H. B. 3086
(By Delegate Walters)
[Introduced February 20, 2003; referred to the
Committee on Education.]
A BILL to amend and reenact section thirteen, article five, chapter
eighteen of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to providing county
boards of education may study the economic feasibility of
exercising an option of engaging in cooperative agreements
with local public or regional transit authorities to transport
students to and from school; requiring county boards to submit
proposed cooperative agreements to the department of
transportation for approval prior to implementation; requiring
minimum federal safety standards be met prior to approval of
cooperative agreements; requiring county boards to submit
reports to the joint committee on government and finance on
cost-effectiveness of cooperative agreements that are
implemented; and requiring the secretary for the department of
transportation to propose legislative rules to be used as guidelines in determining whether to approve proposed
cooperative agreements.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section thirteen, article five, 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 5. COUNTY BOARD OF EDUCATION.
§18-5-13. Authority of boards generally.
The boards, subject to the provisions of this chapter and the
rules of the state board, have authority:
(a) 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 with the schools and school
interests, 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 the records and to conserve the funds, which shall be
considered quasi-public moneys, including securing surety bonds by
expenditure of board moneys;
(b) 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;
(c) To close any school which is unnecessary and to assign the
pupils of the school to other schools: Provided, That the 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 (e) of this section;
(d) To consolidate schools;
(e) 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 closed school are
not transferred or reassigned to other schools, they shall receive
one month's salary;
(f) (1) To provide at public expense adequate means of
transportation, including transportation across county lines for
students whose transfer from one district to another is agreed to
by both boards as reflected in the minutes of their respective
meetings, 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 rules 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 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 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 the commission, or the local or county chapter of
the commission: 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 the vehicles shall be limited to one for
each school-sponsored activity: And provided further, That buses
shall be used for extracurricular activities as provided in this
section only when the insurance provided for by this section is in
effect;
(2) To enter into agreements with one another as reflected in
the minutes of their respective meetings 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 this subdivision and subdivision (h) of this
section;
(g) (1) 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 established by the board. All costs and expenses
incurred by or incidental to the transportation of the children
shall be borne by the lessee;
(2) (A) To study and determine whether it would likely be
efficacious and cost-effective to enter into a cooperative
agreement with a local public or regional transit authority to
transport school-age children to and from schools: Provided, That
prior to entering into such a cooperative agreement, the county
board must submit the proposal for the cooperative agreement to the
department of transportation for review and approval: Provided,
however, That the department may not approve any proposal for a
cooperative agreement under this subdivision that does not evidence
meeting minimum federal safety standards for transportation of
school-age children.
(B) In the event of approval and implementation of any
cooperative agreement under this subdivision, the county board for
each of the first three years of the agreement shall submit a
written report to the joint committee on government and finance
detailing the cost-effectiveness of the implementation of the
cooperative agreement as well as any other calculable and
verifiable economic, noneconomic or safety-related problems,
advantages or disadvantages directly or indirectly attributable to
implementation of the cooperative agreement. The report shall also
indicate whether any problems or disadvantages were able to be
alleviated or remedied, and if so, the measure that was used to
alleviate or remedy the problem or disadvantage.
(C) The secretary of the department of transportation shall
propose legislative rules in accordance with the provisions of
article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to be used as
guidelines in assessing whether cooperative agreements proposed by
a county board should be approved.
(2) (3) 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 the college or university: Provided, That only college
and 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 concerning student behavior;
(h) 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 is
contracted, then the contract for the transportation shall provide
that the contractor shall carry insurance against negligence in an
amount specified by the board;
(i) 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;
(j) To employ teacher aides, to provide in-service training
for teacher aides, the training to be in accordance with rules 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 the
assignment which shall, in accordance with rules of the state
board, consist of training in areas specifically related to the
education of exceptional children;
(k) 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 in the high school or post high school program;
(l) To employ legal counsel;
(m) To provide appropriate uniforms for school service
personnel;
(n) To provide at public expense and under rules 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 the county board of
education;
(o) To allow or disallow their designated employees to use
publicly provided carriage to travel from their residences to their
workplace and return: Provided, That the usage is subject to the
supervision of the board and is directly connected with and
required by the nature and in the performance of the employee's
duties and responsibilities;
(p) To provide, at public expense, adequate public liability
insurance, including professional liability insurance for board
employees;
(q) To enter into agreements with one another to provide, on
a cooperative basis, improvements to the instructional needs of
each county. The cooperative agreements may be used to employ
specialists in a field of academic study or support functions or
services, for the academic study. The agreements are subject to
approval by the state board of education;
(r) 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. The information may include sources of available
funding, including grants, mentorships and loans for students who
wish to attend classes at institutions of higher education;
(s) To enter into agreements with one another, with the
approval of the state board, for the transfer and receipt of any
and all funds determined to be fair when students are permitted or
required to attend school in a county other than the county of
their residence; and
(t) To enter into job-sharing arrangements, as defined in
section one, article one, chapter eighteen-a of this code, with its
professional employees: Provided, That a job-sharing arrangement
shall meet all the requirements relating to posting, qualifications
and seniority, as provided for in article four, chapter eighteen-a
of this code: Provided, however, That notwithstanding any
provisions of this code or legislative rule and specifically the
provisions of article fifteen, chapter five of this code to the
contrary, a county board which enters into a job-sharing
arrangement wherein two or more professional employees voluntarily
share an authorized full-time position shall provide the mutually
agreed upon employee coverage but shall not offer insurance
coverage to more than one of the job-sharing employees, including any group plan or group plans available under the state public
employees insurance act: Provided further, That all employees
involved in the job-sharing agreement meet the requirements of
subdivision (4), section two, article sixteen, chapter five of this
code.
"Quasi-public funds" as used in this section 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 rules 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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to
provide that county
boards of education may study the economic feasibility of
exercising an option of engaging in cooperative agreements with
local public or regional transit authorities to transport students
to and from school. The bill also requires that county boards
submit proposed cooperative agreements to the department of
transportation for approval prior to implementation, while
requiring minimum federal safety standards be met prior to approval
of such cooperative agreements. In addition, it requires county
boards to submit reports to the joint committee on government and
finance on the cost-effectiveness of cooperative agreements that
have been implemented, while requiring the secretary for the
department of transportation to propose legislative rules to be
used as guidelines in determining whether to approve proposed cooperative agreements.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.