H. B. 4581
(By Delegates Beach, Prunty
and Gillespie)
[Introduced February 26, 1998; referred to the
Committee on Education.]
A BILL to amend article five, chapter eighteen of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
fifteen-g, relating to daily scheduling of classes at middle
schools, junior high schools and high schools.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article five, chapter eighteen of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
fifteen-g, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-15g. Block scheduling prohibited.
(a) For purposes of this section, "block scheduling" means
a school day utilizing four ninety-minute class periods.
(b) The governor, the Legislature, the state board and the people of West Virginia agree that the education of their
children is of utmost importance to the future well-being of the
state and that the purpose of enacting education laws and
providing funding to support a system of free schools is to
assure that all of our children have every opportunity to secure
an education which is thorough and is provided in an efficient
manner.
(c) The Legislature finds that block scheduling creates a
number of problems for the school children of West Virginia. The
Legislature finds that problems associated with block scheduling
far outweigh any benefits associated with this type of schedule.
Some of the problems associated with block scheduling are:
(1) It fosters and magnifies attention span problems for
our school children;
(2) It creates deficiencies in the amount of material
covered in individual courses of instruction; and
(3) It results in a lack of sequentiality and continuity
which are necessary components for success in many courses of
instruction.
(d) Notwithstanding any provision of this code to the
contrary, no middle school, junior high school or high school may
utilize block scheduling. On or before the first day of August,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, each county board of
education shall modify middle school, junior high school and high school schedules as necessary to comply with the provisions of
this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to prohibit block
scheduling.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.