83R8261 GCB-F

By: Dutton H.B. No. 1957

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the establishment of the recovery school district.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. Chapter 39, Education Code, is amended by adding Subchapter E-1 to read as follows:

SUBCHAPTER E-1. RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT

Sec. 39.131. ESTABLISHMENT OF RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT. The recovery school district is established to provide an appropriate education for students attending any public elementary or secondary school campus operated under the prior jurisdiction of an independent school district that has been transferred to the jurisdiction of the district under Section 39.107(e).

Sec. 39.1311. DEFINITION. In this subchapter, "prior system" means the independent school district of which a school transferred to the recovery school district is a part.

Sec. 39.1312. ADMINISTRATION OF RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT; SUPERINTENDENT. (a) The commissioner shall appoint a qualified individual as superintendent to administer the recovery school district.

(b) The recovery school district may provide for the supervision, management, and operation of a school placed under the district's jurisdiction and may receive, control, and spend the local, state, and federal funding attributable to that school with all the same authority as the prior system from which the school was transferred.

(c) The recovery school district may contract with for-profit providers for the general operation of and any needed services for a school under the district's jurisdiction.

(d) In providing for the operation of schools within the district's jurisdiction, at any time the district seeks participation by a college or university or a consortium of colleges and universities to provide for the operation of any school or group of schools, the district shall include an opportunity for participation by colleges and universities that historically were established to provide education for African American students in this state.

Sec. 39.1313. SUNSET PROVISION. The recovery school district is subject to Chapter 325, Government Code (Texas Sunset Act). Unless continued in existence as provided by that chapter, the district is abolished September 1, 2025.

Sec. 39.132. FINANCIAL POWERS. (a) The recovery school district may:

(1) seek, spend, manage, and retain federal funding and grant funding in the same manner as an independent school district;

(2) spend, manage, and retain funding with the same authority as an independent school district; and

(3) maintain and manage fund balances.

(b) The recovery school district may not impose an ad valorem tax.

(c) Expenditures of funds are subject to the requirements of the Foundation School Program formulas that apply to a public school and are subject to audit in the same manner.

Sec. 39.1321. PROCUREMENT. (a) The recovery school district has the same authority and autonomy afforded to an independent school district under state law regarding the procurement of:

(1) services, including personal, professional, consulting, and social services; and

(2) property.

(b) The recovery school district is not required to use or obtain the approval of any state agency, including the Texas Facilities Commission, comptroller, or Department of Information Resources, when procuring data processing and telecommunications goods or services or materials, supplies, or major repairs or in the disposition of property, except that the district shall comply with all other applicable provisions of Subtitles D, E, and F, Title 10, Government Code, regarding such procurement and disposition of property.

(c) The recovery school district may require an independent school district to provide school support or student support services for a school transferred from the school district's jurisdiction, including student transportation, school food service, or student assessment for special education eligibility, that are compliant with all laws and regulations governing such services. In such case, the recovery school district shall reimburse the actual cost to the independent school district providing such services. If a dispute arises between the recovery school district and the independent school district providing such services regarding the cost of the services to be reimbursed, the comptroller shall determine the cost to be reimbursed.

Sec. 39.1322. USE OF SCHOOL FACILITIES. (a) The recovery school district may use any school building and any facility or property otherwise part of the school and recognized as part of the facilities or assets of the school before the school was transferred to the recovery school district, and has access to such additional facilities as were typically available to the school and the school's students, faculty, and staff before the school's transfer to the recovery school district.

(b) The use of school facilities or property under Subsection (a) may not be restricted, except that the recovery school district is responsible for and shall provide for routine maintenance and repair so that the facilities and property are maintained in as good an order as when the right of use was acquired by the district. The district is not required to provide for the type of extensive repair to buildings or facilities that would be considered to be a capital expense. Such extensive repairs shall be provided by the prior system that is responsible for the facility.

Sec. 39.133. MAINTENANCE AND OPERATIONS FUNDING. (a) The legislature shall annually appropriate sufficient money to fund each school in the recovery school district in an amount equal to the school's average daily attendance multiplied by the state share per student as provided under the Foundation School Program for the independent school district in which the school is located. The appropriation shall be made to the agency for the district and may be expended by the agency only for the provision of services to students in the district.

(b) In addition to the appropriation required by Subsection (a), the independent school district that had jurisdiction of a school before the school's transfer to the recovery school district shall annually allocate and transfer to the recovery school district an amount of money equal to the number of students in average daily attendance at the school multiplied by the per student amount received by the independent school district from maintenance and operations taxes, less the costs of assessing and collecting the taxes.

(c) For each school transferred to the jurisdiction of the recovery school district, the commissioner shall reduce the amount of state funds otherwise to be allocated under the Foundation School Program to the independent school district from which the school was transferred by an amount equal to the amount provided under Subsection (a) for that school.

(d) If there are insufficient funds available to provide the total due the recovery school district under this section after all state funds are reduced and allocated to the district, each prior system shall transfer a sufficient amount of money from the district's maintenance and operations tax revenue to the district. If the prior system's maintenance and operations tax revenue is insufficient to allow the prior system, after allocating funds to the district, to maintain a minimum balance of 10 percent of the state Foundation School Program funding to which the prior system would otherwise be entitled and 10 percent of the maintenance and operations tax revenue that the prior system would otherwise retain, local revenue otherwise required to be allocated to the district shall be reduced to an amount necessary to allow the prior system to maintain such balances.

(e) All amounts to be appropriated or allocated and transferred under this section shall be estimated by the commissioner based on the most recent local revenue data and projected student counts available. Allocations to be transferred shall be adjusted during the year as necessary to reflect actual student counts and actual prior year local revenue collections.

(f) Except for administrative costs, money appropriated to the recovery school district that is attributable to the transfer of a school from a prior system and money allocated or transferred from the prior system to the district may be expended solely on the operation of schools transferred from the prior system to the jurisdiction of the district.

Sec. 39.134. PERSONNEL. (a) The recovery school district may employ such staff members as the superintendent considers necessary.

(b) At the time of the transfer of a school to the recovery school district, each certified teacher with regular and direct responsibility for providing classroom instruction who is employed in the transferred school by the prior system shall be given priority consideration for employment in the same or a comparable position by the district. Each person employed by the prior system in a transferred school may choose to remain in the employment of the prior system and, in that case, the prior system shall retain and reassign such person consistent with its contractual obligations or policies regarding the retention and reassignment of employees.

(c) Benefits and privileges of a person employed in a school by the recovery school district who was employed by the prior system at the time the school was transferred to the district's jurisdiction shall be the same as those required by law for employees of the prior system.

(d) A person employed by the recovery school district in a school who was employed by the prior system at the time the school was transferred to the district's jurisdiction, for the purposes of permanent status and the retention on return to employment in the prior system of any employment benefit or right that requires continuous service or that becomes vested based on years of service, or both, shall be granted an approved leave of absence from the prior system for the period the school is under the jurisdiction of the recovery school district in order to be employed by the district. The period any employee is on such leave shall be considered service time by the prior system at any time the employee returns to the prior system's employment. Such approved leave shall not require the prior system to provide for benefits during the time the employee on leave is employed by the recovery school district.

(e) The benefits and privileges of any person employed in a school by the recovery school district who was not employed by the prior system at the time the school was transferred to the jurisdiction of the district shall be determined at the time of such employment by the superintendent in compliance with any requirement of any applicable contract or requirement of law.

Sec. 39.135. ENROLLMENT. (a) Except as otherwise provided by this section, only a student who would have been eligible to enroll in or attend a school before the school's transfer to the recovery school district may attend the school after it is transferred to the jurisdiction of the district.

(b) A student who is eligible to participate in a school choice program established by the prior system shall be permitted to enroll in any school operated under the jurisdiction of the recovery school district that has sufficient capacity in the appropriate grade level.

(c) The recovery school district may permit any student eligible to attend any school in the prior system to attend a school operated by the district in the area of the prior system.

(d) Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the recovery school district and a prior system that has had one or more schools transferred to the district shall enter into a cooperative agreement to allow any student enrolled in a school under each district's respective jurisdiction to enroll in a school under the jurisdiction of the other, provided the school in which the student seeks to enroll has sufficient capacity at the appropriate grade level.

(e) The commissioner shall determine a school's maximum capacity by grade level for purposes of this section.

(f) This section does not limit the authority of the recovery school district or an independent school district to establish attendance zones for the schools under each district's respective jurisdiction in accordance with established policy and any federal court order, judgment, or consent decree.

Sec. 39.136. COMMUNITY OUTREACH PLAN. (a) The superintendent of the recovery school district shall develop a community outreach plan to engage parents and community leaders in the successful operation and academic improvement of all schools under the district's jurisdiction and to solicit input on any proposed changes in school governance or the establishment of any new school site.

(b) Not later than December 15, 2014, the superintendent shall submit the community outreach plan to the State Board of Education, the Senate Education Committee, and the House Public Education Committee. The recovery school district shall implement the plan for use in the 2014-2015 school year and thereafter. This subsection expires September 1, 2015.

SECTION 2. The heading to Section 39.107, Education Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 39.107. RECONSTITUTION; TRANSFER TO RECOVERY SCHOOL DISTRICT [, REPURPOSING, ALTERNATIVE MANAGEMENT, AND CLOSURE].

SECTION 3. Section 39.107, Education Code, is amended by amending Subsections (c), (e), and (e-1) and adding Subsection (e-4) to read as follows:

(c) A campus subject to Subsection (a) shall implement the updated targeted improvement plan as approved by the commissioner. [The commissioner may appoint a monitor, conservator, management team, or board of managers to the district to ensure and oversee district-level support to low-performing campuses and the implementation of the updated targeted improvement plan. In making appointments under this subsection, the commissioner shall consider individuals who have demonstrated success in managing campuses with student populations similar to the campus at which the individual appointed will serve.]

(e) If a campus is considered to have an unacceptable performance rating for the school year [three consecutive school years] after the campus is reconstituted under Subsection (a), the commissioner, subject to Subsection (e-1) [or (e-2)], shall transfer the campus to the jurisdiction of the recovery school district established under Subchapter E-1 [order:

[(1) repurposing of the campus under this section;

[(2) alternative management of the campus under this section; or

[(3) closure of the campus].

(e-1) The commissioner may waive the requirement to transfer a campus [enter an order] under Subsection (e) for not more than one school year if the commissioner determines that, on the basis of significant improvement in student performance over the preceding two school years, the campus is likely to be assigned an acceptable performance rating for the following school year.

(e-4) A campus transferred to the jurisdiction of the recovery school district must remain under that district's jurisdiction for at least three school years. Following each school year, the commissioner shall, as provided by Section 39.108, review the school's progress toward meeting academic standards. After the third school year in which the campus is under the jurisdiction of the recovery school district, the commissioner may return the campus to the jurisdiction of the district from which the campus was transferred if the commissioner finds that the campus:

(1) has met the requirements for acceptable performance under Section 39.054; or

(2) in each year in which the campus has been under the jurisdiction of the recovery school district, has made significant progress, as determined by commissioner rule, toward meeting the requirements for acceptable performance and is likely to be assigned an acceptable performance rating for the following school year.

SECTION 4. Sections 39.110 and 39.115, Education Code, are amended to read as follows:

Sec. 39.110. COSTS PAID BY DISTRICT. The costs of providing a [monitor, conservator, management team,] campus intervention team, technical assistance team, [managing entity,] or service provider under this subchapter shall be paid by the district. If the district fails or refuses to pay the costs in a timely manner, the commissioner may:

(1) pay the costs using amounts withheld from any funds to which the district is otherwise entitled; or

(2) recover the amount of the costs in the manner provided for recovery of an overallocation of state funds under Section 42.258.

Sec. 39.115. CAMPUS NAME CHANGE PROHIBITED. In [reconstituting, repurposing, or] imposing any [other] intervention or sanction on a campus under this subchapter, the commissioner may not require that the name of the campus be changed.

SECTION 5. Section 39.152(a), Education Code, is amended to read as follows:

(a) A school district or open-enrollment charter school that intends to challenge a decision by the commissioner under this chapter to transfer jurisdiction of a campus to the recovery school district [close the district or a district campus or the charter school or to pursue alternative management of a district campus or the charter school] must appeal the decision under the procedures provided for a contested case under Chapter 2001, Government Code.

SECTION 6. The following provisions of the Education Code are repealed:

(1) Sections 39.107(d), (e-2), (e-3), (f), (g), (h), (j), (k), (l), (m), (n), (o), (p), and (r); and

(2) Sections 39.111 and 39.112.

SECTION 7. The commissioner of education shall appoint the superintendent of the recovery school district, as established under Subchapter E-1, Chapter 39, Education Code, as added by this Act, not later than January 2, 2014. The superintendent shall ensure that the recovery school district is prepared to begin operations with the 2014-2015 school year. For the 2013-2014 school year, the commissioner may impose any sanction under Section 39.107, Education Code, as that section existed before amendment by this Act. Beginning with the 2014-2015 school year, any campus that meets the criteria for transfer to the jurisdiction of the recovery school district under Section 39.107(e), Education Code, as amended by this Act, shall be transferred to the district's jurisdiction.

SECTION 8. This Act takes effect September 1, 2013.