BILL ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 220

By: Bernal

Public Education

Committee Report (Substituted)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

Many school campuses experience limited resources, high-need student populations, and low teacher retention rates. These campuses frequently struggle with academics and often become "improvement required" or receive D or F performance ratings. Furthermore, it has been noted that few programs have had more success in achieving and maintaining excellence than the community schools model and accelerated campus excellence programs. There have been calls to replicate and scale these programs, thereby providing additional resources to struggling school campuses across Texas. C.S.H.B. 220 seeks to address this issue by creating a funding mechanism to aid schools in implementing an additional resource campus program to improve school campuses that are not performing satisfactorily.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE IMPACT

It is the committee's opinion that this bill does not expressly create a criminal offense, increase the punishment for an existing criminal offense or category of offenses, or change the eligibility of a person for community supervision, parole, or mandatory supervision.

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the committee's opinion that rulemaking authority is expressly granted to the commissioner of education in SECTION 1 of this bill.

ANALYSIS

C.S.H.B. 220 amends the Education Code to authorize the commissioner of education to designate as a resource campus a public school campus that has received an overall performance rating of F for four years over a 10-year period and to entitle a resource campus to increased funding under the foundation school program. A public school campus begins operating as a resource campus during the second school year that begins after the designation is approved. The bill, with respect to a resource campus, does the following:

· exempts such a campus from state accountability interventions and sanctions;

· prohibits the appointment of a board of managers and closure of such a campus by the commissioner during the campus's first two school years of operation; and

· provides for a locally adopted evaluation system for such a campus that does not use a state evaluation program.

C.S.H.B. 220 requires a public school campus to form a campus evaluation team to determine if that campus would benefit from the designation. Before submitting an application to the commissioner for the designation as a resource campus, the team must do the following:

· provide recommendations on policies that meet the resource campus program requirements; and

· complete an on-site needs assessment, as required by state law, which must also include specified information regarding mentoring and social supports in place and community services and programs active at the public school campus.

After submitting the application, the public school campus must conduct a public meeting, with specified participation requirements, to review the campus's overall performance rating and solicit input for the development of the targeted improvement plan required under state law. The bill provides for the notification to a campus of the commissioner's designation, which is final and nonappealable.

C.S.H.B. 220 sets out provisions regarding the following:

· a resource campus principal, teacher, school counselor, and social services professional;

· the continuation of employment and rights and protections for certain persons employed at a campus before resource campus designation;

· annual evaluation of resource campus educators and the development and submission of an appraisal process and evaluation criteria;

· a principal's removal of an educator; and

· resource campus school day length, class size, staffing levels, and classroom technology.

C.S.H.B. 220 requires resource campus educator salaries to be higher than the district average and requires the district to make every effort to provide each educator with a significant salary increase. The bill, with respect to that increased salary, provides the following:

· the increased salary is a salary supplement and may not supplant any other increase for which the educator is eligible; and

· a portion of any additional funding received by the district under the foundation school program funding entitlement and attributable to the resource campus must be used to provide those higher salaries and additional classroom technology.

A portion of that additional funding may also be used for any needed campus facility improvements.

C.S.H.B. 220 requires the Texas Education Agency, on a school district's request, to assist a public school district in applying for a campus's designation and in developing and implementing a campus operation plan. The commissioner may adopt rules necessary to implement the bill's provisions. The bill entitles a school district that operates a resource campus to receive for each student in average daily attendance at the campus an amount equivalent to the difference, if the difference results in increased funding, between certain state funding and the amount to which the district would be entitled under the foundation school program.

EFFECTIVE DATE

On passage, or, if the bill does not receive the necessary vote, September 1, 2021.

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL AND SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 220 differs from the original in minor or nonsubstantive ways by conforming to certain bill drafting conventions.