Well.

Senate Republicans hope to shake up Kentucky school systems this year.

Today, senators passed two measures that could change how school principals and superintendents are trained and paid in the state.

Our June Lefler has more in tonight's legislative update.

So the purpose of Senate Bill two is to ensure that when school districts consider pay raises, that classroom teachers are not left behind.

Administrator pay raises could not exceed teacher pay raises by percentage points.

And it reflects the value of classroom instruction and district level decision making.

Senate Bill two does not impact contracts for new superintendents or other administrators, but salary changes after that would need some review.

So I would take it, given what you said, that this bill would not put or not prevent a school board from renegotiating a salary of a superintendent if their superintendent was being sought after by other, other communities.

Am I right about that?

If that district wants to, maintain that superintendent and they feel that a funding decision is important in that retention, then they have that waiver option within this bill to make that decision.

But that decision will be transparent and everyone will know that that's what's happening.

That process worries a rural Republican.

You know, if in a rural community, you know, you may be losing an award winning principal to a larger school system because you have more money, can that decision be made on a short term?

And will the waiver, will it be acted upon in a very short term, because folks aren't going to wait around to do that.

Despite that, Senator Stephen Meredith and others passed Senate bill to unanimously.

The Senate Education Committee also took up Senate Bill four, which would create a five year training and mentorship program for school principals.

And the ultimate goal is to have the premiere principal leadership program in the United States.

Senator Stephen West says the state would piggyback on an existing program run by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

This Western Kentucky superintendent went through the program to.

Help them learn about what their triggers are and what their strengths are, what their success scripts are, any biases they might have.

It's life changing.

The largest pro-business advocacy group would partner with the state to fund a scaled up version of that program.

And so what we would be looking at is a private investment from the Chamber of Commerce through local Kentucky businesses of around $864,000 a year.

That is what we raise now.

We are going to raise this in perpetuity.

We will continue to raise that money from the private investments in the business community to pour into their local school principals, and then the state match to be able to train 150 school principals a year would be a little bit about $1.8 million.

Year five I would envision a stipend.

So each principal would receive a stipend to pay for the education that they choose off off of that approved list.

And so, as you can see, the goal, the goal is to put our money where our mouth is.

Those dollars aren't yet spelled out in the bill, but senators say the program is a worthwhile investment.

The committee passed the bill unanimously.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Jim Leffler.