Bill Text: WV HB2194 | 2018 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Reducing personnel employed by the West Virginia Department of Education
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 4-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-10 - To House Education [HB2194 Detail]
Download: West_Virginia-2018-HB2194-Introduced.html
West Virginia
Legislature
2017 Regular Session
Introduced
House Bill 2194
(By Delegates Gearheart, Ambler, Cooper and Hamrick)
to the Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend of the
Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by adding thereto a new section,
designated §18-3-9c, relating to reduction of personnel employed by the West
Virginia Department of Education; legislative findings; establishing a maximum
ratio of the number of employees of the department to the number of students
enrolled in the state after June 30, 2017; and requiring the state
superintendent to establish a policy to attain the ratio.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West
Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section,
designated §18-3-9c, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS.
§18-3-9c. Reduction of personnel necessary to carry out
the duties and meet departmental goals.
(a) The Legislature
finds that the 2012 Education Efficiency Audit of West Virginia's Primary and Secondary Education System made several
findings regarding the West Virginia Department of Education, including:
(1) For the fiscal year
2011, the department lists a total of six hundred thirty-seven positions;
(2) In addition to the
superintendent and deputy superintendent, the department has four assistant
superintendents, nineteen executive directors and twenty-seven assistant
directors, one division assistant chief and one executive director/chief
financial officer;
(3) In fiscal year 2011,
the department had a total payroll of $45.7 million;
(4) The West Virginia
Department of Education has the second highest ratio of state primary and
secondary education administrators and staff on the state level to students
enrolled in primary and secondary schools in the nation and the ratio is
greatly in excess of that in any surrounding state; and
(5) Taxpayers as well as
primary and secondary education students in West Virginia deserve the most
efficient use of scarce education resources possible and classroom education
should be the primary focus of any education paradigm.
(b) After June 30, 2019,
the number of employees of the department may not exceed a ratio greater than
one employee for every two thousand enrolled students in the state. The superintendent shall develop and adopt a
strategic plan and policy to meet this ratio, which may include, but is not limited
to, the following:
(1) Restructure the
organization of the department with emphasis on meeting the major educational
goals and functions of the department;
(2) Identification of
and, to the extent practicable, adoption of best practices used or recommended
by professionally recognized resources in the education community;
(3) Increase the span of
supervisory control to not less than a one to ten ratio of supervisors to
subordinates to facilitate the reduction in the number of offices within the
department;
(4) Reduction of the
number of funded positions in the department; and
(5) Implementation of
additional cross-department initiatives to reduce duplication of work and
effort to ensure funds are used as efficiently as possible.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to establish a maximum ratio of the number of employees of the West Virginia
Department of Education to the number of students enrolled in the state after
June 30, 2019 at not greater than one employee to two thousand students; and to
require the state superintendent to establish a policy to attain the ratio.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law, and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.