H. B. 2797
(By Delegate Azinger)
[Introduced February 24, 1995; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section two, article nine-a, chapter
eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to education;
public school support; and removing nurses from the
inclusion of professional instructional personnel for the
ratio of the school day.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section two, article nine-a, 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 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.
§18-9A-2. Definitions.
For the purpose of this article:
"State board" means the West Virginia board of education.
"County board" or "board" means a county board of education.
"Professional salaries" means the state legally mandated
salaries of the professional educators as provided in article
four, chapter eighteen-a of this code.
"Professional educator" shall be synonymous with and shall
have the same meaning as "teacher" as defined in section one,
article one, chapter eighteen of this code.
"Professional instructional personnel" means a professional
educator whose regular duty is as that of a classroom teacher,
librarian, counselor, attendance director, school psychologist or
school nurse with a bachelors degree and who is licensed by the
West Virginia board of examiners for registered professional
nurses. A professional educator having both instructional and
administrative or other duties shall be included as professional
instructional personnel for that ratio of the school day for
which he or she is assigned and serves on a regular full-time
basis in appropriate instruction, library, counseling, attendance or psychologist or nursing duties: Provided, That school nurses
shall not be included as professional instructional personnel for
that ratio of the school day for which he or she is assigned and
serves on a regular full-time basis.
"Service personnel salaries" shall mean the state legally
mandated salaries for service personnel as provided in section
eight-a, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code.
"Service personnel" shall mean all personnel as provided for
in section eight, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code.
For the purpose of computations under this article of ratios of
service personnel to adjusted enrollment, a service employee
shall be counted as that number found by dividing his or her
number of employment days in a fiscal year by two hundred:
Provided, That the computation for any such person employed for
three and one-half hours or less per day as provided in section
eight-a, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code shall be
calculated as one half an employment day.
"Net enrollment" means the number of pupils enrolled in
special education programs, kindergarten programs and grades one
to twelve, inclusive, of the public schools of the county. Commencing with the school year beginning on the first day of
July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-eight, net enrollment
further shall include adults enrolled in regular secondary
vocational programs existing as of the effective date of this
section: Provided, That net enrollment shall include no more
than one thousand such adults counted on the basis of full-time
equivalency and apportioned annually to each county in proportion
to the adults participating in regular secondary vocational
programs in the prior year counted on the basis of full-time
equivalency: Provided, however, That no tuition or special fees
beyond that required of the regular secondary vocational student
is charged for such adult students.
"Adjusted enrollment" means the net enrollment plus twice
the number of pupils enrolled for special education. Commencing
with the school year beginning on the first day of July, one
thousand nine hundred ninety, adjusted enrollment means the net
enrollment plus twice the number of pupils enrolled for special
education, including exceptional gifted, plus the number of
pupils in grades nine through twelve enrolled for honors and
advanced placement programs, plus the number of pupils enrolled on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine,
in the gifted program in grades nine through twelve: Provided,
That commencing with the school year beginning on the first day
of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety, no more than four
percent of net enrollment of grades one through eight may be
counted as enrolled in gifted education and no more than six
percent of net enrollment of grades nine through twelve may be
counted as enrolled in gifted education, exceptional gifted
education (subject to the limitation set forth in section one,
article twenty of this chapter) and honors and advanced placement
programs for the purpose of determining adjusted enrollment
within a county: Provided, however, That nothing herein shall be
construed to limit the number of students who may actually enroll
in gifted, honors or advanced placement education programs in any
county: Provided further, That until the school year beginning
on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred ninety-two,
the preceding percentage limitations shall not restrict the
adjusted enrollment definition for a county to the extent that
those limitations are exceeded by students enrolled in gifted
education programs on the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-nine: And provided further, That no pupil may be
counted more than three times for the purpose of determining
adjusted enrollment. Such enrollment shall be adjusted to the
equivalent of the instructional term and in accordance with such
eligibility requirements and rules as established by the state
board. No pupil shall be counted more than once by reason of
transfer within the county or from another county within the
state, and no pupil shall be counted who attends school in this
state from another state.
"Levies for general current expense purposes" means
ninety-eight percent of the levy rate for county boards of
education calculated or set by the Legislature pursuant to the
provisions of section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of
this code.
"Basic resources per pupil" for the state and the several
counties means the total of (a) ninety-five percent of the
property tax revenues computed at the levy rate for county boards
of education calculated or set by the Legislature pursuant to the
provisions of section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of
this code, but excluding revenues from increased levies as provided in section ten, article X of the Constitution of West
Virginia, and (b) basic state aid as provided in sections twelve
and thirteen of this article, but excluding the foundation
allowance to improve instructional programs as provided in
section ten of this article, and excluding any funds appropriated
for the purpose of achieving salary equity among county board
employees, this total divided by the number of students in
adjusted enrollment: Provided, That beginning with the school
year commencing on the first day of July, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-one, and thereafter, the foundation allowance for
transportation costs as provided in section seven of this article
shall also be excluded and the total shall be divided by the
number of students in net enrollment: Provided, however, That
any year's allocations to the counties of the eighty percent
portion of the foundation allowance to improve instructional
programs, as provided in section ten of this article, shall be
determined on the basis of the immediately preceding school
year's basic resources per pupil.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to remove nurses from the inclusion of professional instructional personnel for the ratio
of the school day they are assigned on a regular full-time basis.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.