State of South Dakota  
EIGHTY-SEVENTH SESSION
LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, 2012  

983T0058   SENATE BILL   NO.  98  

Introduced by:    Senators Johnston, Schlekeway, and Tieszen and Representatives Perry and Munsterman
 

        FOR AN ACT ENTITLED, An Act to provide for a pilot program initiating two mathematics and science academies and to make an appropriation therefor.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:
    Section 1. Beginning on July 1, 2012, the Board of Regents shall conduct a pilot program initiating a mathematics and science academy at the University Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and at the University Center in Rapid City, South Dakota. Through each of the academies, the Board of Regents shall partner with school districts to provide course work to twenty-four high school seniors. Twenty-four students shall be taught at each of the University Centers where they will undertake a rigorous curriculum with an emphasis in the areas of mathematics and science. Each of the students shall enroll in twelve credit hours of postsecondary course work for each of two semesters and shall receive full credit toward high school graduation as well as postsecondary credit for each of the postsecondary courses the student successfully completes. The cost of tuition for the postsecondary course work provided to a student through the academies shall be divided evenly among the state, the school district in which the student is enrolled, and the individual student participating in one of the academies.
    Section 2. There is hereby established the Mathematics and Science Academy Board. The board shall consist of eight members including two parents, two teachers, two school administrators, and two persons engaged in business. The executive director of the Board of Regents shall select the members of the board, and they shall serve without compensation. The board shall advise the Board of Regents in establishing the criteria upon which students applying for the mathematics and science academies are evaluated and shall select the twenty-four participants in each of the mathematics and science academies from among the student applicants.
    Section 3. The Board of Regents shall promulgate rules to establish the application process and application time frame for students applying for admission into one of the mathematics and science academies, and to establish the criteria on which the selection process for the academies is based.
    Section 4. Any student selected to attend one of the mathematics and science academies shall remain enrolled in a public high school within the state and shall be counted in the fall enrollment as defined in § 13-13-10.1 for that school district. A student attending one of the academies may participate in interscholastic activities at the high school where the student is enrolled and, upon successful completion of the necessary course work through one of the academies, shall graduate from that high school.
    Section 5. For any student who is attending one of the mathematics and science academies, the school district in which the student is enrolled shall remit to the Board of Regents for that student the sum of one thousand seven hundred thirty-five dollars, and the attending student shall remit to the Board of Regents the sum of one thousand seven hundred thirty-five dollars. The Board of Regents shall apply any funds received from a school district or from an attending student pursuant to this section to the cost of the tuition for the postsecondary course work in

which the student is enrolled.

    The school district and the attending student shall remit one half of the amount owed pursuant to this section to the Board of Regents by December fifteenth and the remaining half by June fifteenth.
    Section 6. There is hereby appropriated from the general fund the sum of eighty-four thousand dollars ($84,000), or so much thereof as may be necessary, to the Board of Regents to fund the pilot program initiating the two mathematics and science academies pursuant to section 1 of this Act.
    Section 7. There is hereby appropriated to the Board of Regents the sum of one hundred sixty-eight thousand dollars ($168,000), or so much thereof as may be necessary, from other funds received from school districts and from students participating in one of the mathematics and science academies pursuant to this Act.
    Section 8. The executive director of the Board of Regents shall approve vouchers and the state auditor shall draw warrants to pay expenditures authorized by this Act.
    Section 9. Any amounts appropriated in this Act not lawfully expended or obligated by June  30, 2013, shall revert in accordance with the procedures prescribed in chapter 4-8.