It’s Official: Governor Signs School Funding Bill

NJSBA Sponsors Funding Programs

Governor Signs Burden of Proof Bill

Legislature Passes Bills in Final Days of Session

State Might Keep Alternative Graduation Assessment

State Board of Education Honors Local Boards

Salary Guide Improvements Reported after Training

PR Forum Prepares Schools for Budget Season

ACES: There’s Power in Numbers

NJSBA Board of Directors Highlights

Calendar

Click here for a pdf version of this issue of School Board Notes

On Jan. 8, the last day of New Jersey’s 212th Legislature—when lawmakers pushed to have their bills passed before the new two-year legislative session begins—more than 200 bills were passed and sent to the governor. Some of the major bills affecting schools included:

Contracts Gov. Jon Corzine pocket vetoed A-4393, which would have required local governments, including school boards, that request construction bids to pay for a person or firm to provide a certified projected cost range, which would then be included in the advertisement. NJSBA was concerned that it could create an unfunded cost to be paid by school boards. Corzine said in his veto message that the bill “generated a significant volume of passionate opposition from a broad spectrum of state and local government officials, entities, and organizations.”

Alternative Energy The Senate passed A-357, which allows counties, municipalities and school districts to join with the state to provide alternative electrical energy systems. The bill defines alternative electrical energy as being produced from solar, photovoltaic, wind, geothermal or biomass technologies. NJSBA supported the bill.

Election Audits The Senate passed S-507, which requires mandatory audits of results of elections, including school elections, in randomly selected elections. Currently, there is no system in place to provide paper records from the touch-screen voting machines, which are used in a majority of state elections. The legislation would require an audit team, selected by the attorney general, to conduct random hand counts of voter-verified paper records in at least 2 percent of the election districts. The prime sponsor of the bill, Sen. Nia Gill, said “since the touch-screen electronic voting machines have been found nationally to be unreliable and vulnerable to error, a strong audit system of voting accuracy is essential.”

Bullying Bill Enacted Gov. Corzine signed into law a bill to strengthen state hate crimes and bullying laws. The legislation, S-2975, adds penalties for crimes against people based on gender and identity expression, national origin and disability. Previously, these groups were not protected under the state’s Bias Intimidation Act. The new law calls for those found guilty of harassing a member of any group to be prosecuted for both assault and bias intimidation. The law also establishes a Commission on Bullying in Schools, which will study the effectiveness of school bullying policies. Schools will be required to post their anti-bullying policies on their Web sites and distribute them to parents.