Committee Substitute
for
H. B. 2578
(By Delegates Williams, Crosier and Sumner)
[Originating in the Committee on Education.]
(March 1, 2005)
A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9A-5a and §18-9A-5b of the Code of
West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all relating to increasing
the ratios of professional and service personnel to students
in net enrollment; establishing the ratios for certain school
years; making certain findings; stating legislative intent to
examine state basic foundation program and address staffing
and other needs as indicated by examination; and removing
limitation to using ratios for intended increases in
personnel.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-9A-5a and §18-9A-5b of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.
§18-9A-5a. Ratio of foundation allowances for professional
educators and service personnel to net enrollment.
(a) The purpose of this section is to establish maximum ratios
between the numbers of professional educators and service personnel
in the counties which are funded through the public school support
plan and the net enrollment in the counties, such ratios are in
addition to the ratios provided
for in sections four and five of
this article. It is the intent of the Legislature to adjust these
ratios pursuant to legislative act as may be appropriate when
additional personnel are needed to perform additional duties.
(b)
Commencing with the school year one thousand nine hundred
eighty-nine--ninety Beginning on the first day of July, two
thousand five, and each
school year thereafter, in computing the
basic foundation allowance to a county for professional educators
and the basic foundation allowance to a county for service
personnel under sections four and five of this article, a county
shall not receive an allowance for such personnel which number per
one thousand students in net enrollment is in excess of the number
of professional educators and the number of service personnel in
the county computed as follows:
Maximum professionalMaximum service
educators per 1000personnel per 1000
net enrollment thenet enrollment the
For thepreceding yearpreceding year
school
year
1998-99 74.0 43.5
Maximum service Maximum service
Personal per 1000 personnel per 1000
Maximum professional net enrollment the net enrollment the
For the
educators per 1000
preceding year for preceding year for
school year
net enrollment the
each high density
each low density
1999-2000
preceding year
county
county
and thereafter
74.0
43.6
44.5
Maximum professional Maximum service
educators per 1000 personnel per 1000
students in students in
For the net enrollment
net enrollment
school High density Low density High density Low density
year
County County County County
2005-2006
74.10 74.20 43.73 44.69
2006-2007 74.20 74.40 43.85 44.89
and thereafter 74.30 74.60 43.97 45.10
(c) Every county shall utilize methods other than reductions
in force, such as attrition and early retirement, before
implementing their reductions in force policy to comply with the
limitations of this section.
§18-9A-5b. Foundation allowance for increasing professional and
service personnel positions.
(a) Commencing with the school year beginning on the first day
of July, two thousand five, two million five hundred thousand
dollars shall be appropriated for the purpose of increasing the
ratios of professional and service personnel per one thousand
students in net enrollment of the counties who are paid from state funds through the state basic foundation program. For each of the
eleven following school years, an additional two million five
hundred thousand dollars shall be added to the appropriation for
this purpose.
(b) The Legislature finds that the state basic foundation
program
was initially enacted during the regular session of the
Legislature, one thousand nine hundred seventy-one, as a seven-step
formula driven largely by student enrollment. Although it has been
amended many times over the intervening years to effect program
improvements, respond to changing enrollment patterns and
accommodate budgetary priorities,
it remains a formula driven
primarily by student enrollment. As such, the state basic
foundation program
has been credited with providing base level
funding from the state which is very equitable on a per student
basis among the county school systems. However, the intervening
years have also seen substantial changes in the educational
environment, the most profound of which include the decline in
student enrollment from about four hundred four thousand students
when the state basic foundation program was created to about two
hundred seventy-eight thousand students in the two thousand five
school year, the growth of technology delivered instruction, the
advent of performance-based accountability and the accompanying
responsibility to target resources to make needed improvements.
Therefore, as it pursues the objectives set forth in subsection (a)
of this section, it is the intent of the Legislature to further examine the state basic foundation program in context with the
changing educational environment and address the staffing and other
needs of the public schools as may be indicated through that
examination. The increases in the ratios of professional and
service personnel per one thousand students in net enrollment shall
be made in a manner which reflects the greater need of counties
with a low student population density for additional personnel.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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