Tulsa Beacon list 2010 top stories, Tulsa area school boards' misbehavior listed

The Tulsa Beacon has posted a list of some of the top 2010 news events. Among the many stories is the refusal of several Tulsa area school boards to implement House Bill 3393.

Jenks, Union, Bixby and Broken Arrow Public Schools, some of the states’ largest school districts, are refusing to implement a new scholarship law designed to benefit students with disabilities. House Bill 3393 created the Lindsey Nicole Henry Scholarships for Students with Disabilities Program Act during the 2010 legislative session. Under the new law, children with disabilities who have an individualized education program (IEP) qualify for a scholarship to attend any private school that meets the accreditation requirements of the State Board of Education. The law went into effect August 27.

.Location:NW 58th St,Oklahoma City,United States

2010 in review: Education reform was a major theme

The 2010 legislative session saw several education bills signed into law.

SB 2033 authorizes several reforms including a statewide teacher evaluation system, performance pay initiatives based upon the evaluation system, and other pay initiatives for teachers in hard-to-staff areas and low-performing schools. It also provides a process for dismissing teachers not achieving certain ratings in the evaluation system and payment instructions through the trial de novo process.

SB 2330 creates the Empowered School Districts Act. The act allows school sites, groups of schools, or school districts to submit to the State Board of Education empowerment plans that detail innovations designed to improve school performance and request that certain statutes and rules be waived to accomplish the plan.

HB 2753, also part of the Legislature’s efforts to reform the state’s education system, lifts the cap on the number of charter schools that can be established per year. It also allows a school district which has a school site on the state’s school improvement list to sponsor a charter school. It gives technology centers and comprehensive regional institutions the right to sponsor charter schools if they are within a district that has a school site on the state’s school improvement list. The measure also allows the Office of Juvenile Affairs to operate a charter school for students in the custody of the agency. A similar bill, SB 1862, allows a federally recognized Indian tribe to sponsor a charter school for native language immersion.

SB 509 allows school districts with more than 30,000 average daily membership the option to release teachers from permanent positions at schools identified for school improvement for four consecutive years and employ the teachers as substitutes for two years. If after two years, the districts have not offered the teachers new permanent positions, the districts may release the teachers entirely. It directs the districts to provide training to teachers and states that final decisions of the districts will not be subject to the Teacher Due Process Act.

Location:NW 58th St,Oklahoma City,United States

2010 in review: A look at transparency and agency oversight

In the area of government modernization and agency oversight, legislators passed bills requiring transparency in agency operation.

HB 2319 adds language which states that if a legislatively created task force or similar advisory body does not meet at least once or issue a final report within three years of the date in which the law that created it became effective, that task force will cease to have any authority and be terminated.This applies to all legislatively created task forces and advisory bodies regardless of when they were created.

HB 2698 creates the Oklahoma Government Website Information Act. This bill requires public bodies to make available on their website on or before January 1, 2011, any administrative rules the public body uses to operate, proposed administrative rules, statutes affecting the public body and the way it operates, and statutes the public may find useful when interacting with the public body.

HB 3422 requires the Office of State Finance (OSF) to update the state’s Open Books website with Open Books 2.0 by January 1, 2011. Open Books 2.0 will be a more expansive, searchable online database that lists individual expenditures, regardless of amount, separate from aggregated amounts. Within 18 months of Open Books 2.0 being online, OSF must create an online archive for each fiscal year beginning with FY-2011 and that archive must be accessible and searchable to online users.

HB 3422 also requires the Oklahoma Tax Commissionto prepare and maintain a list of all taxpayers who have claimed any tax credit authorized by any provisions of state law and related to a tax administered by the Tax Commission. This includes the identity of all taxpayers or organizations having any part in the chain of custody or claim to the credit at any time during the credit’s existence from the initial time the credit is earned through the time that the credit is claimed on a tax return. It requires the Office of State Finance to make this list available on the internet. The list must include the name of each taxpayer who claimed a credit, the amount of such credit, and the specific statutory provision under which the credit was claimed. The list must be updated least monthly.

Location:N Lincoln Blvd,Oklahoma City,United States

2010 in review: Cabin Rental Leasing Freedom

Because cabin rental owners were cited by the Real Estate Commission for practicing without a real estate license, the Legislature enacted HB 2305 which makes it unnecessary for any person managing a transient lodging facility to have a real estate license. A transient facility is defined as a furnished room or set of rooms rented on a daily basis for not more than 30 days and is not the renter’s principal residence.