Superintendent Mike McNeff provided an update to the Rugby School Board at its regular meeting on April 8 on the education legislation landscape following crossover at the North Dakota Legislature.

McNeff said he was keeping an eye on House Bill 1540 and Senate Bill 2400, which both seek to create an education savings accounts program.

“I’m watching those closely. I think you know my stance on that as far as public funds going to private schools without accountability,” McNeff said.

At the time of the meeting, SB 2400 was set to come to a vote after receiving a do not pass out of committee. McNeff said the fiscal note estimating a cost of $213 million contributed to the do not pass recommendation.

Dual bills seeking to ban or limit access to cellphones in schools were both passed by the House and Senate on Monday. McNeff said while he wasn’t concerned in light of the fact the district has already put a cellphone ban in place, he said other districts are concerned due to the legislation removing local control.

“There’s still two bills and they have to conference committee them to figure out which one’s going to come out. We just hope that there’s some element of local control. Right now (Gov. Kelly Armstrong’s) version has Bell to Bell, which is our ban. So I’m not really concerned. Then the other is a storage device. Every school district is different though, I just think a school district should decide how they’ll do things,” McNeff said. “I’m not sure what we would do differently.”

McNeff said he didn’t think most students were making use of the Yondr pouches, but they will be charged if they lose them. McNeff speculated that next school year they would come down harder on students not making use of the Yondr pouches.

“So we’ll see where they end up when they conference committee that. I talked to a couple of kids last night and continued to talk to kids throughout the year, and they’re to the point where they just appreciate not being on the phones all day and it gives them a reason or purpose not to,” McNeff said.

McNeff also discussed HB1144 which is related to transgender restroom accommodations.

“I’ve stayed away from that issue, but we have bathrooms in Ely, for example, you’ve got two classrooms and then you got a bathroom in the middle,” McNeff said. “According to how I read it, because it’s a shared (bathroom), it’s not gender specific. We wouldn’t be able to use those bathrooms.”

McNeff said he didn’t like the idea of locking up and not using the bathrooms for the lower elementary grades. McNeff said some of the legislators are having issues with block stalled communal sink designs in school bathrooms.

“I don’t know where it’s going to end up, but I know it’ll be a pain in the neck to not be able to use those bathrooms for lower elementary kids and they have to go in the hallway bathrooms,” McNeff said.

Budget update

McNeff also provided an update on relevant legislative language from educational bills from the Legislature which will affect various funding formulas for school districts. He said changes to House Bill 1369 removed the three-year Average Daily Membership averaging option, which he said was “extremely frustrating” as it helped districts with declining enrollment. McNeff was hopeful the option could be added back in through the Appropriations Committee.

“A lot of politicking going on with that. Senator (Don) Schaible is a wonderful ally in this. He is on the appropriations. He’s a former school board member at Mott/Regent, so he knows what it’s like. He has a lot of clout, so he’s listening. He’s requested some things from our district and a couple of others that were pushing the three-year average amendment,” McNeff said. “What’s nice about the three-year average is if you’re declining, it’s more of a smooth fall instead of an abrupt cliff.”

Another bill McNeff discussed was House Bill 1214 which would change the school transportation formula he said had been factored into the district’s budget increase. He said he was hopeful the increased state funding of 35-38% for total transportation costs would stay, as the district is anticipating a $70,000 increase in transportation costs.

“The more that climbs up, the less we’re paying out of the general fund, which means we can use those funds for other things,” he said.

McNeff said he had met with Hartley’s School Buses about merging two routes, and said it was determined it wasn’t feasible as the rides would become too long.