WEST virginia legislature

2019 FIRST EXTRAORDINARY session

Introduced

House Bill 200

By Delegates Hanshaw (Mr. Speaker) and Miley
[By Request of the Executive]

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

A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated §18A-4-2d, relating to providing additional pay for certain teachers providing math instruction.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

ARTICLE 4. SALARIES, WAGES AND OTHER BENEFITS.

§18A-4-2d. Mathematics teacher incentive.

(a) The Legislature recognizes that receiving quality math instruction is vital to a student’s post-secondary success and that there is a shortage of certified math teachers to provide such instruction.

(b) To ensure that students are receiving the appropriate level of math instruction that will enable post-secondary success, the Department of Education shall develop or approve specialized mathematics courses and make the courses available to classroom teachers.

(c) Effective July 1, 2019, a classroom teacher who completes a specialized mathematics course established or approved pursuant to this section by May 1 of the fiscal year shall receive a one-time payment of $2,000 from the Mathematics Incentive Program line item established for the Department of Education for this purpose, subject to appropriation by the Legislature. If the appropriations to the Department of Education for this purpose are insufficient to compensate all applicable teachers, the Department of Education shall request a supplemental appropriation in an amount sufficient to compensate all such teachers. Additionally, if funds are still insufficient to compensate all applicable teachers, each applicable teacher shall receive their proportionate share of the funding available for the year. This one-time payment may not be counted as part of the teacher’s average final salary for the purpose of calculating retirement and no retirement contribution will be withheld from the payment.

(d) A classroom teacher who completes the mathematics enrichment course established or approved by the Department of Education after May 1 of the fiscal year shall receive the one-time payment described in subsection (a) of this section during the subsequent fiscal year, subject to appropriation by the Legislature.

(e) The one-time payment provided for in this section may only be paid to a classroom teacher providing math instruction in the teacher’s certified area of study for at least 60 percent of the time the teacher is providing instruction to students.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to foster a greater level of mathematics competence by requiring the state Department of Education to develop specialized mathematics course and to compensate teachers who successfully complete these courses.

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