Chapter 108
2010 -- S 2266
Enacted 06/22/10
A N A C T
RELATING TO
EDUCATION -- COOPERATIVE SERVICE AMONG
Introduced By: Senators Felag, and DiPalma
Date Introduced: February 11, 2010
It is enacted by the General
Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Chapter 16-3.1 of the General Laws entitled
"Cooperative Service Among
16-3.1-14.
Short title. – This chapter shall be known and may
be cited as the
"Cooperative Service Among
16-3.1-15.
Declaration of purpose. – (a) A collaborative
approach to the dual mission of
educational effectiveness and business efficiency is the purpose of
this educational collaborative
act. The goal is to maximize both educational
effectiveness and business services which will lead
to cost savings. The educational collaborative system
will allow school districts to more
appropriately concentrate on educating at the most local level,
which should be their prime
mission. This system can be defined as including not only the
regional educational collaboratives
and their boards, local district school committees and
district superintendents, operating as
private, nonprofit educational service agencies, but also the
board of regents and the
commissioner of the
(b) As used herein,
the terms "collaborative," "educational collaborative,"
"regional
collaborative," and combinations thereof, shall be deemed to
refer to the collaboratives
established pursuant to this chapter, and recognized as 501(c)3
nonprofit corporations
incorporated pursuant to the
section 7-6-1, et seq. Nothing in this legislation is
intended to erode the legal status of the
regional collaboratives as 501(c)3's
and their boards of directors must be cognizant to their legal
and fiduciary responsibilities to these enterprises.
(c) The purpose of
this act is also to bring the efforts of the members of the educational
collaborative system, listed in subsection (a) above, into
appropriate and productive dialogue and
relationship with one another, in order to bring about the
business efficiencies and quality
instructional practice the legislature desires.
16-3.1-16. Financial incentives. – The board of regents for
elementary and secondary
education may provide for special grants that it may deem necessary
to stimulate and encourage
the development of cooperative service agreements that
would be administered by the area
educational collaborative. The regents may also establish an
ongoing level of subsidy that it
deems appropriate to continue the operation of any
cooperative service area.
16-3.1-17.
Rules and regulations. – (a) The
board of regents for elementary and
secondary education shall adopt rules and regulations regarding
all aspects of the educational
collaboratives mission and goals.
(b) Instructional
education programs and/or administrative and/or best business practice
plans will be submitted to, and approved by, the
commissioner of elementary and secondary
education.
(c) Each educational
collaborative will submit a plan to the board of regents for approval
by the commissioner of elementary and secondary
education, that will increase efficiencies and
economies of scale in providing instructional services. The
plan will incorporate best practices
from business, reflect a regional approach and
accompanying volume increase, and shall include,
but not be limited to, measures concerning:
(1) Teacher training
programs and staff development;
(2) Special education
programs and diagnostic services required by law or regulation and
related functions;
(3) Programs for the
gifted and talented;
(4) Programs for
students who are at risk of suspension or expulsion;
(5) Development of
shared instructional services;
(6) Act as regional
or statewide administrative unit, or enabling unit, or as a participant of
a joint purchasing agreement or agreements established
pursuant to section 16-2-9.2, for such
functions as transportation, cooperative purchasing of food,
and other noninstructional support
services, such as the purchasing of oil, gas, electricity,
health care contracts, supplies, payroll and
other business operations, as may be appropriate;
(7) Any other consolidation
of services and purchasing that achieves efficiencies and cost
savings.
(d) An educational
collaborative may contract with a school district that is not a
participating member, or another educational collaborative. Districts
may contract any of their
functions, individually and collectively, in whole or in part,
to a regional collaborative when such
contracting will increase efficiencies and economies of scale in
providing instructional and
business services.
(e) The board of
regents should consider the progress made or planned as reported and
provide for special grants to stimulate the formation of
cooperative service arrangements, or a
level of subsidy appropriate to launch or continue the
operation of any cooperative service area.
16-3.1-18.
Board of directors. – Each educational collaborative's board of directors will
set policies and programs consistent with the aims and
intents of this legislation for approval by
the department of education and developed in conjunction
with educational collaborative staff.
Each participating school committee will appoint one
member to the respective governing board.
The board of directors will include an odd number of
members. In the case of educational
collaboratives with an even number of participating school
districts, regional school districts may
appoint two (2) members. School committees can appoint anyone
they choose to the board of
directors from their membership.
16-3.1-19.
Collective bargaining agreements unaffected. – Nothing
in this chapter
shall allow any school district to abrogate any agreement
reached by collective bargaining.
16-3.1-20.
Building ownership. – Nothing in this chapter
shall limit any of the five (5)
educational collaboratives from
purchasing, leasing, taking by gift, or otherwise acquiring, own,
hold, mortgage, finance, improve, and use real estate for
purposes of furthering their mission and
goals to meet their administrative and operational needs.
An affirmative majority of the
educational collaborative's board of
directors will be needed to purchase, lease, mortgage or
finance real estate. Such real estate may be exempt from
local property taxes as described in
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect on December 31, 2010.
=======
LC01368
=======