Weekly Legislative Report

Monday, April 12, 2010

In this report…

·        Senate Returns from Two-Week Break

·        Protect Schools' Authority to Determine Nutrition Standards

·      Senate Committee to Consider Guaranteed Energy Savings Bill

·        Pension Systems Under Scrutiny by House, Senate Committees

·        Military Uniforms Legislation Signed Into Law

Senate Returns from Two-Week Break

Three days of session are scheduled this week for the Senate; the House does not return until Monday, April 19. The Senate's session calendar includes consideration of SB 1202 (Piccola), which amends the School Code to require that, where an intermediate unit offers a good or service to school districts, a school district that choose to independently contract for the good or service must post on its website the good or service being purchased, the contract price, the name and address of the provider of the good or service, and the reason the school district did not contract with the intermediate unit. Another bill of interest on which the Senate could act includes SB 629 (Piccola), which amends the School Code by adding school social worker to the definition of "school employee."

Protect Schools' Authority to Determine Nutrition Standards

Next week, on April 20th, the House Health and Human Service Committee is expected to consider HB 1572 (Gerber), which would impose nutritional standards for all foods and beverages sold in competition with reimbursable meal programs. In specific, the legislation would ban the sale of beverages other than water, reduced fat milk and fruit juices made from 100% juice. It would also ban the sale of snacks that have more than 100 calories, 30 percent total calories from fat, more than 35 percent weight from added sugars and more than 230 milligrams of sodium. It would require schools to offer students the choice of at least two fruits and/or non-fried vegetables each day in cafeterias.  

HB 1572 would dismiss the efforts of school districts that have already adopted the Department of Education’s recommended nutrition standards for competitive foods; restrict the authority of school districts to address local school nutrition issues through local wellness policies; and fail to cover any increased costs associated with implementing the bill’s nutrition standards. Please urge your lawmakers to OPPOSE the Gerber bill; click here to send an email using PASBO’s Legislative Action Network: http://capwiz.com/pasbo/issues/.

Senate Committee to Consider Guaranteed Energy Savings Bill

HB 687 (Dermody), legislation that would encourage and support energy conservation, passed the House of Representatives on November 10, 2009. This week, the bill is scheduled for consideration by the Senate State Government Committee.  Under the legislation, the length of energy savings contracts would increase from 15 years to 20 years, and the list of energy conservation measures permitted would be expanded to included technology upgrades to existing conservations; water and sewer conservation measures; upgrades that improve the accuracy of billable revenue-generating systems; and automated systems that reduce personnel or operating costs.

Pension Systems Under Scrutiny by House, Senate Committees

Today, the House Republican Policy Committee will hold a hearing on Pennsylvania’s pension systems. Testifiers include: Superintendent James Scanlon and Director of Business Affairs Suzanne Moore, West Chester Area School District; Superintendent Alan Lonoconus and School Board President Bruce Chambers, Great Valley Area School District; Business Manager Arthur McDonnell and School Board President, Betsy Fadem, Tredyffrin-Eastown Area School District; Superintendent Joel DiBartolomeo and Business Administrator Jacqueline Krumrine, Owen J. Roberts School District; and representatives of PSEA. This hearing follows two days of public hearings held jointly between the Senate Majority Policy Committees and the House Republican Policy Committee in late March. For testimony and video of the joint hearing, go to: http://www.pagoppolicy.com/govreformarchives.aspx.

The House Finance Committee also recently held regarding the status and issues facing the state and school employee pension systems. Chairman Levdansky commented that he would like for the committee to hold additional meetings to explore options to resolving the pension problem. Testifying before the committee were Len Knepp and Jeff Clay, Executive Director of SERS and PSERS. To view the joint PowerPoint presentation, go to: http://www.sers.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/sers_home/14364.

Military Uniforms Legislation Signed Into Law

SB 206 (McIlhinney) was signed into law March 22. Act 13 of 2010 prohibits any principal, superintendent or school official from denying any member of the military entry to school facilities because he or she is wearing a military uniform. The legislation stemmed from several incidents in which military members visiting friends and former teachers were denied access to school grounds due to their military uniforms. Military members will still be expected to comply with a school's visitor policy, but they could not be denied access because of their uniforms.