEA (also known as No Child Left Behind, or NCLB). Both the House and Senate have now passed their respective versions of the reauthorization bill. The House bill — H.R. 5 — is called the Student Success Act, and the Senate bill — S. 1177 — is called the Every Child Achieves Act. Both bills contain provisions for local school board governance that are endorsed by NSBA. However, the House bill, which narrowly passed the full House, also contains several very troubling provisions that are inconsistent with FSBA and NSBA positions. In addition, in a Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP), President Obama has indicated that he would veto the House version of the bill. Meanwhile, the Senate bill passed by a comfortable margin, enjoys greater bi-partisan support., and, though far from perfect, is more desirable than the House bill. We have posted several new documents on the FSBA website that detail some of our concerns about these bills, including new information from NSBA and a White House Statement of Administrative Policy (SAP) on each version of the bill. These documents are available on our Federal Government Relations page located at https://www.fsba.org/federal-
BACK TO SCHOOL SALES TAX HOLIDAY
The popular Back-to-School Sales Tax Holiday is scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, August 7, 2015, and end at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, August 16, 2015. During this event, no state sales tax or local option tax (also known as discretionary sales surtax) will be collected on purchases of: Clothing, footwear, and certain accessories selling for $100 or less per item; Certain school supplies selling for $15 or less per item; and Personal computers and certain computer-related accessories on the first $750 of the sales price, when purchased for noncommercial home or personal use. The Florida Department of Revenue has published a guide for this event that is available at http://dor.myflorida.com/
Ruth Haseman Melton
Director of Government Relations
Florida School Boards Association
Office: 850 / 414-2578
Cell: 850 / 509-6411
