H. B. 4521
(By Delegate Dalton)
[Introduced February 23, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section fifteen, article four,
chapter eighteen-a of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
employment of substitute service personnel; and requiring
county boards of education to hire two full-time substitute
bus operators for curriculum related field trips.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section fifteen, article four, chapter eighteen-a of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. SALARIES, WAGES AND OTHER BENEFITS.
§18A-4-15. Employment of service personnel substitutes.
The county board shall employ and the county superintendent,
subject to the approval of the county board, shall assign
substitute service personnel on the basis of seniority to perform any of the following duties:
(1) To fill the temporary absence of another service
employee;
(2) To fill the position of a regular service employee on
leave of absence: Provided, That if such leave of absence is to
extend beyond thirty days, the board, within twenty working days
from the commencement of the leave of absence, shall give regular
employee status to a person hired to fill such position. The
person employed on a regular basis shall be selected under the
procedure set forth in section eight-b of this article. The
substitute shall hold such position and regular employee status
only until the regular employee shall be returned to such
position and the substitute shall have and shall be accorded all
rights, privileges and benefits pertaining to such position:
Provided, however, That if a regular or substitute employee fills
a vacancy that is related to a leave of absence in any manner as
provided herein, upon termination of the leave of absence said
employee shall be returned to his or her original position;
(3) To perform the service of a service employee who is
authorized to be absent from duties without loss of pay;
(4) To temporarily fill a vacancy in a permanent position
caused by severance of employment by the resignation, transfer,
retirement, permanent disability, dismissal pursuant to section
eight, article two of this chapter, or death of the regular service employee who had been assigned to fill such position:
Provided, That within twenty working days from the commencement
of the vacancy, the board shall fill such vacancy under the
procedures set out in section eight-b of this article and section
five, article two of this chapter and such person hired to fill
the vacancy shall have and shall be accorded all rights,
privileges and benefits pertaining to such position;
(5) To fill the vacancy created by a regular employee's
suspension: Provided, That if the suspension is for more than
thirty working days the substitute service employee shall be
assigned to fill the vacancy on a regular basis and shall have
and be accorded all rights, privileges and benefits pertaining to
such position until such termination by the county board becomes
final. If the suspended employee is not returned to his or her
job, the board shall fill the vacancy under the procedures set
out in section eight-b of this article and section five, article
two of this chapter; and
(6) To temporarily fill a vacancy in a newly created
position prior to employment of a service personnel on a regular
basis under the procedure set forth in section eight-b of this
article.
Substitutes shall be assigned in the following manner: A
substitute with the greatest length of service time, that is,
from the date he or she began his or her assigned duties as a substitute in that particular category of employment, shall be
given priority in accepting the assignment throughout the period
of the regular employee's absence or until the vacancy is filled
on a regular basis under the procedures set out in section eight- b of this article. All substitutes shall be employed on a
rotating basis according to the length of their service time
until each substitute has had an opportunity to perform similar
assignments: Provided, That if there are regular service
employees employed in the same building or working station as the
absent employee and who are employed in the same classification
category of employment, such regular employees shall be first
offered the opportunity to fill the position of the absent
employee on a rotating and seniority basis with the substitute
then filling the regular employee's position. A regular employee
assigned to fill the position of an absent employee shall be
given the opportunity to hold that position throughout such
absence.
The salary of a substitute service employee shall be based
upon his or her years of employment as defined in section eight
of this article and as provided in the state minimum pay scale
set forth in section eight-a of this article and shall be in
accordance with the salary schedule of persons regularly employed
in the same position in the county in which he or she is
employed.
Before any substitute service employee enters upon his or
her duties, he or she shall execute with the county board a
written contract as provided in section five, article two of this
chapter.
To establish a uniform system of providing a fair and
equitable opportunity for substitutes to enter upon their duties
for the first time, the following method shall be used: The
initial order of assigning newly employed substitutes shall be
determined by a random selection system established by the
affected substitute employees and approved by the county board.
This initial priority order shall be in effect only until the
substitute service personnel have entered upon their duties for
the first time.
Substitute service employees who have worked thirty days for
a school system shall have all rights pertaining to suspension,
dismissal and contract renewal as is granted to regular service
personnel in sections six, seven, eight and eight-a, article two
of this chapter.
Effective the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-eight, county boards of education shall employ two
full-time substitute bus operators as defined in section eight of
this article, for curriculum related field trips: Provided, That
the full-time substitute bus operators may substitute for other
bus operators as provided in this section when their services are not required for curriculum related field trips: Provided,
however, That the salaries provided the full-time substitute bus
operators shall be paid out of STEP funds designated for service
personnel.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require county boards
of education to employ two substitute bus operators for
curriculum related field trips.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.