Enrolled Committee Substitute
House Bill 3208 History
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ENROLLED
Committee Substitute
for
H. B. 3208
(By Delegates Fragale, Williams, Duke,
Shott and Smith)
[Passed April 11, 2009; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT
to amend and reenact §18-2E-4 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; to amend and reenact §18-4-1 and §18-4-4 of
said code; and to amend and reenact §18-5-1a of said code, all
relating to reporting hours of certain training received by
county board members on county report card; clarifying
eligibility for county board
of education generally; providing
for appointment and term of interim county superintendents to
fill vacancies; providing for appointment and terms of acting
county superintendents under certain circumstances; requiring
certification to state superintendent
of certain appointments,
reappointments and appointment terminations; modifying
deadline for setting annual compensation of county
superintendents; establishing county board member training
standards review committee; providing for member appointments,
duties and certain expenses under certain circumstances;
clarifying eligibility requirements for candidates, members
and members-elect of county boards of education; prohibiting certain political activities and clarifying which political
activities are permissible; removing certain duty of state
board of education regarding members of county boards of
education; making technical clarifications of current law;
authorizing
candidates for county boards of education to hold
public office until taking the oath of office as members of
county boards; adding definition of neglect of duty; making
other technical changes; and clarifying terms
.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-2E-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; that §18-4-1 and §18-4-4 of said code be
amended and reenacted; and that §18-5-1a of said code be amended
and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2E. HIGH QUALITY EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS.
§18-2E-4. Better schools accountability; school, school district
and statewide school report cards.
(a) For the purpose of providing information to the parents of
public school children and the general public on the quality of
education in the public schools which is uniform and comparable
between schools within and among the various school districts, the
state board shall prepare forms for school, school district and
statewide school report cards and shall promulgate rules concerning
the collection and reporting of data and the preparation, printing
and distribution of report cards under this section. The forms
shall provide for brief, concise reporting in nontechnical language
of required information. Any technical or explanatory material a
county board wishes to include shall be contained in a separate appendix available to the general public upon request.
(b) The school report cards shall include information as
prescribed by lawfully promulgated rule by the state board to give
the parents of students at the school and the general public an
indication of the quality of education at the school and other
programs supportive of community needs, including, but not limited
to, the following:
(1) Indicators of student performance at the school in
comparison with the county, state, regional and national student
performance, as applicable, including student performance by grade
level in the various subjects measured pursuant to a uniform
statewide assessment program adopted by the state board; school
attendance rates; the percent of students not promoted to next
grade; and the graduation rate;
(2) Indicators of school performance in comparison with the
aggregate of all other schools in the county and the state, as
applicable, including average class size; percent of enrollments in
courses in high school mathematics, science, English and social
science; amount of time per day devoted to mathematics, science,
English and social science at middle, junior high and high school
grade levels; percentage distribution of students by career cluster
as indicated on the individualized student transition plan;
pupil-teacher ratio; number of exceptions to pupil-teacher ratio
requested by the county board and the number of exceptions granted;
the number of split-grade classrooms; pupil-administrator ratio;
operating expenditure per pupil; county expenditure by fund in
graphic display; and the average degree classification and years of experience of the administrators and teachers at the school;
(3) The names of the members of the local school improvement
council, created pursuant to section two, article five-a of this
chapter; and
(4) The name or names of the business partner or partners of
the school.
In addition, every county board annually shall
determine the
number of administrators, classroom teachers and service personnel
employed that exceeds the number allowed by the public school
support plan and determine the amount of salary supplements that
would be available per state authorized employee if all
expenditures for the excess employees were converted to annual
salaries for state authorized administrators, classroom teachers
and service personnel within their county. The information shall
be published annually in each school report card of each such
county.
(c) The school district report card shall include the data for
each school for each separately listed applicable indicator and the
aggregate of the data for all schools, as applicable, in the county
for each indicator. The statewide school report card shall include
the data for each county for each separately listed indicator and
the aggregate for all counties for each indicator.
(d) The report cards shall be prepared using actual local
school, county, state, regional and national data indicating the
present performance of the school and also shall
include the state
norms and the upcoming year's targets for the school and the county
board.
The state board shall provide technical assistance to each
county board in preparing the school and school district report
cards.
Each county board shall prepare report cards in accordance
with the guidelines set forth in this section. The school district
report cards shall be presented at a regular school board meeting
subject to applicable notice requirements and shall be made
available to a newspaper of general circulation serving the
district. The school report cards shall be mailed directly to the
parent or parents of each child enrolled in that school. In
addition, each county board shall submit the completed report cards
to the state board which shall make copies available to any person
requesting them.
The report cards shall be completed and disseminated prior to
January 1, 1989, and in each year thereafter, and shall be based
upon information for the current school year, or for the most
recent school year for which the information is available, in which
case the year shall be clearly footnoted.
(e) In addition to the requirements of subsection (c) of this
section, the school district report card shall list the following
information:
(1) The names of the members of the county board, the dates
upon which their terms expire and whether they have attended an
orientation program for new members approved by the state board and
conducted by the West Virginia School Board Association or other
approved organizations;
(2) The number of hours of training that meets state board standards that county board members have received during the school
term reported; and
(3) The names of the county school superintendent and every
assistant and associate superintendent and any training programs
related to their area of school administration which they have
attended.
The information also shall be reported by district in the
statewide school report card.
(f) The state board shall develop and implement a separate
report card for nontraditional public schools pursuant to the
appropriate provisions of this section to the extent practicable.
ARTICLE 4. COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
§18-4-1. Election and term; interim superintendent.
(a) The county superintendent shall be appointed by the board
upon a majority vote of the members thereof to serve for a term of
not less than one, nor more than four years. At the expiration of
the term or terms for which he or she shall have been appointed,
each county superintendent shall be eligible for reappointment for
additional terms of not less than one, nor more than four years.
(1) At the expiration of his or her term or terms of service
the county superintendent may transfer to any teaching position in
the county for which he or she is qualified and has seniority,
unless dismissed for statutory reasons.
(2) The appointment of the county superintendent shall be made
between January 1 and June 1 for a term beginning on July 1
following the appointment.
(b) In the event of a vacancy in the superintendent's position that results in an incomplete term, the board may appoint an
interim county superintendent:
(1) To serve until the following July 1 if the vacancy occurs
before March 1.
(2) To serve until July 1 of the next following year if the
vacancy occurs on or after March 1, unless a superintendent is
appointed sooner.
(c) If the superintendent becomes incapacitated due to
accident or illness to an extent that may lead to prolonged
absence, the county board, by unanimous vote, may enter an order
declaring that an incapacity exists in which case the county board
shall appoint an acting superintendent to serve until a majority of
the members of the board determine that the incapacity no longer
exists. An acting superintendent may not serve in that capacity
for more than one year, nor later than the expiration date of the
superintendent's term, whichever occurs sooner, unless he or she is
reappointed by the county board.
(d) Immediately following the appointment of a county
superintendent or an interim county superintendent,
the president
of the county board shall certify the appointment to the state
superintendent. Immediately following the appointment of an acting
county superintendent or a vote by a majority of the members of the
county board that an incapacity no longer exists, the president of
the county board shall certify the appointment, reappointment, or
appointment termination
of the acting superintendent to the state
superintendent.
(e) During his or her term of appointment, the county superintendent shall be a state resident and shall reside in the
county which he or she serves or in a contiguous county. The county
superintendent in office on the effective date of this section
shall continue in office until the expiration of his or her term.
§18-4-4. Compensation.
On or before June 1 of the year in which the superintendent is
appointed, the board shall fix the annual salary of the
superintendent for the period of appointment for the term beginning
on the following July 1. The board shall pay the salary from the
general current expense fund of the district.
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-1a. Eligibility of members; training requirements.
(a)
A person who is a candidate for membership on a county
board or who is a member or member-elect of a county board:
(1) Shall be a citizen and resident in the county in which he
or she serves or seeks to serve on the county board;
(2) May not be employed by the county board on which he or she
serves or seeks to serve, including employment as a teacher or
service person;
(3) May not engage in the following political activities:
(A) Become a candidate for or hold any other public office,
other than to succeed him or herself as a member of a county board
subject to the following:
(i) A candidate for a county board, who is not currently
serving on a county board, may hold another public office while a
candidate if he or she resigns from the other public office prior
to taking the oath of office as a county board member.
(ii) The term "public office" as used in this section does not
include service on any other board, elected or appointed, profit or
nonprofit, under the following conditions:
(I) The person does not receive compensation; and
(II) The primary scope of the board is not related to public
schools.
(B) Become a candidate for, or serve as, an elected member of
any political party executive committee;
(C) Become a candidate for, or serve as, a delegate, alternate
or proxy to a national political party convention;
(D) Solicit or receive political contributions to support the
election of, or to retire the campaign debt of, any candidate for
partisan office;
(4) May engage in any or all of the following political
activities:
(A) Make campaign contributions to partisan or bipartisan
candidates;
(B) Attend political fund raisers for partisan or bipartisan
candidates;
(C) Serve as an unpaid volunteer on a partisan campaign;
(D) Politically endorse any candidate in a partisan or
bipartisan election; or
(E) Attend a county, state or national political party
convention.
(b) A member or member-elect of a county board, or a person
desiring to become a member of a county board, may make a written
request to the West Virginia Ethics Commission for an advisory opinion to determine if another elected or appointed position held
or sought by the person is an office or public office which would
bar service on a county board pursuant to subsection (a) of this
section.
(1) Within thirty days of receipt of the request, the Ethics
Commission shall issue a written advisory opinion in response to
the request and also shall publish the opinion in a manner which,
to the fullest extent possible, does not reveal the identity of the
person making the request.
(2) A county board member who relies in good faith upon an
advisory opinion issued by the West Virginia Ethics Commission to
the effect that holding a particular office or public office is not
a bar from membership on a county board and against whom
proceedings are subsequently brought for removal from the county
board on the basis of holding that office or offices is entitled to
reimbursement by the county board for reasonable attorney's fees
and court costs incurred by the member in defending against these
proceedings, regardless of the outcome of the proceedings.
(3) A vote cast by the member at a meeting of the county board
may not be invalidated due to a subsequent finding that holding the
particular office or public office is a bar to membership on the
county board.
(4) Good faith reliance on a written advisory opinion of the
West Virginia Ethics Commission that a particular office or public
office is not a bar to membership on a county board is an absolute
defense to any civil suit or criminal prosecution arising from any
proper action taken within the scope of membership on the county board, becoming a member-elect of the county board or seeking
election to the county board.
(c) To be eligible for election or appointment as a member of
a county board on or after May 5, 1992, a person shall possess at
least a high school diploma or a general educational development
(GED) diploma. This provision does not apply to members or
members-elect who have taken office prior to May 5, 1992, and who
serve continuously from that date forward.
(d) A person elected to a county board after July 1, 1990, may
not assume the duties of county board member unless he or she has
first attended and completed a course of orientation relating to
boardsmanship and governance effectiveness which shall be given
between the date of election and the beginning of the member's term
of office under the following conditions:
(1) A portion or portions of subsequent training such as that
offered in orientation may be provided to members after they have
commenced their term of office;
(2) Attendance at the session of orientation given between the
date of election and the beginning of the member's term of office
permits the
member-elect to assume the duties of county board
member, as specified in this section;
(3) Members appointed to the county board shall attend and
complete the next such course offered following their appointment;
and
(4) The provisions of this subsection relating to orientation
do not apply to members who have taken office prior to July 1,
1988, and who serve continuously from that date forward.
(e) Annually, each member of a county board shall receive
seven clock hours of training in areas relating to boardsmanship,
governance effectiveness, and school performance issues including,
but not limited to, pertinent state and federal statutes such as
the "Process for Improving Education" set forth in section five,
article two-e of this chapter and the "No Child Left Behind Act"
and their respective administrative rules.
(1) The orientation and training shall be approved by the
state board and conducted by the West Virginia School Board
Association or other organization or organizations approved by the
state board:
(A) The state board may exclude time spent in training on
school performance issues from the requisite seven hours herein
required; and
(B) If the state board elects to exclude time spent in
training on school performance issues from the requisite seven
hours, the state board shall limit the training to a feasible and
practicable amount of time.
(2) Failure to attend and complete the approved course of
orientation and training relating to boardsmanship and governance
effectiveness without good cause as determined by the state board
by duly promulgated legislative rules constitutes neglect of duty
under section seven, article six, chapter six of this code
.
(g) In the final year of any four-year term of office, a
member shall satisfy the annual training requirement before January
1.
Failure to comply with the training requirements of this section
without good cause as defined by the state board by duly promulgated legislative rules constitutes neglect of duty under
section seven, article six, chapter six of this code.
(h) The state board shall appoint a committee named the
"county board member training standards review committee" whose
members shall meet at least annually. Subject to state board
approval, the committee shall determine which particular trainings
and training organizations shall be approved and whether county
board members have satisfied the annual training requirement.
Members of the committee serve without compensation, but may be
reimbursed by their agencies or employers for all reasonable and
necessary expenses actually incurred in the performance of their
duties under this subsection.