SLS 201ES-96 ORIGINAL
2020 First Extraordinary Session
SENATE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 20
BY SENATOR CATHEY
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT. Requests the Department of Education to assist certain
public school boards to enter into cooperative agreements for the provision of essential
services.
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2 To urge and request the state Department of Education to encourage and assist any public
3 school board identified as "financially at risk" to enter into cooperative agreements
4 with other public school boards for the provision of essential services.
5 WHEREAS, R.S. 17:10.1(D) requires the State Board of Elementary and Secondary
6 Education (BESE) to define and identify any city, parish, or other local school board
7 "financially at risk"; and
8 WHEREAS, the state Department of Education annually conducts a fiscal risk
9 assessment of the prior year's fiscal activities of each public school board; and
10 WHEREAS, the review results in each board being identified "in corrective action",
11 "monitor", or "no action"; and
12 WHEREAS, the May 2019 fiscal risk assessment report on the fiscal activities of
13 2017-2018 found 20 of the 175 public school boards with general fund balances of less than
14 five percent and labeled "in corrective action"; and
15 WHEREAS, many of the systems "in corrective action" have operated with a deficit
16 at least once in the last five years; and
17 WHEREAS, these systems are at risk of not being able to provide basic student
18 services or meet their financial obligations; and
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SLS 201ES-96 ORIGINAL
1 WHEREAS, R.S. 17:100.2 allows school boards to enter into multiparish compacts
2 "to pool their resources, administrative, instructional or otherwise, and to allocate funds" for
3 the improvement of education; and
4 WHEREAS, entering into cooperative agreements with other public school boards
5 for the provision of essential services could reduce costs and increase efficiencies for all
6 systems in the agreement; and
7 WHEREAS, any savings derived from such cooperative endeavors could be
8 reinvested to help ensure continuous, robust student services.
9 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
10 urge and request the state Department of Education to encourage and assist any public school
11 board identified as "financially at risk" to enter into cooperative agreements with other
12 public school boards for the provision of essential services.
13 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
14 state superintendent of education.
The original instrument and the following digest, which constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument, were prepared by Cheryl Serrett.
DIGEST
SCR 20 Original 2020 First Extraordinary Session Cathey
Requests the state Department of Education to encourage and assist any public school board
identified as "financially at risk" to enter into cooperative agreements with other public
school boards for the provision of essential services.
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