Senate Bill No. 281
(By Senator Boley)
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[Introduced February 7, 1994; referred to the Committee
on Education.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty-six, article two,
chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand
nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to requiring
county boards of education to bear the cost and participate
in the implementation of a uniform integrated regional
computer system to be commenced by regional educational
service agencies under the authority of the state board of
education by acquiring equipment to connect to the regional
computer information system or by submitting data from the
county board's computer system by way of diskettes, tapes or
electronic transmission to the state department of
education.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty-six, article two, chapter eighteen of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 2. STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-2-26. Establishment of multicounty regional educational
service agencies; purposes; authority to implement regional
services.
(a) In order to consolidate and administer more effectively
existing educational programs and services so individual
districts will have more discretionary moneys for educational
improvement and in order to equalize and extend educational
opportunities, the state board of education shall establish
multicounty regional educational service agencies for the purpose
of providing high quality, cost effective educational programs
and services to the county school systems, and shall make such
rules as may be necessary for the effective administration and
operation of such agencies:
Provided,
That the Legislative
Oversight Commission on Education Accountability shall commission
a comprehensive feasibility study of the regional educational
service agencies which shall be completed and reported to the
Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability no
later than the tenth day of January, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-four.
(b) In furtherance of these purposes, it is the duty of the
board of directors of each regional educational service agency to
continually explore possibilities for the delivery of services on
a regional basis which will facilitate equality in the
educational offerings among counties in its service area, permit
the delivery of high quality educational programs at a lower per
student cost, strengthen the cost effectiveness of educationfunding resources, reduce administrative and/or operational
costs, including the consolidation of administrative,
coordinating and other county level functions into region level
functions, and promote the efficient administration and operation
of the public school systems generally.
Technical, operational, programmatic or professional
services would be among the types of services appropriate for
delivery on a regional basis.
(c) In addition to performing the services and functions
required by the provisions of this or any other section of this
code, a regional educational service agency may implement
regional programs and services by a majority vote of its board of
directors. When said vote is not unanimous, the board of
directors shall file a plan for the service or program delivery
with the state board describing the program or service, the
manner of delivery and the projected savings and/or the improved
quality of the program or service. The state board shall
promulgate rules requiring a county board that declines to
participate in such programs or services to show just cause for
not participating and the estimated savings accruing to the
county therefrom. If a county board fails to show that savings
will accrue to the county or that the quality of the program will
be significantly and positively affected as a result of its
decision not to participate, the state board shall withhold from
the county's foundation allowance for administrative cost the
lesser of the amount of the estimated savings or the allocationfor the county's foundation allowance for administrative cost.
(d) The state board, in conjunction with the various
regional educational service agencies, shall develop an effective
model for the regional delivery of instruction in subjects where
there exists low student enrollment or a shortage of certified
teachers or where such delivery method substantially improves the
quality of an instructional program. Such model shall
incorporate an interactive electronic classroom approach to
instruction. To the extent funds are appropriated or otherwise
available, county boards or regional educational service agencies
may adopt and utilize the model for the delivery of such
instruction.
(e) Each regional educational service agency shall conduct
a study setting forth how the following services and functions
may be performed by the agency for public schools and school
districts within the region without terminating the employment of
personnel employed by school districts prior to the effective
date of this subsection: Accounting, purchasing, food service,
transportation, delivery of high cost services to low incidence
student populations, audiovisual material distribution,
facilities planning, federal program coordination, personnel
recruiting and an integrated regional computer information
system. On or before the tenth day of January, one thousand nine
hundred ninety, each regional educational service agency shall
submit the study to the state board, to the standing committees
on education and finance of the West Virginia Senate and House ofDelegates, and to the secretary of education and the arts:
Provided,
That in the event such study is implemented those
individuals employed prior to the effective date thereof shall
not have their employment terminated as a result of the study.
(f) Each regional educational service agency shall commence
implementation of a uniform integrated regional computer
information system as recommended by the state board of education
on or before the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-one. Each county board of education shall use begin using
the computer information system for data collection and reporting
to the state department of education beginning no later than the
first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four.
County boards of education shall bear the cost of and fully
participate in the implementation of the system by: (1)
Acquiring necessary, compatible equipment to connect to the
regional computer information system, or (2) periodically
submitting data from each county boards' respective computer
systems to the state department of education. Such data may
either be submitted on recorded diskettes or tape or by
electronic transmission. Such data that is submitted or
transmitted shall be in prescribed formats for purposes of
meeting data collection and reporting to the state:
Provided,
That no county shall expand any system either through the
purchase of additional software or hardware that does not advance
the goals and implementation of the uniform integrated regional
computer information system as recommended by the state board:
Provided, however,
That nothing contained herein shall prevent
the state superintendent from granting an extension to those
counties projected to have budget deficits for the school year
beginning on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-four.
(g) Each regional educational service agency shall submit a
report and evaluation of the services provided and utilized by
the schools within each respective region. Furthermore, each
school shall submit an evaluation of the services provided by the
regional educational service agency, which shall include an
evaluation of the regional educational service agency program,
suggestions as to how to improve utilization and the individual
school's plan as to development of new programs and enhancement
of existing programs. The reports shall be due by the first day
of January of each year commencing with the year one thousand
nine hundred ninety-one and shall be made available to the state
board of education, standing committees on education of the West
Virginia Senate and House of Delegates and to the secretary of
education and the arts.
(h) A regional board shall be empowered to receive and
disburse funds from the state and federal governments, member
counties, gifts and grants.
(i) Notwithstanding any other provision of the code to the
contrary, employees of regional educational service agencies
shall be reimbursed for travel, meals and lodging at the same
rate as state employees under the travel management office of thedepartment of administration.
(j) Regional educational service agencies shall hold at
least one half of their regular meetings during hours other than
those of a regular school day.
NOTE: This bill requires county boards of education to bear
the cost and participate in the implementation of a uniform
integrated regional computer system to be commenced by regional
educational service agencies under the authority of the state
board of education by acquiring equipment to connect to the
regional computer information system or by submitting data from
the county board's computer system by way of diskettes, tapes or
electronic transmission to the state department of education.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.