2013 House Bill 4813 / Public Act 96

Establish procedures for dissolving fiscally failed school district

Introduced in the House

June 6, 2013

Introduced by Rep. David Rutledge (D-54)

To establish criteria and procedures for dissolving a school district that has become so fiscally unviable that it can no longer educate students, and for attaching the failed district’s territory to one or more nearby school districts.

Referred to the Committee on Education

June 13, 2013

Reported without amendment

With the recommendation that the substitute (H-4) be adopted and that the bill then pass.

Substitute offered

The substitute passed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. David Knezek (D-11)

To require that in assigning students to a nearby school district consideration be given to how many student both districts are in “special education” programs, in addition to free lunch programs for students from low income households.

The amendment failed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. Bill Rogers (R-42)

To not include for three years the test scores of newly transferred students under the bill in the performance evaluations of the teachers to whom they are assigned.

The amendment failed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. David Rutledge (D-54)

To require that for two years any new teachers hired by the districts to which the students from the fiscally failed district are transferred be ones who worked in that district, in order of seniority, and that they get any seniority-based rights and benefits in the new district as if they had worked there all along.

The amendment failed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. David Knezek (D-11)

To give the local intermediate school district the power to decide which of the failed district's buildings will become part of which receiving district.

The amendment failed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. Tim Greimel (D-29)

To revise details of how the new school district boundaries would be drawn, explicitly taking into account the relative pupil counts of all the contiguous districts.

The amendment failed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. Tim Greimel (D-29)

To establish that buildings and property of the dissolved district automatically become the property of a receiving district in which they located.

The amendment passed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. Lisa Posthumus Lyons (R-86)

To clarify that the "debts" of the dissolved school district also include any amounts payable to the school employee pension system.

The amendment passed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. Ben Glardon (R-85)

To include in the criteria that must be met for a school district to be dissolved a requirement that there had been a 10 percent drop in the number of students over the preceding year.

The amendment passed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Rep. Bill Rogers (R-42)

To restrict using the test scores of newly transferred students under the bill in the performance evaluations of the teachers to whom they are assigned.

The amendment passed by voice vote

Substitute offered by Rep. Stacy Erwin Oakes (D-95)

The substitute failed by voice vote

Passed in the House 58 to 49 (details)

To establish criteria and procedures for dissolving a school district that has become so fiscally unviable that it can no longer educate students, and for attaching the failed district’s territory to one or more nearby school districts. The bill was introduced after the Buena Vista and Inkster school districts reached this state shortly before the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

Received in the Senate

June 18, 2013

Referred to the Committee of the Whole

June 19, 2013

Substitute offered

The substitute passed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8)

To require that in assigning students to a nearby school district consideration be given to how many student both districts are in “special education” programs, in addition to free lunch programs for students from low income households.

The amendment passed 38 to 0 (details)

Amendment offered by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8)

To require the local intermediate school district to be consulted before dissolving a fiscally failed school district.

The amendment passed by voice vote

Amendment offered by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8)

To require the "individualized education plan" of a high school student in the failed school district (which allows a student to avoid harder courses required by the state graduation requirements) to be maintained by the student's new school.

The amendment failed 14 to 24 (details)

Amendment offered by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8)

To require that for two years any new teachers hired by the districts to which the students from the fiscally failed district are transferred be ones who worked in that district, in order of seniority, and that they get any seniority-based rights and benefits in the new district as if they had worked there all along.

The amendment failed 14 to 24 (details)

Amendment offered by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8)

To require a special election be held to elect a new school board covering the expanded area of jurisdiction of the school districts receiving the students from the failed district, and that this take place before the receiving district starts educating any students from the failed district.

The amendment failed 12 to 26 (details)

Amendment offered by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8)

To place a school district whose enrollment has declined 75 percent in the preceding fours years under the governance of the local intermediate school district.

The amendment failed 14 to 23 (details)

Amendment offered by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8)

To require U.S. Department of Justice to pre-approve the dissolution of the Buena Vista school district, because it is a "protected jurisdiction" under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The amendment failed 18 to 20 (details)

Amendment offered by Sen. Hoon-Yung Hopgood (D-8)

To provide an appeal process and "full due process protections" for the fiscally failed school districts being dissolved.

The amendment failed 18 to 20 (details)

Passed in the Senate 20 to 18 (details)

To establish criteria and procedures for dissolving a school district that has become so fiscally unviable that it can no longer educate students, and for attaching the failed district’s territory to one or more nearby school districts. The bill was introduced after the Buena Vista and Inkster school districts reached this state shortly before the end of the 2012-2013 school year.

Motion by Sen. Arlan Meekhof (R-30)

That the bill be given immediate effect.

The motion passed 26 to 12 (details)

Received in the House

June 20, 2013

Passed in the House 58 to 51 (details)

To concur with the Senate-passed version of the bill.

Signed by Gov. Rick Snyder

July 2, 2013