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Introduced Version House Bill 2994 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 2994


(By Delegates Browning, DeLong, Miley, Cann,
R. M. Thompson, Poling and Duke)
[Introduced
March 11, 2005 ; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]



A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9A-8a, §18-9A-10, §18-9A-11 and §18-9A-13b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to public school support generally, providing that the foundation allowance for regional education service agencies is established by the Legislature; providing that the foundation allowance for improving instructional programs shall include thirty-three million dollars; adding a foundation allowance for capacity building and providing at least five million dollars; adding a foundation allowance for safe schools and providing at least eight million dollars; providing that increases in local share be allocated to provide a salary increment; providing that excess amounts be used for across-the-board salary increases for teachers; and requiring the establishment of a salary enhancement line item in the Department of Education for salary increments.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-9A-8a, §18-9A-10, §18-9A-11 and §18-9A-13b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.

§18-9A-8a. Foundation allowance for regional educational service agencies.

For the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-one two thousand five, and for each fiscal year thereafter, the foundation allowance for regional educational service agencies shall be an amount established by the Legislature. equal to sixty-three one-hundredths percent of the allocation for professional educators as determined in section four of this article: Provided, That for the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four only, the foundation allowance for regional educational service agencies shall be at least equal to fifty-five one-hundredths percent of the allocation for professional educators as determined in section four of this article The allowance shall be distributed to the regional educational service agencies in accordance with rules adopted by the State Board. The allowance for regional educational service agencies shall be excluded from the computation of total basic state aid as provided for in section twelve of this article.
§18-9A-10. Foundation allowance to improve instructional programs.
(a) For the school year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight two thousand five, and thereafter, the sum of at least thirty-three million dollars the allocations shall be the amount appropriated by the Legislature for those purposes used for the purpose of improving instructional programs as follows:
(1) One hundred fifty thousand dollars shall be allocated to
to each county;
(2) Distribution to the counties of the remainder of these funds shall be made proportional to the average of each county's average daily attendance for the preceding year and the county's second month net enrollment. Moneys allocated by provision of this section shall be used to improve instructional programs according to a plan for instructional improvement which the affected county board shall file with the State Board by the first day of August of each year, to be approved by the State Board by the first day of September of that year if the plan substantially complies with standards to be adopted by the State Board: Provided, That notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary, moneys allocated by provision of this section may also be used in the implementation and maintenance of the uniform integrated regional computer information system;
(3) Up to twenty-five percent of this allocation may be used to employ professional educators and service personnel in counties after all applicable provisions of sections four and five of this article have been fully utilized: Provided, That for the school year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, only, up to an additional twenty-five percent of this allocation may be used to employ classroom teachers, as defined in section one, article one, chapter eighteen-a of this code, and/or service personnel in counties after all applicable provisions of sections four and five of this article have been fully utilized: Provided, however, That service personnel employed with the additional twenty-five percent for the school year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, only, may not include directors, coordinators or supervisors.
Prior to the use of any funds from this section for personnel costs, the county board must receive authorization from the State Superintendent of Schools. The State Superintendent shall require the district board to demonstrate: (1) The need for the allocation; (2) efficiency and fiscal responsibility in staffing; and (3) sharing of services with adjoining counties and the regional educational service agency for that county in the use of the total local district board budget. District boards shall make application for available funds for the next fiscal year by the first day of May of each year. On or before the first day of June, the State Superintendent shall review all applications and notify applying district boards of the distribution of the allocation: Provided, That for the school year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, only, the State Superintendent shall review all applications and notify applying district boards of the distribution of the allocation on or before the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three. Such The funds shall be distributed during the fiscal year as appropriate. The State Superintendent shall require the county board to demonstrate the need for an allocation for personnel based upon the county's inability to meet the requirements of state law or State Board policy: Provided, however, That the funds available for personnel under this section may not be used to increase the total number of professional noninstructional personnel in the central office beyond four. Such The instructional improvement plan shall be made available for distribution to the public at the office of each affected county board.
(b) Commencing with the school year beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-three, an amount not less than the amount required to meet debt service requirements on any revenue bonds issued prior to the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, and the debt service requirements on any revenue bonds issued for the purpose of refunding revenue bonds issued prior to the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, shall be paid into the School Building Capital Improvements Fund created by section six, article nine-d of this chapter, and shall be used solely for the purposes of said that article. The School Building Capital Improvements Fund shall not be utilized to meet the debt services requirement on any revenue bonds or revenue refunding bonds for which moneys contained within the School Building Debt Service Fund have been pledged for repayment pursuant to said that section.
(c) For the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July, two thousand five, and each fiscal year thereafter, the foundation allowance for capacity building to assist schools that have been identified as seriously impaired in accordance with section five, article two-e of this chapter and schools that have not met adequately yearly progress for two or more consecutive years under the federal "No Child Left Behind" statute shall be an amount of at least five million dollars. The allowance for capacity building shall be appropriated to the State Board. The State Board shall adopt a rule in accordance with article three-b, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, establishing criteria for distribution of these funds to schools. The first priority shall be schools that have been identified as seriously impaired, the second priority shall be schools that have failed to make adequately yearly progress on test assessments for two or more consecutive years. Each year the State Board shall make a report to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability on the number of schools that received capacity building money the previous year and what impact these resources had on removing a school from the seriously impaired list or the list of schools failing to meet adequately yearly progress under the provisions of the "No Child Left Behind" statute.
(d) For the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July, two thousand five, and each fiscal year thereafter, the foundation allowance for safe schools shall be an appropriation of at least eight million dollars. The State Superintendent shall grant county boards awards for pilot or innovative alternative education programs that promote safe schools based on the following criteria: (a) Programs that will serve the most students in the alternative program; (b) programs in elementary schools that utilize in-school suspension and requirements that alternative students work their way back into the regular classroom through improved behavior; (c) programs in middle/junior high schools and high schools that provide at least sixteen hours of instruction per week and requirements that students work their way back to the regular classroom through improved behavior; and (d) other criteria developed by the State Board of Education.
§18-9A-11. Computation of local share; appraisal and assessment of property.

(a) On the basis of each county's certificates of valuation as to all classes of property as determined and published by the assessors pursuant to section six, article three, chapter eleven of this code for the next ensuing fiscal year in reliance upon the assessed values annually developed by each county assessor pursuant to the provisions of articles one-c and three of said chapter, the State Board shall for each county compute by application of the levies for general current expense purposes, as defined in section two of this article, the amount of revenue which the levies would produce if levied upon one hundred percent of the assessed value of each of the several classes of property contained in the report or revised report of the value, made to it by the Tax Commissioner as follows:
(1) The State Board shall first take ninety-five percent of the amount ascertained by applying these rates to the total assessed public utility valuation in each classification of property in the county.
(2) The State Board shall then apply these rates to the assessed taxable value of other property in each classification in the county as determined by the Tax Commissioner and shall deduct therefrom five percent as an allowance for the usual losses in collections due to discounts, exonerations, delinquencies and the like. All of the amount so determined shall be added to the ninety-five percent of public utility taxes computed as provided in subdivision (1) of this subsection and this total shall be further reduced by the amount due each county assessor's office pursuant to the provisions of section eight, article one-c, chapter eleven of this code and this amount shall be the local share of the particular county.
As to any estimations or preliminary computations of local share that may be required prior to the report to the Legislature by the Tax Commissioner, the State Board of Education shall use the most recent projections or estimations that may be available from the Tax Department for that purpose.
(b) Whenever in any year a county assessor or a county commission shall fail or refuse to comply with the provisions of this section in setting the valuations of property for assessment purposes in any class or classes of property in the county, the State Tax Commissioner shall review the valuations for assessment purposes made by the county assessor and the county commission and shall direct the county assessor and the county commission to make corrections in the valuations as necessary so that they shall comply with the requirements of chapter eleven of this code and this section and the Tax Commissioner shall enter the county and fix the assessments at the required ratios. Refusal of the assessor or the county commission to make the corrections constitutes grounds for removal from office.
(c) For the purposes of any computation made in accordance with the provisions of this section, in any taxing unit in which tax increment financing is in effect pursuant to the provisions of article eleven-b, chapter seven of this code, the assessed value of a related private project shall be the base-assessed value as defined in section two of said article.
(d) For purposes of any computation made in accordance with the provisions of this section, in any county where the county board of education has adopted a resolution choosing to use the provisions of the growth county school facilities act set forth in section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of this code, estimated school board revenues generated from application of the regular school board levy rate to new property values, as that term is designated in said section, may not be considered local share funds and shall be subtracted before the computations in subdivisions (1) and (2), subsection (a) of this section are made.
(e) For the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July, two thousand five, and each fiscal year thereafter, any additional growth in revenues from one fiscal year to the next in local share shall be appropriated to section two, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code, and utilized to provide a salary increment of five hundred seventy, or the usual increment whichever is higher. The growth in revenues from local share shall first be applied for increment salary increase for teachers with a bachelor's degree and teachers who have a bachelor's degree plus fifteen hours of graduate work and who have fourteen years of service, and to teachers who have a master's degree and to teachers who have a master's degree plus fifteen hours of graduate work and who have seventeen years of service, and to teachers with a master's degree plus thirty hours of graduate work and to teachers with a master's degree plus forty-five hours of graduate work who have nineteen years of experience: Provided, That if the growth in local share is inadequate to fully fund the usual yearly increment, the growth in local share shall be used to fund as much of the yearly increment as the growth in local share will allow. If the growth in local share exceeds the requirement to provide an average increment pay listed above, the additional local share shall be appropriated to increment pay for teachers with a bachelor's degree and teachers who have a bachelor's degree plus fifteen hours of graduate work and who have fifteen years of service, and to teachers who have a master's degree and to teachers who have a master's degree plus fifteen hours of graduate work and who have eighteen years of service, and to teachers with a master's degree plus thirty hours of graduate work and to teachers with a master's degree plus forty-five hours of graduate work who have twenty years of experience. The growth in local share revenues shall continue to be appropriated to fully fund an increment of five hundred seventy dollars, or the usual yearly increment whichever is higher, until all teachers who have less than thirty-five years of service receive the usual increment salary increase. Any additional growth in local share revenues shall be appropriated to fund across-the-board salary increases for teachers and service personnel in proportion to the foundation allowance for professional educators under section four of this article divided by the total foundation allowance for sections four and five of this article and the foundation allowance for service personnel under section five of this article divided by the total foundation allowance for sections four and five.
§18-9A-13b. Reserve allowance for education salary enhancements.
Commencing with the school fiscal year beginning on the first day of July, two thousand five, and every fiscal year thereafter, funds which accrue from allocations due to decreases a separate appropriation shall be made in the State Department of Education budget, to be designated as the education salary enhancement line item, that is equal to the reduction in the amount of funds required to be appropriated for the basic foundation program pursuant to this article as a result of a decrease in net and adjusted enrollment enrollments from net and adjusted enrollments of the preceding school year. shall be deposited in a special revenue fund which is hereby created in the state treasury, designated the "legislative reserve fund". The fund shall be an interest bearing account and shall be appropriated by the Legislature The allocation of the funds appropriated for this purpose each year shall be added to any growth in local share as calculated under section eleven of this article and used to increase salary increments as provided by subsection (d) of section
eleven of this article.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that the foundation allowance for regional education service agencies is established by the Legislature and that the foundation allowance for improving instructional programs shall include thirty-three million dollars. The bill also adds a foundation allowance for capacity building and providing at least five million dollars for that purpose and a foundation allowance for safe schools and providing at least eight million dollars for that purpose. Under the bill, increases in local share are allocated to provide a salary increment and the bill provides that excess amounts be used for across-the-board salary increases for teachers. Finally, the bill establishes a salary enhancement line item in the Department of Education for salary increments.

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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