The Idaho School Boards Association and the Idaho Education Association have reached agreement on two school labor-law bills that have had one-year expirations attached to them for the past two years, Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, told the Senate Education Committee this afternoon. They’re jointly co-sponsoring a bill she presented today to settle the issues of criteria for reductions in force and of ability to reduce teacher salaries from one year to the next.

Karen Echeverria, executive director of the school boards group, said, “This is consensus legislation.” The two groups agreed to leave the salary part the same as it’s been the past two years – allowing districts to reduce salaries from one year to the next, which in the past was prohibited – while bringing back previous criteria for layoffs that had been removed under the temporary laws.

Sen. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, asked about the position of the Idaho Association of School Administrators on the measure. “We have briefly discussed that with them, and they haven’t indicated any objection to the legislation,” Echeverria responded. The committee then voted unanimously to introduce the bill.