HB 229 Summary

• State Department of Education must conduct a study on educational efficiency in counties with multiple school districts and submit findings to legislature before November 1, 2016, including data on enrollment, administrative costs, accreditation levels, and consolidation recommendations.

• Effective July 1, 2017, all municipal separate, consolidated, line consolidated, and special municipal school districts are abolished and joined into single countywide school districts with one county board of education and one appointed county superintendent of education.

• County boards of education members are elected by supervisors district in special elections in November 2017 for two-year terms, then in November 2019 and every four years thereafter for four-year terms; subsequent superintendent appointments are made by county boards rather than through elections.

• School district property, assets, and outstanding debt transfer to countywide districts; no schools or facilities are required to close due to consolidation; counties with no high school may elect one additional at-large board member.

• Multiple sections of Mississippi Code are repealed effective July 1, 2017, eliminating procedures for local school board control over district abolition, alteration, and creation; elective superintendent positions; and municipal separate and consolidated school district governance structures.