COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 677
(By Senators Wells, Plymale, Browning, Kessler and Foster)
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[Originating in the Committee on Education;
reported February 2, 2010.]
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A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §18-5-45a, relating
to school calendars; requiring each county superintendent to
create a county school calendar committee; requiring the
committee to develop multiple school calendar options for
presentation to all employees for vote; requiring the
generation of new calendar options if the county board or
state board rejects the selected calendar; and requiring the
process to continue until a school calendar is approved by the
county board and state board.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §18-5-45a, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-45a. County school calendar committee; county-wide vote.
(a) The county superintendent of each county shall create one
county school calendar committee. The committee shall develop
multiple school calendar options for presentation to all employees
of the county board for vote. All calendars presented to the
employees for selection shall comply with all applicable sections
of this code, including but not limited to, section forty-five of
this article. The committee shall meet at least three times a
year.
(b) Each county school calendar committee shall consist of at
least seven and no more than eleven members. The committee shall
be comprised of teachers, service personnel, administrators and one
designee chosen by the county superintendent. The membership of
the committee shall be proportionally representative of the number
of county board employees in each job category represented on the
committee. Except for the designee chosen by the county
superintendent, members of the committee shall be determined by
election in accordance with the following:
(1)
The county superintendent shall determine the number of
member teachers, administrators and service personnel appropriate
for proportional representation of their respective classes of
employment in the county;
(2) The county superintendent shall solicit nominations of
teachers and administrators to serve on the committee from the
faculty senates of the schools of the county and of service
personnel to serve on the committee from the service personnel of
the county;
(3) Teachers and administrators are eligible to vote for the
nominated teachers and administrators to fill the teacher and
administrator positions on the committee and service personnel are
eligible to vote for the nominated service personnel to fill the
service personnel positions on the committee; and
(4) The superintendent shall prepare and distribute the
ballots and tabulate the votes for membership in the same manner he
or she prepares and distributes the ballots and tabulates the votes
for professional staff development councils and service personnel
staff development councils pursuant to sections eight and nine,
article three, chapter eighteen-a of this code.
(c) The county school calendar committee shall generate at
least three calendar options for presentation to the employees of
the county board for a county-wide vote. The election shall be
administered by the county superintendent. Voting shall be
conducted by a secret ballot election, and is optional to each
employee. At least two representatives from the committee shall
oversee the counting of returned votes. A simple majority of the
votes returned to the county superintendent constitutes selection
of a school calendar.
(d) If the county board or the state board rejects a calendar
selected by the majority of employees in the district, the county
school calendar committee shall generate new calendar options for
consideration of the employees and the process set forth in this
section shall continue until the county board and the state board
approve a school calendar selected by the majority of employees in the district. The county board shall approve a school calendar
prior to June 1 of each year. If the state board has delegated
approval of school calendars to the state superintendent pursuant
to section forty-five of this article, the reference in this
subsection to the state board rejection and approval of a school
calendar means the state superintendent's rejection and approval of
a school calendar.