BOISE — House Speaker Mike Moyle is proposing his own changes to address concerns over the complex, multi-pronged school facilities bill that the Legislature approved this session.

The Senate last week introduced four potential trailer bills to HB 521 that took aim at some of the concerns regarding the requirements around the four-day school week and that some rural districts weren’t receiving adequate funding to address their facility needs.

Moyle’s proposal introduced Monday in the House Ways and Means Committee would delay the new requirements in HB 521 around the four-day school week, add a requirement for Senate confirmation for the State Board of Education director, and redirect misused funds to rural districts.

“This is a way to address some of the concerns that were in House Bill 521 when it passed,” Moyle, R-Star, said.

In the bill as currently written, schools would need to attest that they will not drop from a five-day school week to a four-day week in order to access the new facility funds, and if the district already uses the four-day week, that school would have to show that it meets new minimum contract and instruction days.

Many districts utilize a four-day school week and operate under current requirements for minimum instructional hours, not days.

The trailer bill proposed Monday would remove the requirement to attest to not dropping to a four-week, would change the new minimum requirements to hours, and delay implementation of this section of the bill until July 1, 2025. The State Board of Education would still be tasked with creating new minimum contract and instructional hour requirements by Aug. 1.

This differs from one of the trailer bills proposed in the Senate, which would just repeal the section of HB 521 that is related to the four-day school week. Another trailer bill would also delay implementation to changes in minimum instructional day requirements until July 1, 2025.

Moyle’s trailer would also create a new provision that would redirect any funds distributed under HB 521 that were found to be misused to go to rural districts. Idaho code defines “rural school districts” as having fewer than 20 enrolled students per square mile within the district’s boundaries, or largely located in a county that contains less than 25,000 residents.

Two of the proposed trailer bills in the Senate would tackle the concerns about rural districts not receiving enough money by creating a $100,000 minimum distribution, which is up from the $25,000 minimum currently included in HB 521. The bills would also cap distributions at $100 million, which would only affect the West Ada School District and reduce its expected distribution by $40 million.

Moyle’s trailer would also require Senate advice and consent to the governor’s selection for the State Board of Education executive director; currently the State Board votes to select its own director and set their salary, but HB 521 moves that authority to the governor’s office.

The committee voted unanimously to introduce the trailer bill, which will allow it to come up for a public hearing.