H. B. 2115
(By Delegate Mezzatesta)
[Introduced February 17, 1997; referred to the
Committee on Education.]
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 amending the
definition of "net enrollment" to exclude certain children
under the age of five.
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 is synonymous with and
shall have has 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 is assigned and serves on a regular full-time basis in
appropriate instruction, library, counseling, attendance,
psychologist or nursing duties.
"Service personnel salaries" shall mean means 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 means 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:
Provided, That this number does not included children below the
age of five years who are enrolled in kindergarten programs
pursuant to section eighteen, article five of this chapter.
Commencing with the school year beginning on the first day of
July, one thousand nine hundred eighty-eight, net enrollment
further shall include includes adults enrolled in regular
secondary vocational programs existing as of the effective date
of this section: Provided, however, That net enrollment shall
include includes 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 further, 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
may 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 may 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 may be counted
more than once by reason of transfer within the county or from
another county within the state, and no pupil shall may 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 amend the definition
of "net enrollment" to exclude certain children under the age of five who are attending kindergarten.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.