I hope everyone has a comfortable seat. We have 627 pages in this in this committee. Uh, roll call, please. >> Okay. Mr. Pal, >> Mr. Pal is present. Dr. Armstrong here.
Dr. Armstrong's present. M. Berkin here. >> Mr. Burkin is present. Mr. Mr. Sag is present. Mr. Castile >> here. >> Mr. President. Dr. Clark >> here. >> Dr. Clark is present. Mr. Harris here.
>> Mr. Harris is present. Miss Holloway >> here. >> Miss Holloway is present. Miss Meerine. Miss Meerine is present. Mr. Morris >> here. >> Mr. Morris is present. You have a quorum. >> Thank you, ma'am. Uh, first item, please. >> The consent agenda is ready for approval. Add in item 6.1.
>> Uh motion please. Mr. Castile, Miss Halloway. Any objections? Seeing none, motion passes. Next. >> Your first item is on page 11, item 4.1, consideration of an update report regarding LEAs and non-compliance with
the 70% instructional requirements for fiscal year 2023 2024. The recommendation is to receive. Motion. Um, Miss Champine, second Miss Meering. Any discussion?
Any objections? Seeing none, that passes. Next, please. >> Your next item is on page 24, item 5.1, consideration of a report from education finance staff concerning Bessie authorized charter school budgets and expenditures, including irregularities
or concern. The recommendation is to receive. >> Motion, Mr. Dr. Harris, Dr. Armstrong. Any discussion, any objections? Seeing none, motion passes. Next, please.
Your next item is on page 31, item 5.2, consideration of LDLE contracts greater than $50,000. The recommendation is to approve. >> Motion, Mr. Repel, Mr. Harris. Any discussion?
Any objections? Seeing none, motion passes. Next, >> your next item is on page 48, item 5.3, consideration of contracts $50,000 or less, approved by the state superintendent of education. The
recommendation is to receive. >> Motion, please. Mr. Morris, Miss Champine. Any discussion? Any objections? That passes. Next. Your next item is on page 50, item 5.4. Consideration of
federal, state grants and allocations to LEAs, type two charters, type five charters, approved nonpublic schools, and community- based organizations competitive and other. The recommendation is to approve. >> A motion, Dr. Clark, Mr. Cal.
Any discussion? Any objections? Seeing none, motion passes. Next. >> Your next item is on page 306, item 7.1, consideration of an update report regarding school bus speed limits. The
recommendation is to receive. >> Motion, Miss Halloway. Dr. Clark, any discussion, Miss Halloway? >> Yes. Thank you. Um, I'm not at liberty to discuss a bus speed limit. Okay. But
I think Dr. Brumley, you're an expert on that. So, can you help us out because I when I saw the packet of all the information and the research that this has uh they've done. Wow. Okay. Um can you maybe I know I spoke with Ashley. She
was so good about this, but if you can direct us. >> Yeah, happy happy to have some insight here. So, um, at a certain point in, uh, Louisiana revised statute, the, u separation of speed limit from, uh,
regular vehicles versus buses was, um, removed from statute. However, Bessie policy still provides that a school bus should not exceed uh, 55 miles per hour. It's been a point of conversation uh, for several years. Uh, Miss Holloway, you had asked that we provide
information or ascertain information from uh, various individuals. And I'll ask Ashley Townsen to come up and give a report on what we received both from state police and DOTD. >> If I may, while she's coming, if we can note that it was um, Superintendent
Jared Morton that brought this forward along with state troopers. So, thank you for that. >> Good morning. I'm Ashley Townson. with the department. We met with Louisiana State Police and DOTD and asked for that
information. They took some time um sending that to us. Louisiana State Police sent us a letter explaining that they enforced the statutes in title 32. So all of those posted speed limits and those laws in title 32 of this um of
Louisiana revised statutes, that's what Louisiana State Police enforces. So they're not enforcing anything that's investy policy. um DOTD sent us um a number of research papers that some of which were states, some of which were national talking about um the safety
effects of differential speed limits on highways. Um so for example, they looked at whether differential speed limits, so having different speed limits for different classes of vehicles, um are safer than having uniform speed limits where everyone has the same speed limit.
Uh, one particular study, for example, analyzed data from 1991 to 2000, looked at crash data, speed limits, traffic volumes from 17 different states, and ultimately used data from nine states to compile that report. They found that there's no consistent evidence that um
having a different a differential speed limit improves safety, but that there are variety of other factors that go into that, too. So, the crash volume relationships vary by sight. They consider this really an engineering question. So, in the DOTD policy, they
have um it aligns with revised statute 3261 that requires DOTD to set criteria that determines sections of highway and roadways that have lower speed limits. And this requires a multi-level DOT approval process, including the chief
engineer signature before speed zones can be um changed. So they set most of their speed limits after those engineering and traffic studies at the 85th percentile speed. They look at um compliance and the likelihood that people will comply with that because
that is something that goes into safety and they look at um other road conditions as well. So for them to set a speed limit that's different than that 85th percentile, there has to be some other factor, the shoulder, the type of road, the area and they look at all of that according to their engineering processes. So ultimately DOTD and LSP
didn't or declined to make a recommendation about what Bessie should do with its policy, but they did provide that information there for you all about how they set speed limits, why Louisiana goes with a uniform speed limit instead of a differential speed limit, and um the statutes that Louisiana State Police
does enforce. >> Thank you, Mr. Holloway. Anything else? >> No, sir. Thank you. >> Any discussion? Any thoughts on policy change, policy
removal? Just move on. All right. >> Hey, Mr. >> Any objection? >> Oh, focus. I I I have a question or uh based on what Ashley just told us that the state police don't even enforce the
Bessie policy, should we just make a modification to say the Bessie policy is to follow state law, which would regulate that? >> I mean, since they're not following Bessie policy, >> and I don't know what he's following.
So, um, how about if we get a draft from legal and that at the March meeting we look at that and make a determination. >> That that would be awesome. Thank you. >> Okay. >> All right. Any objections to the
original motion? Seeing none, that motion passes. Next, >> that concludes your agenda. >> Mr. Uh I I do want to recognize that uh you have considerable legislative reports uh in your binder. Um that actually takes
staff members writing those reports and researching those reports. So, I want to acknowledge our staff for the considerable uh time and effort gone into drafting legislative reports uh and particularly uh Ben Leo and Ashley Townsen, uh Matt Johnson, Ken Bradford
uh for some of the work that they do on these reports to make sure that they are uh quality uh and timely. And um uh we are also excited about legislation that recently passed with Chuck Owens bill um that we will be reducing a number of
reports moving forward uh including I believe the report on reports. So uh we're excited about some of the bureaucracy being reduced moving forward, but I did want to highlight our staff for the work that they do in preparation for this. >> Thank you all for doing all of that because I know all the members
appreciate it and that they read every page. So thank you that. So next committee is scheduled for 11:30. The rules say that we can go up to 30 minutes early. So next committee.