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Senate Bill 599 History
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ENROLLED
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 599
(Senators Plymale and Edgell, original sponsors)
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[Passed March 10, 2007; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to
amend and reenact §18A-2-2 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a
new section, designated §18A-2-5a, all relating to employment
of teachers and other school employees; eliminating the early
notification payment for a classroom teacher who gives notice
of resignation; authorizing a payment for early notification
of retirement to employees other than classroom teachers under
certain circumstances; and making certain technical changes.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-2-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended by adding
thereto a new section, designated §18A-2-5a, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 2. SCHOOL PERSONNEL.
§18A-2-2. Employment of teachers; contracts; continuing contract
status; how terminated; dismissal for lack of need;
released time; failure of teacher to perform contract
or violation thereof.
(a) Before entering upon their duties, all teachers shall
execute a contract with their county boards, which shall state the
salary to be paid and shall be in the form prescribed by the state
superintendent. Each contract shall be signed by the teacher and
by the president and secretary of the county board and shall be
filed, together with the certificate of the teacher, by the
secretary of the office of the county board.
(b) A teacher's contract, under this section, shall be for a
term of not less than one nor more than three years, one of which
shall be for completion of a beginning teacher internship pursuant
to the provisions of section two-b, article three of this chapter,
if applicable. If, after three years of such employment, the
teacher who holds a professional certificate, based on at least a
bachelor's degree, has met the qualifications for a bachelor's
degree and the county board enter into a new contract of
employment, it shall be a continuing contract, subject to the
following:
(1) Any teacher holding a valid certificate with less than a
bachelor's degree who is employed in a county beyond the three-year
probationary period shall upon qualifying for the professional certificate based upon a bachelor's degree, if reemployed, be
granted continuing contract status; and
(2) A teacher holding continuing contract status with one
county shall be granted continuing contract status with any other
county upon completion of one year of acceptable employment if the
employment is during the next succeeding school year or immediately
following an approved leave of absence extending no more than one
year.
(c) The continuing contract of any teacher shall remain in
full force and effect except as modified by mutual consent of the
school board and the teacher, unless and until terminated, subject
to the following:
(1) A continuing contract may not be terminated except:
(A) By a majority vote of the full membership of the county
board on or before the first Monday of April of the then current
year, after written notice, served upon the teacher, return receipt
requested, stating cause or causes and an opportunity to be heard
at a meeting of the board prior to the board's action on the
termination issue; or
(B) By written resignation of the teacher before that date, to
initiate termination of a continuing contract;
(2) The termination shall take effect at the close of the
school year in which the contract is terminated;
(3) The contract may be terminated at any time by mutual consent of the school board and the teacher;
(4) This section does not affect the powers of the school
board to suspend or dismiss a principal or teacher pursuant to
section eight of this article;
(5) A continuing contract for any teacher holding a
certificate valid for more than one year and in full force and
effect during the school year one thousand nine hundred eighty-
four--one thousand nine hundred eighty-five shall remain in full
force and effect;
(6) A continuing contract shall not operate to prevent a
teacher's dismissal based upon the lack of need for the teacher's
services pursuant to the provisions of law relating to the
allocation to teachers and pupil-teacher ratios. The written
notification of teachers being considered for dismissal for lack of
need shall be limited to only those teachers whose consideration
for dismissal is based upon known or expected circumstances which
will require dismissal for lack of need. An employee who was not
provided notice and an opportunity for a hearing pursuant to this
subsection may not be included on the list. In case of dismissal
for lack of need, a dismissed teacher shall be placed upon a
preferred list in the order of their length of service with that
board. No teacher shall be employed by the board until each
qualified teacher upon the preferred list, in order, has been
offered the opportunity for reemployment in a position for which he or she is qualified, not including a teacher who has accepted a
teaching position elsewhere. The reemployment shall be upon a
teacher's preexisting continuing contract and has the same effect
as though the contract had been suspended during the time the
teacher was not employed.
(d) In the assignment of position or duties of a teacher under
a continuing contract, the board may provide for released time of
a teacher for any special professional or governmental assignment
without jeopardizing the contractual rights of the teacher or any
other rights, privileges or benefits under the provisions of this
chapter. Released time shall be provided for any professional
educator while serving as a member of the Legislature during any
duly constituted session of that body and its interim and statutory
committees and commissions without jeopardizing his or her
contractual rights or any other rights, privileges, benefits or
accrual of experience for placement on the state minimum salary
schedule in the following school year under the provisions of this
chapter, board policy and law.
(e) Any teacher who fails to fulfill his or her contract with
the board, unless prevented from doing so by personal illness or
other just cause or unless released from his or her contract by the
board, or who violates any lawful provision of the contract, shall
be disqualified to teach in any other public school in the state
for a period of the next ensuing school year and the State Department of Education or board may hold all papers and
credentials of the teacher on file for a period of one year for the
violation: Provided, That marriage of a teacher shall not be
considered a failure to fulfill, or violation of, the contract.
(f) Any classroom teacher, as defined in section one, article
one of this chapter, who desires to resign employment with a county
board or request a leave of absence, the resignation or leave of
absence to become effective on or before the fifteenth day of July
of the same year and after completion of the employment term, may
do so at any time during the school year by written notification of
the resignation or leave of absence and any notification received
by a county board shall automatically extend the teacher's public
employee insurance coverage until the thirty-first day of August of
the same year.
(g) Any classroom teacher who gives written notice to the
county board on or before the first day of February of the school
year of their retirement from employment with the board at the
conclusion of the school year shall be paid five hundred dollars
from the Early Notification of Retirement line item established for
the Department of Education for this purpose, subject to
appropriation by the Legislature. If the appropriations to the
Department of Education for this purpose are insufficient to
compensate all applicable teachers, the Department of Education
shall request a supplemental appropriation in an amount sufficient to compensate all such teachers. Additionally, if funds are still
insufficient to compensate all applicable teachers, the priority of
payment is for teachers who give written notice the earliest. This
payment shall not be counted as part of the final average salary
for the purpose of calculating retirement.
§18A-2-5a. Authorizing payment for notification of retirement.
Each county board is authorized to pay, entirely from local
funds, five hundred dollars or less to any service employee, or to
any professional employee who is not a classroom teacher, who gives
written notice to the county board on or before the first day of
February of the school year of his or her retirement from
employment with the board at the conclusion of the school year.
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