Rep. Jim Bird of West Jordan announced that Senate Bill 295, the bill that would allow the Jordan School District to use building money to pay teachers, has passed.

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   As many of you know, the Jordan School District has a $30 million deficit and had announced they would be forced to lay off 500 employees including 250 teachers.  The passage of this bill will allow the district to use around $10 million dollars for teacher salaries, potentially saving some jobs.  The governor does have to sign the bill, but he is expected to do so.

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   The school board will have the ultimate say in exactly how those funds will be spent, but Superintendent Newbold told the Trib he thinks retaining teachers will be a priority.

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(thanks goes out to the www.oursouthvalley.com team for the article) 

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This is what Rep. Bird said on the groups Facebook page yesterday.

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   “Ok 295 just passed the Senate with a vote of 25 to 0. Way to go we all won here today. Bramble asked that the emails stop. You guys are awesome… We couldn’t have done this without you. I am proud to be a member of this site.

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   Great job, now we can focus our energy on making sure our school board makes the right decisions and spends the money correctly. We had two wins:

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1. They kept the education cut to under 1% our deficit was based on 3% so this will change our amount. I am emailing to find out the exact dollar figure and will post it on the wall.

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2. We can use capitol money to help bridge some of the gaps. .Way to go group! We are making a difference.

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Jolynne Alger

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Group Organizer .PS. PTA people who emailed me back, thank you. I will be in touch just as soon as I confirm one more detail. I can then unfold my next little idea