§ 22-11-302. School District Accountability Committee – Powers and Duties

1. Each school district accountability committee has the following powers and duties:
   1. To recommend to its local school board priorities for spending school district moneys. Whenever the school district accountability committee recommends spending priorities, it shall make reasonable efforts to consult in a substantive manner with the school accountability committees of the school district. The local school board shall consider the school district accountability committee’s recommendations in adopting the school district budget for each fiscal year pursuant to article 44 of this title.
   2. To advise its local school board concerning preparation of, and annually submit to the local school board recommendations regarding the contents of, a district performance, improvement, priority improvement, or turnaround plan, whichever is required based on the school district’s accreditation category. In advising and preparing the recommendations, the school district accountability committee shall make reasonable efforts to consult in a substantive manner with the school accountability committees of the school district and shall compile and submit to the local school board the school performance, improvement, priority improvement, and turnaround plans submitted by the school accountability committees pursuant to sections 22-11-403 to 22-11-406.
   3. If the local school board receives a charter school application, to review the charter application prior to consideration by the local school board as provided in section 22-30.5-107 (1);
   4. To provide input and recommendations on an advisory basis to principals concerning the development and use of assessment tools used for the purpose of measuring and evaluating student academic growth as it relates to teacher evaluations;
   5. To consider input and recommendations from the school accountability committee of each school of the school district to facilitate the evaluation of the performance of the school’s principal for the purposes of article 9 of this title;
   6. To provide input to the local school board concerning the creation and enforcement of its school conduct and discipline code;
   7. To increase the level of parent engagement in the school district and in the public schools of the school district, especially the engagement of parents of students in the populations described in section 22-11-301 (3). The committee’s activities to increase parent engagement must include, but need not be limited to:
      1. Publicizing opportunities to serve and soliciting parents to serve on the school district accountability committee and school accountability committees. In soliciting parents to serve on the school district and school accountability committees, the school district accountability committee shall direct the outreach efforts to help ensure that the parents who serve on the district and school accountability committees reflect the student populations that are significantly represented within the school district and the school, as provided in section 22-11-301 (3).
      2. Assisting the school district in implementing the parent engagement policy adopted by the local school board pursuant to section 22-32-142; and
      3. Assisting school personnel to increase parents’ engagement with educators, including but not limited to parents’ engagement in creating students’ READ plans pursuant to part 12 of article 7 of this title, in creating individual career and academic plans pursuant to section 22-32-109 (1)(oo), and in creating plans to address habitual truancy pursuant to section 22-33-107 (3).
   8. To meet at least quarterly to discuss whether school district leadership, personnel, and infrastructure are advancing or impeding implementation of the school district’s performance, improvement, priority improvement, or turnaround plan, whichever is applicable, or other progress pertinent to the school district’s accreditation contract.
2. The local school board and the school district accountability committee shall, at least annually, cooperatively determine the areas and issues, in addition to budget issues, that the school district accountability committee shall study and concerning which the committee may make recommendations to the local school board.
3. Notwithstanding any provision of subsection (1) of this section to the contrary, the district accountability committee for a school district is not required to implement the requirements specified in paragraph (g) of subsection (1) of this section if the department determines that the school district is rural, based on the geographic size of the school district and the distance of the school district from the nearest large, urbanized area, and the school district enrolls fewer than one thousand students in kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Source: L. 2009: Entire article R&RE, (SB 09-163), ch. 293, p. 1490, § 1, effective May 21. L. 2010: (1)(d) and (1)(e) added, (SB 10-191), ch. 241, p. 1069, § 8, effective May 20. L. 2012: (1)(e) amended and (1)(f) added, (HB 12-1345), ch. 188, p. 744, § 27, effective May 19. L. 2013: IP(1), (1)(e), and (1)(f) amended and (1)(g) added, (SB 13-193), ch. 355, p. 2070, § 1, effective May 28. L. 2015: (3) added, (HB 15-1321), ch. 217, p. 797, § 2, effective May 22. L. 2018: (1)(f) amended and (1)(h) added, (HB 18-1355), ch. 324, p. 1952, § 13, effective May 30.

Editor’s note: This section, as it existed prior to 2009, was relocated to § 22-11-602.