Senate sends House OPEB bill without funding

By Jim Wallace

School boards would get something they’ve wanted for years if the House of Delegates goes along with the Senate in approving a bill to address West Virginia’s $8 billion liability for OPEB – other post-employment benefits. But the bill wouldn’t fully resolve the OPEB problem, and it wouldn’t go into effect until July 2012.

However, the important aspect for school boards is that the bill would remove most of the OPEB liability that has been assigned to them and declare it the responsibility of the state. Until this point, as much as 45 percent of West Virginia’s overall OPEB liability has been assigned to the 55 county school boards.

The liability is generally the result of health care benefits the state has promised to current and future public sector retirees. The retirees’ health care premiums essentially have been subsidized so that the retirees pay only a small portion of the actual costs.

The legislation the Senate settled on to address OPEB, Senate Bill 616, came up quickly and was approved quickly on Wednesday, the last day the Senate was allowed to deal with bills originated in that chamber. It was a substitute for Senate Bill 566, which died a narrow death in the Senate Finance Committee on Monday and failed by a similar narrow vote in an attempt to revive it one day later.

The difference between the two bills is that Senate Bill 566 included funding for OPEB and other causes through proposed increases in West Virginia’s taxes on tobacco products. The tax on cigarettes would have gone up from 55 cents per pack to $1.55 and the tax on other tobacco products would have increased from 7 percent of the wholesale price to 50 percent.

As the bill was amended in the Senate Finance Committee on Monday, the added tobacco tax revenue would have provided funding not only for OPEB but also for Medicaid, tobacco prevention and cessation programs and autism treatment programs. But after a long discussion, members of the committee voted nine to eight against approving the bill. When Senate President Pro Tem Brooks McCabe, D-Kanawha, tried to get the bill reconsidered on Tuesday, a similar vote killed it for good.

New bill defers money decision.

Senate Bill 616 acknowledges that a source of funding of at least $50 million will be needed to reduce the OPEB liability, but it puts off until next year the determination of what that source might be.

“We will look to find funding for no less than $50 million, which will ultimately be required for as much as 20 years to fund both the premium subsidy and the trust fund,” McCabe explained on the Senate floor Wednesday. “We also add the contractually required contribution, which allows a lesser amount that can be posted on balance sheets on an annual basis instead of the annual required contribution. And it also picks up the liability of OPEB for school boards for employees that are within the School Aid Formula.”

Another provision of the bill would cap the “pay-as-you-go” amount put into covering the annual cost of the retiree subsidy at $160 million with an increase of 1.2 percent per year for 10 years and 2 percent for the next 10 years.

Without the tobacco tax increase in it, Senate Bill 616 passed the Senate unanimously and went to the House of Delegates.

Bill gets mixed reviews.

“I think we did good work,” McCabe said in thanking his colleagues. But not everyone was so pleased with the bill.

“Do I believe we have a problem with OPEB? Absolutely. Should it be addressed? Absolutely. But we need to address it in cost-containment measures not cost-shifting measures, and that’s exactly what we’re doing in this version of the bill.” – WVEA President Dale Lee

“I have major concerns with passing a bill that, in my opinion, wasn’t very good to begin with and taking the funding out of it makes it even worse, because if at the end of the year, they haven’t identified a funding source, that total cost shifts directly to the retirees, and that is totally unacceptable,” Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association, said. “I also have concerns that they built in a 1.2 percent growth in medical inflation. So anything above that is borne by the retirees. Do I believe we have a problem with OPEB? Absolutely. Should it be addressed? Absolutely. But we need to address it in cost-containment measures not cost-shifting measures, and that’s exactly what we’re doing in this version of the bill.”

“We certainly want to take the burden off the county boards of education. It’s really hurting us out there, because they continue to lay people off while they put money away because they don’t know how much they’re going to owe, because the state hasn’t taken its fair share yet.” –AFT-WV President Judy Hale

But Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, said she is grateful for all the work McCabe put into the bill and for working with union officials on it.

“The bill has gotten better, but it’s not to the point where we can say we totally support it,” she said. “But I feel confident that eventually, as long as we’re at the table continuing to work on it, that eventually we will be able to come to a consensus on the bill.”

Hale added, “We certainly want to take the burden off the county boards of education. It’s really hurting us out there, because they continue to lay people off while they put money away because they don’t know how much they’re going to owe, because the state hasn’t taken its fair share yet. So we do want to get it solved and we’re willing to work on it as long as it takes.”

Likewise, Bob Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Service Personnel Association, said, “I’m glad that we’re still talking about it, because there has been a tremendous amount of research as well as work put into the issues that were put on the table. The unfortunate part is: We don’t have a way to fund the problem. While it makes sense to continue to look at it and work on it, unless and until we find a funding source, there’s not a way to fix this problem.”

Several ideas have been floating around about what that funding sources might be, he said. They include some of the revenue from taxing Marcellus Shale gas drilling, as well as redirecting some of the money that is now being used to pay off the unfunded liability of the old workers’ compensation system when that debt is paid off, Brown said.

“So I think there’s an opportunity here to maybe get on this thing and get it fixed once and for all,” he said. “It’s going to take money.”

WVSBA officials want more.

West Virginia School Board Association President Mike Mitchem said the association is pleased that the Senate passed Senate Bill 616. “The OPEB issue is one of great importance to our membership and we hope this legislation will continue to proceed forward,” he said.

Former WVSBA President Rick Olcott, who has spent much time on the OPEB issue, said, “It is encouraging to see progress in the state accepting where responsibility for the unfunded OPEB liability truly resides.”

“Ultimately, the financial resolution is essential for West Virginia's long-term health, and I agree with Senator McCabe's emphasis on the importance of making decisions that will change that actuarial outlook. Continued deferral will only make the effort more challenging as we move into the future.” –Former WVSBA President Rick Olcott

Olcott and other school board officials have maintained that it was wrong for the Legislature in 2006 to assign much of the OPEB liability to school boards and make them carry it on their books. School boards have been trying through the courts and the Legislature to get that decision reversed. Olcott said it’s unfortunate that lawmakers have put off until 2012 a decision on how to fund the liability.

“Ultimately, the financial resolution is essential for West Virginia's long-term health, and I agree with Senator McCabe's emphasis on the importance of making decisions that will change that actuarial outlook,” he said. “Continued deferral will only make the effort more challenging as we move into the future.”

In the meantime, Olcott said, the county boards continue to get monthly invoices, and by the end of June, they will have a total of $640 million of unfunded liabilities on their short-term balance sheets. 

“Those numbers become increasingly difficult to explain and address financially from the local legal entity perspective,” he said. “May progress continue to be made on this very important high-profile area and that we collectively make a difference in our future.”

Bullying bill gets through House despite conservative opposition

By Jim Wallace

The House of Delegates has approved a bill to expand the definition of harassment, intimidation or bullying to include electronic means, such as Facebook, Twitter and texting. But approval of House Bill 3225 came only after representatives of conservative groups charged that the bill would harm society.

A public hearing on the bill in the House chamber attracted just three speakers, but two of them were opposed to it.

“The electronic age and all the gadgets our kids have make it easy to harass, intimidate and bully each other in today’s world.” –West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee

“The electronic age and all the gadgets our kids have make it easy to harass, intimidate and bully each other in today’s world,” West Virginia Education Association President Dale Lee said in supporting the bill. “Things get posted on the Internet, and bullying takes a whole new dimension in this day and age. We’re constantly reading about students who take their own lives because of cyber-bullying, sexting and the posting of Internet photos or comments.

The WVEA supports updating the policy, he said, because harassment and bullying affect students’ ability to learn and hamper student achievement.

But the two other speakers alleged that the bill could be harmful.

“West Virginia families are in grave danger to succumb to the homosexual agenda,” Kevin McCoy, president of the West Virginia Family Foundation, said. “Fairness West Virginia, a homosexual activist organization, is feverishly working… in the House Judiciary Committee in an aggressive, behind-the-scenes attempt to amend sexual orientation language into House Bill 3225.”

A previous attempt failed in the House Education Committee, he said and added that lawmakers rejected such an attempt a decade ago. McCoy charged that if lawmakers would approve House Bill 3225, schools would have to teach acceptance of homosexual behavior.

Similarly, Lance Schultz of the West Virginia Conservative Foundation argued that the bill would violate the Judeo-Christian ethic on which the state was based.

“We were founded according to the right principles of godly living that we find in the King James Bible,” he said.“There is no such thing as a special right, only a human right. Our founders rightly recognized that all human rights are imbued under the command from his creator, God. As I understand the bill, it normalizes a behavior that the Bible says is an abomination. That’s the best word that God could come up with to describe it. And the reason I speak out against it is because I also would interpret that this legislation seeks to criminalize those who would continue to espouse their Christian beliefs, and I believe that our Constitution protects the human conscience from fear from a day when those beliefs would be challenged and man’s ability to articulate those beliefs in the public square would be made criminal. This legislation, as I understand, is completely contrary to the values of West Virginia, and they are completely contrary to the values of God.”

Poling seeks clarification.

But House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling, D-Barbour, didn’t let those comments go without a response. “I walked in to discover that there may be a lot of misinformation about House Bill 3225,” she said.

Because it was a public hearing, Poling was limited to asking questions, so she asked Lee if there had been any effort by any Education Committee member to amend the bill to list any category of student.

“No, ma’am, not that I recall,” Lee said.

“In current code, is the protection strictly for students or is it for a class of students?” Poling asked.

“It’s for students, and we have to protect our students, all students,” Lee replied.

“Is it your understanding that the main purpose of the bill was to address one of the methods by which bullying now occurs, and that is electronic communications, and that was what you would see as the main purpose of the bill?” Poling asked.

“That is what my comments pertained to,” Lee responded. “It’s a new age of the technology that we use, and with the Facebook and the texting and everything that goes on, it creates a whole new design of harassment for students. It’s all the students out there. This is not intended to look at one specific group. This is intended to protect all the students of West Virginia from being harassed and bullied in a new means that we never thought about a few years ago.”

“Do you agree that all of the counseling provisions that were in the introduced bill were totally removed by an amendment?” Poling asked.

“Yeah, we all had concerns about that because of the staffing and the inability of all the schools, particularly elementary schools, to have an alternative education setting.” Lee said.

"I just wanted to clarify what did come from the Committee on Education, because it seemed that that was not how it was being represented in the part of the testimony I heard." – House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling

“So basically, sir, would you agree that everything in that bill is current law except the simple addition of the electronic communication method of bullying and then also the location of bullying, which sometimes occurs to students at buses and bus stops?” Poling asked.

“Yes, I would agree with that?” Lee replied.

“I just wanted to clarify what did come from the Committee on Education, because it seemed that that was not how it was being represented in the part of the testimony I heard,” Poling said.

Group’s letter to school systems also opposes certain changes in bullying policy.

Another conservative spokesman did not speak at the public hearing, but has sent a letter about bullying to county school systems. That letter from Jeremiah Dys, president and general counsel of the Family Policy Council of West Virginia, has a message somewhat similar to those of McCoy and Schultz.

“Bullying has always been a problem within our schools,” Dys wrote. “Many schools have responded to this problem by implementing policies aimed at reducing/punishing bullying. These policies, however, can be in-roads that special interest groups use to promote agendas counter to the social and moral values of parents.  Others demand the expansion of bullying policies for ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity’ in an effort to introduce inappropriate, sexually-based materials into the school system.”

“Schools are being transformed from places of safety and learning to places of unprecedented sexual education.  Children as young as kindergartners are being subjected to books, programs, and teachings designed to undermine the traditional notions of sexuality and family.” – Jeremiah Dys of Family Policy Council of West Virginia in correspondence to county boards of education members and county superintendents.

Enclosed with the letter is a model anti-bullying policy the Family Policy Council has developed. Dys called it comprehensive without “advancing any sexual or other agendas.”

His letter also said: “Schools are being transformed from places of safety and learning to places of unprecedented sexual education.  Children as young as kindergartners are being subjected to books, programs, and teachings designed to undermine the traditional notions of sexuality and family.  Sexual behavior does not need to be either identified or glorified to our children for our children to be safe at school and the problems associated with bullying addressed.  We encourage you to utilize this model policy in implementing your own bullying policy.”

Bill survives questioning from delegates.

When House Bill 3225 reached the full House on Wednesday, some delegates still had questions. For example, Delegate John Overington, R-Berkeley, asked, “If you have disputes between students that start outside of school – it could be a softball game; it could be a camp activity – but that continue in the school setting, would this apply to those types of disputes that did not have any origin from the school but continued on in the school environment?”

Poling told him that, in current code, bullying must be sufficiently severe, persistent or pervasive. She said it also must create an intimidating and threatening or emotionally abusive educational environment for a student or disrupt or interfere with the orderly operation of the school.

So, Overington concluded, the bullying or intimidation could start outside of the school but it must have an effect within school. Poling told him that is the law now and the bill would just add the electronic component.

“I don’t think adding Facebook or Twitter changes current law. Schools still have to deal with that when a student is affected at school by things that are brought to school.” – House Education Chairwoman Mary Poling

But some members still weren’t clear. Delegate Randy Swartzmiller, D-Hancock, asked if something is said via Facebook, would it have to be done in school?

“Whatever the activity is and wherever it occurred, if it’s brought into the school setting in such a way that it’s severe, persistent or pervasive, creates an intimidating, threatening or emotionally abusive education environment for a student,” it would be covered by the bill, Poling said. “I don’t think adding Facebook or Twitter changes current law. Schools still have to deal with that when a student is affected at school by things that are brought to school.”

“I think this amendment is very vague in what we’re doing here,” Swartzmiller said. But most of the delegates accepted the bill. House Bill 3225 passed by a vote of 80 to 20 and went over to the Senate.

House sends pay raise bill to Senate

By Jim Wallace

The West Virginia Senate is considering a House-passed bill that would give $1,800 raises to teachers over two years and $1,000 to school service personnel.

House Bill 2879 also would give other raises to various state employees.

The bill passed in the House on a vote of 78 to 22 after some delegates questioned giving raises instead of just one-time bonuses, as acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin proposed.

House Finance Chairman Harry Keith White, D-Mingo, said the raises would cost $48.9 million this year and another $34.5 million next year. Most of the debate over the bill on the House floor involved Republicans.

Delegate Rick Snuffer, R-Raleigh, thought that would be OK. He argued that the state must raise teachers’ salaries, especially in border counties.

“If we want quality education, I think we need to reward our teachers and our school personnel.” – Delegate Rick Snuffer

“If we want quality education, I think we need to reward our teachers and our school personnel,” he said. “We do have a fiscal responsibility. We have a huge fiscal responsibility to the people of this state…. It’s our responsibility to reward those who do work hard.”

But Delegate Eric Nelson, R-Kanawha, said he could have supported one-time bonuses but not pay raises that must be funded in future years.

“If we’re faced with potential deficits, will we be faced as a body with potential salary and personnel cuts? I sure hope not,” he said. “I favor using part of our current surplus to better compensate our service personnel in the form of funding. I do not favor the amended bill’s increase at this time because of the uncertainties facing our economy nationally and locally. Yes, I am a new delegate, and I could easily vote for pay raises that would benefit many of my constituents. But I stand here to raise a yellow caution flag. I support a bonus instead of an amended salary increase.”

House Minority Leader Tim Armstead, R-Kanawha, also opposed the bill.

“We do need to get to a point where our state employees and our teachers are paid more,” he said. “There’s no question about that. But I think that, when we talk about responsible government, responsible government is responsible to every person that we represent, to everyone in the state, every family in this state. If we’re going to be responsible in terms of our spending, then we cannot look at this bill or any other bill in a vacuum and pretend that it doesn’t affect the other spending, the other tax burden that is on our citizens.”

“Today, we’re passing pay raise bills that those same people that are unemployed in West Virginia will have to pay the taxes to pay for this pay raise. To me, that is just such a contrast from reality.” – Delegate Mitch Carmichael

Delegate Mitch Carmichael, R-Jackson, contended it was the wrong time to offer raises considering that the unemployment rate in the state has just topped 10 percent.

“Today, we’re passing pay raise bills that those same people that are unemployed in West Virginia will have to pay the taxes to pay for this pay raise,” he said. “To me, that is just such a contrast from reality.”

Delegate Larry Kump, R-Berkeley, said he thought the state should consider the scope of its programs and the number of its employees, but he supported the pay raise bill. 

“The responsible thing to do with employees is to pay them a fair, living wage and look at the other programs and see what we can do to make West Virginia better,” he said.

But one delegate who could benefit personally from the bill opposed it.

"I speak more than just as a delegate today; I'm also a teacher and a citizen who pays taxes,” Delegate Brian Savilla, R-Putnam, said.  “Nine-hundred dollars for a teacher – that's just a slap in the face…. The solution isn't pitty-pat little raises here and there. The solution is cutting government spending, cutting the size of government, cutting administration and reducing the fees."

“Nine-hundred dollars for a teacher – that’s just a slap in the face…. The solution isn’t pitty-pat little raises here and there. The solution is cutting government spending, cutting the size of government, cutting administration and reducing the fees.” – Delegate Brian Savilla

Delegate Patrick Lane, R-Kanawha, argued that the House was hypocritical in passing a pay raise bill but not lowering the sales tax on food.

“If we’re fiscally responsible by not passing the food tax cut, by golly, we’ve got to be fiscally responsible by not adding $80 million to the budget in pay raises,” he said.

The Senate considered its own bill to give pay raises to teachers, school service personnel and some state employees, but it did not get approved by Wednesday, the last day for each house to approve bills originated in that house.

Education bills get Senate’s approval, including planning period bil

By Jim Wallace

Several bills made it through the West Virginia Senate by the middle of this week, when the deadline occurred for each house to finish work on its own bills and send them to the other house.

Senate Bill 467, which deals with teacher planning periods, passed in the Senate with only one vote against it. But it went through much debate in committee before getting there and was changed on the Senate floor.

Judy Hale, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia, told the Senate Education Committee that her organization supported the bill. She said violations of teacher planning periods are one of the biggest issues the union faces. Previous legislation seemed to make it clear that teachers should not be deprived of their planning periods, she said, but many principals have violated that law and decisions by administrative law judges have incrementally weakened it. One teacher lost 56 planning periods during the course of a school year, she said.

“We’ve tried to come up with some language that would make it clearer,” Hale said. 

As it originally was written, Senate Bill 467 would have added a key phrase to law so that it would have prevented an administrator from assigning other duties during a planning period “without the consent of the teacher.” But Senate Education Vice Chairman Erik Wells, D-Kanawha, didn’t like that version of the bill. He argued that changes in policy regarding planning periods should be made on the school level, not put into state code by the Legislature. He also questioned the importance of the issue.

“I haven’t had one e-mail or one phone call this year on this issue,” Wells said.

“Senator, I have had lots of calls,” Hale responded. She said the AFT conducted a survey and found that 58 percent of those who lost their planning periods were elementary teachers.

Sen. Greg Tucker, D-Nicholas, agreed that loss of planning periods is a problem for teachers. “I’m married to a teacher and hear about this all the time,” he said.

Senator thinks bill would have reverse effect.

Senate Majority Leader John Unger, D-Berkeley, said he also has heard about the problem from his wife, who is a teacher, although she has not been deprived of her planning periods. But he said he saw a different problem with the bill.

“My concern with this bill is that it opens up without the consent of the teacher that you could have a situation where you could be creating more of a pressure on the teacher to give up their planning period, because you’re opening up the door for that to happen,” Unger said. A principal could pressure new teachers to give up their planning periods by asking for their consent, he said.

“The principals who are abusing the planning periods would be the ones who would try to pressure teachers into giving their consent.” – AFT-WV President Judy Hale

Hale said union leaders wrestled with the language, but she disagreed with Unger’s analysis of the problem. “The principals who are abusing the planning periods would be the ones who would try to pressure teachers into giving their consent,” she said.

Unger yielded to Hale on that point but said he thought the Legislature might be asked next year to revise the law again to fix the problem he suspects will arise.

Sen. Larry Edgell, D-Wetzel, agreed with Unger. He said the state superintendent should send a letter to principals and superintendents about the problem and then monitor it for a year.

Tucker County Superintendent Rick Hicks, speaking on behalf of his fellow administrators, expressed opposition to changing the law. “We don’t have a huge issue,” he told the senators.

However, Unger said he thought administrators really should favor the bill and teachers should oppose it. He argued that, if the bill becomes law, an administrator could ask a teacher to give up a planning period to cover for an absent colleague or for some other reason.

“Without this bill, actually I’d say you’d be in violation of the law by forcing or even asking for the person to give up that period of time,” Unger said to Hicks. “I am just totally confused, because to me, you ought to be saying, ‘We want this,’ and the teachers ought to be saying, ‘No way, José.’”

Bill gets changed on Senate floor.

But the version of the bill that came out of the Senate was not the one supported by the AFT. When it reached the Senate floor, Wells persuaded his colleagues to amend the bill to remove the phrase, “without the consent of the teacher.” He argued that otherwise teachers would be placed into an adversarial relationship with administrators.

“I think we’re also hamstringing the administrators in their ability to run the schools,” Wells said, who noted that teachers’ union representatives said the planning periods dispute is a major issue. “They also agree at some schools it’s working well, at other schools it’s not.”

His amendment would have the principal at each school report to the county superintendent the number of times a teacher is assigned any responsibilities during his or her planning period. The superintendent then would submit reports to the state Education Department, which would report the information to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability.

“Putting in adversarial language – ‘without the consent of the teacher’ – I don’t think is wise in code.” – Sen. Erik Wells

"It will allow us to really get good data to determine if this is a major issue or not," Wells said. "Putting in adversarial language - 'without the consent of the teacher' – I don’t think is wise in code."

Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, then urged the Senate to approve the amended bill. Senate Bill 467 passed on a vote of 32 in favor and only one against.

Truancy bill overcomes objections.

The Senate also passed Senate Bill 447, which is designed to reduce truancy and the number of school dropouts, although several senators don’t like it. The most vocal of the opponents was Sen. Evan Jenkins, D-Cabell.

The bill would have the superintendent of each county school system appoint a truancy and dropout prevention team. The would include representatives of the circuit court, the Department of Health and Human Resources office in the county and the school district. That team would then develop a truancy and dropout prevention plan to recommend to the school board. The board would have to decide whether to adopt the recommended plan, adopt a modified plan or adopt its own plan for implementation.

Plymale said the bill was the result of three to four years of study of how to prevent truancy. He said it incorporates ideas from school systems, such as the Wood County schools, that have had some success in reducing truancy and dropout rates.

Like Plymale, Jenkins said he liked the provisions of Section 12, the portion of the bill that Plymale had explained. But he didn’t like provisions in Section 2a, which calls for the county superintendent to investigate when a student has more than five unexcused absences.

“There is nothing in here that defines that investigation. Does that mean check with the attendance office? Does that mean call the parents? We don’t know what that means.” – Sen. Evan Jenkins

“There is nothing in here that defines that investigation,” Jenkins complained. “Does that mean check with the attendance office? Does that mean call the parents? We don’t know what that means, and there’s nothing under Section 12, the plan, that says that’s what the investigation under 2a is to be.”

The bill would require the superintendent to report the student with the unexcused absences to DHHR, which then would be required to send out a Child Protective Services worker to the student’s home within three school days. Within several days of that visit, CPS would have to provide a written report to the superintendent and the county prosecutor.

“This is a problem, and we must have tough love, but we’ve got to figure out a better way to address this issue,” Jenkins said. “I had suggested that what we ought to do is put an intermediate step clearly in code that says, once somebody has more than five unexcused absences, let’s require that a letter go to the home and say if you fail to address the unexcused absences within the next number of days, we will contact or turn this over to CPS. Let’s give the parents the opportunity. That may happen under this, but it’s not required.”

Sen. Ron Stollings, D-Boone, asked what constitutes an excused absence. He wondered if a parent could simply give the child a note that would be considered enough to excuse an absence.

Plymale told him excused absences generally require something like a note from a doctor, but sometimes schools will accept notes from parents, such as when a family takes a trip out of town.

“Most responsible parents will go into the school ahead of time and talk to them and let them know,” Plymale said. The school then gives the child the work that would be missed, he said.

Senate Bill 447 received 28 votes in favor and five votes against it, so it goes on to consideration in the House of Delegates.

Safer schools are the aim of one bill.

The Senate passed Senate Bill 592 without any opposition after Plymale explained to his colleagues that it would strengthen West Virginia’s leading position in making sure schools are safe. The bill would require each primary or secondary school to have a crisis response plan.

“We are farther ahead than many states because of the action of the body here a couple of years ago.” – Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale

“We are farther ahead than many states because of the action of the body here a couple of years ago,” Plymale said. “We set aside school access safety money, $5 million, to develop digital mapping and different things in every school that was being built by the SBA, as well as we went into every school and started looking at that.”

The bill requires the state school board, along with the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, to develop a model school crisis response plan for use by each school and develop the necessary safeguards to protect certain sensitive information. The Legislature is to receive a report by Dec. 31, 2011, that sets forth what must be included in each school-specific crisis plan.

When the bill was in the Senate Education Committee, Plymale mentioned that he and Senate Judiciary Chairman Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, met with actress Jennifer Garner and other representatives of Save the Children about the bill, because they want all schools to have crisis plans.

Jimmy Gianato, director of homeland security and emergency management, said his agency suggested some changes in the bill to prevent duplication of efforts. He also said the digital mapping of Cabell County schools by Patriot Services, which has the contract for the project, is proceeding after some delays caused by school closures due to winter weather.

“These plans that we’re doing are going to have very detailed information about school buildings, about access into those buildings, heating and ventilation controls, tactical response.” – Jimmy Gianato

“These plans that we’re doing are going to have very detailed information about school buildings, about access into those buildings, heating and ventilation controls, tactical response,” Gianato said.

After Patriot Services finishes mapping the Cabell County schools, the company is scheduled to move on to Wayne County and then the rest of West Virginia’s school systems.

Bill would provide for comprehensive middle schools.

Senate Bill 373 had no trouble getting through the Senate after Plymale told his colleagues it would add no costs to the state budget, but would just change the way the School Building Authority allocates some of its funding. When planning the construction of a middle school or junior high school, the agency would have to provide funding for comprehensive career technical education facilities to be located on site, whenever that’s feasible.

“This is one of the better issues that I think we’ve addressed in trying to make our middle schools comprehensive,” Plymale said when the bill was before the Senate Finance Committee. “We’re losing kids in middle school. By adding and making sure that the vocational and technical component is a part of that, I really think that this is something. I applaud the governor for making this part of his package.”

Mark Manchin, executive director of the School Building Authority, said his agency should have at least $2 million to carry over to next year to help fund vocational facilities for middle schools, but Plymale hopes lawmakers will be able to improve on that.

“I think that there is a need for us to look at additional money to go into SBA to get a comprehensive plan in the next couple of years as we start looking at construction,” he said.

Manchin told him the School Building Authority’s comprehensive facilities plan shows the need for school construction funds for all 55 counties over the next 10 years is for $2.5 billion. But he said appears that only $800 million, about one-third of what’s needed, will be available.

Plymale said demand for money from the agency has been increasing because voters in more counties have been approving bond issues to come up with matching funds. Manchin agreed.

“Over the last three years, eight counties have passed bonds. That was more than in the previous 17 years.” – School Building Authority Executive Director Mark Manchin

“Over the last three years, eight counties have passed bonds,” he said. “That was more than in the previous 17 years. Those eight counties collectively are collecting more than $250 million at the local level, and there is $85 million that we’re putting in as part of those projects. It’s a total of more than $300 million.”

Manchin added that such spending helps the economy. He said every dollar the School Building Authority spends in a community generates $3 in ancillary good, services and salaries. So he said that translates to more than $1 billion just for the counties that have passed bonds. But Plymale said he thinks the Legislature needs to prepare to do more.

When Senate Bill 373 reached the full Senate, all 33 members present voted for it.

Digital learning bill moves forward.

Another bill that received Senate approval this week is Senate Bill 516, which would require the state school board to establish a high-quality digital learning program. That program would have 10 elements: student eligibility, student access, personalized learning, advancement, content, instruction, digital learning providers, assessment, accountability, and funding and delivery.

“Children learn differently now,” Plymale told his colleagues on the Senate Finance Committee as he called on them to embrace digital learning and eventually be prepared to pay for it. “The use of textbooks shouldn’t be in the future what it has been in the past.”

The Department of Education has endorsed and embraced the bill, he said, and told him that $18 million to $20 million that has been allocated annually for textbooks could eventually be moved over to pay for digital learning resources instead.

“I’m not going to tell you this is not going to cost us money in the future, but if we do not develop digital profiles for students and be able to have them carry their learning along with them…we’re not going to allow them to learn,” Plymale said. “Their minds are wired differently than what people in my generation did. We learned differently, and we haven’t embraced that as much. This does do that.” Although he supported the bill, Senate Finance Chairman Roman Prezioso, D-Marion, was wary about it.

“I hope that the Department of Education in looking at digital learning doesn’t get too far downstream and then come back to us with a mandate that we need a lot of bucks to do this.” – Senate Finance Chairman Roman Prezioso

“We don’t do a lot of things that don’t cost money somewhere down the line,” he said. “I hope that the Department of Education in looking at digital learning doesn’t get too far downstream and then come back to us with a mandate that we need a lot of bucks to do this.”

But Prezioso added  that the cost of textbooks also has caused him “a lot of heartburn” over the years. He urged lawmakers to practice caution in looking at costs of the digital learning effort in the years ahead.

Plymale said the bill requires the state school board to report to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability, so lawmakers will stay informed through that process. Jorea Marple, the new state superintendent, assured the senators that the Education Department would keep the Legislature informed because the program will need future appropriations.

“I think the power of this bill is that it provides statutory authority and language to validate the journey we’re on in West Virginia,” she said. “It validates the need to utilize the power of technology to support learning.” 

Marple said the bill also is important for calling for all children “to have equity of access to technology” and learning experiences that are available around the clock. “It speaks to the fact that we need to develop career modules, which we are working on, and integrate them into the middle school curriculum so students have information about careers and they’ll be ready to connect with post-secondary instruction,” she said.

Kathy D’Antoni, assistant superintendent for career and technical education, said, “The exciting part about this bill to me is moving career-tech ed down to middle school.” She said the middle school curriculum is already so jammed that new classes cannot be added to it, but core subjects and career-tech education could be integrated.

“I do believe this is a step in the right direction,” Plymale said. “I’m not going to tell you that in the future this is not going to cost, but the cost is that we’re losing students. We’re losing students and we end of paying for them in the end through incarceration and things like that. And I think this is a good investment for the future.”

Senate Minority Leader Mike Hall, R-Putnam, asked if the bill would result in having students carrying around iPads instead of textbooks. Marple told him a wide variety of technology would be used.

But Hall wondered if “young minds been so affected by playing Xbox that by the time they get to the school system” they need similar electronic tools. Marple said research has found that three core areas that children from poverty need to focus on: more physical activity, more music and arts, and more technology. She added that technology is a tool, but not the only tool that is needed.

Hall then asked if using digital resources that could be available at any time might change the requirement for having 180 days of school.

“I think it is the power of technology that is going to take down the parameters of 180 days.” – Supt. Jorea Marple

“I think it is the power of technology that is going to take down the parameters of 180 days,” Marple replied. “The power of technology and the work we are doing in the department with our teachers is all about providing resources 24/7. So it doesn’t matter where you are as a student. You can continue your learning.”

Marple added that, if students have the right technology, they could continue their studies even when inclement weather closes the schools.

House bill gets through, too.

In addition to the several Senate bills dealing with education that the Senate passed, it also approved House Bill 2709, which would allow school boards to enter into energy-saving contracts as long as 15 years. Currently, they are not allowed to enter into such contracts for more than 10 years.

With the Senate’s approval, House Bill 2709 has completed its legislative journey and gone to acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin for his approval.

Senate Education Committee gets to work on House bills

By Jim Wallace

The Senate Education Committee hopes to deal early next week with two House-passed bills. One, House Bill 2889, would require all teachers and principals and certain service personnel to have suicide prevention training each year. The other, House Bill 3034, would recognize outstanding students who are top achievers in the state in several scholastic subjects.

The committee took up both bills Thursday afternoon to get familiar with them but put off any action on them until probably Tuesday.

House Bill 2889 also is called the Jason Flatt Act of 2011 in honor of a Tennessee high school student who committed suicide several years ago. It would make West Virginia the latest of several states to pass laws to provide school employees with suicide prevention training.

“The one concern I’ve had is with the money aspect of it,” Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, said.

Dixie Billheimer, chief executive officer of the Center for Professional Development, has estimated the bill would cost a bit more than $149,000 to implement. That would pay for one additional fulltime employee to ensure development planning, scheduling, implementation and reporting. The implementation would require costs in curriculum development and consultation by a mental health professional, as well as costs for face-to-face professional development for training the program’s trainers.

Plymale asked Secretary of Education and the Arts Kay Goodwin if she had any money in her budget to pay for the training, because the Center for Professional Development is part of her department. She said she didn’t, but she thinks the training could be provided at little or no cost through online resources.

“I think it’s important that we try to do something on this.” – Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale

Plymale said he would like to see if the costs of the bill could be dropped before the Education Committee sends the bill on to the Senate Finance Committee.

“I think it’s important that we try to do something on this,” he said. “There is obviously a need.”

The bill’s lead sponsor, Delegate Charlene Marshall, D-Monongalia, told the committee that the Jason Flatt Foundation has told her it could make training resources available online if the West Virginia Legislature would pass House Bill 2889.

More than student honors are involved in bill.

House Bill 3034 would establish a program that would recognize students whose scores on the WESTEST2 are in the top 10 among students statewide in each grade level tested. They would be recognized as “All State” students. But lawmakers would like the program to do more than just give honors to high-performing students.

Plymale said he has been contacted by teachers who have complained that many students don’t try very hard when they take the WESTEST2. When the bill was considered in the House, several delegates said they had heard similar complaints.

“The biggest complaint I’ve heard is from teachers, saying, a lot of times the kids come and they don’t take it serious,” Plymale said. “They’ll come in and they’ll just fill it in. So what we’re trying to do is listen to them and say, let’s make it a part of something.”

The idea is that, if students could qualify for All State honors by getting good scores, they will try harder on the WESTEST2. Plymale said it’s important for students to take the test seriously, because the federal government has been pushing to use it for evaluating teachers.

Amelia Courts, assistant state superintendent for the Division of Educator Quality and System Support, told the committee, “Our goal is obviously to take any opportunity to highlight the success of students that are doing well and to use that opportunity to encourage those students that may not be doing well and may not be motivated.”

House left to decide on Innovation Zone waivers

By Jim Wallace

Two school systems are well on their way to getting waivers to state code they need for Innovation Zone programs.

The requests from Clay County and Cabell County went first to the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability, a joint House-Senate group that normally meets only during monthly legislative interim meetings outside of regular legislative sessions. But the commission met last week so that the waiver requests would have a chance to be approved by the full Legislature during the current session.

The waiver requests then were incorporated into Senate Bill 612, which the Senate approved and sent on to the House of Delegates.

Under the bill, the Clay County schools would have age limitations waived so persons over age 21 could enroll free of charge in the “iREAD” program and get high school diplomas.

The Cabell County schools would get a waiver of the teacher mentor requirements so the Teacher Induction Program can be expanded.

“We have seen great success with this program at the high school level, and it is our elementary and middle school principals and teachers who have requested that the schools pursue this waiver,” Gerry Sawrey, Cabell County assistant superintendent, told lawmakers.

Senate Education Chairman Bob Plymale, D-Wayne, represents Cabell County and said he appreciates what the school system is doing.

“It does give me some cause for concern in the future from our teacher preparation programs from the universities and colleges,” he said. “If they’re not preparing our teachers for the future, we really need to take a much harder look. We’ve been taking a hard look, but we need to take a much harder look.”

Plymale called the Teacher Induction Program “very comprehensive.”