(a) The County Superintendents’ Advisory Council, (“the Council”) is hereby established. The purpose of the council is to promote collaboration among county districts and to provide input to the State Board of Education and state superintendent on issues facing school systems.

(b) After the effective date of this section, but no later than June 1, 2017, all fifty-five county superintendents shall convene to divide the state into four geographic quadrants for the purpose of carrying out the work of the council as described herein.

(c) County superintendents’ responsibilities –

(1) County superintendents belonging to the same geographic quadrant shall meet to select a county superintendent to represent the geographic quadrant. The method of selection of the representative is at the discretion of each geographic quadrant. The representative of each geographic quadrant will represent the council at the state level.

(2) County superintendents of each geographic quadrant shall meet as necessary to identify coordination and cooperation in areas of service to reduce administrative and/or operational costs, including the consolidation of administrative, coordinating, and other county level functions into shared functions to promote the efficient administration and operation of the public school systems. These areas of service include, but are not limited to, the cooperative agreement areas as provided in subsection (q), section thirteen of this article.

(d) The representative from each of the four geographic quadrants of the council shall identify issues facing their geographic quadrants and present them at the state level as follows:

(1) Meet semiannually with the State Superintendent of Schools;

(2) Meet annually with the State Board of Education; and

(3) Provide an annual report to Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability and the Governor on or before June 30 of each year.

(e) At least one meeting in each geographic quadrant annually shall include on the meeting agenda a discussion of any recommendations of the county boards in the quadrant for changes in laws or policies needed to better empower them to meet the state’s education goals. A report of these recommendations, if any, shall be included in the annual report to Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability and the Governor.