News

Superintendents differ on school calendar flexibility

By Jim Wallace

Two superintendents gave lawmakers different viewpoints on Gov. Manchin’s proposal to provide more flexibility in the school calendar when a joint House-Senate subcommittee held its second meeting on the subject Thursday.

The legislators also heard about the advantages of year-round school from a principal of one of West Virginia’s few schools that operate with such a calendar.

Supt. Daniel Metz of Wirt County schools said the governor’s proposal would take care of many of the problems school systems have with the calendar. He said he recognized allowing schools to open before Aug. 26 and close after June 8 would mean that parents and school employees might not know when the last day of school would be, but he said they don’t really know that now.

Using the proposed flexibility, Metz said, with all the snow days the Wirt County schools have had this year, if the school year had started Aug. 21, it would end on June 9, assuming there would be no more cancelled school days. However, he said, with a good winter without so many snow days, the school year could finish by May 28.

“It just makes sense to allow us to start the calendar earlier and go later.” – Wirt County Supt. Daniel Metz

“It just makes sense to allow us to start the calendar earlier and go later,” Metz said.

 

Wirt County uses snow days for professional development.

In Wirt County, when instructional days have been cancelled, he said, he has called teachers in for professional development. That has meant having professional development activities prepared in case of snow days, he said.

Metz said he wasn’t sure whether state code allows him to do that. So he suggested that, if lawmakers don’t approve more flexibility in the starting and ending dates, they should clarify that cancelled instructional days can be used for professional development.

“I believe we have the right, but it’s not in code,” Metz said. He also suggested lawmakers should remove the requirement that Instructional Support and Enhancement (ISE) days must be scheduled in certain months.

“I think it’s a pretty easy issue. We back up the start and allow us to go later if we need to.” – Metz

“I think it’s a pretty easy issue,” Metz said. “We back up the start and allow us to go later if we need to.”

Holding school during deer season might not be safe.

But Delegate Ron Fragale, D-Harrison, wanted to know whether the Wirt County schools take a week off for Thanksgiving and another week off for spring break. When Metz said they did, Fragale suggested using some of those days as instructional days to make it more likely the schools would reach their required 180 days a year.

Metz said he doubted his school board would go along with that. In regard to Thanksgiving week, he said, so many people come to Wirt County for the opening of deer season that the county’s population doubles. He said it wouldn’t be safe to have children riding on buses that Monday and Tuesday.

“I believe it’s a safety issue for our students,” Metz said.

Delegate Gerald Crosier, D-Monroe, asked whether the Wirt County schools pay teachers for extended time when they must work makeup days. But Metz said it’s not extended time, because it’s still within the calendar.

House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour, pressed Metz on whether it’s a good idea for the schools to take a full week for spring break when they need to make up cancelled instructional days. She asked whether school officials should work within the flexibility they already have.

Metz said school board members must consider what the citizens of the county want. Poling said parents should be able to adjust if break time had to be cancelled.

Supt. Charlotte Hutchens of the Raleigh County schools told the subcommittee that the decision to cancel school is one of the toughest a superintendent faces.

“It’s a no-win situation no matter what decision you make.” Raleigh County Supt. Charlotte Hutchens on canceling school

“It’s a no-win situation no matter what decision you make,” she said.

 

ISE days could be used for instructional makeup days.

Hutchens said the governor’s proposal for more calendar flexibility wouldn’t solve the problem, because employees have only a 200-day contract. She suggested lawmakers should make it permissible for school districts to use ISE days to make up for snow days. She tried to do that, she said, but school employees and lawyers threatened to take legal action if she did. Hutchens also agreed with Metz that the ISE days should not be limited to certain months.

“At the center of the problem is the employment term,” she said. “The ideal solution would be to extend the employment term.”

However, Hutchens said, that would be costly. An alternative, she said, would be to pay teachers for makeup days but not for snow days. But she added, “I don’t think anyone wants to do that.”

Delegate Brady Paxton, D-Putnam, wondered how it was decided that the school year should have 180 instructional days. He asked is that is the amount of knowledge the human mind can handle.

Poling asked what attendance is like on days with early dismissal, which would be one way to handle having faculty senate meetings and instruction for students on the same day.

“There are many parents in Raleigh County that do not value that day,” Hutchens said. In other words, many parents don’t send their children on short instructional days. However, she added that having students in school part of a day might be better than nothing at all.

 

Year-round school has advantages.

Steve Knighton, principal of Piedmont Elementary School, which is only a few blocks away from the Capitol in Charleston, told lawmakers that a year-round calendar has worked well for his school. For 13 years, Piedmont has begun its school year in early to mid-July with nine weeks of school alternating with three weeks of break throughout the year.

Because it is an inner-city school, many of Piedmont’s students come from low-income families, and Knighton said the year-round calendar has seemed to benefit them the most. Among the advantages, he said, is that the schools don’t have to spend two to three weeks at the beginning of the school year to re-teach students what they learned the previous year.

“Can you imagine being away from your job for 11 weeks? That’s what kids do [at non-year-round schools].” – Piedmont Elementary Principal Steve Knighton

“Can you imagine being away from your job for 11 weeks?” Knighton asked the legislators as a point of comparison. “That’s what kids do [at non-year-round schools].”

Delegate Linda Sumner, R-Raleigh, asked whether the year-round schedule had made a difference in attendance at Piedmont. Knighton said Piedmont has a 97 percent attendance rate, which is remarkable for an inner-city school.

Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, asked about the quality of the evidence showing improved performance at year-round schools. Knighton said Piedmont has met the annual yearly progress requirement for every year of the No Child Left Behind program, and test data show the students are performing well. Meeting the annual yearly progress requirement is all the more remarkable considering that families in Piedmont’s service area are very transient, so about 150 students transfer in and out of Piedmont each year.

 

-- Jim Wallace is a former government reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail and former news director of West Virginia Public Radio. He now works for TSG Consulting in Charleston and writes for several national and West Virginia publications.

'WE'VE GOT A WAR NOW': teacher hiring practices at issue

By Ry Rivard
Daily Mail staff

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Joe Manchin is set to consider changes to teacher hiring practices that union officials say would return West Virginia schools to an era of cronyism, nepotism and turmoil.

The governor's 21st Century Jobs Cabinet endorsed several proposals at a meeting Thursday that would give local school boards and principals greater leeway in hiring decisions.

Teachers union officials say they fear the proposals could become law and break down the seniority system that has long governed hiring in the school system.

"We've got a war now," said Judy Hale, president of the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.

West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee said he expected Manchin to accept the recommendations and have legislation introduced during the current session that would carry them out.

The leaders of the House and Senate education committees are members of the jobs cabinet and have differing views about the recommendations.

Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, led the task force.

"What we're trying to do is modernize our hiring practices for the 21st century," he said.

However, Plymale said he still wants seniority to remain part of hiring decisions.

The task force's proposals may have gone a little too far, he said.

Plymale voted to endorse the recommendations and send them to the governor.

House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour, voted against the proposals. She said they don't fix the main problem.

"It does not stop your personnel managers from mismanaging hiring practices," Poling said. 

The unions did not object to several of the proposals, including the creation of a new evaluation process for teachers.

But they promise a fight over two recommendations that would change hiring criteria.

One recommendation would merge different standards that now exist for hiring new teachers and veteran teachers.

The combined criteria would give school boards more freedom to assign greater importance to factors such as a job applicant's performance during an interview. The current law emphasizes seniority.

Another recommendation that union officials vow to contest would give more flexibility to county superintendents to reject all applications for a teaching position based on "an unsatisfactory interview performance." Then the superintendent would have authority to repost the position.

Supporters of the recommendation say it would allow administrators to weed out bad apples who are now protected by the seniority system.

"Those of you who teach know who the teachers are who can't teach," said Kheng Yap-McGuire, a stay-at-home mother from Huntington who was on the task force.

Union officials say the cabinet's recommendations will allow administrators to hire people based on personal connections, not professional quality.

"The specific recommendations have the potential to take us back to the days of nepotism and cronyism," Lee said. "That's certainly not best for the children."

Hale said the objectionable recommendations would likely result in "political patronage, nepotism, turmoil and dissension."

Cabinet member Lowell Johnson tried to get the group to throw out the controversial recommendations and send to the governor a package on which they all could agree. His idea was shot down.

"If the chairs of the two committees can't agree, then how can you expect other people to?" said Johnson, a member of the state Board of Education.

He suggested that the contested proposals could be tried on an experimental basis in certain school districts. This would conform to the concept of "innovation zones" that the governor endorsed in his State of the State Address.

Within the zones, state law and policy could be suspended to enable counties to test new ways of doing things.

"We could very well be doing some of the changes but in a format that isn't putting all of this on the whole system," Johnson said.

The jobs cabinet was created in 2006 by Gov. Manchin and is co-chaired by first lady Gayle Manchin, and Ralph Baxter, the CEO of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, an international law firm with an office in Wheeling.

Contact writer Ry Rivard at ry.rivard@dailymail.com or 304-348-1796.
Used by permission of the Charleston Daily Mail.

 

Pendleton County leaders want formula to be adjusted

By Jim Wallace

Pendleton County school officials praised the Legislature for passing House Bill 4588 last year to help several small school districts with the School Aid Formula, but they want lawmakers to improve it this year.

Pendleton County Supt. Doug Lambert told the Senate Education Committee Thursday that lawmakers showed courage and fortitude in fixing the formula last year, but it still presents problems for districts like Pendleton County.

“Keep in mind our enrollment keeps declining.” – Pendleton County Supt. Doug Lambert

“Keep in mind our enrollment keeps declining,” he said.

Last year’s change allows the enrollment for the small counties to be adjusted to bring them closer to a preferred minimum level of 1,400. But it caps the adjustment at the equivalent of 300 students.

If Pendleton County continues to lose population, Lambert said, the school system could be back in the position it was in without the formula change within five years.

 

Sending students across county borders helps only a little.

At a recent interim legislative meeting before the beginning of the regular legislative session, lawmakers discussed the possibility that small school systems could compensate for low enrollment through regionalization in which students would cross county lines to attend the schools nearest them. Lambert, who was present for that discussion, said Thursday his county already has 65 students crossing county lines, but its opportunities for such exchanges are limited because Pendleton County borders Virginia on two sides.

Another suggestion he dismissed was to have split-grade classrooms. Lambert said the class sizes in Pendleton County are too big for that. He also opposes that practice, because it’s tough on teachers.

J.P. Mowery, treasurer of the Pendleton County schools, told the committee that House Bill 4588 was a “much appreciated piece of school reform legislation.” He cited two fundamental changes it made:

1. It eliminated the concept of adjusted enrollment, and by doing so, eliminated the “penalty” for low special education enrollment.
2. It recognized the difficulties that small, sparsely populated counties have in achieving economies of scale. As a result, the bill established additional funding for counties below 1,400 in net enrollment.

Mowery said the elimination of adjusted enrollment is working well for such counties as Hardy, Berkeley, Logan, Marion and Mingo, because they are receiving extra funding now that they can avoid the low special education enrollment penalty.

Like Lambert, Mowery said, the additional funding for the small counties is “helping immensely,” but it has flaws. The additional funding is capped at an equivalent of 300 students added to enrollment and that 300-student cap is reduced further by multiplying that number by the relative sparseness of an individual county compared to that of Pocahontas County.

Mowery also suggested providing a funding stream for school system treasurers like him. He said it’s an important position but it’s not funded in the School Aid Formula.

 

Backers propose a pilot school.

The Senate Education Committee also heard from a few people who are advocating the creation of a pilot high school in the Kanawha Valley that would be student-centered and innovative. Monty Warner described it as a school that would “allow students to embark on a lifetime of learning.” He said it would serve students from several counties, including Kanawha, Jackson, Lincoln, Putnam and Cabell.

“The time is right for this initiative,” Warner said, because the Obama administration is favorable toward such innovation in education and private funding is available.

Sally Clark said the pilot school would allow students to take charge of their learning. They also would be able to participate in internships, she said.

“I am as committed to this proposal, to this project, to this policy as anyone can imagine.” – pilot school supporter Sally Clark

“I am as committed to this proposal, to this project, to this policy as anyone can imagine,” Clark said.

Karen Donovan, who described herself as a second-career teacher, shared the same passion for the pilot school concept. She said the school would not be exclusive, but it would be competitive. She also described it as “not a threat but an enhancement to the public school system.”

Sen. Mike Oliverio, D-Monongalia, asked what the pilot school could do that public schools cannot do now. Clark said the differences include project-based learning, internships, a year-round calendar and student input into courses. She said it would be integrated, innovative, flexible and accountable.

Matthew Brumley, a high school senior from Charleston, said funding would be available from such private companies as Exxon-Mobil. He suggested the school would have a strong focus on science and math.

Sen. Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, noted that George Washington High School in Charleston used to be the “crown jewel” of high schools in the state. He asked Clark, who has taught there, what the problem is at the school.

Clark blamed the No Child Left Behind program. She said it has “a lot of obstacles that really prohibit us from educating.” Annual yearly progress scores were down this year, she said, and some people at the school have talked about lowering the rigor of the curriculum as a result.

Earlier in the week, the Senate Education Committee approved two bills and sent them on to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration. Senate Bill 56 would award a National Board for Professional Teaching Standards salary bonus to certain teachers. Senate Bill 63 would increase the deposit from the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund to the Higher Education Improvement Fund.

The Senate Education Committee also originated a resolution to authorize the issuance of revenue bonds payable from the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund to fund capital improvements at state colleges and universities.

 

-- Jim Wallace is a former government reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail and former news director of West Virginia Public Radio. He now works for TSG Consulting in Charleston and writes for several national and West Virginia publications.

 

Two bills get through House Education Committee

A House Education subcommittee approved two bills on Thursday, including one that would exempt from consumer sales tax many items sold at schools.

Before the subcommittee passed that bill, House Bill 2470, it was amended to limit that exemption. Up to $200,000 in sales would be exempted from the sales tax, which means schools would still have to keep account of sales so they would know when they reach the $200,000 level.

Also, sales through vendors such as photography studios that provide school pictures would still be subject to the tax.

The other bill, House Bill 2639, would allow more teachers to be reimbursed for approved course work.

 

Center for Professional Development gets delegates’ attention

 

Center for Professional Development gets delegates’ attention

By Jim Wallace

The programs provided by the Center for Professional Development received the biggest share of attention when officials from the Department of Education and the Arts met with the House Education Committee on Tuesday.

“Each year, educators throughout the state find new and more effective ways to teach our children while enhancing their personal careers,” Education and the Arts Secretary Kay Goodwin said. “Teachers and school administrators can gain exciting, cutting-edge techniques through our West Virginia Center for Professional Development.”

Four other agency heads from the department also gave presentations during the meeting, while another four attended the meeting without giving presentations. But Goodwin indicated that she had turned over most of the meeting to Dixie Billheimer, interim chief executive officer of the Center for Professional Development, at the request of the lawmakers. The response from the delegates indicated that they were most interested in Billheimer’s presentation.

Billheimer said the center’s mission is to advance the quality of teaching in West Virginia schools. Her agency, which has only 13 employees, has five core programs.

 

Governor’s Academy for Teaching Excellence

Billheimer said this program, which has served 27,000 teachers, is preparing to roll out what she called the program’s next generation. Among other attributes, she said, it will use best practices, be fully based in research, require two-year commitments from participants, provide expert presenters and mentors, and give schools incentives to participate.

Among the initiatives of the Governor’s Academy for Teaching Excellence are:

• West Virginia Model for Positive School Climate – This seeks to promote both a non-violent school environment and school discipline. Billheimer said it helps improve attendance. She added that every staff member at a school must be trained in the principles used.
• Go Global – This helps teachers prepare students to deal with diversity in the world.
• Infusing Technology – This uses a team approach to help teachers make better use of technology as a tool for learning.
• NBC Take One – The NBC here is National Board Certification. Take One allows teachers to take one NBC portfolio entry to get a taste of the certification process and then go on to attempt the rest of the portfolio. Billheimer said it provides mentorship and monetary incentives.

Advanced Placement Program

This program trains teachers to provide students with rigorous subject matter in advanced placement courses and to prepare them for advanced placement exams, which allow the students to receive college credits while still in high school.

Billheimer said West Virginia led the nation in 2008 in the increase in students taking AP exams, which she indicated was a result of this program. About 340 teachers participated in the program last year.

 

Mentoring and Teacher Induction

Billheimer said this program works with the Regional Education Service Agencies to train mentors with a high-quality mentoring curriculum and pair them up with new teachers. She said her agency hopes to further improve the process, which she believes helps retain new teachers.

 

Principals’ Leadership Academy

One component of this program is for new principals. It gives them the opportunity to work with experienced principals around the state, Billheimer said. The other component is for experienced principals. It provides professional development opportunities for principals all around the state and often fills requests for specific types of training, she said.

The program also maintains an online professional development portfolio for each principal in the state. Billheimer said it allows each principal to see what professional development requirements he or she has fulfilled.

 

Evaluation Leadership Institute

This program provides principals and other administrators with training to help them evaluate their personnel. Billheimer said it relies on the expertise of experienced educators.

 

Committee members heard from four other presenters

Among the other presentations, Robin Taylor, coordinator of Imagination Library, explained that her program collaborates with Dolly Parton’s Dollywood Foundation to provide free books to children up to five years old in 13 counties. Since July 2007, the program has mailed free books to 5,000 children.

“Combating adult literacy begins with children in the home.” – Robin Taylor of Imagination Library

“Combating adult literacy begins with children in the home,” Taylor said.

The program plans to expand to 14 more counties, she said. In response to a question from Delegate Brady Paxton, D-Putnam, about whether Dolly Parton might visit the state because of the program, Taylor said Parton has promised to come if the program expands to all 55 counties.

The cost of the program is just $30 per year per child for 12 books a year, she said. The program requested a budget of $650,000, Taylor said, but Gov. Manchin put $325,000 in the budget for it instead.

Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie, was so impressed with the program that he said Imagination Library should get more money. He said he agreed with the philosophy of putting more emphasis on the ability to read at a young age.

Molly George, coordinator of the Governor’s Internship Program, told lawmakers that her program would celebrate its 20th year this summer. She said it included more than 100 students in more than 30 agencies last year. This year, she said, the program plans to expand with outreach to businesses and other agencies.

Goodwin said the program’s cost is about $3,000 per student for host agencies.

Sherry Keffer, director of the Governor’s Honor Schools, said her program has cultivated students’ curiosity and talent since 1984. She said the schools are fully funded in the budget at a level that would maintain their status quo.

Jack Wiseman, director of the West Virginia Partnerships to Assure Student Success, also known as WVPASS, said his agency sponsors several programs, which are designed to help communities create nurturing environments for young people and also increase their college-going rate.

 

-- Jim Wallace is a former government reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail and former news director of West Virginia Public Radio. He now works for TSG Consulting in Charleston and writes for several national and West Virginia publications.

 

Mark Manchin wants to spend school construction funds before costs go up

 

By Jim Wallace

Mark Manchin, executive director of the School Building Authority, told senators this week that he expects his agency to have about $66 million to distribute in the 2009 funding cycle.

The authority also has identified standards and performance quality for school construction and is encouraging the incorporation of “Green Building” standards in future school design, he said. His presentation came during a budget hearing for the authority before members of the Senate Finance Committee on Monday.

 

Senate Bill 297 expanded funds for school construction.

Manchin thanked lawmakers for passing Senate Bill 297 last year. That bill authorizes the School Building Authority to issue revenue bonds by using $19 million in proceeds from the state’s Excess Lottery Fund. The increased bonding capacity gave the agency an opportunity to go to New York last June to issue bonds that generated about $100 million.

The combination of that money plus funds already deposited in the agency’s school construction fund allowed the School Building Authority to approve school construction projects totaling more then $127 million in the 2008 needs funding cycle, Manchin said. But for the 2009 needs funding cycle, he said, only about half as much, $66 million, is likely to be available.

Manchin said he had expected to go to the bond market every three years, so the next time for that would be in 2011, but the authority might go back sooner than that. He said he believes that, with the influx of money from the federal stimulus package, inflation will rise dramatically. Today’s $1.00 could be worth only 75 cents in a year or two, he said, so he wants to build as much as possible before costs rise, he said.

Funding in the hundreds of millions of dollars might sound like a lot, Manchin said, but it doesn’t go very far in school construction. He noted that two proposed new high schools in Berkeley and Fayette counties would cost about $108 million together.

 

Authority adopts new standards for quality.

In addition to funding, other issues the authority has been working on include a companion document to the agency’s Guidelines and Procedures Manual that sets out standards and performance quality for school construction. The document was created partly in response to requests from legislators to design proto-typical schools.

Manchin said the standards don’t create “cookie-cutter” school designs but should standardize material qualities and create prototype academic spaces, where that is possible.

“In the past sometimes, we have sacrificed quality for additional square footage,” – Mark Manchin of the School Building Authority

“In the past sometimes, we have sacrificed quality for additional square footage,” he said.

A committee and several subcommittees with members from a wide range of backgrounds helped the authority develop the document over six months. The agency also worked with the Department of Education’s Office of Technology and other technology experts on technological aspects of the standards.

As Manchin explained to the senators, the new standards require technology plans for new school designs to have professional input and for network engineers to work cooperatively with project design engineers during early design stages.

The authority approved the new standards last June for application to all new construction projects beginning in 2009. In renovation projects that involve the replacement of major components of school buildings, the new components also must meet the new standards.

 

Green Building Initiative spends money to save money.

The School Building Authority also is working with a new Green Building Initiative, which incorporates into future school construction designs certain standards for sustainability and energy efficiency.

Using the new standards, the authority has approved designing one new school each year as a LEED Silver Certified School. (LEED stands for Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design.) Manchin said this year’s LEED Silver Certified School is Spring Mills Elementary School in Berkeley County. That will add $1.5 million to the school’s construction costs, he said, but the school system should save much more than that in operating costs over the lifetime of the school.

The authority now is looking to designate a second project as a LEED Silver Certified School, Manchin said. The authority’s expectation is that the next generation of West Virginia schools will be more durable, sustainable and technologically capable.

Sen. Karen Facemyer, R-Jackson, asked how much money would be recouped from the energy savings. Manchin said the energy costs should be reduced by about 40 percent, which will be savings for the school districts, even though the School Building Authority will pay for energy-saving improvements.

“That would be nice for the counties to do that.” – Sen. Karen Facemyer on the School Building Authority’s investment in energy-saving improvements

“That would be nice for the counties to do that,” Facemyer said, adding that she hoped the savings would be tracked. Manchin said the energy-saving information will be gathered from the Berkeley County project.

 

More money will be spent on making schools more secure.

Manchin also gave the senators an update on how School Access Safety Funds are being used for controlling access to school buildings and monitoring those access points. The list shows that $7.7 million of the $10 million Round 1 funding and $1.8 million of the $10 million Round 2 funding have been spent. Gov. Joe Manchin has requested an additional $1 million for school access safety projects, Mark Manchin said.

Sen. Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, asked what the authority is doing to develop a uniform crisis management plan for the schools. Manchin replied that he had just met that day on that subject with Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne. The authority is working closely with Homeland Security and National Guard officials on those plans, he said.

The cost of going from 55 different plans to a uniform plan would be considerable, Manchin said, and he’s looking into how it might be funded.

“I think it’s worthy of study, but it’s going to take some funding – about $10 million,” he said. “We don’t have that funding.”

When Wells asked why there are so many different crisis management plans, Manchin responded that no one previously had tried to initiate any uniformity. He added that some “amazing technology” is available to help make schools safer, but it’s costly. Wells said that having standard codes for crisis management would help when State Police must respond to emergencies.

“It’s amazing how many school you can walk right into.” – Mark Manchin

“It’s amazing how many school you can walk right into,” Manchin said. “They have had a number of people walk into schools with no warning.”

Providing better exterior doors has improved safety at some schools, he said, but many schools still cannot lock their interior doors. When there are problems with intruders, domestic disputes often are involved, Manchin said.

Sen. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants, asked whether some school systems have unused School Access Safety money because they couldn’t afford the matching funds. No, Manchin said, it’s just that the process is slow. All 55 county school systems have been excited about having the funds available, he said.

 

-- Jim Wallace is a former government reporter for the Charleston Daily Mail and former news director of West Virginia Public Radio. He now works for TSG Consulting in Charleston and writes for several national and West Virginia publications.

 

School board members want raise

 

By Davin White

Some county school board members in West Virginia want a pay raise, and say earning $160 per meeting is outdated and unfair.

Rick Snuffer, president of the West Virginia School Board Association and the Raleigh County Board of Education, wants to restructure the pay method so a county school board member earns up to 50 percent of a local county commissioner's salary.

He expects a bill will be introduced in the Legislature within the next week or two.

Kanawha County school board members could more than double what they earn and pull in a salary of nearly $18,500 a year, based on Kanawha County commissioners' $36,960 salary.

Currently, Kanawha school board members earn no more than $8,000 a year in per-meeting pay. In 2007, the Kanawha school board had 56 meetings. By law, each member was paid only for 50.     
        
"It becomes a very thankless job," Snuffer said. "It's hard to keep attracting professional people. It just gets harder."

But Putnam County school board member Debbie Phillips believes she's paid enough.

"You shouldn't expect to be paid as you would a job," she said. "It's a public service as far as I'm concerned. In my case, my answer is, 'I think it's adequate.'"

Salaries for board members in counties with low student enrollment might be limited to $8,000, Snuffer said.

That might apply to Wirt County, which averages less than half the annual board meetings of a large school system like Kanawha.

Still, Snuffer and others say state lawmakers need to look beyond per-meeting pay and consider other duties.

He spends hours studying issues before board meetings. He often spends time on the phone with the Raleigh County superintendent. When Snuffer leaves home to shop at the grocery store, attend a football game or go to church, he's always a member of the school board, he said.

"It's a slow day if I don't get more than one call," he said. "That is time-consuming."

Sally Cann, a Harrison County school board member, gets phone calls at home about fights that break out at school, arguments and other issues.

"It's a 24/7 job. There's nobody else that's paid like that," Cann said. "You look at our budget and you look at county commission's. Our budget is more than the county's. So we don't think it's fair."

Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper agrees that county school board members are underpaid.

"Tough time to ask for it but if I was in the Legislature I'd vote to give them a pay raise," Carper said. "Their compensation is obscenely low. ... I want the best person we can get on the Board of Education."

Still, he's uneasy about the comparisons to county commissioners.

"They might want to follow me around for a day or two," he said. "I think they might find that county commissioners have a significant responsibility."

Nancy Walker, a Monongalia County school board member, is conflicted by the argument that county school board members deserve better pay.

On one hand, board members spend a lot of time at special dedications, read to children and take part in school activities. Each spring, board members are bogged down by a long list of employee transfer and layoff hearings, she said.

"When those things are going on, it seems like the compensation's a little meager," she said.

Smaller counties sometimes even have a difficult time fielding a slate of five candidates, who must navigate a minefield of potential conflicts of interest, Walker said. 

She also believes Kanawha school board members, for instance, are underpaid.

Kanawha board member Jim Crawford expects to attend 60 meetings this year but get paid for 50. He's in favor of an increase.    

"There is really no way that I feel they are fairly compensated," Walker said. "It is really, I feel, a county-by-county situation."

But Walker, who's also vice president of the United Way of Monongalia & Preston Counties, considers her work on the school board a public service.

"If you're doing it for the compensation, you're doing it for the wrong reasons," she said.

Phillips agrees, and wouldn't feel comfortable with a pay raise.

"I'm very happy with what it is. I almost feel guilty sometimes taking it," she said. "And I don't know how you justify it in today's times. I'd rather see the money go to the employees in the classroom and the central office."

The current plan, Snuffer said, is to restructure the law so the next time state lawmakers give a pay increase to teachers and staff, it would also trigger a pay boost for school board members. 

Howard O'Cull, executive director of the West Virginia School Board Association, said the organization has hired Charleston consultant Tom Susman to lobby state lawmakers on the pay proposal, insurance liability and other issues.

"Is the timing right? There's probably never a good time to ask for more money," Cann said. "We think we've been patient and we just think it needs revamped."

Davin White is a staff writer at the Charleston Gazette. Reprinted by permission of the Charleston Gazette-Mail. This article was published Feb. 22, 2009.

Suggested language relating to county board compensation

 

Listed below is the selected language relating to county boards of education member compensation, as determined by the West Virginia School Board Association Legislative Committee earlier this month. According to association president Rick Snuffer, who visited the Capitol Feb. 26, the measure is to be introduced early next week.

(e) Until board members are compensated under the terms of subsection (f) of this section, board members may receive compensation at a rate not to exceed one hundred sixty dollars per meeting attended, but they may not receive pay for more than fifty meetings in any one fiscal year. Additionally, until board members are compensated under the terms of subsection (f) of this section, board members who serve on an administrative council of a multi-county vocational center also may receive compensation for attending up to twelve meetings of the council at the same rate as for meetings of the county board. Meetings of the council are not counted as board meetings for purposes of determining the limit on compensable board meetings.

(f) Beginning on the date after the thirtieth day of June, two thousand nine, when any
increase in the state minimum salaries for teachers under section two [§ 18A-4-2], article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code first takes effect, board members shall be paid one-half of the  annual compensation paid to members of the county commission of the county in which they serve, calculated pursuant to the provisions of section four [§ 7-7-4], article seven, chapter seven of this code. The payment to a board member of compensation under this subsection shall thereafter be in lieu of, and not in addition to, the compensation provided for in subsection (e) of  this section.

For more information, please contact the association offices at 304-346-0571 or Executive Director Howard M. O’Cull. His contact information is hocull@wvsba.org or 304-346-0571.

Administrative Perspective

Senate Education gathers more information regarding school calendar; House Education subcommittees consider several bills

By Martha Dean, Ed.D.

This week, the Legislature has continued to gather information and to work on a few bills.  As far as I know, nothing pertaining to education has passed but a few bills appear to be on the fast track to getting on the floor.

In the House, Education Subcommittee A worked on House Bill 2530 and House Bill 2538 on Tuesday. Both came from interim legislative meetings and deal with the school funding formula. House Bill 2530 further defines student support personnel to be professional educators.  The bill says that the allowances for professional educators and service personnel are to be computed based on the number allowed rather than the number employed for the remaining four years of the phase-in of the law passed last year. 

It also says that at least 91 percent of the professional personnel must be professional instructional personnel or be reduced pro rata. It clarifies that professional student support personnel (school nurses and counselors) are still included in the general employee classification of “teacher.”

House Bill 2538 is fairly straight forward: It provides supplemental funding for the provision of alternative programs for students with limited proficiency in English.  The appropriation may be $274 multiplied by the number of students with limited English proficiency enrolled in the second month of the previous school year.

 

Bill would adjust pay grades.

Subcommittee D in the House worked on House Bill 2620. The bill originally just dealt with the change of the pay grade for cafeteria managers from Pay Grade “D” to Pay Grade “E.”

It was amended to also add the Bus Operator II classification for those bus operators who had been employed for 20 years and more. They would be paid at Pay Grade “E.”  It further stipulates that mechanics who hold the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (ASE) Certification would be granted an additional pay grade. Finally, a systems technology specialist was added at Pay Grade “G.” The fiscal note for this bill estimates an additional cost to the state of $813,449.

On Tuesday, the Senate Education Committee passed out two bills. The first was Senate Bill 56, which allows National Board of Professional Teachers Standards teachers who become principals or other administrators to keep their salary bonus in the new positions. The other was Senate Bill 63, which increases the deposit from the State Excess Lottery Revenue Fund to Higher Education Improvement Fund. Both bills must go to the Senate Finance Committee.

 

School calendar proposals are considered.

On Thursday, the school calendar subcommittees of both Education committees met to hear comments regarding changes in the school calendar. There were several speakers scheduled to speak, but the questions from the committee members to the two superintendents who gave comments (Daniel Metz of Wirt County and Charlotte Hutchens of Raleigh County) took up so much time that the only other speaker was Piedmont Elementary School Principal Steve Knighton who spoke about the advantages of the year-round school calendar at his school in Kanawha County.

Some points that were made by the two superintendents indicate how difficult it is to consider changes that will be amenable to all the various groups that are interested in the school calendar.

Metz indicated that this year, since the number of snow days has been so great, his county has had the staff report on a two-hour delay schedule on snow days to be used for staff development and other activities. He said this had been beneficial. 

Hutchens indicated that one cause of the current problem is the narrowly defined employment term, which does not allow snow days to be made up except during that employment term. She also indicated that the public just doesn’t understand why teachers get paid and don’t work on snow days. Instructional Support and Enhancement (ISE) days cannot be used currently to make up missed days, which might be a change that people could agree upon. Since ISE days are scheduled in the school calendar, few days are available when students don’t have to go to school because they are ISE days.

The meeting had to be called because of a lack of time. I feel sure other joint meetings will be scheduled soon to allow others to have their input into this controversial issue.

On Thursday, House Education Subcommittee A met to take up House Bill 2639, which would change the rules for tuition reimbursement for teachers. It basically would remove the mandatory split between teachers who are renewing and those who are adding a certification so that every teacher would be part of the first-come, first-granted money until it runs out for that year. 

The second bill on the subcommittee’s agenda was House Bill 2470, which would exempt schools from paying sales tax on sales for the schools. This bill was amended from its original form on the basis of recommendations for clarification by Mark Melton,  a representative of the state Tax Department. Both bills are being sent to the full committee.

-- Martha Dean, Ed.D.,is the executive director of the state School Administrators Association.

 

WVSBA Briefs

West Virginia School Board Association Winter Conference Program

Thursday, March 12, 2009
7:00 p.m.	West Virginia School Board Association Executive Board Meeting
Friday, March 13, 2009
1:00 p.m.	The Mountain County Board of Education meets for its March Regular Session WVSBA Vice President Mike Mitchem (McDowell) presides at this session. Via role-playing, the Mountain County Board of Education convenes for a March Regular Meeting. Note: Will include five (4) county board members and one (1) county schools superintendent  who volunteer to act as members of the Mountain County Board of Education as well as one (1) county board member who will serve as county schools superintendent. In this mock session, members will consider issues relating to: meeting management, a “policy v. administration consideration,” a charge of “micromanaging,” handling of delegations, matters regarding a rogue member – or so-called rogue member -  board meeting decorum, especially regarding members and presiding officers and their interaction with citizens, delegations and central office staff.
2:45 p.m.	Break
3:00 p.m.	WV VITAL – 21S Century West Virginia VITAL Survey: Vision for Improving Teaching & Learning (W. Va. Department of Education) Participants would receive information – statewide data trends – based on educators from districts having garnered a 40 percent or greater response rate on the WV VITAL Survey. Thirty-six (36) counties† met this criterion. Once the statewide trend data is discussed, county boards in those 36 counties, working with their superintendent and board central office staff (as applicable), could receive training credits for “whole-board” training as approved by the West Virginia Board of Education/West Virginia School Board Association School Board Member Training Standards Review Committee (TSRC). Such an approach will emphasize “whole-board” training while also providing county board members with possible areas for policy development and deployment. The Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Brooke, Cabell,  Clay, Doddridge,  Grant, Greenbrier, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Logan, Marion, McDowell, Mercer,  Monongalia, Monroe, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Taylor, Tyler, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, and Wyoming County Boards of Education had at least a 40 percent (total) response rate.
4:15 p.m.	Adjournment of Afternoon Session (Dinner on Own)
7:00 p.m.	The School Board: Dynamics for the 21st Century – Introductory Session WVSBA President-Elect Rick Olcott (Wood) introduces session. WVDE/CPD staff provides results of prioritization. Group briefly discusses prioritization.   Curtis Johnson, Ph.D., co-author - Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns First responding to the “prioritized information,” Dr. Johnson discusses main points made in his book. These remarks are made within the context of the W. Va. Board of Education’s proposed “innovation zones” legislation.  The purpose of this discussion is to determine how progressive legislation such as “innovation zones” can prove empowering to county boards and how county boards can adapt focuses and outlook for the future to accommodate or initiate change, to become more effective in terms of governance and to become more accountable.  A secondary purpose is to identify steps that can be taken for county boards to implement various recommendations made during the session.
8:45 p.m.	Adjournment
Saturday, March 14, 2009
7:00 a.m.	Breakfast
8:00 a.m.	Delegate Assembly (Non-training related programming)
9:00 a.m.	The School Board – Dynamics for the 21st Century – Session Continues Introduction by Association President Rick Snuffer (Raleigh)
9:15 a.m.	Brief Remarks by various panelists
10:30 a.m.	Break
10:45 a.m.	Breakout Groups Reportage
11:45 a.m.	Adjournment

 

NOTE: Due to two presenters’ changes in scheduling, program format has changed somewhat, although content remains same.

†The Barbour, Berkeley, Boone, Brooke, Cabell,  Clay, Doddridge,  Grant, Greenbrier, Hancock, Hardy, Harrison, Jackson, Logan, Marion, McDowell, Mercer,  Monongalia, Monroe, Nicholas, Ohio, Pendleton, Pocahontas, Preston, Putnam, Raleigh, Randolph, Ritchie, Roane, Taylor, Tyler, Wayne, Webster, Wetzel, Wirt, and Wyoming County Boards of Education had at least a 40 percent (total) response rate.

 

Resources

IDEA funding application available online

The West Virginia Department of Education has published the annual funding application for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Part B, which may be found by visiting: http://wvde.state.wv.us/osp/WVPartBApplication.html.

To receive federal IDEA funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), the state is required to publish the proposed plan at least 60 days prior to the date on which the plan is submitted, with an opportunity for public comment on the plan to be accepted for at least 30 days.   Public comments on the application will be accepted March 2 through March 31, 2009.  A Comment Response Form is found at the end of the document.  Please submit comment forms by mail to Sandra McQuain, assistant director, Office of Special Programs, Extended and Early Learning, at the address indicated on the form, by fax to (304) 558-3741 or by e-mail to smcquain@access.k12.wv.us.

 

2009 Legislative Calendar

1. √ Opening Day – Jan. 14, 2009: Organizational session to elect officers and open and publish election results (WV Const. Art. VI, §18).
2. √ First Day -- Feb. 11, 2009: First day of session (WV Const. Art. VI, §18).

20th Day -- March 2, 2009: Submission of Legislative Rule-Making Review bills due (WV Code. §29A-3-12).

41st Day – March 23, 2009: Last day to introduce bills in the Senate and the House (Senate Rule 14)and (House Rule 91a). Does not apply to originating or supplementary appropriation bills. Does not apply to Senate or House resolutions or concurrent resolutions.

47th Day – March 29, 2009: Bills due out of committees in house of origin to ensure three full days for readings.

50th Day – April 1, 2009: Last day to consider bills on third reading in house of origin. Does not include budget or supplementary appropriation bills (Joint Rule 5b).

60th Day – April 11, 2009: Adjournment at midnight (WV Const. Art. VI, §22).

Source: West Virginia Legislature

 

Commentary

The developments that nobody wants

 

The news is comprised these days of the economic developments nobody wants to hear about - stock market declines, corporate losses, lowered earnings, shutdowns, layoffs and cutbacks, smaller tax collections and so on.

The news seems to have penetrated the consciousness of some public officials and not others.

West Virginia's legislative session began with several unions that represent state employees demanding higher pay. This is not rational.
Earlier this month, higher education officials warned that tuition increases, and-or fee increases, are practically inevitable. This, too, hits the ears all wrong.

To their credit, members of the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission do seem to be clued in. They want the colleges to seek efficiencies and cost savings.

That's closer to the right response. People in the public sector don't want to cut underused programs any more than people in the private sector want to cut underperforming assets. But there are times when spending must be cut, not raised.

Now is such a time.

But other entities just don't seem to get it.

This week, the Coalition of Retired Public Employees will have a go at public opinion with its annual legislative rally at the Capitol.

On the agenda: concern over increased premiums for Public Employees Insurance Agency coverage, the quest for a cost-of-living allowance for retired public employees, and a request for a $20,000 tax exemption for public employee pensions - as if absolutely nothing of note were going on economically.

Amazing.

Also this week, some members of the West Virginia School Boards Association advanced the notion that members of county school boards, who handle larger budgets than county commissions, should probably be paid half as much as county commissioners.

Since commissioners are paid $36,960 per year, that would raise the pay of Kanawha school board members, currently about $8,000 per year, to almost $18,500 a year.

Whatever case could be made for salary or benefit enhancements in good times, the answer for increase-minded public officials should be clear: Not now.

This editorial was published in the Charleston Daily Mail on Feb. 24, 2009. It is reprinted by permission.

 

ETC.

Meanwhile…In Oregon Sex ed class becomes Comedy Central

In an effort to engage his high school sophomores, a veteran sex education teacher in Portland, Ore., put underwear over his pants and a condom on his head during a lesson, reports The Oregonian. Little did he know, one of his students was filming him and he’d soon become a YouTube sensation.

Norman Scott of Grant High School had intended to use humor to warn students about the dangers of STDs. However, district officials didn’t find the lesson funny at all. "What you saw in that video in no way, shape or form represents Portland Public Schools' approved curriculum," said district spokesman Matt Shelby. "Sex education can be a tough subject . . . but that was well beyond anything I've ever seen."

In defending his teaching, Scott explained that he was portraying a fictional character named "Elmer Beaumont," who represents the consequences of reckless sexual behavior. Scott called the lesson "very effective" and said he may try it again next year.

While some student viewed the presentation in a humorous light, other students weren’t as amused saying the “joke” make a mockery of sex education classes and STD prevention.

The principal of Grant High has received no complaints about the video and Scott is not facing sanctions.

According to school officials, the segment is not longer posted on YouTube.

-- Numerous sources including The Oregonian.

 

Wisdom

 

“Great necessities call forth great leaders.” –Abigail Adams

Soundbites

 

“If we know about it, we collect it.” – Mark Morton, general counsel for the state Tax Department, in response to a House Education Committee member’s question about what the department collects taxes on.

“I think it’s worthy of study, but it’s going to take some funding – about $10 million. We don’t have that funding.” – Mark Manchin of the School Building Authority on a proposal for a uniform crisis management plan for all school systems.

“I believe it’s a safety issue for our students.” – Wirt County Supt. Daniel Metz on why his district does not schedule school during Thanksgiving week, when many hunters flock to the county for the opening of deer season.

Corrections

The Last Word column in the Feb. 20 Issue of The Legislature was reprinted by permission of the Charleston Gazette. There were also some errors regarding legislators’ positions in the Senate and House of Delegates.

 

Last Word

SB 541 Funds are another resource for us to use in our efforts to attract and retain education personnel

By Judy Hale

In 2007, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 541. The bill allows annual growth in the funding for local schools by reducing by 8 percentage points over two years the amount of locally generated property tax revenue that the state considers as the local obligation toward support of the Public School Support. 

More specifically, the local share calculation was decreased by 4 percentage points effective July 1, 2007, and another 4 percentage points effective July 1, 2008.  This brought the amount of property tax revenue generated by a county’s regular school levy obligated toward support of the Public School Support Plan down to 90 percent from 98 percent. In actual dollars, the aggregate increase available for counties at the local level as a result of Senate Bill 541 amounted to well over $30 million over the two-year period.

The intent of the legislation, to increase salaries for education employees, has been made quite clear by both the legislative and executive branches. Subcommittee “C” of the Joint Standing Committee on Education wrote to the state superintendent of schools and the state school board president:

“…Because the need for salary competitiveness to attract and retain highly qualified personnel was discussed extensively during the past session and expressed by a number of counties as being among their highest priorities, the purpose of this letter is to clarify that these additional funds may be used for county salary supplements.  …It is the hope of this subcommittee that the funds be used for that purpose, namely, to increase salaries and/or benefits of both teachers and service personnel and to attract and retain highly qualified, certified teachers….”

In addition, Sen. Larry Edgell, vice-chair of the Senate Education Committee at the time the bill was passed, stated in an interview in the Wheeling Intelligencer in November 2008:

“… There was a verbal agreement between legislators and the state Board of Education that the funds should be used to increase pay for teachers and service workers…”

The governor also believed that the intent of Senate Bill 541 was to increase salaries. During his 2008 State of the State address, he stated:

“…One of the most important things that we can do to address teachers’ salary issues across our state is to provide counties with the flexibility within the School Aid Formula to capture more local funds, so that they can contribute additional money to their teachers’ pay based on their specific county needs. We gave that flexibility last year (SB 541), but I have found that in many cases the money was used for other purposes other than the classroom salary supplements that it was meant for….”

There is little doubt that the legislative and executive branches of government intended Senate Bill 541 funds to help counties attract and retain school service personnel and teachers. Senate Bill 541 was to be another “tool” available for advocates of public education to use to help close the salary gap. With the economic climate being what it is, Senate Bill 541 funds assume even greater importance in our efforts to attract and retain education employees. 

To their credit, many counties have followed the intent of the legislation and provided county-funded salary and/or benefit enhancements. However, too many counties have simply chosen to redirect the funds to their operating budgets. For example, many counties are using the funds to cover the increased cost of fuel despite the fact that the Legislature, in the June 2008 special session, allocated additional funds to all counties to cover the increased cost of diesel fuel. Just as we would not expect the funds earmarked for diesel fuel to be used for salary increases, the flip-side is true. Senate Bill 541 funds should not be used to offset the increased cost of fuel. 

AFT-WV will continue to press county boards of education to use the Senate Bill 541 funds for their intended purpose, namely, to increase salaries for school service personnel and teachers. The average salary for public school teachers in the United States increased 4.5 percent in 2006-07 to $51,009. The average teacher salary in our state for 2006-2007 was $40,534, an increase of 2.4 percent from the previous year, giving us a national ranking of 45th. When compared to the contiguous states, we rank last. In addition, a recent legislative study reported that not only do teacher salaries lag behind their peers nationwide, but they are outpaced by those in jobs with similar education and experience.

The need to increase salaries for school service personnel is just as critical. With the average salary for school service personnel at $24,000, this puts them just slightly above the poverty level for a family of four. As a result, it is not uncommon for school service personnel to have to work two jobs to make ends meet.

So many times, we have gone before county boards of education to ask for a salary increase. The standard response has been: “We would like to provide one but the funds simply do not exist.” Now, with Senate Bill 541 funds available, the boards cannot only “talk the talk, but “walk the walk.”  Let’s use the Senate Bill 541 funds for what the Legislature and the governor intended; to provide salary increases for our education employees. 

-- Judy Hale is president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia.

*

 

The Legislature is published by the West Virginia School Board Association. It provides county board of education members, state policymakers, school administrators and the education community information and opinions regarding West Virginia legislative issues. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect official opinion or policies of the WVSBA, unless specifically stated.

West Virginia School Board Association
PO Box 1008
Charleston, WV 25324
Phone (304) 346-0571 • Fax (304) 346-0572 WVSBA.ORG

Richard Snuffer(Raleigh), President

Howard M. O’Cull, Ed. D., Executive Director, Editor
hocull@wvsba.org
Shirley M. Davidson, Administrative Assistant,
Production and Circulation
sdavidson@wvsba.org

Vincit omnia veritas
“Truth conquers all”