A host of bills concerning public education were advanced this month in the Oklahoma Legislature.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 1126 by Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan, to give schools more flexibility in how and when they spend general carryover funds.

“We must stop penalizing our local districts for being fiscally responsible and wanting to save unused general funds for essential future expenses,” Garvin said.

SB 1126 would require carryover funds be reported to the State Department of Education (SDE) and would add such funds to the list of financial information to be published online by the agency. School district and school site expenditures of state, federal, and local funds are already available online.

Current law contains caps on how much a school district may carry over from one fiscal year to the next. Garvin’s bill would remove the caps altogether.

The House passed HB4109 by Rep. Mark Vancuren, R-Owasso, that would make an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) available for school employees, mirroring what is currently available to all state employees.

“The goal of this legislation is to promote positive mental health for all of our school employees,” Vancuren said.

HB4109 is authored by Sen. John Haste, R-Broken Arrow.

The Senate passed SB1418 by Sen. Kim David, R-Porter, which would cover resident tuition and fees at Oklahoma colleges and universities for qualifying members of the National Guard.

Guard members could enroll in up to 18 credit hours per semester, subject to funding availability. The amount of assistance would be capped at 120 credit hours for an associate’s or baccalaureate degree. Up to 40 credit hours would be covered for a graduate program.

The Senate passed SB1119 by Sen. Jessica Garvin, R-Duncan, to allow schools to use highly-qualified professionals in their classrooms as long as needed.

According to the Oklahoma State School Boards Association (OSSBA), the number of adjunct teachers in Oklahoma schools has increased annually from around 175 during the 2015-2016 school year to more than 400 last school year. The State Board of Education has also approved more than 3,800 emergency certifications so far this school year.

Garvin said, “Not only are these professionals helping fill a teaching void, but they’re also helping expose students to their professions, industries and perspective career fields, which is so important as students make decisions about their futures.”

Senate Bill 1535 repeals the Oklahoma Teacher and Leader Effectiveness Evaluation (TLE) System and lets local boards of education decide how to evaluate their teachers.

“The TLE is a legacy policy from the Obama administration’s Race to the Top program, and Oklahoma teachers didn’t like it then and, more than a decade later, they still don’t,” said Sen. Adam Pugh, R-Edmond.

The Senater approved SB 1631 which would direct the Commission for Oklahoma Educational Quality and Accountability (OEQA) to establish a two-year mentor teacher pilot program. It would allow one teacher from each of the state’s more than 500 districts to attend OEQA’s training to learn classroom skills. Two protégé teachers would also be selected from each district to learn from the mentor teacher.

“Having mentor teachers is critical to inspire and help others be better in their profession, especially younger teachers who are new to the classroom,” Pugh said.

The Senate approved SB 1618, directing the State Department of Education to develop and operate a website listing school district employment vacancies where districts could submit their vacancies and candidates could submit applications and resumes.

Pugh said, “This is already done for state employees, so it only makes sense to have a dedicated website for the available teaching positions in our school districts too.”