H. B. 3359
(By Delegates Spencer, Eldridge, Beach, Williams, Marshall,
Lane, Wysong, Canterbury, Stevens, Longstreth, and SumnerSPONSOR)
[Originating in theDATE
Committee on EducationCOMMITTEE.]
(March 28, 2005)
A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-15Enacting SectionBill Title of the code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to Enacting SectionTitle Languagefilling the
positions and extra duty assignments of the absent school
bus operators.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-4-15Enacting Section of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. SALARIES, WAGES AND OTHER BENEFITS.
§18A-4-15. Employment of service personnel substitutes.
(a) The county board shall employ and the county
superintendent, subject to the approval of the county board,
shall assign substitute service personnel on the basis of
seniority to perform any of the following duties:
(1) To fill the temporary absence of another service
employee;
(2) To fill the position of a regular service employee who
requests a leave of absence from the county board in writing and
who is granted the leave in writing by the county board, and to
fill the position of a regular service employee who is on
workers' compensation and absent: Provided, That if the absence
is to extend beyond thirty working days, the county board shall
post the position of the absent employee under the procedures set
forth in section eight-b of this article. If a substitute
service employee is employed to fill the position of the absent
employee and is employed in the position for twenty or more
working days, the substitute service personnel shall have regular
employment status and be accorded all rights, privileges and
benefits pertaining to the position until the regular employee
returns to the position or ceases to be employed by the county
board: Provided, however, That if a regular or substitute
employee fills a vacancy that is related to a leave of absence or
the absence of an employee on workers' compensation in any manner
as provided in this section, upon termination of the absence the
employee shall be returned to his or her original position:
Provided further, That no service person may be required to
request or to take a leave of absence: And provided further,
That no service person shall be deprived of any right or
privilege of regular employment status for refusal to request or
failure to take a leave of absence;
(3) To perform the service of a service employee who is
authorized to be absent from duties without loss of pay;
(4) To temporarily fill a vacancy in a permanent position
caused by severance of employment by the resignation, transfer,
retirement, permanent disability, dismissal pursuant to section
eight, article two of this chapter, or death of the regular
service employee who had been assigned to fill the position:
Provided, That within twenty working days from the commencement
of the vacancy, the board shall fill the vacancy under the
procedures set out in section eight-b of this article and section
five, article two of this chapter and the person hired to fill
the vacancy shall have and shall be accorded all rights,
privileges and benefits pertaining to the position;
(5) To fill the vacancy created by a regular employee's
suspension: Provided, That if the suspension is for more than
thirty working days, the county board shall post the position of
the suspended employee under the procedures set forth in section
eight-b of this article. If a substitute service employee is
employed to fill the suspended employee's position, the
substitute service personnel shall have regular employment status
and be accorded all rights, privileges and benefits pertaining to
the position until the termination by the county board becomes
final or the suspended employee is returned to employment. If
the suspended employee is not returned to his or her job, the board shall fill the vacancy under the procedures set out in
section eight-b of this article and section five, article two of
this chapter; and
(6) To temporarily fill a vacancy in a newly created
position prior to employment of a service personnel on a regular
basis under the procedure set forth in section eight-b of this
article.
(b) Substitutes shall be assigned in the following manner:
A substitute with the greatest length of service time, that is,
from the date he or she began his or her assigned duties as a
substitute in that particular category of employment, shall be
given priority in accepting the assignment throughout the period
of the regular employee's absence or until the vacancy is filled
on a regular basis under the procedures set out in section eight-
b of this article. All substitutes shall be employed on a
rotating basis according to the length of their service time
until each substitute has had an opportunity to perform similar
assignments: Provided, That if there are regular service
employees employed in the same building or working station as the
absent employee and who are employed in the same classification
category of employment, the regular employees shall be first
offered the opportunity to fill the position of the absent
employee on a rotating and seniority basis with the substitute
then filling the regular employee's position. A regular employee assigned to fill the position of an absent employee shall be
given the opportunity to hold that position throughout the
absence. For the purpose of this section only, all regularly
employed school bus operators are considered to be employed
within the same building or working station and shall also first
be offered the opportunity to fill the position of the absent
employee on a rotating and seniority basis with the substitute
then filling the regular employees position: Provided, however,
That the offer to fill the position shall only be made to the
first employee before filling the position with the substitute:
Provided, further, That school bus operators shall be offered the
opportunity to fill the extracurricular assignments of absent
school bus operators in the same manner.
(c) Regular school service personnel shall be returned by
the county board of education to the same position held prior to
any approved leave of absence or period of recovery from injury
or illness. The school service personnel shall retain all
rights, privileges and benefits which had accrued at the time of
the absence or accrued under any other provision of law during
the absence and shall have all rights, privileges and benefits
generally accorded school service employees at the time of return
to work.
(d) The salary of a substitute service employee shall be
based upon his or her years of employment as defined in section eight of this article and as provided in the state minimum pay
scale set forth in section eight-a of this article and shall be
in accordance with the salary schedule of persons regularly
employed in the same position in the county in which he or she is
employed.
(e) Before any substitute service employee enters upon his
or her duties, he or she shall execute with the county board a
written contract as provided in section five, article two of this
chapter.
(f) To establish a uniform system of providing a fair and
equitable opportunity for substitutes to enter upon their duties
for the first time, the following method shall be used: The
initial order of assigning newly employed substitutes shall be
determined by a random selection system established by the
affected substitute employees and approved by the county board.
This initial priority order shall be in effect only until the
substitute service personnel have entered upon their duties for
the first time.
(g) Substitute service employees who have worked thirty days
for a school system shall have all rights pertaining to
suspension, dismissal and contract renewal as is granted to
regular service personnel in sections six, seven, eight and
eight-a, article two of this chapter.
Strike-throughs indicate existing language that would be
removed, and underscoring indicates new language that would be
added.