H. B. 2336
(By Delegates Marshall, Spencer, Wells,
Longstreth, Sumner and Fragale)
[Introduced January 9, 2008; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §18A-4-8f of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to allowing school service
personnel the opportunity to vote on giving transfer
preference to employees from a merged or consolidated school
or school facility.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18A-4-8f of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 4. SALARIES, WAGES AND OTHER BENEFITS.
§18A-4-8f. Seniority rights, school consolidation.
(a) Notwithstanding any provision of this article to the
contrary, when a majority of the classroom teachers
or school
service personnel, as defined in section one, article one of this
chapter, who vote to do so, in accordance with procedures
established herein, and who are employed by a county board of education, the board shall give priority to classroom teachers
or
school service personnel in any school or schools to be closed as
a result of a consolidation or merger when filling positions in the
new school created by consolidation or newly created positions in
existing schools as a result of the merger.
(b) Each year a consolidation or merger is proposed, prior to
the implementation of that plan, the superintendent shall cause to
be prepared and distributed to all faculty senates
and to all
schools or other work sites a ballot on which teachers
and service
personnel may indicate whether or not they desire those affected by
school closings to be given priority status in filling new
positions. A secret ballot election
for classroom teachers shall
be conducted in each faculty senate and the faculty senate chair
shall convey the results of
such the election to the
superintendent.
A secret ballot shall also be conducted at each
school or work site for school service personnel. The supervisor
at each school or work site shall convey the results of the
election to the superintendent.
(c) The superintendent shall tabulate and post all results
prior to the notice requirements for reduction in force and
transfer as outlined in sections two and seven, article two of this
chapter. The total number of votes shall be tabulated and the
provisions of this section shall be implemented
for classroom
teachers only if a majority of the total number of teachers who cast a ballot vote to do so
and shall be implemented for school
service personnel only if a majority of the total number of service
personnel who cast a ballot vote to do so.
(d) If a majority approves, the teachers
or school service
personnel in the school or schools to be closed
shall have priority
in filling new positions in the new or merged schools for which the
teachers are certified
or for which the school service personnel is
qualified and meet the standards set forth in the job posting on
the basis of seniority within the county:
Provided, That a teacher
shall or school service personnel may only receive priority for
filling a position at a school impacted by a merger, or
consolidation with the position being created by the influx of
students from a consolidated or merged school into the school
receiving students from their closed school or grade level. The
most senior teacher in the closed school or schools shall be placed
first, the second most senior shall be placed next and so on until
all the newly created positions are filled, or until all the
teachers in the closed school or schools who wish to transfer into
the newly created positions are placed.
The most senior school
service personnel within the closed school or schools has priority
in filling any position within his or her classification category.
The second most senior service personnel within the closed school
or schools then has priority in filling remaining vacancies and so
on until all available positions are filled: Provided, however, That if there are fewer new positions in the newly created school
or merged school than there are classroom teachers
or school
service personnel in the school or schools to be closed, the
teachers
or school service personnel who were not placed in the new
positions
shall retain the same rights as all other teachers
or
school service personnel with regard to seniority, transfer and
reduction in force:
Provided further, That nothing
herein shall be
construed to grant in this section grants any employee additional
rights or protections with regard to reduction in force.
(e) For the purposes of this section only, a consolidation
shall mean means when one or more schools are closed, or one or
more grade levels are removed from one or more schools and the
students who previously attended the closed schools or grade levels
are assigned to a new school. For purposes of this section only, a
merger
shall mean means when one or more schools are closed or one
or more grade levels are removed from one or more schools and the
students who previously attended the closed schools or grade levels
are assigned to another existing school.
(f) The provisions of this section
shall do not apply to
positions which are filled by a county board prior to the effective
date of this section,
as reenacted during the regular session of
the Legislature, two thousand seven.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to allow school service
personnel the opportunity to vote on giving transfer preference to
employees from a merged or consolidated school or school facility.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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