HOUSE BILL 280

51st legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2014

INTRODUCED BY

Mimi Stewart

AN ACT

RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOL FINANCE; RETURNING TO STATUTORY INDIVIDUAL CLASS LOADS AND TEACHING LOADS OVER A THREE-YEAR PERIOD; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. A new section of the School Personnel Act is enacted to read:

     "[NEW MATERIAL] INDIVIDUAL CLASS LOAD AND TEACHING LOAD--THREE-YEAR PHASE-IN.--Now that the emergency economic need to grant fiscal solvency waivers for mandatory individual class loads and teaching loads established in Section 22-10A-20 NMSA 1978 and waived pursuant to Section 22-1-10 NMSA 1978 has lessened, these requirements shall be reinstated. The return to statutory mandatory individual class loads and teaching loads shall be phased in over a three-year period. During the 2014-2015 school year, each school district shall develop a plan for implementing the requirements of this section and Section 22-10A-20 NMSA 1978, including the cost of complying with Section 22-10A-20 NMSA 1978. This section does not affect the ability of a school district to apply for and the department to grant a waiver pursuant to Section 22-10A-20 NMSA 1978."

     SECTION 2. APPROPRIATION.--Six million dollars ($6,000,000) is appropriated from the general fund to the state equalization guarantee distribution for expenditure in fiscal year 2015 to support the first year of the three-year phase-in of statutory mandatory individual class loads and teaching loads pursuant to Section 22-10A-20 NMSA 1978. Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of fiscal year 2015 shall revert to the general fund.

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