Proposed bill would affect school board members

If a proposed bill in the Kansas Legislature  — one that Jackson County school leaders say is a “waste of time and effort” — is approved during the next Legislative session, several who serve on the county’s school boards would have to resign their positions.

House Bill 2345, a bill legislators said was drafted with the intent of “prohibiting school board members from having a conflict of interest,” would prevent anyone with an immediate family member working for a Kansas school from serving on any school board in the state.

HB 2345 would also prohibit anyone with a “substantial interest” in any business that provides services to the state from serving on a school board.

In other words, a person could not serve on the Holton USD 336 school board if a parent or sibling worked as a school bus driver for Holton — or Horton, Holcomb, Hoxie or Humboldt, for that matter — if the bill is approved.

Kansas Association of School Board officials are concerned that HB 2345, if passed, would have a significant impact on school boards across the state, and they have been sharing that concern with school officials during an ongoing tour of the state. At one stop on the tour, in Sublette, representatives of 10 school districts were asked how many of their school board members would be prohibited from serving; the short answer was more than 50.

Furthermore, the Legislature’s Special Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government is preparing to give the bill another review and seeking input from school boards on how many of their members would be affected if the bill passed. In Jackson County, according to Holton Superintendent Dennis Stones, Jackson Heights Superintendent Adrianne Walsh and Royal Valley Superintendent John Rundle, about 10 board members would be affected.

At least five of those members serve on the Holton school board, said Stones, who said that in his many years of experience as a school administrator, conflicts of interest have always been handled properly by board members.

“Our boards are trustworthy enough that when there is a conflict of interest, an issue that deals with them personally, I’ve never had board members who didn’t excuse themselves and leave the room for the discussion as well as the vote,” Stones said.

Rundle, who noted there were at least two Royal Valley board members who would be affected, said that prohibiting people from serving on the board for reasons specified in HB 2345 would pose problems for rural school districts across the state. Rundle, a longtime superintendent, also expressed concern with state officials “dipping into local control” and limiting the number of people allowed to run for a school board position.

“When the public elects these folks, they know who these people are, what they do for a living and what kind of interactions they can expect to have,” Rundle said. “Now, all of a sudden, Big Brother is saying they don’t think that’s good enough.

Walsh, adding that at least three Jackson Heights board members would be affected, agreed that districts should be kept under local control.

“Local people get voted on boards because local patrons in a district feel like these people are the best for the job,” Walsh said. “I’m not sure what good could come from putting more of a limit on the pool of people who could run for a school board position.”

One of the more questionable aspects of the bill, Stones said, involved its statewide reach.

“What difference does it make if we’ve got someone on the board here, and their son or daughter is teaching in Goodland?” he asked. “How can they influence anything?”

KASB officials have stated their opposition to the bill, and members of state school boards testified against it earlier this year in a House Education Committee hearing. The bill, which was introduced into the committee, in mid-February, was withdrawn from that committee less than two weeks later and referred to the House Appropriations Committee, which has taken no action on the bill as yet.

Walsh said the Legislature should focus on more important issues than those specified in HB 2345.

“Funding for all-day kindergarten or pre-school would be more of a benefit to schools than something like this,” she said.