WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on Education.
A BILL to amend and
reenact §18A-1-1 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
clarifying a director of a multicounty vocational technical school is a
principal.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-1-1 of the
Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 1. GENERAL
PROVISIONS.
§18A-1-1. Definitions.
The definitions contained
in section one, article one, chapter eighteen of this code apply to this
chapter. In addition, the following words used in this chapter and in any
proceedings pursuant to this chapter have the meanings ascribed to them unless
the context clearly indicates a different meaning:
(a) "School
personnel" means all personnel employed by a county board whether employed
on a regular full-time basis, an hourly basis or otherwise. "School
personnel"
is comprised of two categories: Professional personnel and service personnel;
(b) "Professional person"
or "professional personnel" means those persons or employees who meet
the certification requirements of the state, licensing requirements of the
state, or both, and includes a professional educator and other professional
employee;
(c) "Professional
educator" has the same meaning as "teacher" as defined in
section one, article one, chapter eighteen of this code. Professional educators
are classified as follows:
(1) "Classroom
teacher" means a professional educator who has a direct instructional or
counseling relationship with students and who spends the majority of his or her
time in this capacity;
(2) "Principal"
means a professional educator who functions as an agent of the county board and
has responsibility for the supervision, management and control of a school or
schools within the guidelines established by the county board. The principal's
major area of responsibility is the general supervision of all the schools and
all school activities involving students, teachers and other school personnel; a
director of a multicounty vocational technical school is a principal and shall
be accorded all rights provided by article two of this chapter;
(3) "Supervisor"
means a professional educator who is responsible for working primarily in the
field with professional and other personnel in instructional and other school
improvement. This category includes other appropriate titles or positions with
duties that fit within this definition; and
(4) "Central office
administrator" means a superintendent, associate superintendent, assistant
superintendent and other professional educators who are charged with administering
and supervising the whole or some assigned part of the total program of the
countywide school system. This category includes other appropriate titles or
positions with duties that fit within this definition;
(d) "Other
professional employee" means a person from another profession who is
properly licensed and who is employed to serve the public schools. This
definition includes a registered professional nurse, licensed by the West
Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses, who is employed
by a county board and has completed either a two-year (sixty-four semester
hours) or a three-year (ninety-six semester hours) nursing program;
(e) "Service person"
or "service personnel", whether singular or plural, means a
nonteaching school employee who is not included in the meaning of
"teacher" as defined in section one, article one, chapter eighteen of
this code and who serves the school or schools as a whole, in a nonprofessional
capacity, including such areas as secretarial, custodial, maintenance,
transportation, school lunch and aides. Any reference to "service
employee" or "service
employees"
in this chapter or chapter eighteen of this code means service person or
service personnel as defined in this section;
(f) "Principals
Academy" or "academy" means the academy created pursuant to
section two-b, article three-a of this chapter;
(g) "Center for
Professional Development" means the center created pursuant to section
one, article three-a of this chapter;
(h) "Job-sharing
arrangement" means a formal, written agreement voluntarily entered into by
a county board with two or more of its employees who wish to divide between
them the duties and responsibilities of one authorized full-time position;
(i) "Prospective
employable professional person", whether singular or plural, means a
certified professional educator who:
(1) Has been recruited on a
reserve list of a county board;
(2) Has been recruited at a
job fair or as a result of contact made at a job fair;
(3) Has not obtained
regular employee status through the job posting process provided in section
seven-a, article four of this chapter; and
(4) Has obtained a
baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution of higher education within
the past year;
(j) "Dangerous
student" means a student who is substantially likely to cause serious
bodily injury to himself or herself or another individual within that
student's
educational environment, which may include any alternative education
environment, as evidenced by a pattern or series of violent behavior exhibited
by the student, and documented in writing by the school, with the documentation
provided to the student and parent or guardian at the time of any offense;
(k) "Alternative
education" means an authorized departure from the regular school program designed
to provide educational and social development for students whose disruptive
behavior places them at risk of not succeeding in the traditional school
structures and in adult life without positive interventions; and
(l) "Long-term
substitute" means a substitute employee who fills a vacant position:
That the county
superintendent expects to extend for at least thirty consecutive days, and is
either:
(A) Listed in the job
posting as a long-term substitute position of over thirty days; or
(B) Listed in a job posting
as a regular, full-time position and:
(i) Is not filled by a
regular, full-time employee; and
(ii) Is filled by a
substitute employee.
For the purposes of section
two, article sixteen, chapter five of this code, long-term substitute does not include
a retired employee hired to fill the vacant position.
The changes made to this
section during the 2017 regular session are remedial in nature and shall be
given retroactive application notwithstanding any action by anybody of this state
to the contrary.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to clarify that directors of multicounty schools are principals and not
superintendents.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring indicates
new language that would be added.