PDF: House Bill 906 GEORGIA BILLS1,023: Bills in the 2010 legislative session4: Bills signed into law10: Days left for General Assembly to vote on bills
By Ashley Speagle
Correspondent
ATLANTA -- Of the nearly 1,023 bills active in the 2010 legislative session, Gov. Sonny Perdue has signed four into law.
House Bill 906, the most recently signed, was sponsored by Rep. Jay Neal, R-LaFayette. It allows schools to give teachers their contracts by May instead of April for another three years.
The Legislature passed the original extension on school contracts last session, but because of continuing budget cuts schools need more time to decide their own cuts to contracts, Rep. Neal said.
"Since the General Assembly has not finalized our FY11 budget, extending the date we issue contracts helps us to make better decisions for our students, employees and our community," Catoosa County Superintendent Denia Reese said.
Rep. Mark Hatfield, R-Waycross, cautioned that while the extended contract delivery date benefits school administrators, teachers will have less time to find another teaching job if they are let go in May.
"It's a bill that would be pleasing to superintendents and school boards," he said. "Teachers are in a very difficult position to look for a job with a month's less time for the coming school year."
However, Rep. Kevin Levitas, D-Atlanta, said that if schools had to give out contracts in April, they could fire teachers hastily and then need to rehire them when budgets are ironed out.
Eric Beavers with Whitfield County Schools said the extension is "a good temporary thing. We want to give teachers enough time to know where we stand with teacher contracts, but it would be better for teachers to get them in April."
Walker County Director of Personnel Craig Davoulas said the later date benefits most school systems, where personnel costs make up roughly 85 percent of school budgets.
"With information still forthcoming the extra time does help us, because personnel accounts for such a big portion of our budget," Mr. Davoulas said.
Gov. Perdue signed the bill on March 16 and, before that, he signed two local bills and a bill that allows banks to renew loans despite lowered lending levels.
About 39 other bills await the governor's signature after passing the House and the Senate, most dealing with county and city ordinances.
Rep. Tom Weldon, R-Ringgold, carried a bill through on behalf of the Ringgold City Council that extends the governing limits for Ringgold.
"That's so we can make sure we have the infrastructure there for industry when we get some folks here," he said.
Legislators have 10 days left to address hundreds of other bills dealing with the state budget, transportationt and other major issues.
E-mail Ashley Speagle at speagle.ashley@gmail.com