Senate Bill No. 552
(By Senators Ross and Helmick)
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[Introduced February 19, 1996; referred to the Committee
on Education.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections thirteen and thirteen-a,
article five, chapter eighteen of the code of West Virginia,
one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to
further amend said article by adding thereto a new section,
designated section thirteen-b, all relating to requiring
that before schools can be consolidated in a way that would
cause the schools to be more than ten miles apart, an
election must be held and at least sixty percent of the
voters must vote for consolidation.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections thirteen and thirteen-a, article five, chapter
eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said
article be further amended by adding thereto a new section,
designated section thirteen-b, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-13. Authority of boards generally.
The boards, subject to the provisions of this chapter and
the rules and regulations of the state board, shall have
authority:
(1) To control and manage all of the schools and school
interests for all school activities and upon all school property,
whether owned or leased by the county, including the authority to
require that records be kept of all receipts and disbursements of
all funds collected or received by any principal, teacher,
student or other person in connection therewith, any programs,
activities or other endeavors of any nature operated or carried
on by or in the name of the school, or any organization or body
directly connected with the school, to audit such records and to
conserve such funds, which shall be deemed quasi-public moneys,
including securing surety bonds by expenditure of board moneys;
(2) To establish schools, from preschool through high
school, inclusive of vocational schools; and to establish schools and programs, or both, for post high school instruction, subject
to approval of the state board of education;
(3) To close any school which is unnecessary and to assign
the pupils thereof to other schools: Provided, That such closing
shall be officially acted upon and teachers and service personnel
involved notified on or before the first Monday in April, in the
same manner as provided in section four of this article, except
in an emergency, subject to the approval of the state
superintendent, or under subdivision (5) of this section;
(4) Subject to sections thirteen-a and thirteen-b of this
article, to consolidate schools;
(5) To close any elementary school whose average daily
attendance falls below twenty pupils for two months in succession
and send the pupils to other schools in the district or to
schools in adjoining districts. If the teachers in the school so
closed are not transferred or reassigned to other schools, they
receive one month's salary;
(6) (a) To provide at public expense adequate means of
transportation, including transportation across county lines, for
all children of school age who live more than two miles distance
from school by the nearest available road; to provide at public expense and according to such regulations as the board may
establish, adequate means of transportation for school children
participating in board-approved curricular and extracurricular
activities; and to provide in addition thereto at public expense,
by rules and regulations and within the available revenues,
transportation for those within two miles distance; to provide in
addition thereto, at no cost to the board and according to rules
and regulations established by the board, transportation for
participants in projects operated, financed, sponsored or
approved by the commission on aging: Provided, That all costs
and expenses incident in any way to transportation for projects
connected with the commission on aging shall be borne by such
commission, or the local or county chapter thereof: Provided,
however, That in all cases the school buses owned by the board of
education shall be driven or operated only by drivers regularly
employed by the board of education: Provided further, That the
county board may provide, under rules established by the state
board, for the certification of professional employees as drivers
of board-owned vehicles with a seating capacity of less than ten
passengers used for the transportation of pupils for school-
sponsored activities other than transporting students between school and home: And provided further, That the use of such
vehicles shall be limited to one for each school-sponsored
activity: And provided further, That buses shall be used for
extracurricular activities as herein provided only when the
insurance provided for by this section shall have been effected;
(b) To enter into agreements with one another to provide, on
a cooperative basis, adequate means of transportation across
county lines for children of school age subject to the conditions
and restrictions of subdivisions (6) and (8) of this section;
(7) (a) To lease school buses operated only by drivers
regularly employed by the board to public and private nonprofit
organizations or private corporations to transport school-age
children to and from camps or educational activities in
accordance with rules and regulations established by the board.
All costs and expenses incurred by or incidental to the
transportation of such children shall be borne by the lessee;
(b) To contract with any college or university or officially
recognized campus organizations to provide transportation for
college or university students, faculty or staff to and from such
college or university: Provided, That only college and/or
university students, faculty and staff are being transported. The contract shall include consideration and compensation for
bus operators, repairs and other costs of service, insurance and
any rules and regulations concerning student behavior;
(8) To provide at public expense for insurance against the
negligence of the drivers of school buses, trucks or other
vehicles operated by the board; and if the transportation of
pupils be contracted, then the contract therefor shall provide
that the contractor shall carry insurance against negligence in
such an amount as the board shall specify;
(9) To provide solely from county funds for all regular
full-time employees of the board all or any part of the cost of
a group plan or plans of insurance coverage not provided or
available under the West Virginia public employees insurance act;
(10) To employ teacher aides, to provide in-service training
for teacher aides, the training to be in accordance with rules
and regulations of the state board and, in the case of service
personnel assuming duties as teacher aides in exceptional
children programs, to provide a four-clock-hour program of
training prior to such assignment which shall, in accordance with
rules and regulations of the state board, consist of training in
areas specifically related to the education of exceptional children;
(11) To establish and conduct a self-supporting dormitory
for the accommodation of the pupils attending a high school or
participating in a post high school program and of persons
employed to teach therein;
(12) To employ legal counsel;
(13) To provide appropriate uniforms for school service
personnel;
(14) To provide at public expense and under regulations as
established by any county board of education for the payment of
traveling expenses incurred by any person invited to appear to
be interviewed concerning possible employment by such county
board of education;
(15) To allow or disallow their designated employees to use
publicly provided carriage to travel from their residences to
their workplace and return: Provided, That such usage is subject
to the supervision of such board and is directly connected with
and required by the nature and in the performance of such
employee's duties and responsibilities;
(16) To provide, at public expense, adequate public
liability insurance, including professional liability insurance for board employees;
(17) To enter into agreements with one another to provide,
on a cooperative basis, improvements to the instructional needs
of each county. Said cooperative agreements may be used to
employ specialists in a field of academic study or support
functions or services, therefor. Such agreements shall be
subject to approval by the state board of education; and
(18) To provide information about vocational or higher
education opportunities to students with handicapping conditions.
The board shall provide in writing to the students and their
parents or guardians information relating to programs of
vocational education and to programs available at state funded
institutions of higher education. Such information may include
sources of available funding, including grants, mentorships and
loans for students who wish to attend classes at institutions of
higher education.
"Quasi-public funds" as used herein means any money received
by any principal, teacher, student or other person for the
benefit of the school system as a result of curricular or
noncurricular activities.
The board of each county shall expend under such regulations as it establishes for each child an amount not to exceed the
proportion of all school funds of the district that each child
would be entitled to receive if all the funds were distributed
equally among all the children of school age in the district upon
a per capita basis.
§18-5-13a. School closing or consolidation.
In addition to the provisions of section thirteen and
thirteen-b of this article, prior to any final decision of a
county board of education on any proposal to close or consolidate
any school, except in cases in which a construction bond issue
was passed by the voters and which bond issue included the
schools to be closed or consolidated, the county board of
education shall:
(1) Prepare and reduce to writing its reasons and supporting
data regarding such school closing or consolidation. The written
reasons required under this section shall be available for public
inspection in the office of the county school superintendent
during the four successive weeks before the date of the public
hearing required by this section; and
(2) Provide for a public hearing, notice of which shall be
advertised by publication in a newspaper of general circulation in the locality of the affected school at least once a week for
four successive weeks prior to the date of the hearing. The
notice shall contain the time and place of the hearing and the
proposed action of the school board. A copy of such notice shall
be posted at the affected school in conspicuous working places
for all professional and service personnel to observe, and such
notice shall remain posted for four successive weeks prior to the
date of the required public hearing. At least a quorum of the
school board members and the county superintendent from the
county wherein the affected school is located shall attend and be
present at the public hearing. Members of the public shall have
the right to be present, to submit statements and testimony, and
to question county school officials at the public hearing.
Any such proposal to close or consolidate any school by any
county board of education shall be further subject to any current
rules and regulations of the state board of education relating to
school closing or consolidation: Provided, That after the
effective date of this section the state board shall promulgate
rules and regulations which shall prescribe in detail the type of
supporting data a county board of education shall include as part
of its written statement of reasons required by this section for school closing or consolidation, including the transportation
time of the affected students and which shall include any data
required by the state board of education to amend a county's
comprehensive educational facilities plan.
This section shall take effect on the date of passage and
shall affect any school not physically closed or consolidated as
of that date: Provided, That the written reasons shall include
all supporting data required by the state board of education to
amend a county's comprehensive education facilities plan.
§18-5-13b. School consolidation; voting requirement.
Before a board may vote to consolidate two or more schools
within a county in a way that would cause any school within the
county to be more than ten miles apart from the closest other
school, the board shall direct that the county commission order
a vote of the qualified voters within a county. The county
commission shall publish the order in a Class II-0 legal
advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three,
chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area for the
publication shall be the county in which the schools are located.
The election shall be held, superintended and conducted, and
the results thereof ascertained, certified, returned and canvassed in the same manner and by the same individuals as
elections for county officials. The ballots, or ballot labels
where voting machines are used, shall have written or printed on
them the words:
/ / For School Consolidation
/ / Against School Consolidation
If sixty percent or more of the qualified voters registered
in the county vote for school consolidation, then the board may
proceed with school consolidation subject to the requirements set
forth in section thirteen-a of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require that before
schools within a county may be consolidated in a way that the
schools would be situated more than ten miles apart, an election
must be held, and sixty percent of the voters must vote for
consolidation.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.
§18-5-13b is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.