Week in Review 03-18-2022

FY23-24 CAPITAL REAPPROPRIATIONS/APPROPRIATIONS

Office of Budget and Management Director Kimberly Murnieks provided members of both the House and Senate finance committees with an overview of the proposed FY23-24 reappropriations bill, which totals $2.09 billion — an amount that is higher than usual because the FY21-22 capital appropriations had been enacted six months later than is typical. She also noted that there were pandemic-related contract delays, supplier shortages and supply chain disruptions that “reduced the timeframe for those projects.” The bill, HB597 (Oelslager), addresses the reauthorization of previously approved capital projects and does not include new spending.

Asked about the timeline for the capital bill, Senate President Matt Huffman (R-Lima) said the public and local entities are asked to have requests in to their individual senators by Friday, March 18, and the requests from senators to Senate Finance Chairman Matt Dolan (R-Chagrin Falls) by Friday, April 1. He said he expects the bill to pass by the end of May or the beginning of June.

EDUCATION

The State Board of Education (SBOE) Monday morning selected Martha Manchester as its next vice president. Manchester replaces Steve Dackin, who resigned from the board earlier this month to make a bid for the state superintendent position. The board voted 10 to seven for Manchester, who was first appointed to the board in 2017, over Brendan Shea, an elected member who joined the board in January 2021.

After some last-minute technical edits, the State Board of Education voted Tuesday to approve administrative rules to implement the new 5-star report card system for evaluating local schools. 

Lawmakers enacted the new system last year in HB82 (Cross-Jones) after years of discussion on changes to the A-F report card system. The deadline for the board to adopt rules putting it into effect is Thursday, March 31. Schools and districts will not receive an overall rating in report cards due out this fall, but will be rated on the various components of the report card. Ahead of Tuesday’s vote, the board heard an overview of the final changes Monday from Chris Woolard and Shelby Robertson, Ohio Department of Education staffers who’ve been leading many of the board’s report card discussions.

Meanwhile, continued debate over what to put in a statutorily required guidebook on dyslexia led the board’s Teaching, Leading and Learning Committee to shelve a planned vote in favor of trying again to reach agreement with the Ohio Dyslexia Committee. The board committee did much the same thing in February, but a review of the changes adopted since and testimony heard at the board Tuesday showed major disagreements persist. Under 133-HB436 (Baldridge), a law on screening and intervention for dyslexia, the board must approve a dyslexia guidebook developed by the Ohio Dyslexia Committee, a panel of experts convened by ODE.