H. B. 2233
(By Delegates Browning and Miley)
[Introduced January 16, 2007; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18-9A-8a, §18-9A-10, §18-9A-11 and
§18-9A-13b of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, all
relating to public school support generally; providing that
the foundation allowance for regional education service
agencies is established by the Legislature; providing that the
foundation allowance for improving instructional programs
shall include thirty-three million dollars; adding a
foundation allowance for capacity building and providing at
least five million dollars; adding a foundation allowance for
safe schools and providing at least eight million dollars;
providing that increases in local share be allocated to
provide a salary increment; providing that excess amounts be
used for across-the-board salary increases for teachers; and
requiring the establishment of a salary enhancement line item
in the Department of Education for salary increments.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-9A-8a, §18-9A-10, §18-9A-11 and §18-9A-13b of the
Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted,
all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 9A. PUBLIC SCHOOL SUPPORT.
§18-9A-8a. Foundation allowance for regional education service
agencies.
For the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July, two
thousand
six seven, and for each fiscal year thereafter, the
foundation allowance for regional education service agencies shall
be
an amount established by the Legislature. Equal to sixty-three
one-hundredths percent of the allocation for professional educators
as determined in section four of this article, but not more than
four million two hundred thousand dollars. The allowance shall be
distributed to the regional education service agencies in
accordance with rules adopted by the state board. The allowance
for regional education service agencies shall be excluded from the
computation of total basic state aid as provided in section twelve
of this article.
§18-9A-10. Foundation allowance to improve instructional programs.
(a) For the school year beginning on the first day of July,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight two thousand seven, and
thereafter, the sum of
at least thirty-three million dollars the
allocations shall be
the amount appropriated by the Legislature for those purposes used for the purpose of improving instructional
programs as follows:
(1) One hundred fifty thousand dollars shall be allocated to
to each county;
(2) Distribution to the counties of the remainder of these
funds shall be made proportional to the average of each county's
average daily attendance for the preceding year and the county's
second month net enrollment. Moneys allocated by provision of this
section shall be used to improve instructional programs according
to a plan for instructional improvement which the affected county
board shall file with the state board by the first day of August of
each year, to be approved by the state board by the first day of
September of that year if the plan substantially complies with
standards to be adopted by the state board:
Provided, That
notwithstanding any other provision of this code to the contrary,
moneys allocated by provision of this section may also be used in
the implementation and maintenance of the uniform integrated
regional computer information system;
(3) Up to twenty-five percent of this allocation may be used
to employ professional educators and service personnel in counties
after all applicable provisions of sections four and five of this
article have been fully utilized.
Prior to the use of any funds from this section for personnel
costs, the county board must receive authorization from the state superintendent of schools. The state superintendent shall require
the district board to demonstrate: (1) The need for the
allocation; (2) efficiency and fiscal responsibility in staffing;
and (3) sharing of services with adjoining counties and the
regional educational service agency for that county in the use of
the total local district board budget. District boards shall make
application for available funds for the next fiscal year by the
first day of May of each year. On or before the first day of June,
the state superintendent shall review all applications and notify
applying district boards of the distribution of the allocation.
The funds shall be distributed during the fiscal year as
appropriate. The state superintendent shall require the county
board to demonstrate the need for an allocation for personnel based
upon the county's inability to meet the requirements of state law
or state board policy:
Provided, That the funds available for
personnel under this section may not be used to increase the total
number of professional noninstructional personnel in the central
office beyond four.
Such The instructional improvement plan shall
be made available for distribution to the public at the office of
each affected county board.
(b) An amount not less than the amount required to meet debt
service requirements on any revenue bonds issued prior to the first
day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, and the debt
service requirements on any revenue bonds issued for the purpose of refunding revenue bonds issued prior to the first day of January,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-four, shall be paid into the
school building capital improvements fund created by section six,
article nine-d of this chapter, and shall be used solely for the
purposes of that article. The school building capital improvements
fund shall not be utilized to meet the debt services requirement on
any revenue bonds or revenue refunding bonds for which moneys
contained within the school building debt service fund have been
pledged for repayment pursuant to that section.
When the school improvement bonds secured by funds from the
school building capital improvements fund mature, the state board
of education shall annually deposit an amount equal to twenty-four
million dollars from the funds allocated in this section six,
article nine-d, chapter eighteen of this code to continue funding
school facility construction and improvements.
(c) Any project funded by the school building authority shall
be in accordance with a comprehensive educational facility plan
which must be approved by the state board and the school building
authority.
(d) For the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July,
two thousand seven, and each fiscal year thereafter, the foundation
allowance for capacity building to assist schools that have been
identified as seriously impaired in accordance with section five,
article two-e of this chapter and schools that have not met adequately yearly progress for two or more consecutive years under
the federal "No Child Left Behind" statute shall be an amount of at
least five million dollars. The allowance for capacity building
shall be appropriated to the state board. The state board shall
adopt a rule in accordance with article three-b, chapter
twenty-nine-a of this code, establishing criteria for distribution
of these funds to schools. The first priority shall be schools
that have been identified as seriously impaired, the second
priority shall be schools that have failed to make adequately
yearly progress on test assessments for two or more consecutive
years. Each year the state board shall make a report to the
Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability on the
number of schools that received capacity building money the
previous year and what impact these resources had on removing a
school from the seriously impaired list or the list of schools
failing to meet adequately yearly progress under the provisions of
the "No Child Left Behind" statute.
(e) For the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July,
two thousand seven, and each fiscal year thereafter, the foundation
allowance for safe schools shall be an appropriation of at least
eight million dollars. The state superintendent shall grant county
boards awards for pilot or innovative alternative education
programs that promote safe schools based on the following criteria:
(1) Programs that will serve the most students in the alternative program; (2) programs in elementary schools that utilize in-school
suspension and requirements that alternative students work their
way back into the regular classroom through improved behavior; (3)
programs in middle/junior high schools and high schools that
provide at least sixteen hours of instruction per week and
requirements that students work their way back to the regular
classroom through improved behavior; and (4) other criteria
developed by the State Board of Education.
§18-9A-11. Computation of local share; appraisal and assessment
of property.
(a) On the basis of each county's certificates of valuation as
to all classes of property as determined and published by the
assessors pursuant to section six, article three, chapter eleven of
this code for the next ensuing fiscal year in reliance upon the
assessed values annually developed by each county assessor pursuant
to the provisions of articles one-c and three of said chapter, the
state board shall for each county compute by application of the
levies for general current expense purposes, as defined in section
two of this article, the amount of revenue which the levies would
produce if levied upon one hundred percent of the assessed value of
each of the several classes of property contained in the report or
revised report of the value, made to it by the Tax Commissioner as
follows:
(1) The state board shall first take ninety-five percent of the amount ascertained by applying these rates to the total
assessed public utility valuation in each classification of
property in the county.
(2) The state board shall then apply these rates to the
assessed taxable value of other property in each classification in
the county as determined by the Tax Commissioner and shall deduct
therefrom five percent as an allowance for the usual losses in
collections due to discounts, exonerations, delinquencies and the
like. All of the amount so determined shall be added to the
ninety-five percent of public utility taxes computed as provided in
subdivision (1) of this subsection and this total shall be further
reduced by the amount due each county assessor's office pursuant to
the provisions of section eight, article one-c, chapter eleven of
this code and this amount shall be the local share of the
particular county.
As to any estimations or preliminary computations of local
share that may be required prior to the report to the Legislature
by the Tax Commissioner, the State Board of Education shall use the
most recent projections or estimations that may be available from
the Tax Department for that purpose.
(b) Whenever in any year a county assessor or a county
commission shall fail or refuse to comply with the provisions of
this section in setting the valuations of property for assessment
purposes in any class or classes of property in the county, the State Tax Commissioner shall review the valuations for assessment
purposes made by the county assessor and the county commission and
shall direct the county assessor and the county commission to make
corrections in the valuations as necessary so that they shall
comply with the requirements of chapter eleven of this code and
this section and the Tax Commissioner shall enter the county and
fix the assessments at the required ratios. Refusal of the
assessor or the county commission to make the corrections
constitutes grounds for removal from office.
(c) For the purposes of any computation made in accordance
with the provisions of this section, in any taxing unit in which
tax increment financing is in effect pursuant to the provisions of
article eleven-b, chapter seven of this code, the assessed value of
a related private project shall be the base-assessed value as
defined in section two of said article.
(d) For purposes of any computation made in accordance with
the provisions of this section, in any county where the county
board of education has adopted a resolution choosing to use the
provisions of the growth county school facilities act set forth in
section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of this code,
estimated school board revenues generated from application of the
regular school board levy rate to new property values, as that term
is designated in said section, may not be considered local share
funds and shall be subtracted before the computations in subdivisions (1) and (2), subsection (a) of this section are made.
(e) For the fiscal year beginning on the first day of July,
two thousand seven, and each fiscal year thereafter, any additional
growth in revenues from one fiscal year to the next in local share
shall be appropriated to section two, article four, chapter
eighteen-a of this code, and utilized to provide a salary increment
of five hundred seventy dollars, or the usual increment whichever
is higher. The growth in revenues from local share shall first be
applied for increment salary increase for teachers with a
bachelor's degree and teachers who have a bachelor's degree plus
fifteen hours of graduate work and who have fourteen years of
service, and to teachers who have a master's degree and to teachers
who have a master's degree plus fifteen hours of graduate work and
who have seventeen years of service, and to teachers with a
master's degree plus thirty hours of graduate work and to teachers
with a master's degree plus forty-five hours of graduate work who
have nineteen years of experience: Provided, That if the growth in
local share is inadequate to fully fund the usual yearly increment,
the growth in local share shall be used to fund as much of the
yearly increment as the growth in local share will allow. If the
growth in local share exceeds the requirement to provide an average
increment pay listed above, the additional local share shall be
appropriated to increment pay for teachers with a bachelor's degree
and teachers who have a bachelor's degree plus fifteen hours of graduate work and who have fifteen years of service, and to
teachers who have a master's degree and to teachers who have a
master's degree plus fifteen hours of graduate work and who have
eighteen years of service, and to teachers with a master's degree
plus thirty hours of graduate work and to teachers with a master's
degree plus forty-five hours of graduate work who have twenty years
of experience. The growth in local share revenues shall continue
to be appropriated to fully fund an increment of five hundred
seventy dollars, or the usual yearly increment whichever is higher,
until all teachers who have less than thirty-five years of service
receive the usual increment salary increase. Any additional growth
in local share revenues shall be appropriated to fund
across-the-board salary increases for teachers and service
personnel in proportion to the foundation allowance for
professional educators under section four of this article divided
by the total foundation allowance for sections four and five of
this article and the foundation allowance for service personnel
under section five of this article divided by the total foundation
allowance for sections four and five.
§18-9A-13b. Reserve allowance for education salary enhancements.
Commencing with the
school fiscal year beginning on the first
day of July, two thousand
seven, and every fiscal year thereafter,
funds which accrue from allocations due to decreases a separate
appropriation shall be made in the State Department of Education budget, to be designated as the education salary enhancement line
item, that is equal to the reduction in the amount of funds
required to be appropriated for the basic foundation program
pursuant to this article as a result of a decrease in net and
adjusted
enrollment enrollments from
net and adjusted enrollments
of the preceding
school year.
shall be deposited in a special
revenue fund which is hereby created in the state treasury,
designated the "legislative reserve fund". The fund shall be an
interest bearing account and shall be appropriated by the
Legislature The allocation of the funds appropriated for this
purpose each year shall be added to any growth in local share as
calculated under section eleven of this article and used to
increase salary increments as provided by subsection (d) of section
eleven of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that the
foundation allowance for regional education service agencies is
established by the Legislature and that the foundation allowance
for improving instructional programs shall include thirty-three
million dollars. The bill also adds a foundation allowance for
capacity building and providing at least five million dollars for
that purpose and a foundation allowance for safe schools and
providing at least eight million dollars for that purpose. Under
the bill, increases in local share are allocated to provide a
salary increment and the bill provides that excess amounts be used
for across-the-board salary increases for teachers. Finally, the
bill establishes a salary enhancement line item in the Department
of Education for salary increments.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.