WVSBA The Legislature

August 18, 2006 - Volume 25 / Issue 19

Overview Info

Stats

2006 Regular Session: Adjourned Sine Die
Days Until 2007 Regular Session: 145

Interim Sessions Remaining

July 2006 - January 2007

Inside

 

Quote: “I think we’ve got to careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.” – West Virginia Education Association attorney Bill McGinley who represents WVEA as a member of the governor’s working group studying the grievance procedure for school employees and state workers.

News

The Harrison County Board of Education will meet this morning to determine which of eight legal groups will represent them in the trial over a picture of Christ which had hung in Bridgeport High School.

The picture was reported stolen August 17.

Based on various news media accounts, a young man broke into the school about 4 a.m. Thursday and took the painting – Warner Sallman’s “Head of Christ” – leaving the frame affixed to the wall.

Bridgeport police have viewed three school security tapes, but say they have no suspects, although there is some speculation that the thief is a former or current school student given his apparent knowledge of the school.

The Charleston Gazette reported that Bridgeport law enforcement officials say the suspect often covered his face and shied away from security cameras. According to police, the thief apparently entered the building through a technology lab window and existed via the same windows, based on videos.

According to Harrison Superintendent Carl Friebel, Ed.D., this is the first theft reported at the school during the last five years.

In June, Americans United for Church and State and the American Civil Liberties Union sued the county board and Friebel on behalf of two Harrison County residents. They claim the painting violates U.S. Constitution religious freedom clauses and wanted it removed.

County board member Mike Queen said he would support purchasing a replacement painting. Queen helped spearhead a group called Christian Freedom Fund that raised about $150,000 to help the board hire national constitutional law experts.

The Gazette reports that a replica portrait would cost about $2,500.

Board members who have opposed the painting and tried to avoid a lawsuit say they wouldn’t mind if the theft ended the saga.

The Gazette quotes board president Wilson Currey who said, “This has been a happy day for me…If it was up to me, since it’s down, it would stay down.

Other groups, including Americans United, don’t think the issue is dead. The Gazette quotes a spokesperson from that group saying, “…The current illegal activity is no way to reach a conclusion in this manner.”

This issue of The Legislature includes three commentaries on the subject, one written by MetroNews’ Hoppy Kercheval, another from the Gazette, and a “Last Word” piece submitted by Queen.

Sources: The Charleston Gazette, MetroNews, The Associated Press, and Queen.

 

West Virginia School Boards Association Conference ’06 attendees will learn about proposed changes in the state’s grievance procedure for school and public employees in a Sept. 22 plenary session. All Conference ’06 programs are at the Marriott Town Center hotel in Charleston on Sept. 22-23.

The program adjourns at noon Sept. 23.

The grievance panel session is 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 22. Education and State Employees Grievance Board Executive Director Earl Maxwell will be the lead presenter.

Members of the grievance panel working group as well as members of the Legislature’s Joint Government Organization Subcommittee C will be invited to participate, including Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, and Dale Martin, D-Putnam, according to Howard M. O’Cull, Ed.D., WVSBA executive director.

“The Governor’s Office and Legislature are contemplating what could amount to significant changes in the state’s employee grievance procedure,” said WVSBA President Kim Cooper (Raleigh). “While WVSBA, through its executive and other representatives, has been active in attending working group meetings, it is critical county board members and county superintendents are informed about new grievance proposals, including possible binding arbitration,” Cooper said.

The program includes discussions by other working group members and Kimberly Croyle and Rick Boothby, attorneys who represent WVSBA.

Based on discussions in the working group meetings and Government Organization Subcommittee C meetings, the legislative subcommittee, using information from the working group, will make final recommendations to lawmakers about proposed grievance procedure changes.

Conference ’06 also includes a presentation by keynote speaker Jamie Vollmer, a strong public education advocate; a workshop designed for “takeover” counties; and, a review of an emerging state Department of Education study of Regional Educational Service Agencies (RESAs).

Additional workshops relate to wellness policies and, as recommended, by Orientation ’06 attendees, O’Cull will lead a “cracker barrel” session. Members are required to enroll in the latter session, which will feature pre-conference readings.

Members and county superintendents who are not involved in state Board of Education takeovers are invited to attend that work session, although it is designed primarily for the four counties in which the WVBE has currently intervened: Hampshire, Lincoln, McDowell and Mingo counties. WVSBA counsel Howard E. Seufer Jr., will lead the takeover workshop.

A tentative conference agenda will be mailed next week.

County board executive secretaries are responsible for conference registration and securing lodging for board member and superintendent attendees.

For conference program information, contact O’Cull at hocull@wvsba.org. For conference registration and lodging details, contact Shirley Davidson at sdavidson@wvsba.org. Both may be reached by telephone at (304) 346-0571.

WVSBA has held a “fall conference” since 1967.

 

The May 2006 Primary Election resulted in the loss of several West Virginia School Boards Association regional directors and associate directors. The WVSBA Executive Board, in conformity with the organization’s Constitution and Bylaws, has scheduled eight regional caucuses to fill these positions.

The caucuses are scheduled for 8 a.m., Saturday, Sept. 23, in conjunction with WVSBA’s Conference ’06 at the Charleston Marriott Town Center hotel.

Based on the Constitution and Bylaws, the WVSBA Delegate Assembly will consider three items of business:

County board members interested in regional director and associate regional director positions should notify President Kim Cooper (Raleigh) by e-mail at dukecoop77@hotmail.com, prior to the September meeting.

Please do not contact WVSBA staff about election issues.

 

By Jim Wallace

Coming up with ideas for how West Virginia’s grievance process for public employees should work is easy, but reconciling those ideas into one system will not be so easy for a work group devoted to the subject.

At a July 26 meeting at the Capitol, the group heard presentations from representatives of the West Virginia School Boards Association, the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, the Division of Highways and West Virginia University. Each agreed that the grievance process should be improved, but their views on how to do that differed greatly.

The West Virginia School Boards Association is conducting its own research into binding arbitration

In March, a grievance reform bill had support from 24 of the 34 members of the West Virginia Senate, but it died when it fell short of the four-fifths majority required for a final reading on the last day the Senate could consider its own bills. After the regular session, lawmakers took up study of the grievance process during their interim meetings in May and June, but now that study has shifted over to the work group set up by Gov. Manchin.

Richard Boothby, an attorney for the School Boards Association, warned the panel at its latest meeting against taking a “one-size-fits-all approach,” because grievances for public school employees compared to those of other state employees are “night and day.” There is merit to having two separate procedures under one statute and one grievance board, as now exists, he said.

“The system isn’t perfect,” Boothby said. “But it’s better than what’s being proposed.”

Lawmakers and others, including Earl Maxwell, director of the West Virginia Education and State Employees Grievance Board, have expressed interest in simplifying the system, combining the two procedures into one.

But Boothby said school board employees have clear workplace rules, and every education grievance is controlled by state law, which isn’t so for employees of state government. He noted that only one-half of 1 percent of West Virginia’s 37,000 public school employees filed grievances last year.

Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock and co-chairman of the work group, said, “Your grievance process is effective and working.”

The School Boards Association is still polling its members on what changes they would like to see in the grievance process, but Boothby said a few changes that should be considered include eliminating the Level III hearing before a board of education. He said the Level II hearing, which is often before a superintendent, is useful because it allows for discussion that often determines what the problem really is and sometimes settles disputes.

Under the current system, Level I is for a grievant to take a complaint to an immediate supervisor, Level II is for it to go to a chief administrator (such as a superintendent), Level III is a hearing before a governing board (such as a school board) and Level IV is a hearing before the state grievance board.

David Miller of West Virginia University presented an overview of a potential ombudsman position that the university might establish to provide faculty, staff and students with informal assistance in resolving conflicts.

Maxwell has said he would like to reduce the number of levels in the process from four to three. The first level would be for an employee to take a grievance to a supervisor. The next level would be the chief administrator in that employee’s division. The final step would be to go to the state grievance board, which Maxwell wants to rename the West Virginia Employment Dispute Resolution Board.

Bowman has expressed interest in using binding arbitration, which he believes would save money. Boothby said there is some interest in binding arbitration among school boards but also concern about transaction costs and the possibility it could actually be “prohibitively expensive.” There is no study showing it is cheaper, he said, and noted that arbitrators are lawyers who charge lawyers’ fees.

Although Boothby said the average cost of one day’s hearing in binding arbitration is about $4,000 and it could cost as much as $8,000, Delegate Dale Martin, D-Putnam and co-chairman of the work group, expressed doubt about such high costs. Boothby said he got his figures from former state Supreme Court Justice Margaret Workman. He added that costs are high because there is a lack of competition among arbitrators.

The School Boards Association is conducting its own research into binding arbitration, Boothby said. Among the association’s other concerns about arbitration is that it is “unclear how to achieve respect for precedent,” he said.

“Most education grievances are zero-sum gains,” Boothby said. For example, in a reduction-in-force, someone must lose a job. If a board’s decision is reversed through the grievance process, the school system could be left with two people for one job.

Bob Brown, executive secretary of the School Service Personnel Association, was more critical than Boothby of the current grievance process. He also said he was disappointed not to be asked to serve on the work group, because school service personnel use the process more than other school employees.

Brown said he recalled that, when the grievance system was set up, it was designed to be simple, expeditious and fair, but it has none of those attributes today.

Krista Duncan, an attorney for the Division of Highways, said her agency is very concerned about the costs of the grievance process, but it’s difficult to determine fully what all those costs are in an agency with more than 5,000 employees.

“It’s not simple anymore,” Brown said. “It has turned into a legal quagmire.”

It’s not uncommon for school boards to send lawyers to Level II hearings, he said. Brown further claimed that school boards spent $2.7 million in one year to fight employees’ grievances.

His organization and other labor groups had hoped that the Legislature would have passed Senate Bill 417, which would have given employees the option of choosing arbitration instead of a Level IV hearing.

“We are not satisfied with the results we have been getting at Level IV,” Brown said. He further complained that even though employees don’t win many cases at Level IV, school boards appeal almost all of them to circuit court because they can use taxpayers’ money to go to court.

“We’re more successful in court than at Level IV,” Brown said.

Often when employees win on the merits of a case, they are denied back pay, so they’re forced to go to circuit court, he said.

Bowman said that with arbitration, costs are shared so both sides would be more careful about letting the process escalate. Agreeing, Brown said, “It drives you to the table to seek a resolution at a lower level.”

But Lew Brewer, executive director of the West Virginia Ethics Commission and a member of the work group, said he was curious about who would bear the cost of arbitration for employees “when you don’t have a true collective bargaining paradigm.”

West Virginia law does not recognize collective bargaining for public employees, although many workers in the public sector are members of labor organizations, such as the West Virginia Education Association and the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.

Lawyer Mark Carter, an expert in labor law and a work group member, agreed that it is unclear who would bear the costs of arbitration for an employee who is not a member of a labor union. “Let’s recognize that we’re not in a collective bargaining scenario.”

Repeating a concern he expressed at earlier meetings, Bowman stressed that he objects to requiring school boards and other public employers to have to pay employees for the time they spend at grievance hearings, either on their own behalf or to testify for others. He said he has heard stories of Division of Highways workers in Hancock County going in large groups to attend co-workers’ grievance hearings in Ohio County.

But Brown said that state code provides for dealing with such issues on work time. Further, he asked whether Bowman would require superintendents and other leaders to take personal days for attending grievance hearings. Bowman conceded that was a good question for which he didn’t have a good answer.

Krista Duncan, an attorney for the Division of Highways, said her agency is very concerned about the costs of the grievance process, but it’s difficult to determine fully what all those costs are in an agency with more than 5,000 employees. She said some people have issued subpoenas for issues “that should not be adjudicated.” Employee down time is the biggest cost of the process, she said.

But Bowman said he didn’t understand why the division brings in attorneys at some lower-level hearings. He said it scares employees and is very costly.

But Duncan said attorneys are used in a “informal” way at Level II hearings. The division always has lawyers present at Level III and Level IV hearings, she said.

Saving on lawyers’ fees is less of a concern for Highways, Duncan said, because her agency has its own attorneys dedicated to grievance issues and she believes they save the agency “a lot of soft costs.” She objected to any move to “remove key players,” such as attorneys, from the lower levels of the process because it could “remove the opportunity for the agency to save money in the long run.”

A comparison of several state agencies’ grievance board data for calendar year 2005 shows that the grievance process cost the Division of Highways, $718,195. That included 409 Level III grievances and 84 Level IV grievances, plus three that went to court. The next highest cost, $476,966, was for the Department of Health and Human Resources, which had 563 Level III and 52 Level IV grievances, plus five that went to court.

There is a proposal to establish a central state office to handle grievances for many agencies, but Duncan said an agency the size of the Division of Highways is better off having a separate personnel unit. She suggested that such a centralized office might be better for smaller agencies.

Bowman said having a centralized personnel process would provide more consistency, but Duncan wondered if that would work so well in practice as it seems to in theory.

Lawyer Mark Carter, an expert in labor law, said it is unclear who would bear the costs of arbitration for an employee who is not a member of a labor union.

“To the extent that the agency is expected to make big decisions at lower levels, we’re going to want to have someone knowledgeable in there,” she said.

Duncan said having someone in each district to help resolve conflicts at lower levels could also be helpful, but she’s not sure who that would be.

David Miller of West Virginia University presented an overview of a potential ombudsman position that the university might establish to provide faculty, staff and students with informal assistance in resolving conflicts. The important characteristics of the office would include: confidentiality, impartiality, universal accessibility, pro-activeness, independence, provision of options and institutional notification.

Such an office could help settle issues before they reach the grievance process, Miller said. Bowman said having an ombudsman could be very helpful.

After almost five hours of hearing different views on the process, Bowman wasn’t prepared to schedule the work group’s next meeting, but he said he still wanted to work toward the goal of having legislation ready for lawmakers’ next session in January.

In getting to that goal, he said, the group should get a legal opinion on whether binding arbitration would be possible under state law. Maxwell said the West Virginia State Bar Association has a standing committee that might be helpful on that matter.

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.

Grievance work group meetings are open to the public. If you wish to be notified of meeting dates and times, please contact Donna Lipscomb at the West Virginia Department of Administration at dlipscomb@wvadmin.gov.

Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock
Sen. Bob Plymale, D-Wayne
Sen. Russ Weeks, R-Raleigh
Del. Dale Martin, D-Putnam
Del. Ron Walters, R-Kanawha
Robert Ferguson, Secretary, West Virginia Department of Administration
Joe Smith, Office of the Governor
Lewis Brewer, Director, West Virginia Ethics Commission
Billie Jo Streyle-Anderson, West Virginia Division of Personnel
Kenneth Perdue, President, West Virginia AFL-CIO
Ed Hartman, Executive Director, West Virginia AFSCME
David Haney, Executive Director, WVEA
David Miller, WVU
Mark Carter, Chamber of Commerce

 

By Jim Wallace

State Superintendent Steve Paine told lawmakers during a July legislative interim meeting that the state Education Department wants to keep all eight Regional Education Service Agencies but is considering realigning their boundaries.

Critics of the RESAs have called for getting rid of them, saying that instead of reducing wasteful bureaucracy they add another layer of bureaucracy. That criticism intensified early this year after federal authorities charged Deborah Calhoun Mitchell, executive secretary at RESA 1 in Beckley, with embezzling more than $1.3 million over eight years.

Paine told the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability July 25 that the RESAs should be retained but streamlined and put closely under the supervision of the state superintendent.

The original purpose of the RESAs was to pool the purchasing power of the several counties each one serves, stock supplies, offer teacher training and receive and distribute funding.

Delegate John Doyle, D-Jefferson, expressed interest in having the geographical boundaries of the RESAs reconfigured to give them better balance to reflect population shifts since they were created. The Eastern Panhandle has experienced strong population growth in recent years while other areas, particularly southern counties, have lost population.

State Superintendent Steve Paine told the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability July 25 that the RESAs should be retained but streamlined and put closely under the supervision of the state superintendent, while Del. John Doyle, D-Jefferson, suggested having the geographical boundaries of the RESAs reconfigured to reflect population shifts since they were created.

Paine said a subcommittee is looking at those population shifts and is considering new alignments.

On another subject, Sen. John Unger, D-Berkeley, said he would like the Education Department to work closely with Kyle Schafer, the state’s chief technology officer, in getting more computers and broadband connections to students across the state.

Paine said he has discussed the possibilities with Schafer, although that was about a year ago and he has been waiting for Schafer to get back in touch with him. He has also spoken with Stan Cavendish, president of Verizon West Virginia, and Virginia’s state school superintendent about a program in Virginia to put more computers in the hands of students.

Currently, the Education Department is checking into a company that is selling laptops to students for $100. “I would love to provide them to kids,” Paine said, but the department must make sure they meet the state’s standards. He said he must also be concerned about the cost of professional development and maintenance associated with the computers.

Unger, who has visited Microsoft’s Classroom of the Future in Redmond, Wash., said the schools might save money on textbooks, which typically are updated every several years, by using computer “tablets,” which could hold data from several textbooks and be updated within seconds. Maybe the state couldn’t provide such tablets to all schools, but it could set up some demonstration projects, he said.

Paine responded, “You have captured a vision that we’ll move forward with.” He said he would like to consider setting up some classrooms that incorporate the latest technology.

Unger suggested a public-private partnership, and Paine said some technology companies have expressed interest in such an arrangement.

“I would like to get something moving this year,” Unger said. “We could start small and build up.”

As he sees it, the state would be “an enabler,” but county school systems should make significant contributions to acquiring the technology. Paine said the state department has looked at providing laptops for students in grades nine and up, but they are still too expensive.

State Superintendent Steve Paine promised lawmakers an update on technology initiatives at their interim meetings in September. He also said the state school board has convened a task force on a 2005 professional development study that would come back with recommendations to implement the study’s findings.

Paine promised lawmakers an update on technology initiatives at their interim meetings in September. Unger suggested inviting Schafer to attend the same meeting.

In other business, Paine told lawmakers that the state school board has convened a task force on a 2005 professional development study. He said it would come back with recommendations for implementation of the findings of that study.

“If we don’t have highly qualified teachers, we won’t get anywhere,” Paine said.

On a related matter, he said a recently completed leadership institute for principals trained 75 school administrators in supporting high quality teaching and was very successful. Paine read a letter from one participant who said it was the best professional staff development conference that person had ever attended.

Also during the meeting, Jim Skidmore, chancellor for the West Virginia Council for Community and Technical College Education, presented recommendations to address Senate Concurrent Resolution 42, which calls for a study of vocational, technical and adult education.

The recommendations include: ensuring a coordinated, cost-effective delivery system for career-technical education; examining the effectiveness of the EDGE program; and determining if secondary-level career-technical education should focus on providing students with specific job skills to enter employment after high school, provide “general core” technical skills to better prepare students to be successful in community and technical colleges or both.

Other recommendations include: determining if secondary career education and community and technical college education programs are aligned with the work force needs of the state; determining if career-technical education and community and technical colleges, combined, have the capacity to deliver technical programs required for new economy jobs; and retaining an external entity skilled and experienced in the evaluation of career-technical education at both levels to conduct this assessment.

Lawmakers decided to study the recommendations and discuss them at a later interim meeting.

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.

Reprinted with permission from The Charleston Gazette

By Anna L. Mallory
Charleston Gazette staff writer

West Virginia’s students still need to work on core subjects, particularly math, to compete nationally on one of two commonly used college-entrance exams, according to data released this week.

The state’s 2006 graduates earned an average composite score of 20.6, up from 20.4 last year, on the ACT exam. The test measures English, reading, math and science competence and rates college readiness on a scale of 1 to 36.

While individual subject scores for the 10,990 students who took the test have risen, only the state’s English score beat the national average. Overall, the state lags behind the national composite average and even further behind in math.

State officials said they recognize the need for improvement.

“The upward trend in the state’s ACT composite score is encouraging,” said state Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine. “However, our students need to take more rigorous courses imbedded in 21st century skills in order to compete with their counterparts globally.”

The highest ACT scores for West Virginia came in reading, where students jumped more than a percentage point, scoring 21.2, just below the national mark of 21.4. In English, students scored 20.8, slightly above the national average of 20.6. In science, students averaged 20.5, compared to a national average of 20.9.

Still, only 16 percent of the students tested scored well enough to earn a C in a college-level course. That means many entering college would have to take remedial classes, a factor state officials long have been working to improve.

National experts say one way to create better results and prepare more students is improving the types of classes students take in high school.

“We think the best indicator of students who are going to do well on college-admissions test is the courses they take along the way and how well they do,” said Alan Richard, spokesman for the Southern Regional Education Board.

He said West Virginia’s move this fall to require Algebra I before graduation is a step in the right direction, but the state needs to do more. Paine said improving the classes students take means teaching students how to solve problems.

He pointed to one plan that he hopes will solve their own in math: provide training to algebra and geometry teachers. This year’s students averaged 19.6 in math, compared to 20.8 nationally. That continues a below average trend throughout the past five years.

An algebra and geometry pilot project this coming school year will help administrators determine what they need to do to improve how they teach and what they teach, Paine said.

The SREB recommends that states require four years of math alone, including Algebra II and at least one math course beyond that. ACT Inc., which administers the exam, says students who take Algebra I, II and geometry in high school should be more prepared for college than those who don’t.

Few students are taking that advice. According to data, only about 2,900 of the students who took the test reported having taken the three math classes.

Of those who did, only 6 percent were prepared to make at least a C in a college-level course, according to state scores.

ACT Inc. outlines scores that students must earn to potentially perform well in college classes. West Virginia is not the only state with that problem. Across the nation, the majority of test-takers also lacked the college-ready skills in math and science.

Richard said much of the problem lies in the differences in what’s taught in the classes. He even said the state could use the senior year to help students brush up on their skills for college as long as what is taught in the class is aligned with what colleges will expect students to know.

“West Virginia does need to be proud because it is making strides,” he said.

This article originally appeared in the Aug. 16 edition of the Charleston Gazette. For more information, please visit www.wvgazette.com.

 

By Anna L. Mallory
Charleston Gazette staff writer

Black students across West Virginia scored even lower than their white counterparts on the ACT, according to data released this week.

ACT Inc., the Iowa-based company that administers the college-entrance exam, said that blacks earned an average composite score of 17.7 on the four-part test, while whites scored 20.7.

Black students’ scores are the lowest of any minority group tested. State Department of Education officials say that concerns them.

“We must strive to close the achievement gap between all student groups,” said state Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine.

Paine said a task force aimed at helping minority students could help remedy the issue. Members of the recently formed committee are looking at issues that may be keeping those students from performing better, he said.

West Virginia’s black students earned higher average ACT scores than other black students across the country.

Alan Richard, spokesman for the Southern Regional Education Board, said state and local leaders need to examine issues like poverty rates and parent involvement to help high-need students, too.
While the difference in composite scores is significant, West Virginia’s black students earned higher average scores than other black students across the country.

Students taking the ACT report their own ethnicity. Of the 10,990 students tested, 333 indicated they were black, while 814 chose not to answer. More than 9,000 marked they were white.
While the state has far fewer black students who take the test, even fewer appear to be prepared for college classes.

The test company sets scores that indicate whether students would be able to earn a C in a college class. Just 3 percent of West Virginia’s black students scored high enough in all four subjects on the tests to make that grade.

While individual subject scores for the 10,990 students who took the ACT test have risen, only the state’s English score beat the national average. Overall, the state lags behind the national composite average and even further behind in math for 2006 graduates.

“There are lots of groups of students who may need extra help and support,” Richard said. “Some groups may deserve extra attention.”

This article originally appeared in the Aug. 16 edition of the Charleston Gazette. For more information, please visit www.wvgazette.com.

Reprinted with permission from The Charleston Gazette

 

 

West Virginia students are being taught by highly qualified teachers, according to recently collected data. More than 92 percent of all core academic classes in West Virginia are taught by highly qualified teachers (HQTs) as defined by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Today, the West Virginia Board of Education and Department of Education commended state educators for this accomplishment.

The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation requires that 100 percent of the core academic subjects be taught by HQTs by 2005-2006. No state has met this federal requirement. All states, including West Virginia, were required to submit a plan by July 7, 2006, outlining strategies for meeting the 100 percent HQT requirement.

“Our teachers are at the center of 21st century learning,” said state Superintendent of Schools Steve Paine. “We have caring, capable and qualified educators in our classrooms. It is also important to point out that NCLB has several unintended consequences. One of these unintended consequences is that some West Virginia teachers who meet or even exceed rigorous state teacher certification standards may not meet the federal definition of highly qualified.”

The NCLB definition of highly qualified requires teachers to be fully state certified and to demonstrate subject competence in one of four federally approved methods that include testing, advanced credential, academic major or performance evaluation. The performance evaluation is commonly referred to as the HOUSSE option, short for high objective uniform state standard of evaluation. This means that teachers who have graduated from a state-approved teacher education program and who have been granted certification to teach in West Virginia must also prove that they are competent to teach the subject in which they are already certified.

More than 92 percent of all core academic classes in West Virginia are taught by highly qualified teachers (HQTs) as defined by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The NCLB definition of highly qualified requires teachers to be fully state certified and to demonstrate subject competence in one of four federally approved methods that include testing, advanced credential, academic major or performance evaluation.

In June, the U.S. Department of Education directed states to discontinue the use of the HOUSSE option. While teachers who used the HOUSSE option to meet the federal definition of highly qualified in 2005-2006 will retain their HQT status, the option must be discontinued after this year. This new regulation creates significant problems in areas of the state already experiencing teacher shortages. A school system may advertise a teaching vacancy multiple times and have no fully certified teacher apply. The county superintendent must then employ the most qualified applicant, who may hold full state certification, but not in the specific subject needed to fill the vacancy, and this will be considered not highly qualified.

“Despite these and other shortcomings of NCLB, we have identified some areas of concern regarding the number of highly qualified teachers in schools with high poverty and high ethnicity,” Paine said. “We embrace the opportunity to improve what we teach and how we teach in West Virginia. West Virginia plans to use this HQT data to identify the specific subjects and geographic locations where there are teachers who need assistance in meeting the highly qualified definition.”

In the state HQT plan submitted to the U.S. Department of Education in July, West Virginia identified four primary strategies for achieving the 100 percent HQT goal:

The state HQT average may change based on corrections made on the county or school level. Counties have until mid-September to correct HQT data. For more information about HQT requirements, contact Liza Cordeiro, executive director, WVDE Communications Office at (304) 558-2699.

From the West Virginia Department of Education, wvde.state.wv.us.

 

By Jim Wallace

It’s never easy when the West Virginia Board of Education takes control of a county school system from the local school board, but the takeover in Hampshire County has been smoother and less rancorous than others.

“Maybe it was a blessing, because we needed help,” former Hampshire County board President Brenda Pyles said.

“I believe so,” current board President Bernie Hott said. “We weren’t getting things corrected on our own.”

The state board took control from the local board in January, after receiving a report from the Office of Education Performance Audits that found widespread personnel and financial problems. It was a partial takeover, limited to just personnel and financial matters, although Hott said that doesn’t leave much else for the local board to do.

Central office problems

Almost one year earlier, in February 2005, the state board declared a state of emergency in the Hampshire County schools because of an audit that found “serious deficiencies” in the school system’s central office. Prominent in that audit report were references to then-Superintendent David Friend and Jerry Mezzatesta, who had been both the chairman of the House of Delegates’ Education Committee and an administrator in the school system.

According to auditors, school system employees told them that Friend and Mezzatesta “threatened, verbally abused and intimidated them.” The auditors also found that two state grants, which Mezzatesta helped to obtain, weren’t spent as intended.

A staff development grant for $100,000 from the Department of Education went to pay substitute teachers. And most of a $75,000 grant for special education students went instead to seven volunteer fire departments in the county. A federal grand jury is still investigating circumstances surrounding those grants.

In 2004, Mezzatesta pleaded no contest to a charge of deleting or altering legislative computer records at the Capitol. He first lost his chairmanship of the Education Committee and then his bid for election to a 10th term in the House. The Hampshire County school board fired him in April 2005.

In March 2005, the state Ethics Commission fined Mezzatesta $2,000 for two ethics violations. He resisted paying the fine until 16 months later.

Friend resigned his position in January of this year, shortly before the most recent audit report was released, but he had been out on sick leave and had not reported to work for more than a year.

Among the problems found by the auditors that led to the state takeover was the hiring of Tammy Moreland, Mezzatesta’s sister, as Hampshire High School’s principal in 2003 even though she wasn’t certified as a principal. Mezzatesta served on the selection committee, which rejected three other candidates who did have the proper certification.

The auditors also questioned the propriety of Mezzatesta’s $60,000-a-year job as a “community specialist” for the school board.

Gerald Mathias, a local board member who worked for decades in the Hampshire County school system, including 13 years as superintendent, before he retired in 2003, was surprised at the trouble Mezzatesta got into.

“I really had no problems with Mr. Mezzatesta when I was superintendent,” Mathias said. “He seemed to work with me. I didn’t see any of the problems.”

Except for a two-week transition when Friend replaced him as superintendent, Mathias didn’t know Friend, but he came to see that Friend “was not a superb leader.” Seeing the Hampshire County school system get into trouble was difficult for Mathias.

“It was painful,” he said. “Even though I wasn’t there, I felt the pain.”

Pyles, whose two-year presidency of the board was filled with the turmoil of the problems with Mezzatesta and Friend, said Mezzatesta was never disagreeable toward her. She also had a good opinion of Friend, who initially seemed to do a good job with the school system’s finances, but she learned “there was a different side of him.”

Hott said he was “very, very surprised” at the charges that came out against Mezzatesta. They had been friends for many years, played Little League baseball together and worked together as teachers at Capon Bridge Junior High and Elementary School.

“I was shocked to say the least,” Hott said. “I had to separate my friendship from the job (as board member).”

But he wasn’t surprised when the state board decided the partial takeover of the school system was necessary.

“I was hoping the state would not take over,” Hott said. “But if everything in the audit were true – the problems with hiring and finances – this county violated a lot of things. I would have hoped they would have given us a little more time to turn it around.”

Hott is cautious about what he says regarding Friend, who still has a lawsuit against the school board, but he said the prospect of the state takeover might have been necessary to get him to vacate the superintendent’s position.

“We couldn’t do that on our own,” Hott said. “We couldn’t hire a new superintendent because Mr. Friend wouldn’t leave the picture.”

Personnel Improvement

When the state board took over, it appointed Cynthia Kolsun, a former superintendent in Tucker County and assistant superintendent in Randolph County, as a temporary superintendent with the intention of appointing a permanent replacement by Feb. 20. But people, both inside and outside of the school system, were so pleased with her that the state board, in consultation with the local board, gave her a three-and-a-half-year contract.

“I think it’s improving,” state school board President Lowell Johnson said of the situation in the Hampshire County school system. “I think Cynthia has done a nice job.”

Local school board members also approve of the work Kolsun is doing.

“I believe that Mrs. Kolsun is working very hard to make a difference,” local board member Nancy Alkire said. “I like her. I think she has been trying to keep us informed.”

Hott agreed that Kolsun is “a very hard worker. I think she is very concerned about our county.”

Johnson said Kolsun has done a good job of straightening out the school system’s personnel problems, and local board members agree that most of the personnel problems have been corrected.

One long-standing problem was that the school system had two treasurers for quite a while. A former treasurer who had been dismissed won a grievance case and was placed back in his position. But by that time, the local board had hired a new treasurer. Hott said that problem was solved when the reinstated treasurer’s duties shifted to taking over the position of a child nutrition director who retired.

State Superintendent Steve Paine said Kolsun has “provided much greater objectivity and uniformity in personnel.” He said she also had to trim the school system’s budget by about $1.2 million, much of it in personnel, by cutting about 40 positions.

Kolsun said reducing the workforce was difficult, but she believes she has addressed just about all the problems cited in the Office of Education Performance Audits report on personnel issues.

“We’re almost a model program for the way you hire people,” she said. “We really do have best practices in place now. We’re going out of our way to make sure we hire the best persons.”

That isn’t easy, because Hampshire County must compete with nearby school systems in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia that pay higher salaries.

Kolsun said she sits in on every interview, along with appropriate faculty senate members, principals and curriculum directors. She said getting others to adopt the new standards was not difficult.

“My personnel director (Susan Grady) just wanted some leadership, someone to support her,” Kolsun said. “I have the staff in place to move us forward. We just need to move in that direction.”

Financial setback

But dealing with the school system’s financial problems has been more of a challenge. Just as it looked as though the school system was getting its finances straightened out, the Hampshire County commissioners dealt it a setback by rolling back property taxes by 20 percent.

Unfortunately for the school system, the commissioners took their action this summer after the state had already set Hampshire County’s reimbursement based on higher figures from before the rollback. The result is the school system will lose about $950,000 in funding this year.

“Who’s going to make up the $950,000 now?” Hott asked. “We are trimming back. I think everyone is really trying to help.”

Linda Baker, vice president of the local board, said many people, including officials at the state Tax Department, are upset with the county commissioners for the action they took and the timing of it. She is afraid that problem, on top of all the others facing the school system, might make it tough in the fall to get voters to renew a five-year school levy that brings in $1.4 million annually.

Paine said the state Education Department appealed to state Tax Commissioner Virgil Helton for help on the property tax problem but found out there is “probably nothing we can do about that this year.”

Kolsun said she is looking carefully at every purchase and every position to prevent the school system from going into deficit. Personally reviewing every purchase order and signing off on every expenditure is time-consuming but necessary, as well as a departure from past practice, she said.

“I’m betting we won’t go into deficit, but it has really changed financial practices drastically.”

Hott and others had been hoping that the state board might return control of the school system to the local board relatively soon, but the shortfall in property tax revenue is likely to delay that. Paine said he also had hoped the return of control could happen sooner rather than later, but the reduction in funding is complicating that.

“If they end up in deficit, we would have to take a close look at the system,” he said. “We don’t want to reduce staff in critical areas of service.”

Kolsun said if it were only a matter of complying with the issues on the Office of Education Performance Audits checklist, the Hampshire County school system could be out from under state control within a very short time. But because of the unexpected financial blow, she predicts it will be another year to year and a half before the state can return control to the local board.

“That’s my take on it,” Kolsun said.

Likewise, Johnson said he had not anticipated that the takeover would last very long, but the financial setback will make it longer than expected.

“Until such time as we can make certain that Hampshire County is fiscally sound, I don’t see how we can possibly leave,” Johnson said. “Some way or another, we’re going to have to deal with that problem.”

Potomac Center problem

As long as state officials are dealing with problems in Hampshire County, local board members would like them to deal with the burden the Potomac Center, a sheltered workshop, places on them. During the last school year, the center had 35 developmentally disabled students from 17 counties, but none from Hampshire County, although most of the center’s residents attend the county schools.

The school system spends about $800,000 on those students. Between the state School Aid Formula and Medicaid, the local system gets reimbursed for about $600,000 of that, but school board members would like to get reimbursed for the rest. In addition, Kolsun said, the school system has “sky high” workers’ compensation rates, because students from the Potomac Center sometimes assault employees.

“It’s very unfair,” Baker said. “That’s been a concern of ours all along. It’s very, very important that we do get some help with that.”

Baker and Hott said the state, or at least the counties that have sent students to the Potomac Center, should cover its costs.

“If the state is not going to finance it, I don’t understand,” Hott said.

Kolsun said the Education Department has asked the Legislature for help in covering the rest of the costs of the Potomac Center, but hasn’t persuaded lawmakers yet to include it in the state budget.

“It needs to be a regular line-item,” she said. “We are providing a good service for West Virginia.”

Education standards maintained

So far, officials at both the state and local levels agree that the problems the Hampshire County school system has faced have not harmed the education the children have been receiving.

“The schools are doing a good job,” Johnson said. “The problem was in the central office.”

Baker said student achievement levels are high. “The problem was just a lack of leadership for some time,” she said.

Mathias said the students weren’t harmed but employees’ morale was “extremely low” and hasn’t recovered yet. “We have to build trust and confidence in the system,” he said.

“This was a fairly stable system prior to Mr. Friend,” Mathias said. “I hope that we can build trust before the November election.”

That’s also a concern for Kolsun, who would prefer to have a bit more time to improve the school system before the levy goes up for renewal.

“I guess we’ll find out how much the public trusts us,” she said.

Kolsun hopes people will see some of the strides the system is making in improving curriculum. For example, the high school is one of 12 chosen as 21st Century High Schools with updated class offerings and technology. The high school is also beginning a ninth-grade academy, which she described as a “school within a school” to give freshmen a stronger foundation for high school.

The sense that students have not suffered from the school system’s problems is one way in which Hampshire County differs from other counties where state board takeovers have been more acrimonious. The lack of consolidation as an issue also has seemed to make the situation more congenial.

“That’s got a lot to do with it,” Kolsun said.

Hampshire County is among only about half a dozen counties in West Virginia that are growing in population. About 100 more students are expected to enroll this year, Kolsun said, and the county might need to build another school in the next few years.

Atmosphere of support

In other school systems taken over by the state, certain factions have opposed the state board and the superintendents the state board has appointed to run those systems. But Kolsun said she is unaware of any factions opposed to her.

“I’m not getting any disagreement,” she said. “The community has been very open to me, but there’s still this distrust of the school system. There were a lot of things that shouldn’t have happened.”

The turmoil in the school system contributed to turnover on the school board, prompting some members not to seek re-election and newcomers to get elected to the board. Three of the current members are new to the board, while the other two – Hott and Baker – have served two years. But Kolsun doesn’t blame former members for the problems the school system faced.

“The old members were committed to doing what’s right but didn’t always have the information they needed,” she said. “The new board is committed to doing what’s in the best interests of the students. These new board members are asking lots of questions.”

Helen Heatwole, one of the former board members, didn’t want to say much about the problems the school system faced or the state takeover.

“I just hope that things go well for the students,” she said.

Current Hampshire County board members have indicated confidence that the system is on the right track again. On the state level, Superintendent Paine called it “a good school system.” Kolsun is encouraged that the school system’s best days are ahead of it.

“This school system can be a premiere school system,” she said. “I really think we have what it takes to be one of the premiere systems in West Virginia.”

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

 

By David Meeks, President
Pleasants County Board of Education

The Pleasants County Board of Education would like to announce the election of F. Joseph “Joe” Super, Ed.D., as county schools superintendent.

Dr. Super was elected to the post earlier in the month for an initial contract that expires June 30, 2007. The contract includes an annual salary of $85,000 and several benefits.

Dr. Super, we are proud to note, was elected by unanimous vote. He succeeds Tom Long who is currently employed as a schools superintendent in Covington, Va.

We are pleased that board member Betty Bailey, a notary public, will swear Dr. Super in office on August 24.
Again, please welcome Dr. Super into the West Virginia board/superintendent community.

We want to thank the school boards association for conducting our search, and are appreciative of the eight applicants who applied for the post.

 

WVSBA Briefs

WVSBA has received FY07 Membership Subscription Fees (MSFs) from 52 county boards. County boards who pay MSFs after July 31 may have to pay a late fee.

The WVSBA “Handbook Committee,” headed by Gilbert “Gene” Bailey (Mercer), met Aug. 17 in Charleston. This is one of two proposed meetings of that committee. State Board of Education members Delores Cook (Boone) and Burma Hatfield (Mingo) also serve on that committee.

WVSBA Executive Director Howard M. O’Cull, Ed.D., recently worked with the Marshall County Board of Education during a retreat session at Lakeview Scanticon Resort and Conference Center near Morgantown. He also conducted a recent workshop for the Doddridge County School Board. If you would like O’Cull to present or work with your board, please contact the WVSBA office. His consultation is free, except for mileage reimbursement at the particular county board’s rate. O’Cull, who has served as WVSBA executive director since 1985, specializes in policy and policy-related workshops, goal-setting and evaluation sessions and board-superintendent relations. He also specializes in work regarding “intra-board” relations. To schedule O’Cull for your board, members may contact Association President Kim Cooper (Raleigh) at dukecoop77@hotmail.com. Rick Boothby, a Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love attorney who represents WVSBA, was the primary presenter at the Marshall County retreat.

County boards should elect their Committee on Legislation (COL) members by Aug. 30 in anticipation of a committee meeting in conjunction with the association’s Conference ’06. Each county board should elect at least one legislative committee member. (Some counties are electing co-representatives.) The COL, which will include representatives from each county board, was formerly known as the Committee of 55. WVSBA Executive Director Howard M. O’Cull, Ed.D., said previous efforts to establish a smaller steering committee or smaller group to determine legislative policy will be scrapped at his suggestion so more members can be involved in developing legislative positions. The committee meeting time has not been announced.

Board members and county superintendents who wish to serve on a panel to develop possible revisions to the county board self-evaluation instrument or the county superintendent evaluation instrument/procedure, should contact O’Cull. Those working groups will be appointed by Oct. 1, according to WVSBA President Kim Cooper.

The third study of county board minutes – conducted every five years – has begun. County superintendents are asked to provide two sets of county board regular session minutes (for the period of 2000-2005). This study, commissioned by the Legislature since 1990, focuses on county board “outputs,” as reflected in board minutes to determine issues facing county boards, board policy matters and trends in public education.

For more information, please contact O’Cull at hocull@wvsba.org.

 

For The Record

The following is a transcript of remarks made on behalf of the West Virginia School Boards Association by Richard S. Boothby, Esquire, counsel to WVSBA. Boothby addressed the state grievance reform working group on July 26, 2006.

First, on behalf of the West Virginia School Boards Association, and the 55 county boards of education that comprise its membership, I want to thank the Working Group for inviting some input from the public education leadership community.  I believe my comments will take about seven minutes. I hope that is acceptable.

West Virginia’s school boards employ over 24,000 professional employees and well over 13,000 service employees.  As you can imagine then, any discussion by the Legislature of changing the education grievance process holds some great interest to the membership of the Association.  As a brief aside, according to the Grievance Board's annual report, there were only 158 education employee grievances filed during the 2005-2006 school year. Lest anyone should think that revisions to the current system are necessitated by the number of grievances being filed, this figure represents less than one-half of one percent of West Virginia's 37,000 school employees. 

At the July 13, 2006, meeting of the Working Group, Howard O’Cull, executive director of the Association was asked to have some discussions with the Association’s members and leaders about several issues.  Dr. O’Cull and the executive board are still in the process of polling the full membership of the Association about those matters, namely the proposed elimination of Level III of the grievance process, and the use of binding arbitration as an alternative to the current ALJ/evidentiary hearing process.  While the full survey is incomplete, the Association and Mr. O’Cull have received some consistent preliminary responses which we would like to share with you today.

To be clear, the Association believes that there is room for improvement in the grievance process.  However, the predominant theme of the comments from the Association’s membership is this:  Education grievances, almost invariably based upon provisions of Chapter 18A of the West Virginia Code, bear virtually no resemblance to the kinds of workplace rules grievances encountered in state government.  They are night and day.

The West Virginia School Boards Association believes there is room for improvement in the grievance process, however, the predominant theme from the Association’s membership is that education grievances bear virtually no resemblance to the kinds of workplace rules grievances encountered in state government.

The 55 county board of education-employers and their 37,000 employees have based their working relationship on the provisions of Chapters 18 and 18A of the West Virginia Code for decades.  Obviously, the same cannot be said for the state and its thousands of employees.  From the discussions of the Working Group at its recent July 13th meeting, it appeared that, unlike boards of education, the various state agency-employers have used different sets of workplace rules and different employee handbooks, resulting in an unwelcome complexity in their employment relationship with their employees.  Because of this stark difference—a difference which would be hard to overstate—the Association is very concerned about any one-size-fits-all approaches to revising the grievance process.  The Association believes it advisable for any revised grievance process to reflect the very different employment relationships just described.  In short, the Association sees merit in having two separate grievance procedures:  one for school employees based on the current paradigm, rooted in Chapters 18 and 18A of the West Virginia Code, and another for state employees, rooted perhaps in some new uniform set of workplace rules.

At this stage, there seems to be some consensus developing in the Association regarding the following four areas:

  1. First, as already stated, boards of education and their employees currently have clear workplace rules codified in Chapter 18A of the West Virginia Code.  Chapter 18A is the result of decades of work by the Legislature, and its provisions have resulted in a relatively stable and predictable working relationship for boards of education and their employees, including that part of their relationship that concerns grievances. 

    Likewise, the written decisions of the Grievance Board’s administrative law judges, interpreting Chapter 18A, have provided a single, centralized state-wide source for communicating the import and effect of all of this chapter’s provisions.  Whether in Wood, Jefferson or Fayette counties, or any place in between, these decisions have brought clarity to the employment relationship between boards and their employees throughout the State.

  2. Second, while the Association has some interest in exploring binding arbitration as an option, some concerns have been raised about added transaction costs.  The costs of administrative law judges are currently borne by the state.  The cost of arbitrators presumably would not be; adding more expense to the grievance process, not less.  To be precise, some members are concerned that the costs of arbitration will be prohibitively expensive, for employers and employees alike.  While cost-saving is very often touted as the main benefit of binding arbitration, there have not been, so far as one can tell, any studies to back up that claim.  In 2002, on the other hand, Public Citizen, a national non-profit public interest organization founded by Ralph Nader, came to the opposite conclusion.   This is not terribly surprising.  In general, arbitrators are lawyers and they charge lawyers’ fees—not only for their time hearing cases but also for filing and administrative fees, their travel time, preparation time, research time, and decision-drafting time.  Apparently an arbitrator’s fees for a one-day arbitration, depending on the complexity of the issue, can reach up to $8,000.  Unless, some special arrangement is made with a group of neutral arbitrators to hear all grievances at a fixed and very low rate, it seems inevitable that the bulk of the high costs of arbitration will fall on school boards, much to the disappointment of taxpayers throughout the state.

    Just as members of the Working Group discussed recently on Sunday the 23rd, additional research on the cost of arbitration is needed, and the Association would be interested in the results of that research.  The Association is conducting similar research and will gladly share their results upon completion.  In any case, as you can imagine, the Association is not excited about any proposed change to the grievance process that might result in more public tax dollars, not fewer, going into the grievance process.  Finally with regard to arbitration, it is unclear to the Association how respect for precedent and consistency generally will be achieved in a system where arbitrators, not ALJ’s or courts of law, will be charged with the task of interpreting and applying West Virginia Code Chapter 18A.

  3. Third, the vast majority of education grievances are not of the “you-can’t-wear-blue-jeans-to-work” variety. In general, education grievances are serious, zero sum matters. They tend to involve issues related to employment suspension or termination, reductions in force, and, of course, compensation—this final category of claims sometimes involving, potentially, very large sums of money. 
    As an example, in a reduction-in-force grievance, the issue is stark:  Either I will lose my job or someone else, who I claim is less senior than me, will lose his or her job. Also, if a board of education is unable to prevail at Level IV on a RIF grievance, the consequences can include large back pay awards and the wasteful consequence of having two persons employed in the same job until one of them can be RIF’d during the next personnel season. As you can appreciate, this single grievance could jeopardize over $100,000 of a board’s limited resources.  It should come as no surprise then that boards of education vigorously defend these personnel decisions.

    Far more often than not, education grievances require the kind of evidentiary discovery that takes place at Level II and the thoughtful deliberation of a hearing officer at Level IV. Without the inexpensive and useful discovery that occurs at Level II, final hearings at Level IV would become unnecessarily long and unfocused as the parties resort to the “kitchen sink” method of prosecuting and defending grievances. Given the all-or-nothing nature of most education grievances, mediation and the use of ombudsmen — often very effective in simple workplace rules grievances or so-called “hurt feelings” cases — are not likely to be of value in the kind of zero sum matters described above.

  4. Fourth and finally, the following proposed changes to the current process seem to have gained currency among boards of education and would likely be welcomed by many of the Association’s members. It is generally believed that these changes would streamline the current system without sacrificing its more useful elements:

    • First: Consider eliminating the pre-level I, informal discussion between the employee and the immediate supervisor. In order to provide plenty of time for these kinds of truly informal discussions to take place between employees and their supervisors, give days could be added to the timeline during which an employee must file a written Level I grievance.
    • Second: Consider eliminating Level III, the appeal to the board of education.  Most boards opt not to hear grievances at Level III anyway, which is their prerogative.  Importantly, one of the main reasons that boards of education opt out of Level III, is because, oftentimes, they are the very decision-makers about whom the employee is complaining.  Obviously, it would make no sense for a board to hear the same matter again, having recently made a contrary decision. Although not all county boards would happily give up their participation at Level III, on the whole, this change should be acceptable to most boards of education.

Again, on behalf of the Association, thank you for extending this opportunity to express our thoughts on the task before you. In conclusion, we hope that you will also have the opportunity to formally invite the WVEA, the AFT, the WVSSPA, and similar employee associations to come and share their thoughts with you on the proposed changes. 

I’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.

 

RESOURCES

By Randy D. Shillingburg
Executive Director
College Summit West Virginia

The majority of low-income students who graduate each year from West Virginia high schools face a barrier that is seemingly impenetrable. The challenge they confront – the college transition barrier – is almost as daunting for them as the sound barrier faced by the heroic test pilots of the 1940s.

For most students who have never seen a member of their family graduate from college, higher education is a frightening unknown.

For most students who have never seen a member of their family graduate from college, higher education is a frightening unknown. To compound the problem, public schools typically are unable to provide most students with the personalized, hands-on assistance needed to help them enroll in college and identify ways to pay for their education.

The chasm between high school and post-secondary education for low-income students across America is undeniably wide and problematic as evidenced by these alarming statistics:

Fortunately for West Virginia, a proven national initiative, College Summit, is working to bridge the gap between high school and college, providing support and resources to West Virginia public schools so more college-capable students can make the transition to post-secondary education.

College Summit’s innovations include:

Growing from a program serving 10 West Virginia students in 2001 to a program that will serve 2,000 seniors during the 2006-07 school year, College Summit has become the state’s fastest growing educational initiative for good reason.

In more than a decade of service across the country, College Summit has nearly doubled the college enrollment rate for the low-income, academically mid-tier students it targets at its workshops. Across the nation, this organization has achieved an incredible 79-percent college enrollment rate and an 80-percent college retention rate for these students.

College Summit served 10 West Virginia students in 2001, and has grown to serve an expected 2,000 seniors during the 2006-07 school year.

In West Virginia, College Summit’s 2003 and 2004 workshop students enrolled in college at an amazing 83-percent rate.

In 2006, for the third year in a row, Fast Company, a leading business magazine that recognizes the top nonprofits in the country, named College Summit as “one of the top 25 groups changing the world.”

West Virginia educators also are recognizing the quality and need for this initiative. Cari Pauley, a National Board Certified teacher from Lincoln County, said this about College Summit while presenting before the West Virginia House Committee on Education in early 2006:

“I’ve seen a thousand [education] programs come and go. This [College Summit] is the first I’ve seen worth it.”

For more information about College Summit, contact Shillingburg at (304)346-1983 or rshillingburg@collegesummit.org. The national College Summit Web site is www.collegesummit.org.

College Summit is a locally implemented national initiative to increase college enrollment with the mission to ensure that every student who can make it in college makes it to college.

 

Several county board members have inquired about §6-5-12, a section of law that allows “leave of absence for public officials for performing public duties.” The statute reads as follows:

“Any person elected to a part-time public office or appointed to a part-time elected public office shall be entitled to a leave of absence from his or her private employment except when such employment is with an employer employing five or fewer persons on a full-time basis on the days or portions of any day during which he or she is engaged in performing the duties of his or her public office. The leave of absence shall not result in any penalty being imposed upon the persons entitled to the leave of absence: Provided, That such leave of absence may be without pay by the private employer.”

According to West Virginia School Boards Association counsel, the leave may apply to county board training because it is required by statute. However, legal counsel points out that the leave has certain restrictions based on the size of the firm employing the county board member and that it may be without pay.

For more detailed information, please contact WVSBA Executive Director Howard M. O’Cull, Ed.D., or counsel Howard E. Seufer Jr., Esq., Bowles Rice McDavid Graff & Love. Seufer’s telephone number is (304) 347-1776. O’Cull’s e-mail address is hocull@wvsba.org.

 

Commentary/Editorials

By Dr. Steven L. Paine
State Superintendent of Schools
As the 2006-2007 school year nears, teachers across West Virginia are preparing to welcome students back to school with the promise of great things to come.

Many have spent the summer in school themselves, learning new strategies that build on their content knowledge and help them focus on high expectations.

West Virginia’s 20,000 teachers are some of the most experienced and dedicated professionals in the country and crucial in the quest to prepare the state’s nearly 280,000 students for the 21st century.

The average public school teacher in West Virginia is about 46 years old with about 18 years of classroom experience. A majority of them hold a master’s degree or higher. Yet under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, some of these veteran teachers are not considered highly qualified.

To meet that federal definition, it is not enough to graduate from a college teacher preparation program and meet rigorous state certification requirements that often exceed federal guidelines. To meet the No Child Left Behind definition of highly qualified, teachers also must go to great lengths to demonstrate subject competency even after decades in the classroom.

I know our teachers are competent, capable and caring. But under No Child Left Behind, some of these skilled professionals are being unfairly labeled because they do not meet the stringent federal definition of a highly qualified teacher.

“I know our teachers are competent, capable and caring. But under No Child Left Behind, some of these skilled professionals are being unfairly labeled because they do not meet the stringent federal definition of a highly qualified teacher.”

The 1,200-page No Child Left Behind Act is very prescriptive and compliance-driven. It requires states to ensure that not just every classroom but also every core subject, such as math, science and English, has a highly qualified teacher. The law provides limited exceptions for special education teachers and others who teach multiple subjects.

Despite concerns with the law, West Virginia met the federal mandates and did so with numerous accolades. We were the ninth state to have our No Child Left Behind accountability plan approved. And we recently became one of the first states to win wholesale federal approval of our No Child Left Behind assessment plan by the U.S. Department of Education.

I am an adamant supporter of educational accountability and strongly believe in closing the achievement gap. No Child Left Behind has played an important role by helping us focus on this equity mission.

The basic intentions of No Child Left Behind -- quality schools and skilled teachers -- are good. However, I believe the law has left out the quality mission. The focus on testing and punishing failing schools can undermine education and ultimately student success.
The test-driven law has forced public school systems to aim for the middle in terms of student performance. In today’s world where our competitors are in China and India instead of another state, the middle is not good enough. Little or no mention is made of bringing all students to above mastery and distinguished levels of performance. It is the accomplishment of the quality mission that is essential to prepare students for the demands of the 21st century.

West Virginia recognizes the failed quality mission of No Child Left Behind and is taking steps to move beyond its minimum requirements of bringing all students to mastery levels of performance. The West Virginia Board of Education has made moving beyond mastery its No. 1 goal. Today’s graduates need to be problem solvers and effective communicators, who are proficient in core subjects to succeed in a global society. They also need to master thinking skills, information and communications technology literacy skills and life skills. They need to be globally aware and be literate in finance, economics and business.

I am extremely proud that West Virginia is the second state in the nation after North Carolina to enter into the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Under the leadership of the state Board of Education, Gov. Joe Manchin, the Legislature and numerous other partners, including the American Federation of Teachers and the West Virginia Education Association, the partnership has initiated a forward-thinking and ambitious plan to improve West Virginia’s educational system.

The 21st Century Partnership takes our state beyond the minimum thinking of No Child Left Behind. The plan includes dramatic improvements in the rigor and relevance of our curriculum and increases the difficulty level of the state assessment system. It also improves the quality of professional development in the areas of 21st century content, skills and tools, and supports innovative technology, science and mathematics initiatives.

We must move beyond this atmosphere of high-stakes testing to creating the best educational system in the world. This is a major challenge and I’m proud of our schools and our teachers for meeting this challenge.

Still, in the coming weeks I expect that parents and community members will begin to hear rumblings that some West Virginia teachers are not highly qualified under the No Child Left Behind definition. Know that I’m confident our teachers are not only certified and experienced, but effective at their jobs.

Assistant Secretary of Education Henry Johnson has said in letters to me and education officials in other states that no state was likely to meet the goal of 100 percent compliance in 2006. But we are committed to reaching that goal in the coming year.

The state Board of Education and I believe teachers need training to help them blend their strong subject mastery with the 21st century skills needed in today’s digital world. And we are providing the professional development they need to ensure student success.
We know quality teaching will push students beyond mastery of basic skills to become tomorrow’s better educated worker, who can manage complexity, solve problems and think critically, and I am committed to making that happen.

From the West Virginia Department of Education, wvde.state.wv.us.

 

•Freedom of religion The Harrison County’s Board of Education apparently has more freedom of religion than it can handle.
On Tuesday, the board shut the public out of its meeting and after 45 minutes, decided to hire a national group to go to court in an effort to keep a portrait of Jesus hanging outside the principal’s office of Bridgeport High School.
Students have raised about $6,700 of the $150,000 in donations to pay for a court case the county will lose.
What a waste. Imagine what $150,000 could do to further children’s reading abilities, or to nurture some child’s rare gift, or to brighten aging classrooms.

Instead, some Harrison County residents choose to spend their energy and money to blow raspberries at the U.S. Constitution.
The Harrison Board of Education forgets that America’s separation of church and state and its prohibition against laws establishing a religion are there to protect everyone. As the Daily Mail pointed out: “Early American Christians were the ones who insisted on writing this protection into the Constitution.”

No Christians — including those at Bridgeport High School — are prohibited from praying at any time, or worshiping as they see fit. But a government-run school that is meant for people of all faiths must not endorse one religion over another, tacitly or not.
The Harrison Board of Education has shown itself to be in sore need of the kind of civics lessons it is supposed to supply for young people.

 Used by permission of the Charleston Gazette. This editorial was published August 17, 2006.

 

 

By Hoppy Kercheval

After much debate, hand wringing, and fundraising, the Harrison County school board has decided to fight in court to keep the portrait of Jesus where it's always been in a hallway at Bridgeport High School.

The battle, however, has already been lost.

The courts have made it abundantly clear that displays of religious symbols in schools are verboten. It's an unconstitutonal violation of the concept of separation of church and state.

In fact, a federal court decided an almost identical case in Michigan involving another print of the famous "Head of Christ" portrait created by Warner Sallman in 1941.

Time and again, the courts have said such displays serve to advance a particular religion -- in this case Christianity. There's nothing in the Bridgeport case that would lead a judge to anything but the same conclusion.

Many Christians vow to keep the Jesus portrait. They say the picture has been in the school for nearly 40 years. They don't like the ACLU and the Americans United for Separation of Church and State telling them what to do. They reason that if most of the people in Bridgeport and Harrison County want the portrait to stay up, it shouldn't come down.

These are familiar and understandable arguments, especially during a time when when popular culture is rotting and values overall are eroding.

But there is this matter of the Constitution. The beauty of the document -- particularly the Bill of Rights -- is that it protects the rights of the individual, not necessarily the will of the majority.

The establishment clause says we are free to practice the religion of our choice or none at all and the state can't force one on us. The courts have been careful over the years to make sure nothing done by the government carries the imprimatur of an endorsement of a particular religion.

They sometimes go too far, such as when a judge says a city can't put up a religious display at Christmas time. But there's a difference between seasonal displays of nativity scenes and Chanukah menorahs in a city park and a permanent display of a picture of Jesus a public school building.

Supporters of keeping the portrait at Bridgeport High had no trouble raising $150,000 for possible legal fees.

Thus, it is likely that a lawyer or lawyers will pocket the 150 grand and make some lofty arguments that the judges have heard before.

And then the picture will come down, as it should.

As Berry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State aptly put it, the whole affair will turn out to be "a very expensive history lesson."

Used by permission of MetroNews and Talkline Host Kercheval. This commentary appeared August 17, 2006.

 

 Etc.

“It is a legal quagmire. County boards of education are spending $2.7 in attorney fees to fight [school] employees.” – Bob Brown, West Virginia School Service Personnel Association Executive Director in discussing the state’s grievance process for school and public employees.

“There’s nothing sacred here. The [grievance] process doesn’t have to be real complicated…” – Del. Dale Martin, D-Putnam, discussing his notions regarding the state’s grievance process for education and state employees. Martin contends the current grievance process is too complicated and adversiaral and that it relies too heavily upon attorneys. Martin contends most grievances could be resolved by having the grievant and his or her supervisor discuss differnces rather than resorting to the current process.

“The battle, however, has already been lost.” – MetroNews Talkline Host Hoppy Kercheval discussing the Harrison County Board of Education’s decision to acquire legal defense in regard to a controversial picture of Christ displayed at Bridgeport High School. (The picture was stolen Thursday.)

 

Meanwhile in Texas

Samantha Medina of Warren High School in San Antonio also allegedly waved to the crowd, thereby violating a school-district policy against graduating students “rais[ing] their hands above their waists for any reasons other than receiving the diplomas or shaking hands.”

District spokeswoman Pascual Gonzalez underscored the seriousness of the offense. “She was twirling in the line,” said Gonzalez.

”She was waiving. She was not acting like she was instructed to.”

- The Week. June 16, 2006.

 

Wisdom

“If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” – Psychologist Abraham Maslow.

 

Last Word

By Michael Queen

Hoppy Kercheval just doesn't get it.

The issue over the portrait of Jesus that hangs in the principal's office at Bridgeport High School is not just about the separation of church and state. As a member of the Harrison County Board of Education, for me, this issue is also about the individual rights of school employees.

School employees, as a condition of their employment, are compelled to work in public schools. It is important for the media, and imperative for school board members, to acknowledge that these employees don't become godless individuals the moment they step foot on school board property. And they should be.

I am not one of those right-wing religious zealots that the ACLU likes to portray all "religious freedom advocates" to be. In fact, I am embarrassed that I don't attend my church as often as my mother would like for me to, or as often as I insist that my son attends. And I am tired of feeling that good hardworking Americans have to apologize for being Christians.

I was initially asked to get involved in this matter by employees of our school system...not by any local pastor...not by any right-wing zealot...and certainly not by anti-ACLU activist. We are trying to tackle a problem that very few other schools districts would dare to touch.

What is lacking in Harrison County, and I would suggest lacking throughout the state of West Virginia, is a lawsuit-proof policy to set reasonable limits on religious activities by school employees. When I asked the Executive Director of the WV-ACLU in a debate on "Decision Makers" to drop his lawsuit and work with the State Board of Education to develop such a policy, he laughed and said that religion has no place in any school at any time.

At about 3:30am on Thursday morning, someone broke into Bridgeport High School and stole the portrait.

Hoppy Kercheval made light of the situation. He thought it was funny.

I didn't see it as the portrait being stolen. I see it as breaching the security of one of our schools...a school surrounded by homes and in the heart of neighborhood. It's a felony to break into a school. That's pretty serious. What type of individual would go this far to keep us from having our day in court? What would have happened if one of our custodians was in the building?

If we replace the portrait with one just exactly like it, what will someone do next time to take it down? What if they want to take it down during the middle of a school day?

I guess it's not too funny now....is it Hoppy?

In the end, for me this issue is about the individual rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.....individual rights that school boards need to protect for our employees.

Queen, a consultant and former legislator, is a newly-elected member of the Harrison County Board of Education. The opinions stated are his own.

 

The Legislature is published by the West Virginia School Boards 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.

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