A proposal calling for the return of two-year averaging passed committee.

 

On an 8-5 vote, House Bill 1127, which includes two-year averaging in the fall enrollment calculation for state aid, passed the House Education committee.

 

Two-year averaging was removed from the fall enrollment count in 2016 as part of the Blue Ribbon Task Force package that increased in teacher pay. Its return would take the average of the previous two-year’s fall enrollment or the current year’s fall enrollment, whichever is greater.

 

ASBSD supports the bill with the Association’s legislative resolution, C3. School Funding – Two-Year Enrollment Averaging, stating, “ASBSD supports reinstating two-year enrollment averaging or current enrollment, whichever is larger, in place of the fall enrollment count for the state aid formula calculation.”

 

“For those districts that do see ebbs and flows in their enrollment, they do struggle with planning,” ASBSD Executive Director Wade Pogany testified, adding the return of two-year averaging would give school boards cushion in the budgeting process.

 

S.D. Department of Education CFO Matt Flett noted “two-year averaging is not in the (governor’s) budget recommendation” and said passing the measure would add an estimated $3.6 million to the budget.

 

Pogany requested the committee continue the conversation on how HB 1127 would fit in the budget.

 

“Move this on, see if it fits in, at all, with the priorities of the (legislative) appropriators and the Governor,” Pogany said.

 

HB 1127 heads to the House floor for review.

 

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