CRC - 2017                                                  P 93
       
       
        
       By Commissioner Martinez
       
       martinezr-00095A-17                                     201793__
    1                         A proposal to amend                       
    2         Section 4 of Article IX of the State Constitution to
    3         authorize high-performing school districts to become
    4         charter districts.
    5          
    6  Be It Proposed by the Constitution Revision Commission of
    7  Florida:
    8  
    9         Section 4 of Article IX of the State Constitution is
   10  amended to read:
   11                             ARTICLE IX                            
   12                              EDUCATION                            
   13         SECTION 4. School districts; school boards; charter
   14  districts.—
   15         (a) Each county shall constitute a school district;
   16  provided, two or more contiguous counties, upon vote of the
   17  electors of each county pursuant to law, may be combined into
   18  one school district. In each school district there shall be a
   19  school board composed of five or more members chosen by vote of
   20  the electors in a nonpartisan election for appropriately
   21  staggered terms of four years, as provided by law.
   22         (b) The school board shall operate, control and supervise
   23  all free public schools within the school district and determine
   24  the rate of school district taxes within the limits prescribed
   25  herein. Two or more school districts may operate and finance
   26  joint educational programs.
   27         (c) Any high-performing school district may choose, by
   28  resolution of a majority of the school board or a vote of the
   29  electors of the county, to become a charter district. The school
   30  board shall remain the governing board of the charter district
   31  and the charter district is exempt from all provisions of the
   32  Florida K-20 Education Code in the same manner, and is subject
   33  to the same exemptions, as a charter school designated by
   34  Florida law. After the school district’s initial designation as
   35  a charter district, the district must maintain its status as a
   36  high-performing school district so long as the district
   37  maintains a performance grade of “B” or better for at least two
   38  years within a three-year period; the district does not fall
   39  below a performance grade of “C”; and the district’s financial
   40  reserves do not fall below the state-required minimum. For
   41  purposes of this subsection, the term “high-performing school
   42  district” means a school district that has received a
   43  performance grade of “B” or better for each of the last three
   44  years before the district’s initial designation as a charter
   45  district and has not had its financial reserves fall below the
   46  state-required minimum for the previous three years before the
   47  district’s initial designation as a charter district.