As the usual crop of new bill introductions began its annual deluge at the Capitol, lawmakers in Sacramento spent the first few weeks of the 2020 legislative year hearing legislation held over from 2019 that faced a key January deadline.

On the K-12 education front, the Assembly in January declined to hear Assembly Bill 221 (Garcia, C., D-Bell Gardens), a CSBA-opposed bill that would have prohibited local educational agencies from contracting with a third-party organization to employ teachers, thereby negatively impacting the ability of LEAs to recruit and hire the most effective and most representative candidates available. The measure will not advance in 2020, as the bill was not heard prior to the Jan. 31 deadline for 2019 bills to be heard and passed by the house in which they were introduced.

CSBA is monitoring more than 300 bills introduced prior to the Feb. 21 deadline for the introduction of new legislative proposals, with CSBA’s Legislative Committee approving official positions on more than a dozen of those. Updated CSBA bill positions are available at www.csba.org/positions.

In L.F. v. Lake Washington School District #414, a parent of two daughters sued the district, claiming that the district’s imposition of a communication plan that restricted the parent’s interactions with school personnel violated the parent’s First Amendment rights.

At the trial court, the district contended that the parent had engaged in a pattern of “sending incessant emails to staff accusing them of wrongdoing, making presumptuous demands, leveling demeaning insults, … and in face-to-face interactions, acting in an aggressive, hostile, and intimidating manner.” Accordingly, the district developed a communication plan to address the unproductive communication pattern. Substantively, the communication plan limited the parent’s communications with the district about his children to bi-weekly, in-person meetings with two district administrators and advised the parent to refrain from emailing or communicating with other district employees. By its terms, the communication plan did not apply to an emergency and did not affect the parent’s right to appeal a decision affecting his daughters’ education, accessing school records or attending school activities.

To help inform members about the new platform, California School News reached out to Naomi Eason, CSBA Assistant Executive Director, Member Services.

CSNews: First off, what should CSBA members know about the key features of the expanded Online Learning Center?

The new platform offers access to learning 24/7 from the comfort of your home. It features a breadth and depth of content developed specifically for California board members with an emphasis on best practices related to governance, the primary role of our members.

The Opportunity Academy serves students who have previously separated from school or have been unsuccessful in school, desire a high school diploma and will benefit from support with employment readiness and obtaining employment. Opportunity Academy utilizes an independent studies format with blended-learning models, incorporating computer-based curriculum, small group instruction, independent and classroom-based study options.