Topeka ? A special legislative committee agreed Friday not to recommend any changes to laws governing conflicts of interest for school board members, effectively killing a bill that was introduced during the 2015 session.

“No, I don’t think the bill is going anywhere,” said Sen. Mitch Holmes, R-St. John, who chaired the Special Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government.

House Bill 2345 would have prohibited anyone from serving on a school board if that person is employed by another school district; has a substantial interest in any business that works with or provides services to any school district in the state; or has a spouse, sibling or other close relative who is employed in any school district or in the Kansas State Department of Education.

A survey of current school board members in Kansas conducted by the Legislature’s nonpartisan Research Department showed that nearly 41 percent of all current school board members who responded to the survey reported falling into at least one of those categories, and thus would be disqualified from holding office if the bill were to pass.

Sen. Mitch Holmes, left, and Rep. Mark Kahrs, chairman and vice chairman of the Special Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government, listen to testimony on a bill, Nov. 20, 2015.

“Considering that public education is, I think, probably the largest employer in Kansas, if you were to eliminate all people connected to those employees … you would eliminate the majority of people in the state of Kansas from being able to serve on a school board,” said Kansas State Board of Education member Ken Willard, R-Hutchinson.

Willard said that in many parts of the state it’s hard enough finding people willing to serve on a school board to fill up the seven-seat governing body. He said passage of the bill would discourage even more people from serving.

Most members of the committee seemed to agree with that sentiment, including Rep. John Whitmer, R-Wichita.

“I think it’s a fix looking for a problem, and it’s better handled by local voters,” he said.

Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, R-Leavenworth, was the only member of the panel to suggest that something should be done to tighten conflict of interest laws, not only on local school boards but at all levels of state government.

“It’s something that needs to be constantly looked at, no question there,” Fitzgerald said. “I’m not trying to point an accusatory finger at anyone. I’m just saying that when we’re looking at conflicts of interest, it is not helpful to say, ‘this is what the law says,’ when in fact we’re trying to decide what should the law say.”

Several current school board members from across the state, as well as a retired superintendent, said conflicts of interest are rarely an issue on local school boards. And when they do become an issue, board members routinely recuse themselves or abstain from voting.

Jim Kenworthy, a retired superintendent in Sen. Holmes’ hometown of St. John said the most common issue involves hiring teachers or other employees who are the spouses or other relatives of board members.

Greg Tice, a school board member from the Renwick school district, northwest of Wichita, said that when he first took office he declined to be part of a contract negotiating committee with the local teachers union because his wife was a teacher.

Nobody from the Lawrence school district testified at the hearing, but district spokeswoman Julie Boyle said the district maintains a policy that says board members are not to “influence or attempt to influence the hiring process when a potential employee is a relative or the evaluation process when a current employee is a relative.”

It also says board members are to “avoid being placed in a position of conflict of interest and refrain from using public office for personal or partisan gain.”

The bill appeared early in the 2015 session as a committee bill from the House Judiciary Committee. Although it does not list an author or primary sponsor, minutes of that committee’s Feb. 5 meeting reflect that it was introduced at the request of Rep. Becky Hutchins, R-Holton.

It was later referred to the House Education Committee, which held a hearing on it March 5.

Hutchins did not testify at that meeting, and the minutes of the hearing reflect that only two people spoke in favor of it: Wichita residents Chris Brown and Larry Alley.

The Education Committee never took action on the bill. Instead, House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, withdrew it from that committee and used a procedural maneuver to ensure it would stay alive into the 2016 session. The subject of school board conflicts of interest was then assigned as an interim study topic for the Special Committee on Ethics, Elections and Local Government.

That panel’s action Friday makes it unlikely the bill will be considered in the coming session.