A senate bill changing the school board election process to that of other elections passed out of committee Monday, but many of the Republican committee members signaled their vote in support was to keep the bill moving forward while they continued to discuss their concerns.

Senate Bill 287, authored by Sen. Gary Byrne, R-Byrneville, Sen. Chris Garten, R-Charlestown, and Sen. Blake Doriot, R-Goshen, would change the school board election process to that of other elections, which would include a primary and general election.

The bill would also require school board members to be paid up to 10% of the lowest starting salary of a teacher employed in the district, which would shift the current $2,000 payment.Ahead of the vote, Byrne said the bill is important because school boards control over half of a community’s property taxes and set policies for the school district. The bill, Byrne said, would also increase voter participation in school board races.

“I want a person that may have the same ideologies as I do sitting on that board. Currently, many citizens don’t know that when they are voting,” Byrne said. “People go down the ballot, and they get to school board, and they don’t know who or the ideologies or the beliefs that they have … and they just don’t vote. I believe this would increase voter participation.”

The Senate Elections Committee voted 6-3, with Sen. Greg Walker, R-Columbus, voting against it with the two Democratic Senators on the committee.

Walker said he voted against the bill because he heard from current school board members who told him if the bill passes they would have to resign from their positions under the Hatch Act, which would prohibit state and local government employees from running for partisan political office.

“I don’t think that’s a good approach to broadening the pool of candidates, but current office holders in particular,” Walker said.

Sen. J.D. Ford, D-Indianapolis, voted against the bill because it would make school board elections political and remove focus from students.

“If someone wants to put their ideology on their campaign materials they can already do that. They don’t need this bill to do that,” Ford said.

Sen. Stacey Donato, R-Logansport, said based on the public testimony last week she feels conflicted on the bill. But she voted yes in committee to move the bill forward.

“I will be an aye today to keep the bill moving but not sure how I will vote on the floor at this point,” Donato said.

Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, said she would like to see the bill be amended as it moves to the Senate floor to allow for appointed school board members.

“There are so many people in the community that would love to participate on the school board, but they don’t want to run an election,” Rogers said. “I do want to keep this bill moving because I’d like the entire Senate to debate this but not sure how I will vote on the floor depending on amendments and how things move forward.”

Sen. Daryl Schmitt, R-Jasper, and Sen. Greg Goode, R-Terre Haute, both said they felt conflicted about the bill but voted to move it forward to the whole Senate.

Committee Chairman Mike Gaskill, R-Pendleton, said he read over the two amendments filed but that he wouldn’t move them forward.

The first amendment was to establish an interim study committee to study a procedure for how to elect school board members and the amount they should be paid. The second amendment would have prohibited a political action committee from making more than $5,000 in contributions to a school board candidate.

Gaskill said people signed up to testify on Senate Bill 287 Monday, but he didn’t allow them to testify because the bill was advertised as amend and vote only.

Last Monday, nearly two dozen people testified against the bill and one person testified in favor of the bill.

Joel Hand, representing both the American Federation of Teachers Indiana and the Indiana Coalition for Public Education, said the organizations oppose the bill because those working in education should be focusing on the students and not politics.

John O’Neal, policy and research coordinator for the Indiana State Teachers Association, said politics shouldn’t be inserted into school board races.

“We believe it will deter candidates who truly just care about their community rather than getting into partisan, national or state campaign party issues,” O’Neal said.

Julia Vaughn, the executive director of Common Cause Indiana, said changing the requirements for candidates for school board won’t result in better school boards.

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” Vaughn said.

akukulka@post-trib.com