SENATE
HOUSE
JOINT
BILL STATUS
STATE LAW
REPORTS
EDUCATIONAL
CONTACT
home
home
Introduced Version House Bill 165 History

   |  Email
Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted

WEST virginia legislature

2019 FIRST EXTRAORDINARY session

Introduced

House Bill 165

By Delegate C. Thompson

[Introduced June 17, 2019; Referred
to the Select Committee on Education A
]

A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9A-2, §18-9A-8, and §18-9A-12 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to public school support funding; revising definition of professional student support personnel; increasing the maximum number of personnel attributable to Advanced Career Education programs; providing for subsequent review of this maximum number; adjusting the calculation formula for the professional student support personnel component; establishing effective dates; and revising the calculation of the county local share.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:


ARTICLE 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.

§18-9A-2. Definitions.

For the purpose of this article:

(a) “State board” means the West Virginia Board of Education.

(b) “County board” or “board” means a county board of education.

(c) “Professional salaries” means the state legally mandated salaries of the professional educators as provided in §18-4-1 et seq. of this code.

(d) “Professional educator” shall be synonymous with and shall have the same meaning as “teacher” as defined in §18-1-1 of this code, and includes technology integration specialists.

(e) “Professional instructional personnel” means a professional educator whose regular duty is as that of a classroom teacher, librarian, attendance director, or school psychologist. A professional educator having both instructional and administrative or other duties shall be included as professional instructional personnel for that ratio of the school day for which he or she is assigned and serves on a regular full-time basis in appropriate instruction, library, attendance, or psychologist duties.

(f) “Professional student support personnel” means a “teacher” as defined in §18-1-1 of this code who is assigned and serves on a regular full-time basis as a counselor or as a school nurse with a bachelor's degree and who is licensed by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses.  Professional student support personnel shall also include professional personnel, employed by or under contract with the county board, providing direct social and emotional support services to students, including, but not limited to, social workers and psychologists. For all purposes except for the determination of the allowance for professional educators pursuant to section four of this article, professional student support personnel are professional educators.

(g) “Service personnel salaries” means the state legally mandated salaries for service personnel as provided in §18A-4-8a of this code.

(h) “Service personnel” means all personnel as provided in §18A-4-8 of this code. For the purpose of computations under this article of ratios of service personnel to net enrollment, a service employee shall be counted as that number found by dividing his or her number of employment days in a fiscal year by 200: Provided, That the computation for any service person employed for three and one-half hours or less per day as provided in §18A-4-8a of this code shall be calculated as one half an employment day.

(i) “Net enrollment” means the number of pupils enrolled in special education programs, kindergarten programs, and grades one to 12, inclusive, of the public schools of the county. Net enrollment further shall include:

(1) Adults enrolled in regular secondary vocational programs existing as of the effective date of this section, subject to the following:

(A) Net enrollment includes no more than 1,000 2,500 of those adults counted on the basis of full-time equivalency and apportioned annually to each county to support Advanced Career Education programs, as provided in §18-2E-11 of this code, in proportion to the adults participating in regular secondary vocational programs in the prior year counted on the basis of full-time equivalency: Provided, That beginning with the 2021 fiscal year and every year thereafter, a career technical education center may only receive the funding for enrollment as authorized by this paragraph if the center has satisfied the requirements of §18-2E-11 of this code; and

(B) Net enrollment does not include any adult charged tuition or special fees beyond that required of the regular secondary vocational student;

(2) Students enrolled in early childhood education programs as provided in §18-5-44 of this code, counted on the basis of full-time equivalency;

(3) No pupil shall A pupil may not be counted more than once by reason of transfer within the county or from another county within the state, and no pupil shall be counted who attends school in this state from another state;

(4) The enrollment shall be modified to the equivalent of the instructional term and in accordance with the eligibility requirements and rules established by the state board; and

(5) For the purposes of determining the county's basic foundation program only For any county whose net enrollment as determined under all other provisions of this definition is less than 1,400, the net enrollment of the county shall be increased by an amount to be determined in accordance with the following considered to be 1,400 for the purposes of determining the county’s basic foundation program only. During the 2019-2020 interim period and every three interim periods thereafter, the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability shall review this subdivision to determine whether or not these provisions properly address the needs of counties with low enrollment and sparse population density.

(A) Divide the state's lowest county student population density by the county's actual student population density;

(B) Multiply the amount derived from the calculation in paragraph (A) of this subdivision by the difference between one thousand four hundred and the county's actual net enrollment;

(C) If the increase in net enrollment as determined under this subdivision plus the county's net enrollment as determined under all other provisions of this subsection is greater than one thousand four hundred, the increase in net enrollment shall be reduced so that the total does not exceed one thousand four hundred; and

(D) During the 2008-2009 interim period and every three interim periods thereafter, the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability shall review this subdivision to determine whether or not these provisions properly address the needs of counties with low enrollment and a sparse population density

(j) “Sparse-density county” means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties, pursuant to subdivision (5), subsection (i) of this section, of the definition of “net enrollment”, to the square miles of the county is less than five.

(k) “Low-density county” means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties, pursuant to subdivision (5), subsection (i) of this section, of the definition of “net enrollment”, to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than five but less than 10.

(l) “Medium-density county” means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties, pursuant to subdivision (5), subsection (i) of this section, of the definition of “net enrollment”, to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than 10 but less than 20.

(m) “High-density county” means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties, pursuant to subdivision (5), subsection (i) of this section, of the definition of “net enrollment”, to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than 20.

(n) “Levies for general current expense purposes” means 90 percent of the levy rate for county boards of education calculated or set by the Legislature as determined pursuant to §11-8-6f of this code.  The levy rate shall be assumed to be the rate established in that section and not an increased rate established by a county board.

(o) “Technology integration specialist” means a professional educator who has expertise in the technology field and is assigned as a resource teacher to provide information and guidance to classroom teachers on the integration of technology into the curriculum.

(p) “State aid eligible personnel” means all professional educators and service personnel employed by a county board in positions that are eligible to be funded under this article and whose salaries are not funded by a specific funding source such as a federal or state grant, donation, contribution or other specific funding source not listed.

(q) The amendments to this section during the 2019 regular session of the Legislature shall be effective for school years beginning on or after July 1, 2019, and the provisions of this section existing immediately prior to the 2019 regular session of the Legislature remain in effect for school years beginning prior to July 1, 2019.


§18-9A-8. Foundation allowance for professional student support services.


(a) The basic foundation allowance to the county for professional student support personnel shall be the amount of money determined in accordance with the following:

(1) The sum of the state minimum salaries, as determined in accordance with the provisions of §18-4-1 et seq of this code, for all state aid eligible school nurse and counselor positions in the county during the 2008 fiscal year which number shall be reduced in the same proportion as the number of professional educators allowed to be funded under §18-9A-4 of this code to the total number of professional educators employed that are state aid eligible. In performing this calculation, the numerator shall be the number of professional educators actually funded under section four of this article and the denominator shall be the total number of professional educators employed that are eligible to be funded under §18-9A-4 of this code;

(2) The amount derived from the calculation in §18-9A-8(a)(1) of this code is increased by one half percent;

(3) The amount derived from the calculation in §18-9A-8(a)(2) of this code is the basic foundation allowance to the county for professional student support personnel for the 2009 fiscal year;

(4) For fiscal years 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, the basic foundation allowance to the county for professional student support personnel increases by one-half percent per year over the allowance for the previous year; and

(5) For all fiscal years thereafter until fiscal year 2020, the basic foundation allowance to the county for professional student support personnel remains the same amount as in the 2013 fiscal year, plus any additional amount of funding necessary to cover the increases in the State Minimum Salary Schedule set forth in §18A-4-2 of this code effective for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2018, and thereafter.

(b) The additional positions for counselors that may be created as a result of the one percent increase provided pursuant to this section shall be assigned to schools where the counselor can:

(1) Enhance student achievement;

(2) Provide early intervention for students in grades prekindergarten through five; and

(3) Enhance student development and career readiness.

(c) Effective for the 2019-20 fiscal year and thereafter, the basic foundation allowance to the county for professional student support personnel is the amount of money required to pay the state minimum salaries, in accordance with provisions of §18A-4-1 et seq. of this code, subject to the following:

(1) In making this computation, each county shall receive an allowance for four and seventy hundredths state aid eligible professional student support personnel positions to each 1,000 students in net enrollment;

(2) For any professional student support personnel positions, or fraction thereof, determined for a county pursuant to §18-9A-8(c)(1) of this code that exceed the number employed, the county’s allowance for these positions shall be determined using the average state funded salary of professional student support personnel for the county;

(3) The number of and the allowance for personnel paid in part by state and county funds shall be prorated; and

(4) Where two or more counties join together in support of a vocational or comprehensive high school or any other program or service, the professional student support personnel for the school or program may be prorated among the participating counties on the basis of each one's enrollment therein and the personnel shall be considered within the above-stated limit.

(5) For the 2019-20 fiscal year only, the number of positions funded for each county by subdivision (1) cannot be less than the number of positions that would have been funded in accordance with the previous methodology for determining the number of professional student support personnel positions funded for each county.  


§18-9A-12. County basic foundation; total basic state aid allowance.

(a) The basic foundation program for each county for the fiscal year shall be the sum of the amounts computed in accordance with the provisions of sections four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and 10 of this article. On the first working day of July in each year, the state board shall determine the basic foundation program for each county for that fiscal year. Data used in the computations relating to net and adjusted enrollment, and the number of professional educators, shall be for the second month of the prior school term. Transportation expenditures used in these computations shall be for the most recent year in which data are available. The allocated state aid share of the county's basic foundation program shall be the difference between the cost of its basic foundation program and the county's local share as determined in §18-9A-11 of this code except as provided in subsection (b) of this section: Provided, That for all years after 2018, in calculating the allocated state aid share of the county's basic foundation program, when subtracting the amount of the county’s local share, if the county’s local share as determined in §18-9A-11 of this code is greater than the county’s local share was determined to be for fiscal year 2015-2016, then the allocated state aid share of the county's basic foundation program shall be the difference between the cost of its basic foundation program and the county's 2015-2016 determined local share.

(b) The allocated state aid share shall be adjusted in the following circumstances in the following manner: Provided, That prior to such adjustment, the State Tax Commissioner shall provide the state board, by January 15 of each year, a certified listing of those counties in which such adjustment shall be made pursuant to this subsection, together with the amount of revenue which will not be available to each county board in the ensuing fiscal year as a result of the circumstance:

(1) In those instances where the local share as computed under §18-9A-11 of this code is not reflective of local funds available because the county is under a final court order, or a final decision of a board of assessment appeals under §11-3-24b of this code, to refund or credit property taxes paid in prior years, the allocated state aid share shall be the county's basic foundation program, minus the local share as computed under §18-9A-11 of this code, plus the amount of property tax the county is unable to collect or must refund due to the final court order or final decision of a board of assessment appeals: Provided, That said adjustment shall not be made or shall only be made proportionately when the Legislature fails to fund, or funds only in part, the public school basic foundation support plan state share at a level sufficient to cover the reduction in state share: Provided, however, That nothing herein provided shall be construed to require or mandate any level of funding by the Legislature.

(2) In those instances where the local share as computed under §18-9A-11 of this code is not reflective of local funds available because the county is collecting tax based upon an assessed value which is less than that determined by the tax commissioner in the most recent published survey of property valuations in the state due to an error in the published survey, which error is certified to by the tax commissioner, the allocated state aid share shall be the county's basic foundation program, minus the local share as computed under §18-9A-11 of this code, plus the amount of property tax the county is unable to collect based on differences in the assessed valuation between those in the most recent published survey of valuation and the corrected assessed value actually levied upon by the county: Provided, That said adjustment shall not be made or shall only be made proportionately when the Legislature fails to fund or funds only in part the public school basic foundation support plan state share at a level sufficient to cover the reduction in state share: Provided, however, That nothing herein provided shall be construed to require or mandate any level of funding by the Legislature.

(3) In instances where a county is unable to collect property taxes from a taxpayer during the pendency of any court proceeding, the allocated state aid share shall be the county's basic foundation program minus the local share as computed under §18-9A-11 of this code, plus the amount the county is unable to collect as a result of the pending court proceedings as certified by the tax commissioner: Provided, That the county is required to reimburse the amount of allocated state aid share attributable to the amount of property tax it later receives upon completion of court proceedings, which shall be paid into the General Revenue Fund of the state: Provided, however, That said adjustment shall not be made or shall only be made proportionately when the Legislature fails to fund or funds only in part the public school basic foundation support plan state share at a level sufficient to cover the reduction in state share: Provided further, That nothing herein provided shall be construed to require or mandate any level of funding by the Legislature.

(c) The allocated state aid share shall be adjusted in any county receiving payments or contributions in lieu of property taxes. In instances where a county receives payments or contributions in lieu of property taxes, the allocated state aid share shall be the county's basic foundation program minus the local share as computed under §18-9A-11 of this code, plus any amounts added pursuant to subsection (b) of this section minus the payments or contributions in lieu of property taxes which are distributed by the sheriff to the county board of education. In determining the amount of such contribution or payment in lieu of taxes, each county commission shall provide to the State Tax Commissioner, by January 1 of each year, the total amount of such payments or contributions paid to the county and the proportion of the total amount that has been or will be distributed to the county board of education. The State Tax Commissioner then shall provide the state board, by January 15 of each year, a certified listing of those counties in which an adjustment pursuant to this section shall be made, together with the amount of revenue which will be available to each county board in the ensuing fiscal year as a result of contribution or payment in lieu of taxes.

(d) Total basic state aid to the county shall be the computed state share of basic foundation support. After such computation is completed, the state board shall immediately certify to each county board the amount of state aid allocated to the county for that fiscal year, subject to any qualifying provisions of this article.

 

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to modify the school aid formula to allow for a greater number of counselors and other professional support personnel in county schools.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

This Web site is maintained by the West Virginia Legislature's Office of Reference & Information.  |  Terms of Use  |   Email WebmasterWebmaster   |   © 2024 West Virginia Legislature **


X

Print On Demand

Name:
Email:
Phone:

Print