Source: http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hb138%20intr.htm&yr=2019&sesstype=1X&i=138
Timestamp: 2020-03-28 21:23:59
Document Index: 779791872

Matched Legal Cases: ['§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§29', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18', '§18']

HB 138 Text
Introduced Version House Bill 138 History
By Delegates Hornbuckle, Miley, Skaff, Lavender-Bowe, Brown, N., Longstreth, Fleischauer, Thompson, C., Thompson, R., Hartman, and Estep-Burton
[Introduced May 20, 2019; Referred
to the Select Committee on Education D.]
A BILL to repeal §18-5B-4, §18-5B-5, §18-5B-6, §18-5B-13, and §18-5B-14 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend and reenact 18-5A-2 of said code; to amend and reenact §18-5B-3 of said code; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated as 18-5B-15, all relating to restoring local public school flexibility; reforming local school improvement councils; and reforming the school innovation zone act to increase flexibility and decrease bureaucracy.
(4) Three Four parent(s), guardian(s) or custodian(s) of students enrolled at the school, one of whom must be the parent of a special-needs student, elected by the parent(s), guardian(s) or custodian(s) members of the school's parent teacher organization. If there is no parent teacher organization, the parent(s), guardian(s) or custodian(s) members shall be elected by the parent(s), guardian(s) or custodian(s) of students enrolled at the school in such manner as may be determined by the principal;
(6) A mental health professional;
(6) (7) In the case of vocational-technical schools, the vocational director. If there is no vocational director, then the principal may appoint no more than two additional representatives, one of whom represents business and one of whom represents industry;
(7) (8) In the case of a school with students in grade seven or higher, the student body president or other student in grade seven or higher elected by the student body in those grades.
(c) The principal shall arrange for such elections to be held prior to September 15, of each school year to elect a council and shall give notice of the elections at least one week prior to the elections being held. Notice of the election must be posted on a bulletin board at the school and on a public website maintained by the school, if the school has one. To the extent practicable, all elections to select council members shall be held within the same week.
(3) An agenda for regularly scheduled meetings must be posted on a bulletin board in a publicly accessible place at the school and on a public website maintained by the school, if the school has one, at least 24 hours prior to the meeting.
(i) The local school improvement council shall meet at least annually with the county board, in accordance with the provisions in §18-5-14 of this code. At this annual meeting, the local school improvement council chair, or another member designated by the chair, shall be prepared to address any matters as may be requested by the county board as specified in the meeting agenda provided to the council and may further provide any other information, comments or suggestions the local school improvement council wishes to bring to the county board's attention. Anything presented under this subsection shall be submitted to the county board in writing.
(j) School improvement councils shall be considered for the receipt of school of excellence awards under section three of this article and competitive grant awards under §18-2-29 of this code and may receive and expend such grants for the purposes provided in such section. In any and all matters which may fall within the scope of both the school improvement councils and the school curriculum teams authorized in section five of this article, the school curriculum teams have jurisdiction.
(B) A preventive discipline program which may include the responsible students program devised by the West Virginia Board of Education as adopted by the county board, pursuant to the provisions of §18A-5-1(e), of this code; and
(C) A student involvement program, which may include the peer mediation program or programs devised by the West Virginia Board of Education as adopted by the county board, pursuant to the provisions of §18A-5-1(e), of this code; and
(a) A school district, school, a group of schools, a subdivision or department of a group of schools, or a subdivision or department of a school may be designated as an innovation zone in accordance with this article.
(b) The state board shall promulgate a rule, including an emergency rule if necessary, in accordance with §29A-3B-1 et seq. of this code to implement the provisions of this article. The rule shall include provisions for at least the following:
(1) A process for a school district, school, a group of schools, a subdivision or department of a group of schools or a subdivision or department of a school to apply for designation as an innovation zone that encompasses at least the following:
(B) The contents of the application, which must include a general description of the innovations the school district, school or schools seek to institute and an estimation of the employees who may be affected by the implementation of the innovations; and requests to the state board for exceptions to statutes, policies, rules and interpretations that are required to permit implementation of the innovative strategies contemplated in its innovation zone plan; and
(ii) Support from parents, students, the county board of education, the local school improvement council councils and school business partners; and
(c) The state board shall review innovation zone applications in accordance with the standards adopted by the board and shall determine whether to designate the applicant as an innovation zone, including the approval of any requests for exceptions to statutes, policies, rules and interpretations in accordance with subsection (d) of this section. The state board shall notify an applicant of the board's determination within 60 days of receipt of an innovation zone application.
When initially designating innovation zones after the enactment of this article by the first extraordinary session of the 2009 Legislature, the state board shall consider applicants for designation in the following order: (1) A school and groups of schools; (2) a group of schools seeking designation across the same subdivision or department of the schools; and (3) a school seeking designation of a subdivision or a department
(d) The state board shall review requests for exceptions to statutes, policies, rules, and interpretations in accordance with the standards in its rule and shall determine whether to approve or disapprove the request. The approval or disapproval of a request is at the sole discretion of the state board in accordance with the requirements of this section.
(1) Except as provided in subdivision (3), the state board shall approve or disapprove the request subject to the following:
(A) No exceptions to state board policies, rules, or interpretations are granted unless the state board approves the request at least conditionally pursuant to subdivision (3) of this subsection; and
(B) If the request is disapproved, the state board shall communicate its reasons for the disapproval to the county board and shall make recommendations for improving the request. The county board may amend and resubmit the request.
(2) Upon approval of the request by the state board, all of the exceptions to state board policies, rules, and interpretations that were requested are granted;
(3) If a request, or a part thereof, may not be implemented unless an exception to a statute is granted by an act of the Legislature, the state board may approve the request, or the part thereof, only upon the condition that the Legislature acts to grant the exception. If the state board approves a request on that condition, the state board shall submit the request for an exception to a statute, along with supporting reasons, to the Legislative Oversight Commission of Education Accountability. The commission shall review the request and make a recommendation to the Legislature regarding the exception requested; and
(4) A request for an exception may not be granted from any of the following:
(A) A required statewide assessment program administered by the West Virginia Department of Education;
(B) Any provision of law or policy required by Public Law 94-142, Public Law No. 107-110 or other federal law;
(C) §18A-2-2 and §18A-2-7 of this code and §18A-4-7a, §18A-4-7b, §18A-4-8, and §18A‑4-8b of this code, except that an innovation zone may make a job posting for a teacher vacancy in accordance with the procedures and the approval by a vote of the teachers as provided in §18-5B-8 of this code; or
(D) Any statute, policy, rule, or other requirements of the state board or other agency related to the health and safety of students or employees, any requirements imposed by ethics laws or opinions, any requirements imposed by open records or open meetings laws, any requirements related to financial or academic reporting or transparency, or any requirements designed to protect the civil rights of students or employees.
(e) The state board after periodic review of an established innovation zone may, upon recommendation of the innovation zone application review committee, revoke the innovation zones designation for noncompliance or nonperformance.
(d)(f) When designating innovation zones under these provisions following the amendment and reenactment of this section by the Legislature at its regular session 2014, and for each of the four succeeding school years, the state board shall establish a priority for applications that include the establishment of entrepreneurship education programs as a curricular offering for students. To qualify under this priority, the program strategy must include the active involvement of one or more partners from the business community in program delivery. Nothing in this subsection requires the state board to designate all applicants that include the establishment of entrepreneurship education programs as innovation zones, or to exclude other qualified applicants for innovations in other areas from designation.
§18-5B-15. Funding for Innovation Zones.
There is hereby created in the State Treasury a special revenue fund to be known as the “Innovation Zone Fund.” The fund shall consist of all moneys received from whatsoever source to further the purpose of this article. At a minimum, these funds shall consist of a five million-dollar line item appropriation for the purposes of this article. The fund shall be administered by the state board solely for the purposes of this article, including providing grants and other financial assistance to designated innovation zones to implement and carry out innovation zone plans. Any moneys remaining in the fund at the close of the fiscal year shall be carried forward for use in the next fiscal year. Fund balances shall be invested with the state’s consolidated investment fund and any and all interest shall be used solely for the purposes that moneys deposited in the fund may be used pursuant to this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to restore local public-school flexibility by (1) reforming local school improvement councils; and (2) reforming the school innovation zone act to increase flexibility and decrease bureaucracy.