Act 1180 of 2009 (Section 1) amends Ark. Code Ann. § 6-11-129 regarding data to be accessible on the website. Each school district shall make the following information and data easily identifiable on its website or the website of the school district’s education service cooperative, if the education service cooperative maintains the school district’s website:
Current comprehensive financial data reports for school districts, including:
1. Local and state revenue sources;
2. Administrator and teacher salary and benefit expenditure data;
3. School district balances, including legal balances and building fund balances;
4. Minutes of regular and special meetings of the school board of directors;
5. The school district budget for the ensuing year, which shall be posted on the website within thirty (30) days following the date required to be submitted to the Department of Education;
6. A financial breakdown of monthly expenses of the school district;
7. Salary schedules of all employees, including extended contract and supplementary pay amounts;
8. Current contract information for all school district employees, except that social security numbers, telephone numbers, personal addresses, or signatures shall not be published;
9. The annual budget of the school district;
10. The annual school district statistical report; and
11. Personnel policies required under Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-201 et seq.
The information and data listed above is required to be made available and easily accessible on the school district’s website and shall be the actual data for the two (2) previous school years and the projected budgeted information for the current school year. The Arkansas Department of Education shall make the required information and data available and easily accessible on the department’s website by including direct links to the websites of all Arkansas school districts.
Act 1180 also makes numerous changes to Ark. Code Ann. § 6-13-620 regarding the powers and duties of school boards of directors. Many of these powers and duties are simply re-stated with more current language that complies with current statutes. Please see Section 2 of Act 1180 (attached) to see the revisions regarding the powers and duties of school boards of directors.
Section 3 of Act 1180 amends Ark. Code Ann. § 6-17-204 pertaining to changes and additions to personnel policies. Changes or additions adopted by the school board of directors on or before June 30 each year to ensure compliance with state or federal law or regulation shall be considered a part of certified personnel contracts on July 1 of the same calendar year.
Any change or additions to the personnel policies adopted by the school board of directors between May 1 and June 30 each year that are not required to ensure compliance with state or federal law or regulation shall be considered a part of certified personnel contracts on July 1 of the same calendar year if:
• A notice of change is sent, no later than five(5) working days after final board action, by first class letter to the address on record in the personnel file of each affected employee; and
• The notice of change includes the new or modified policy in a form that clearly shows additions underlined and deletions stricken; and
• There is a provision that states that due to the policy change, each continuing employee under contract shall have the power to unilaterally exercise the power of rescission within a period of thirty (30) days after the school board of directors takes final action, by providing to the school board of directors a notice of rescission, in the form of a letter or resignation, during the period of thirty (30) days. For continuing contract employees covered under the Teacher Fair Dismissal Act of 1983, the power of rescission is in addition to the power of rescission provided under § 6-17-1506. (The teacher shall have the right to unilaterally rescind any signed contract no later than ten (10) days after the end of the school year.)