This morning, the Mississippi Senate passed HB 1647, authorizing local school boards to grant teachers and all school district employees LEAVE WITH PAY during a state of emergency.
The bill grants the same authority to city and county governments. HB 1647 now will go to Governor Reeves for his signature. Earlier this week, the governor declared a state of emergency due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Legislature has suspended the 2020 Legislative Session until April 1, unless the Lt. Governor and Speaker of the House agree that they should reconvene on a different date. Budget bills for the coming year will be addressed when the Legislature returns to its regular business, and all bills that had passed one chamber earlier in the session will be taken up by the opposite chamber at that time. See our mid-session update from last week.
Tomorrow (Thursday) at 10 a.m., the Mississippi Board of Education will meet to address state testing, school accountability, and other important issues critical to our children and teachers. You can watch that meeting via livestream here. We promise to let you know the outcome of that meeting and to keep you updated on other important developments related to our public schools.
You can find the latest news on our web site and on our Facebook and Twitter pages.
Do something nice for yourself and for someone else today. These are trying times, but together, we’ve got this!
