Bill mandating school board procedures for every Kansas school district gets walked back

Jack Harvel, Topeka Capital-Journal
Updated ·2 min read

The Kansas Senate walked back a bill to that would make individual school board members more powerful, whole boards more accessible to the public and allow districts to pay dues to conservative alternatives to statewide educational organizations.

Senate Bill 427 passed a voice vote on March 25, which set it up for a vote the next day to formally adopt it. But it ended up only securing 13 votes for, 24 against and three senators abstaining from voting. Abstaining was Sen. Beverly Gossage, R-Eudora, who was the bill’s carrier tasked with explaining the bill and fielding questions.

None of the defectors on SB 427 explained why they changed their vote.

During the debate on the bill, Democrats spoke in opposition to the bill, saying it erodes local control of school boards, swings the balance of power of school boards across the state and implements a one-size fits-all approach to Kansas’s 286 school districts.

Sen. Chase Blasi, R-Wichita, advocated for parents to have access and be able to address local school boards.
Sen. Chase Blasi, R-Wichita, advocated for parents to have access and be able to address local school boards.

Republicans argued that it will increase the transparency in schools and allow parents to have direct contact with their elected school board.

“The most important piece in this bill, in my opinion as a father with kids in public school and as someone who attended public school myself, is how important it is for parents to have access and be able to address their elected board of education,” said Sen. Chase Blasi, R-Wichita.

Senate Bill 427 would have done the following:

  • Require phone numbers and emails of school board members be available online.

  • Give individual school board members the ability to add discussion items to the agenda without the approval of the whole board.

  • Mandate a public comment section and that school board policies not bar board members from responding during public comment.

  • Allow school board members to enter school buildings during school days and after-school activities.

  • Allow boards of education to appropriate money to nonprofit support organizations besides the Kansas Association of School Boards. There is only one similar organization in the state, the Kansas School Board Resource Center, which is run by the same organization that requested the bill be introduced, The Kansas Policy Institute. It doesn't currently charge for services, and said it doesn't plan to in the future.

Democrats critiquing the bill paid special attention to the ability to add items to a school board’s agenda. Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park , said it would allow meetings to discuss things without the public being notified through pre-released agendas, and Sen. Jeff Pittman, D-Leavenworth, said it could empower chaotic meetings.

“Senate Bill 427 is a brazen overreach on local control of our duly elected school boards, forcing policies that are already available for each school board to adopt brought by a few disgruntled school board members to this body,” Pittman said.

This article originally appeared on Topeka Capital-Journal: Kansas bill mandating public school board procedures gets walked back