BILL NUMBER: SB 674 CHAPTERED 08/11/03 CHAPTER 237 FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE AUGUST 11, 2003 APPROVED BY GOVERNOR AUGUST 9, 2003 PASSED THE SENATE JULY 24, 2003 PASSED THE ASSEMBLY JULY 17, 2003 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JULY 14, 2003 AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 17, 2003 AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 23, 2003 INTRODUCED BY Senator Aanestad FEBRUARY 21, 2003 An act to amend Section 37700 of the Education Code, relating to schooldays, and declaring the urgency thereof, to take effect immediately. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST SB 674, Aanestad. Four-day school week. Existing law authorizes the Pacific Unified School District and the Leggett Valley Unified School District to operate one or more schools in their districts on a 4-day school week, so long as the district complies with specified requirements, including, instructional time requirements. This bill would authorize the Reeds Creek Elementary School District to operate one or more schools in the district on a 4-day school week. The bill would, in addition, provide that a school district with an exclusive bargaining representative may only operate a school on a 4-day school week if the district and the representative of each bargaining unit of district employees mutually agree to that operation in a memorandum of understanding. The bill would declare that, due to the unique circumstances regarding the Reeds Creek Elementary School District, a general statute within the meaning of specified provisions of the California Constitution cannot be made applicable and a special statute is necessary. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) The Reeds Creek Elementary School District is faced with unique challenges, including its small pupil population, modest budget, large territory, and rural location. (b) The district serves an area of 385 square miles and has a widely dispersed population of 140 pupils. (c) Implementing transportation services for the pupil population is unusually difficult when travel time reaches 120 minutes each way. (d) Forty-eight percent of the pupil population is eligible for free or reduced-price meals, and the region served by the district is economically limited. (e) The restrictions imposed on the district by its small pupil population, modest budget, and large territory, combined with severe fiscal difficulties confronting state and local government, leave the district with few options for coping with diminishing resources. (f) The option to operate one or more schools on a four-day school week will enable the district to sustain existing programs without reducing the amount of instructional time provided to its pupils. SEC. 2. Section 37700 of the Education Code is amended to read: 37700. (a) Notwithstanding any other law, the Pacific Unified School District, the Leggett Valley Unified School District, and the Reeds Creek Elementary School District may operate one or more schools in their respective districts on a four-day school week, if the district complies with the instructional time requirements specified in Section 37701 and the other requirements of this chapter. (b) If a school district operates one or more schools on a four-day week pursuant to this section and the program for the school year provides less than the 180 days of instruction required under Section 46200, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall reduce the base revenue limit per unit of average daily attendance for that fiscal year by the amount the school district would have received for the increase received pursuant to subdivision (a) of Section 46200, as adjusted in fiscal years subsequent to the 1984-85 fiscal year. If a school district operates one or more schools on a four-day school week pursuant to this section and the program provides less than the minimum instructional minutes required under Section 46201, the Superintendent of Public Instruction shall reduce the base revenue limit per unit of average daily attendance for that fiscal year in which the reduction occurs by the amount the school district would have received for the increase in the 1987-88 fiscal year base revenue limit per unit of average daily attendance pursuant to paragraph (6) of subdivision (b) of Section 42238, as adjusted in the 1987-88 fiscal year and fiscal years thereafter. (c) A school district with an exclusive bargaining representative may operate a school on a four-day school week pursuant to this section only if the district and the representative of each bargaining unit of district employees mutually agree to that operation in a memorandum of understanding. SEC. 3. The Legislature finds and declares that due to the unique circumstances regarding the Reeds Creek Elementary School District, a general statute cannot be made applicable within the meaning of Section 16 of Article IV of the California Constitution. Therefore, the special legislation contained in this act is necessarily applicable only to the Reeds Creek Elementary School District. SEC. 4. This act is an urgency statute necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety within the meaning of Article IV of the Constitution and shall go into immediate effect. The facts constituting the necessity are: In order for the Reeds Creek Elementary School District to operate one or more schools in the district on a four-day school week at the earliest possible time, it is necessary that this act take effect immediately.