LCSD Patrons,
On Friday, February 10, the ND Senate Appropriations Committee - Education and Environment Division voted 5-0 - DO PASS on SB 2328! The bill then moved to the full ND Senate Appropriations Committee who voted 15-0 - DO PASS!
On Monday, February 13, SB 2328 will be voted on by the full Senate. Since recent events have moved so quickly, we won't be able to take as many students to Bismarck for the Senate vote as we would like. It's just too difficult to have everything organized for 80+ students in such a short period of time. Instead we will take 10-12 from each school and then plan a return trip with a much larger group of students later in the session.
Things are happening quickly, but we are very encouraged by the direction everything is headed. If the bill passes the Senate, which seems likely at this point, it will be sent over to the House and the process will begin again.
If you're working on emails and testimony, don't stop. We still need to contact and lobby the next set of legislators that review the bill. This will most likely be the 14 members of the House Education Committee. I'll pass along their information after we see what happens on Monday.
We are tentatively planning to have SB 2328 Q&A sessions at both schools on Thursday with me and two board members. There will be more information on this in the coming days.
We are not out of the woods yet, but yesterday's news was great for the Lewis and Clark School District!
Sincerely,
Marc Ritteman