H. B. 2862
(By Delegates Mezzatesta and Williams)
[Introduced March 15, 2001; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section three, article two, chapter
eighteen-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to addressing areas
of critical need and shortage of professional educators;
providing for substitutes continuously assigned to the same
classroom for more than one half of a grading period which
assignment remains in effect two weeks prior to the end of the
grading period to remain in the assignment until the end of
the grading period; exceptions; defining teacher and
substitute teacher as professional educators for the purposes
of the section; providing legislative findings and compelling
state interest to expand use of retired teachers as substitutes; providing for county policy to permit expanded
use; establishing process to permit retired teacher
substitutes to accept employment for unlimited days beginning
immediately upon retirement without affecting monthly
retirement annuity; prohibiting retired substitute eligibility
for additional pension, other benefits and seniority; and
revising process for employing prospective employable
professional personnel.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section three, article two, chapter eighteen-a of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. SCHOOL PERSONNEL.
§18A-2-3. Employment of substitute teachers and retired teachers
as substitutes in areas of critical need and
shortage; employment of prospective employable
professional personnel.
(a) The county superintendent, subject to approval of the
county board, may employ and assign substitute teachers to any of
the following duties: (a) To fill the temporary absence of any
teacher or an unexpired school term made vacant by resignation,
death, suspension or dismissal; (b) to fill a teaching position of a regular teacher on leave of absence; and (c) to perform the
instructional services of any teacher who is authorized by law to
be absent from class without loss of pay, providing the absence is
approved by the board of education in accordance with the law. The
substitute shall be a duly certified teacher.
(b) Prospective employable professional personnel may be
employed in accordance with this subsection.
(1) As an aid in recruiting teachers in the state, and
notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary,
a superintendent of a county that meets the requirements in
subdivision (3) of this subsection or obtains approval from the
state board in accordance with subdivision (4) of this subsection
may employ up to twenty-five full-time prospective employable
professional personnel each year on a reserve list at the county
level. Regular employment status for such personnel may be
obtained only in accordance with the provision of section seven-a,
article four of this chapter.
(2) Prior to the employment of the full-time prospective
employable professional personnel on a reserve list, the
superintendent shall obtain from the county board:
(A) General approval to employ the personnel on the reserve list;
(B) General approval as to the form of the contract to be used
in employing the personnel; and
(C) Approval of the number of personnel to be employed from
the reserve list.
(3) Unless a county is eligible under subdivision (4) of this
subsection, a county is eligible to hire professional personnel in
accordance with this subsection only if the county's net enrollment
during the year is more than one hundred students greater than the
fourth year prior to the current year.
(4) Unless a county is eligible under subdivision (3) of this
subsection, a county is eligible to hire professional personnel in
accordance with this subsection only if the county requests and
receives approval from the state board. The state board shall
determine the criteria for granting approval including, but not
limited to, vacancies in professional personnel positions and the
need to recruit teachers in specific subject matter areas. The
state board annually shall determine the number of prospective
employable professional personnel to be hired: Provided, That the
number may not exceed twenty-five.
(5) The state board annually shall review the status of employing personnel under the provisions of this subsection, and
annually shall report to the legislative oversight commission on
education accountability on or before the first day of November of
each year. The report shall include, but not be limited to, the
following:
(A) The counties that participated in the program;
(B) The number of personnel hired;
(C) The teaching fields in which personnel were hired;
(D) The venue from which personnel were employed;
(E) The place of residency of the individual hired; and
(F) The state board's recommendations on the prospective
employable professional personnel program.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary, a substitute teacher who has been assigned as a classroom
teacher in the same classroom continuously for more than one half
of a grading period and whose assignment remains in effect two
weeks prior to the end of the grading period, shall remain in the
assignment until the grading period has ended, unless the regularly
employed teacher has communicated with and assisted the substitute
with the preparation of lesson plans and monitoring student
progress or has been approved to return to work by his or her physician. For the purposes of this section "teacher" and
"substitute teacher," in the singular or plural, mean professional
educator as defined in section one, article one of this chapter.
(b) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that due to a
shortage of qualified substitute teachers, a compelling state
interest exists in expanding the use of retired teachers to provide
service as substitute teachers. Because diverse circumstances
exist among the counties, the expanded use of retired teachers as
substitute teachers is only permitted upon the affirmative vote of
the county board to adopt a policy recommended by the
superintendent to address areas of critical need and shortage,
which policy includes the employment of retired teachers as
substitute teachers during the school year on an expanded basis as
provided in this section. The board policy is effective for one
school year only, subject to annual renewal upon the affirmative
vote of the county board. Notwithstanding any other provision of
this code or any rule to the contrary, upon the adoption of a
policy by the county board authorizing the employment of retired
teachers on an expanded basis a person receiving retirement
benefits under the provisions of article seven-a of this chapter or
who is entitled to retirement benefits during the fiscal year in which that person retired may accept employment as a substitute
teacher for an unlimited number of days each fiscal year, effective
immediately following the effective date of his or her retirement
without affecting the monthly retirement benefit to which the
retirant is otherwise entitled: Provided, That prior to employment
of the substitute teacher beyond the postretirement employment
limitations established by the consolidated public retirement
board, the superintendent of the affected county shall submit to
the consolidated public retirement board and in a form approved by
the retirement board, an affidavit signed by the superintendent
stating the name of the county, the fact that the county has
adopted a policy to employ retired teachers as substitutes to
address areas of critical need and shortage, and the name or names
of the person or persons to be employed pursuant to the policy. In
the absence of the policy and procedures as provided in this
section for the employment of retired teachers on an expanded basis
to address areas of critical need and shortage, the applicable
rules of the consolidated public retirement board prevail. With
respect to the expanded substitute service provided in this
section, retired teachers employed as substitutes are day-to-day,
temporary, part-time employees. The substitutes are not eligible for additional pension or other benefits paid to regularly employed
employees and do not accrue seniority.
(c)
As an aid in recruiting teachers in the state in areas of
critical need and shortage, and notwithstanding any other provision
of this code to the contrary, upon the adoption of a policy by the
county board to address areas of critical need and shortage, which
policy includes authorization to employ prospective employable
professional personnel, a county superintendent may employ from
candidates at a job fair who have or will graduate from college in
the current school year or whose employment contract with a county
board has or will be terminated due to a reduction in force in the
current fiscal year, up to three full-time prospective employable
professional personnel
per one hundred professional personnel
employed in the county or twenty-five full-time prospective
employable professional personnel, which ever is less, each year on
a reserve list at the county level in the area or areas of critical
need and shortage authorized by the board in the policy. The
personnel shall be granted benefits at a cost to the county board
and as a condition of the employment contract as approved by the
county board. Regular employment status for the personnel may be
obtained only in accordance with the provisions of section seven-a, article four of this chapter.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to put provisions in place
to address the shortage of teachers by easing restrictions on the
hiring of retired teachers as substitute teachers and allowing the
employment of prospective employable professional personnel by a
county superintendent.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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