H. B. 4023
(By Delegates Mezzatesta and Williams)
[Introduced January 11, 2002; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-six, article two,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend and reenact
section eight-a, article nine-a of said chapter, all relating
to regional educational service agencies; providing for the
establishment of statewide standards for service delivery;
requiring examination of agency plans, budgets and performance
by the state superintendent; providing for committee to assist
the state superintendent in establishing statewide standards
and any annual modifications; providing for certain services
for which standards must be established; changing requirements
for reports and evaluations of agency services; requiring
agency director to attend one meeting of each member county
board each year for certain purposes; prohibiting county
board member from being an employee of a regional educational service agency; changing the foundation allowance for regional
educational service agencies to a line item appropriation for
distribution subject to certain examination and determination
by the state superintendent.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-six, article two, chapter eighteen of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that section eight-a,
article nine-a of said chapter be amended and reenacted, all to
read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-2-26. Establishment of multicounty regional educational
service agencies; purposes; authority to implement
regional services; annual performance standards.
(a)
In order to consolidate and administer more effectively
existing educational programs and services so individual districts
will have more discretionary moneys for educational improvement and
in order to equalize and extend educational opportunities, The
state board of education shall establish multi county regional
educational service agencies for the purpose of providing high
quality, cost effective educational programs and services to the
county school systems, and shall
make such promulgate rules
consistent with the provisions of this section as may be necessary
for the effective administration and operation of the agencies.
The rules shall include procedures for: (1) The establishment of
statewide standards, which may be revised annually, for service
delivery by the agencies; (2) the timely communication of the
standards to the agencies for planning and budgeting for the
ensuing fiscal year; and (3) the examination of the agencies'
performance, service delivery plans and budgets by the state
superintendent for the purposes of section eight-a, article nine-a
of this chapter. To assist the state superintendent in the
establishment of the statewide standards and any annual
modifications, the state superintendent shall convene and chair a
committee composed of the following ex officio members or their
designees: The president of the West Virginia school boards
association; the president of the West Virginia association of
school administrators; the president of the West Virginia secondary
school principals association; the president of the West Virginia
association of elementary and middle school principals; the chair
of the RESA directors; and the executive director of the center for
professional development.
The standards shall include, but are not limited to, services
to: (1) Consolidate and administer more effectively existing
educational programs and services so individual districts will have
more discretionary moneys for educational improvement; (2) equalize
and extend educational opportunities; (3) provide technical and
other assistance to low performing schools to improve performance before they become seriously impaired; (4) assist the department of
education in providing technical and other assistance to seriously
impaired schools; and (5) other services provided for in this
section or required by the state board.
(b) In furtherance of these purposes, the board of directors
of each regional educational service agency shall continually
explore possibilities for the delivery of services on a regional
basis which will facilitate equality in the educational offerings
among counties in its service area, permit the delivery of high
quality educational programs at a lower per student cost,
strengthen the cost effectiveness of education funding resources,
reduce administrative and/or operational costs, including the
consolidation of administrative, coordinating and other county
level functions into region level functions, and promote the
efficient administration and operation of the public school systems
generally.
Technical, operational, programmatic or professional services
are among the types of services appropriate for delivery on a
regional basis.
(c) In addition to performing the services and functions
required by the provisions of this or any other section of this
code, a regional educational service agency may implement regional
programs and services by a majority vote of its board of directors.
When the vote is not unanimous, the board of directors shall file a plan for the service or program delivery with the state board
describing the program or service, the manner of delivery and the
projected savings and/or the improved quality of the program or
service. The state board shall promulgate rules requiring a county
board that declines to participate in the programs or services to
show just cause for not participating and the estimated savings
accruing to the county from the program or services. If a county
board fails to show that savings will accrue to the county or that
the quality of the program will be significantly and positively
affected as a result of its decision not to participate, the state
board shall withhold from the county's foundation allowance for
administrative cost the lesser of the amount of the estimated
savings or the allocation for the county's foundation allowance for
administrative cost.
(d) The state board, in conjunction with the various regional
educational service agencies, shall develop an effective model for
the regional delivery of instruction in subjects where there exists
low student enrollment or a shortage of certified teachers or where
the delivery method substantially improves the quality of an
instructional program. The model shall incorporate an interactive
electronic classroom approach to instruction. To the extent funds
are appropriated or otherwise available, county boards or regional
educational service agencies may adopt and utilize the model for
the delivery of the instruction.
(e) Each county board of education shall use the uniform
integrated regional computer information system recommended by the
state board of education for data collection and reporting to the
state department of education. County boards of education shall
bear the cost of and fully participate in the implementation of the
system by: (1) Acquiring necessary, compatible equipment to
participate in the regional computer information system; or (2)
following receipt of a waiver from the state superintendent,
operating a comparable management information system at a lower
cost which provides at least all uniform integrated regional
computer information system software modules and allows on-line,
interactive access for schools and the county board of education
office onto the statewide communications network. All data formats
shall be the same as for the uniform integrated regional
information system and will reside at the regional computer. Any
county granted a waiver shall receive periodic notification of any
incompatibility or deficiency in its system. No county shall
expand any system either through the purchase of additional
software or hardware that does not advance the goals and
implementation of the uniform integrated regional computer
information system as recommended by the state board.
(f) Each regional educational service agency shall submit
to
the state superintendent on such date and in such form as specified
in the rules adopted by the state board a report and evaluation of the
technical assistance and other services provided and utilized
by the schools within each respective region
and their
effectiveness. Furthermore, each Any school
shall may submit an
evaluation of the services provided by the regional educational
service agency
to the state superintendent at any time, which shall
include an evaluation of the regional educational service agency
program, suggestions as to how to improve utilization and
the
individual school's plan suggestions as to
the development of new
programs and
the enhancement of existing programs. The
report is
due by the first day of January of each year and reports and
evaluations submitted pursuant to this subsection shall be made
available to the state board of education, the standing committees
on education of the West Virginia Senate and House of Delegates and
to the secretary of education and the arts
upon request.
(g) A regional board may receive and disburse funds from the
state and federal governments, member counties, gifts and grants.
(h) Notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the
contrary, employees of regional educational service agencies shall
be reimbursed for travel, meals and lodging at the same rate as
state employees under the travel management office of the
department of administration.
(i) Regional educational service agencies shall hold at least
one half of their regular meetings during hours other than those of
a regular school day.
The director of each regional educational service agency shall attend at least one meeting of each of the
member county boards of education each year to explain the agency's
services, garner suggestions for program improvement and provide
any other information as may be requested by the county board.
(j) Regional educational service agencies shall serve as the
lead agency for computer installation, maintenance and repair for
the basic skills computer program. Each regional educational
service agency shall submit a quarterly status report on turn
around time for computer installation, maintenance and repair to
the state superintendent of schools who shall then submit a report
to the legislative oversight commission on education
accountability. The status report for turn around time for
computer installation, maintenance and repair shall be based on the
following suggested time schedules:
Network File Servers............forty-eight hours
Local Area Networks.............forty-eight hours
West Virginia Education
Information System..............twenty-four hours
Computer Workstations...........three to five days
Printers........................three to five days
Other Peripherals...............three to five days
Regional educational service agencies shall also submit an
audit report to the legislative oversight commission on education
accountability each year.
(k) Pursuant to the processes and provisions of section
twenty-three-a, article two, chapter eighteen of this code, each
regional educational service agency shall provide coordinated
professional development programs within its region to meet the
professional development goals established by the state board.
(l) Notwithstanding any other provision of the code to the
contrary, county board members serving on regional educational
service agency boards may receive compensation at a rate not to
exceed one hundred dollars per meeting attended, not to exceed
fifteen meetings per year. County board members serving on
regional educational service agency boards may be reimbursed for
travel at the same rate as state employees under the rules of the
travel management office of the department of administration.
A
county board member may not be an employee of a regional
educational service agency.
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 two, and for each
fiscal year thereafter,
the foundation allowance a line item
appropriation shall be made in the department of education account
for regional educational service agencies.
The amount of the
appropriation shall be 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 amount
of the appropriation due to a regional education service agency
shall be distributed to
the regional educational service agencies
it upon an examination by the state superintendent of the regional
educational service agency's performance on achieving the standards
established for regional educational service agencies pursuant to
section twenty-six, article two of this chapter during the
preceding fiscal year, and a determination by the state
superintendent that the budget and service delivery plan submitted
by the regional educational service agency will enable it to
achieve the standards during the next fiscal year. 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.
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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