Generally, the School Turnaround Pilot Program Act requires the department of education to create and develop a four-year school turnaround pilot program for five priority schools for school years 2021-2022 through 2024-2025. Under the program, participating local boards of education contract with an independent school turnaround expert whose compensation is partially dependent (50%) on the school in need of intervention meeting the priority school exist criteria by the end of four school years. This bill makes the turnaround program permanent and makes the following changes and additions to the program: (1) Authorizes the department to select up to five priority schools each year to participate in the program, subject to a maximum of 15 priority schools participating in the program at any given time; (2) Changes various reporting requirements to reflect the four-year turnaround cycle for schools participating in the program; and (3) Adds that school turnaround committees must include one member of a local community group and one business leader. Under present law, a school turnaround committee consists of school employees, parents, and a school board member, and its primary function is to make recommendations concerning the school turnaround plan to the local board of education.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: 49-6-3701, 49-6-3702, 49-6-3703, 49-6-3704(a), 49-6-3704, 49-6-3705, 49-6-3706, 49-6-3707