LEGISLATIVE LOGISTICS NSEA Priorities General Info Lobby team

§ LEGISLATIVE LOGISTICS § NSEA Priorities, General Info, Lobby team § Funding Bills § Big Victories § School Safety § Educator Retention/Trainings § Collective Bargaining Rights § Few “odds and ends” § Disappointments § WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

(Ground Team) § Ruben Murillo – NSEA President § Brian Lee – NSEA Executive Director § Chris Daly – NSEA Deputy Executive Director of Government Relations § Alex Marks – NSEA Political Coordinator § Natha Anderson – WEA President § Phil Kaiser – NSEA GR Chair § Virginia Mills - ESEA President § Chet Miller - NEA-SN President § Tom Wellman NSEA-R President § Andy Piper - UCN President § Melissa Boesen - WESP President

§ BDRs from 2019 Session – 1293 (40 more than 2017) § Bills that became law in 2019 – 627 (as of 6/18/19) § Bills vetoed in 2019 – 4 (as of 6/18/19) § Bills NSEA tracked in 2019 – +200 § Bills NSEA supported: 58/77 passed § Bills NSEA opposed: 12/13 failed

§ Governor Steve Sisolak (D). Inherited the Budget from Governor Brian Sandoval (R); State of the State address January set the tone for many items. § Assembly: 42 members, led by Speaker Jason Frierson and Majority Leader Teresa Benitez Thompson; 29 Democrats, 13 Republicans (69% majority). § Senate: 21 members, in March led by Majority Leader Nicole Canizzaro and Julia Ratti; 13 Democrats, 8 Republicans (62% majority…did not meet the 2/3 rd majority threshold for tax increase). § Dr. Jhone Ebert appointed March, 2019 § This session saw two members of the Legislature resign due to investigations following complaints of misconduct. § Education Chair Tyrone Thompson

• SCHOOL FUNDING, A STATEWIDE CRISIS • • • Marijuana retail tax: YES IP 1 Monies Weighted Funding • PROTECTING PUBLIC EDUCATION, THE GREAT EQUALIZER • • Blocking Vouchers: YES Redirection of $20 M Opportunity Scholarships hmmmm – in a way • MORE LEARNING, LESS TESTING • • Streamlining Nevada’s assessment system hmmmm Amend the percentage of teacher evaluations based on SLOs/SLGs YES • EVERY STUDENT SUCCEEDS • • Streamline Student Assessments…addressed but not in state law Amend NEPF to eliminate student test scores in evaluations YES • MEMBER PROTECTION • • • Strengthening Collective Bargaining; Protecting PERS YES Living wage for all education employees YES… Supporting Educators Dealing with Student Discipline started the discussion

+SB 555: The DSA account. For Washoe this means $6, 034 in 2019 -2020 (FY 19 is $5, 737 from the WCSD Budget Presentation). Will include, for the first time since 2007, an adjustment for inflation. THE BASE WENT UP! For most counties, however, the per pupil base is $6, 218 (Washoe And Clark have the lowest per pupil base due to the current structure of the Nevada Plan). +SB 551: Education Funding. $92. 1 million going into education, including $16 m for school safety. Washoe has a dedicated amount of $5. 2 M. This is where the 2/3 rd vote comes into play as it was a party line vote. LCB’s legal opinion extending the tax is allowed, the Republicans do not agree. Possible legal action. +SB 545: All of the income from the Marijuana Excise Tax will be going to the DSA (Distributive School Account). Not clear in the actual language whether this is supplemental or supplant, speaking with legislators the intention is to be supplemental and moves an additional (estimated) $120 M into the DSA.

+SB 84: Pre K funding. Due to cuts at the national level, the pre-K seats awarded from a grant were going to be lost. NSEA worked with Senator Joyce Woodhouse to get the funding for these existing seats. There seems to be an issue with how the seats are allocated to the pre-K students who qualify (200% below poverty level, few other items) which need to be worked out through the school districts and the Dept of Education. +AB 309: Block grant funding to be used at the District level, not through the State Dept of Ed. or other categorical. This includes funding for Peer Assistance and Review and other DOE grants. +AB 196: Title I Incentive for CURRENT teachers. DOE will need to set up criteria.

+AB 400: Tax Abatements cannot excuse School Funding: Corporate tax breaks are one area where Nevada’s schools are losing an important source of funding. According to the Nevada controller’s office, tax breaks used to attract Tesla and other corporate entities have cost Nevada public schools more than $108 million in the past 2 years. The Storey County School District lost nearly $70 million alone— a massive impact to a relatively small, financially struggling school district. ” +AB 444: Creating the Legislature Committee on Tax Structure. Not a large amount of attention however, I believe it will have an impact on the next session: THIS WAS VETOED JUNE 14, 2019 (Assembly Unanimous support, Senate: bipartisan support? ) +SB 505: WCSD and Carson were shortchanged due to a miscount on how Charter School enrollment was computed. The district of residency is not always the same for where the charter schools are located. Due to this issue, WCSD and Carson were awarded $8, 184, 670 for the adjustment. It is one time money. SJR 14 of the 2017 session did not get through this session. Senator Julia Ratti sponsored it to revise provisions related to taxation of homes sold (in the most basic definition)

- SB 543: Updating the funding formula for Education. NSEA strongly believes the Nevada Plan needs to be updated to reflect the changing needs of Nevada. NSEA has consistently advocated moving towards greater equity in education, ensuring all school districts, including Clark County, have the resources necessary to provide a high-quality education for every Nevada student. Issues: A. Policy concerns where the smaller districts will now be facing shortfalls (simply moving the issue of inadequate funding to the smaller districts, away from Washoe and Clark) B. Watering down of Zoom and Victory Schools C. Weighted for only one item D. Multi-million dollar charter school giveaway due to the way charter school students are counted E. Anti-union End fund balance

§ SB 475: NSEA successfully advocated for setting the SLO/SLGs at the more realistic percentage of 15% to allow for educators to utilize them in the more realistic professional development growth. The 2018 -2019 school year evaluations were based on 40% student data. NSEA conducted a survey of 3765 teachers which were used in the testimony. An amendment from Assembly Brittney Miller requires Administrators to consider the size of the class in the evaluation. § AB 289: Read by 3: Removal of the automatic retention language; Require intervention services & intensive instruction for pupils exhibiting a deficiency in reading through grade 5; clearer definition of intervention personnel from Learning Strategists to Literacy Specialists; appropriate distribution and use of grant money.

§ SB 57: School Property – blueprints of schools no longer public domain. § SB 89: School Safety Omnibus bill: provide a safe and respectful learning and working environment and NSEA was able to amend to include educator voices on the Statewide School Safety Committee. One aspect of SB 89 NSEA strongly supports is addressing the ratio of pupils to specialized instructional support personnel. The caseloads of counselors, nurses, speech language pathologists, library media specialists, social workers, and numerous other licensed personal are overwhelming. This leads to unacceptable student wait times for critical services, compromises the attention that these professionals can provide any individual NSEA believes there is an opportunity to hold students accountable for their actions, address wrongs that have been committed, and reduce incidents where educators sustain serious injuries.

§ SB 80: Handle with Care receive reports from law enforcement when a student is exposed to a traumatic event. § SB 185: Volunteer Background Checks: revising who needs to have a background check and who should provide it. § SB 239: Bullying in School: extending the time for the investigation (much more realistic time line) § AB 168: Restorative Justice Practice*…still protects educators who have been harmed § AB 490: Discipline Report: consistent language of school discipline information; reporting of trends.

§ AB 276: Taskforce made up of educators with more than 4 years of experiences and have not served as leaders in an organization to find out why people are not staying in education. § AB 304: Pupil: Educator Ratios. Severely gutted. Now having to report actual numbers of the educator, not the average. § SB 41: Educator Licensure: addition of an administrator to COPe. S; changes the multicultural licensure requirement date § There were numerous bills dealing with mandatory trainings. The majority we were able to work with the Legislators to clean up and/or combine with others. § AB 261 - started off as a curriculum for grades k-12 and 1 hour of training for educators to be aware of child abuse, ended up being a report where School Districts have to explain how much paid time was given to the training for each employee. § SB 204: Signs around suicide, training for awareness and how to help students.

§ SB 153: NSEA worked with other union stakeholders to strengthen collective provisions for public employees. SB 153 addressed issues created by the 2015 session, making timelines more reasonable and restoring the evergreen provisions to expired contracts. This would set a more level playing field for collective bargaining units. § SB 224 NSEA advocated for PERS confidentiality to protect the personal information of members of NV PERS. We know that many of our retired members are potential targets of identity theft, fraud, or some form of financial abuse. PERS members who have dedicated their working years to public service should have the type of retirement security to live the remainder of their lives with dignity and free from worry about intrusions into their personal life.

§ AB 88: Average Daily Attendance § AB 219: ELL Teach § AB 235: Mentoring § AB 331: Outdoor education § AB 456: Minimum Wage § AJR 10: Minimum Wage to Voters § SB 324: Reimbursement – “Roughly $180 per teacher” has been allocated; Allows for a credit card to be used (per district decision).

§ SB 319: School Counselors – 80% should be student contact time § SB 403: Pupil Tech privacy § SB 321: Abolish ASD § SB 267: The State Board shall adopt regulations that require: 1. The board of trustees of each school district and the governing body of each charter school to identify the social and environmental factors that affect the educational experience of pupils at each school in the district or the charter school, as applicable, and provide a description of those factors to the Department; and 2. The Department, the board of trustees of each school district, the governing body of each charter school and the staff of each public school to consider the factors identified pursuant to subsection 1 for a school when making decisions concerning the school or interacting with and making decisions concerning the staff of the school or pupils enrolled at the school. Such decisions include, without limitation, decisions concerning the allocation of money, the provision of integrated student supports pursuant to NRS 388. 885, evaluations of members of the staff of the school pursuant to NRS 391. 650 to 391. 830, inclusive, salaries of members of the staff of the school and the discipline of pupils.

§ Charter school reforms: AB 78, AB 462, SB 451 – did not address the real issues of oversight, accountability and a moratorium. SB 441 regulation of online charters was successful but watered down from the initial language. § School Libraries: SB 249 and SB 191. We were able to get them through the first committee but not out of the funding committees. § National Board Certification for our School Nurses (AB 341) was caught up in the funding and the 120 day deadlines.

www. leg. state. nv. us

§ We had numerous victories during this session. The lack of involvement with the Funding formula as well as issues with Charter School changes, however, caused some ill feelings. § NSEA involvement in candidate recruitment & endorsement. § We still need to do something about school funding. § We still need to get members involved – but how…