H. B. 2962


(By Delegates Williams, Shaver,
Perry and Swartzmiller)
[Introduced March 21, 2001; 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 including adults enrolled in approved family literacy programs in the net enrollment count of the public school support plan on a full- time equivalency basis.

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 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 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 includes adults enrolled in regular secondary vocational programs existing as of the effective date of this section and family literacy programs approved by the department of education pursuant to guidelines adopted by the state board: 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 and approved family literacy 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 add adults enrolled in family literacy programs to the public school support plan net enrollment on an FTE basis. They would be included with adults enrolled in secondary vocational programs under the current law cap of 1,000 statewide FTE.
 Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.