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Senate Bill 300 |
Senate Author: Patrick, Dan |
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Effective: 6-19-09 |
House Sponsor: Shelton |
Senate Bill 300 amends the Education Code to require a school district's employment policy to require that notice of a vacant position be provided to each current district employee by posting the position either on a bulletin board at a place convenient to the public in the district's central administrative office and at the central administrative office of each campus in the district or on the district's Internet website, if the district has a website, rather than on both such bulletin boards and the district website.
The bill delays the expiration of a district-level class size exception from the end of the semester for which it is granted to the end of the school year for which it is granted and removes a prohibition against the commissioner of education granting an exception for more than one semester at a time. The bill requires a school district seeking an exception to notify the commissioner and apply for the exception not later than October 1 or the 30th day after the first school day the district exceeds the class size limit, whichever is later. The bill requires the Texas Education Agency, not later than January 1, 2011, to report to the legislature the number of applications for exceptions submitted by each school district and, for each application, whether the application was granted or denied.
The bill authorizes, rather than requires, each school district to conduct a training session for students and teachers on procedures for evacuating a school bus during an emergency. The bill encourages a school district that chooses to conduct such training to conduct the training in the fall and to structure the training session so that the session applies to school bus passengers, a portion of the session occurs on a school bus, and the session lasts for at least one hour. The bill removes provisions requiring training sessions in both fall and spring, requiring a portion of the training to occur on a school bus, and requiring the training session to last at least one hour. The bill encourages a school district, immediately before each field trip involving transportation by school bus, to review emergency evacuation procedures with the school bus passengers, including a demonstration of the emergency exits and the safe manner to exit.
The bill requires each school district board of trustees to establish a long-range energy plan, rather than a goal, to reduce the district's annual electric consumption by five percent beginning with the 2008 state fiscal year and to consume electricity in subsequent fiscal years in accordance with the plan. The bill requires the plan to include strategies for achieving energy efficiency that result in net savings or that can be achieved without financial cost to the district, and to include, for each strategy identified, the initial, short-term capital costs and lifetime costs and savings that may result from its implementation. The bill requires the board of trustees to consider the total net costs and savings that may occur over the seven-year period following implementation of the strategy and authorizes the board of trustees to submit the required plan to the State Energy Conservation Office to determine whether funds available through loan programs administered by the office are available to the district.
The bill repeals a requirement that a school district board of trustees, for purposes of entering into energy savings performance contracts, establish a goal to reduce the annual electric consumption by five percent each year for six years, beginning September 1, 2007. The bill makes its provisions applicable beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.