Partisan school board concurrence filed, advances for final Senate consideration
The partisan school board bill overcame an obstacle Tuesday as the Senate motion to dissent from the bill was taken away and a motion to concur put in its place.
A motion to dissent on Senate Bill 287, the partisan school board bill, was filed April 10 as the Senate dissented from House amendments to the bill. On Tuesday, the dissent was rescinded and a concurrence was filed, which means an agreement was reached to the version of the bill passed out of the House, said Rep. Carolyn Jackson, D-Hammond, who was a member of the conference committee for the bill.
The bill was placed on the Senate's calendar Tuesday afternoon for a concurrence vote, but Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, passed on discussing and voting on the bill. If the bill doesn't get called for a vote by the Senate before session ends, the bill doesn't advance to the governor's desk, according to legislative rules.
Senate Bill 287, authored by Byrne, Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown, and Sen. Blake Doriot, R-Goshen, would change the school board election process to that of other elections, which would include a primary and general election. In the Senate version, school board candidates would have to declare a party.
The bill was amended in the House Elections and Apportionment committee to reflect House Bill 1230, authored by Rep. J.D. Prescott, R-Union City. Prescott's amendment removed the primary process from the bill and stated that in the general election a school board candidate can choose to be listed as a Republican, Democrat, independent or nonpartisan.
When the bill was heard by the House, it was amended further to state that if a candidate chooses to be nonpartisan, then a blank space will appear on the ballot where party affiliation would be listed.
If the board member who leaves the board was a Republican or Democrat then a caucus should be held to replace that member, but Independent or nonpartisan candidates can be replaced by the sitting school board members, according to the bill.
In a conference committee Monday, the committee heard an amendment to include language in the vacancy procedure to match that of Senate Bill 366, Byrne said. Senate Bill 366 states that if there's a vacancy on a school board due to the death of a school board member, then the remaining school board members shall meet and pick someone to fill the vacancy.
But, because the concurrence was filed, Jackson said the amendment brought up in the conference committee won't be applicable to the bill.
Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis, said Monday the legislature was about to pass a 'monumental' bill by allowing politics to dictate school board races. Candidates can put their political affiliation on their campaign signage, he said.
'We should scrap this and move on to something else,' Ford said. 'Once we open the door on this we can't close it.'
Democratic legislators opposed the original and amended bill, Jackson said.
'I don't like the bill, I really don't,' Jackson said. 'There's not enough (Democrats) to kill the bill.'
After the bill passed both chambers of the legislature, Indiana School Boards Association executive director Terry Spradlin issued a statement that the organization's longstanding position has been for school board races to remain nonpartisan.
'While the Indiana General Assembly has now voted to make school board elections partisan, once elected, ISBA will encourage school board members to leave politics at the board room door,' Spradlin said. 'School board members should also conduct themselves in a manner that models effective board governance practices regardless of party affiliation.'
Juanita Albright, president of the Hamilton Southeastern Schools Board of Trustees, testified when the bill was heard in the House Elections and Apportionment committee that she supports the bill because it gives voters, who don't always research candidates, more information about who is on the ballot.
'A school board is inherently political, whether we want to admit it or not,' Albright said.
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