A legislative conference committee met to reconcile House Bill 1369 and heard Senate proposals to increase per‑pupil payments, boost school construction funding and raise notice and bonding thresholds.

Committee members discussed moving the per‑pupil payment schedule from the House’s 2-and-2 formula to a Senate 3-and-3, a change the committee’s Senate members said would raise biennial costs from about $91 million under the House approach to roughly $138 million under the 3-and-3, a difference of about $46.5 million. Senate members said the revision relies in part on moving about $100 million from the Foundation Aid Stabilization Fund into school construction support.

The committee also discussed language added to clarify placement approvals for certain 24‑hour residential placements, specifying that a superintendent should work with the Department of Human Services on such placements.

Senate negotiators described an explicit allowance related to recent Air Force base planning: the conference draft would set aside up to $20 million from the construction fund for Air Force‑related projects so those projects would not directly compete with other local school applications for the same pool of money. Committee members said the carve‑out aims to ensure bases that win federal awards can meet local matching requirements without reducing funds available to other districts.

Members reviewed changes to procurement and bonding notice thresholds. The draft raises the public notice and bonding threshold to $250,000 (previously $200,000), a change the Senate sponsor said aligns thresholds adjusted in the prior session.

Committee members also discussed the existing statutory loan thresholds for the school construction revolving fund, noting prior changes that set small‑school caps at $15 million and large‑school caps at $30 million and the effect those higher caps have had on the fund’s available balance.

Representative Richter told the committee she plans to offer an amendment addressing chronic absenteeism, proposing $1 million for school districts to address chronic absenteeism issues. Richter said the item had strong support in a House policy committee but was moved to Human Services earlier in the session and not advanced in the way the House sponsors had intended.

No final committee vote on House Bill 1369 was recorded in the transcript excerpt. Committee members indicated they would take the Senate changes back for further consideration and closed the conference meeting for the day.