The state’s sweeping education reform bill took another painstaking step forward Tuesday, when a second Senate committee give it preliminary OK and rejected a separate House version.

But the 6-2 vote by the Senate Education, Energy and the Environment Committee merely sends the Excellence in Maryland Public Schools Act back to the Senate Budget and Taxation Committee, which needs to agree to the latest changes before sending the bill to the full Senate.

From there, the bill has to go back to the House, which will likely reject the Senate plan before convening a conference committee to iron out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill. All with less than two weeks left in the legislative session.

Besides approving Senate Bill 429 Tuesday, the committee also known as Triple-E voted to make the House version conform to the Senate version, rejecting several cuts on collaborative time and per pupil funding first proposed by Democratic Gov. Wes Moore.

Sen. Mary Washington, a Baltimore City Democrat, abstained because “there’s still more to work do on such an important bill,” she said after the committee meeting that lasted more than two hours.

One major difference the committee approved versus the House version deals with community schools, those schools where at least 75% of the students are eligible for free and reduced-price meals. According to the state Department of Education, about half of the state’s schools have that community school designation.

The committee agreed with the governor’s proposal to require that all 24 school systems develop countywide Blueprint implementation plans focused strictly on community schools.

The House struck that proposal, noting that local school officials already have to submit plans to the state Department of Education and the Accountability and Implementation Board, as part of the overall Blueprint for Maryland’s Future 10-year reform plan. The board began to approve updated Blueprint plans in October.

Tuesday’s discussion became a bit animated when it came to instructional coaches.

State Department of Education officials said the state currently has 803 instructional coaches, experienced educators who help administrators, teachers and other “education professionals” learn how to prepare lesson plans, assess student data and other duties.

The goal is to hire up to 200 additional coaches in a four-year period.

Elise Brown, assistant state superintendent for instructional programs and services, said about 63% of the current coaches work in only five school systems.

“We do not see an equal distribution,” she said.

Alex Reese, chief of staff at the department who attended the meeting to represent State Superintendent Carey Wright, said the average ratio of teachers to coaches is 79 to 1. Reese said three school systems — one in Western Maryland, one on the Eastern Shore and another in Southern Maryland — have no instructional coaches.

“Best practice would be for a coach to coach a maximum of 12 teachers,” he said.

Democratic Sen. Katie Fry Hester, who represents portions of Howard and Montgomery counties, asked what’s the annual salary for an instructional coach. Reese said the base salary is about $125,000.

Although Fry Hester supports instructional coaches, she said some of that money to seek coaches could be used to hire additional personnel in cybersecurity and other technology for schools.

“We have one person in the entire state of Maryland, at the state level, looking out for cybersecurity for the local schools,” said Fry Hester. But she agreed to withhold an amendment to add additional personnel toward cyber security after committee chair Sen. Brian Feldman, a Montgomery County Democrat, said more information was needed.

“We’re immediately going to lose 200 teachers,” Fry Hester said. “We’re already short on teachers.”

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