This session VSBA has been working with nearly 200 bills
that are directly or indirectly related to K-12 education. We have had a number of significant successes
in defeating or amending unfavorable legislation and in passing favorable legislation. Below is a summary of some of the VSBA’s most
significant successes thus far this session.
As you will read below, however, there is much work still to do.
Defeated Legislation
Sen. Obenshain and Del. Lingamfelter introduced
constitutional amendments, HJ684 and SJ302, respectively, to give the Board of
Education the authority to establish charter schools. Currently, only local school boards can
establish charter schools. VSBA opposes
taking that authority away from local school boards and vesting it in any other
body. These constitutional amendments
were supported by the Governor and we strongly opposed them on behalf of the
VSBA. The House version failed in
subcommittee on a vote of 11-11. The
Senate version failed on the floor of the Senate on a vote of 20-19-1
(constitutional amendments require 21 votes in the Senate).
There were virtual schools bills sponsored by Del. Dickie
Bell (HB1555) and Sen. Barker (SB1300) that were very problematic. HB1555 would have established a statewide
virtual school and would have required the state and local SOQ funds for any
student enrolled in the school to be transferred to the state virtual
school. The bill was supported by
virtual education providers. We actively
opposed the bill and it ultimately died in House Appropriations. SB1300 did not establish a statewide virtual
school but it would have required a school division that did not offer a
virtual program to transfer the state and local SOQ funding for any student who
enrolled in another division’s virtual program to that other division. We opposed the bill and worked with the
patron, who ultimately requested that the bill be stricken.
Senator Miller’s SB993 would have required school divisions
to provide 30 minutes of physical activity per day for students in grades
K-8. While well intentioned, the bill
would have placed a significant burden on school divisions in terms of staff
and facilities. In addition, it would
have been difficult to include the additional 30 minutes into the school day
without eliminating other programs. We
opposed the bill on behalf of the VSBA.
It was reported out of Senate Education and Health, but it died in
Senate Finance.
Delegate McQuinn’s HB2171 was another well intentioned bill
that would have imposed a significant and unfunded burden on school
divisions. The bill would have required
school safety audits, which are currently required annually, to be performed
bimonthly. It would have also required
school divisions to conduct bimonthly reviews of the written school crisis,
emergency management, and medical emergency response plans for each
school. We opposed the bill because of
the significant administrative burden that it would have imposed on already
overburdened staff and the bill died in subcommittee.
Amended Legislation
Often problematic legislation has so much support or
momentum that we cannot defeat it. This
is especially true when, as now, the same party controls both houses. This also happens most often with hot issues,
such as bullying and school safety.
Below are some of the bills on which we worked for significant
amendments because we did not believe they could be defeated.
The Governor’s Educator Fairness Act (HB2151 and SB1223)
sponsored by Del. Dickie Bell and Sen. Norment is something that we have worked
on the last two years. As you may
recall, last year the Governor introduced legislation that would have
eliminated continuing contracts for all teachers. That legislation also had some good
provisions relating to teacher evaluations and nonrenewals. While we did not support the legislation as
originally drafted last year, we worked with the Administration to improve
it. That legislation failed and the
Governor brought back many of the same concepts in this year’s Educator
Fairness Act. We have continued to work
with the Administration to improve the bills.
One significant piece of the bill that we proposed and support is the
streamlining of the grievance procedure.
Another favorable provision in the bill that we proposed is defining
incompetence to include one or more unsatisfactory evaluations. Both bills passed their respective houses
with widespread, bipartisan support.
Del. Dickie Bell and Sen. Hanger brought, for the second
year in a row, legislation that would require IEP teams to consider certain
factors when developing IEPs for deaf and hard of hearing students. (HB1344/SB1097) We opposed the legislation last year and
again this session because, among other reasons, it would have caused a
conflict with the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Because there was widespread, bipartisan
support for the legislation this year, we decided to seek an amendment to make
the changes permissive rather than mandatory.
Our efforts were successful and both bills were amended to change the
“shalls” to “mays.”
Del. McClellan’s HB1871 is a bullying bill that included
some very problematic provisions. As
originally drafted the bill included provisions requiring the school board to
prohibit employee-on-employee bullying.
We believe this part of the bill was unnecessary because harassment and
discrimination among employees is already prohibited and school boards are
required to have procedures for reporting and investigating harassment and
discrimination. This portion of the bill
was duplicative at best and, at worst, could have been used by employees to
elevate petty disputes among co-workers or disagreements with supervisors to
incidents that would have to be investigated.
This would bog down already over-burdened administrators with needless
investigations. Because the bill
contained some other provisions regarding bullying among students and was
likely to pass, we worked extensively with Del. McClellan and Sen. Favola (the
patron of an identical Senate bill that was ultimately stricken) as well as
other stakeholders to get significant amendments to the bill. All of the troubling language regarding
bullying among employees was stricken from the bill and replaced with a simple
requirement that school boards educate employees for the need to create a
bully-free environment. The amended bill
is far less problematic than the original bill.
Del. Greason’s HB1941 and Sen. Stanley’s SB1207 are the
Governor’s bills that establish an A-F grading system for schools. These bills were hotly opposed by VSBA and
other organizations, including VASS. The
bills were amended a number of times by the Administration in an attempt to
assuage the opposition. The original
bills directed BOE to develop an A-F grading scale. As explained by the Deputy Secretary of
Education, the original plan would have resulted in a “bell-curve,” with most
schools receiving a C. The amended bills
direct the Board of Education to develop a grading scale that includes student
growth. This will allow a school that is
making improvements to receive a higher grade than it would have received under
the original bills. The Senate version
was further amended to remove provisions requiring immediate grading of
schools, postponing the assignment of grades until 2015, to allow the BOE time
to develop the grading system and include student growth. While we will continue to oppose these
bills, the amended versions are far improved over the original bills. (We
understand, however, that the Governor may try to apply an A-F grading system
in the interim through administrative action.)
Passed Legislation
While it seems as if most of our time is spent opposing
legislation, there were a number of bills that VSBA actively supported. Here are a few such bills that were passed by
the house of origin and are headed to the other house.
Del. Habeeb’s HB1388 changes the deadline for notifying
principals, assistant principals, and supervisors of reassignment from April 15
to June 15. VSBA actively supported this
bill, which conforms the process for principals, assistant principals, and
supervisors to what was done for teachers last year and is more consistent with
the new evaluation systems which are dependent upon student academic
achievement data, which is not available until after April 15. This bill passed the House with no
opposition.
Del. Greason’s HB1467 would allow school boards to set the
school calendar and would eliminate to post-Labor Day opening requirement. We actively supported the bill and it was
passed by the House 72-28.
HB1866, sponsored by Del. Robinson, restores discretion to
school boards and administrators in student discipline matters involving
weapons. Currently, school
administrators are required to recommend expulsion for any offense involving a
firearm. The term firearm is defined to
include many weapons (such as slingshots and knives) that are not truly
firearms. The current law requires a
recommendation of expulsion even in cases in which the circumstances may not
warrant such an extreme sanction. This
bill simplifies the definition of firearm so that only offenses involving a
true firearm (e.g. a weapon intended to expel a projectile through an
explosion) carry a mandatory recommendation of expulsion. School boards are still free to prohibit
other weapons and to expel students for bringing other, non-firearm weapons to
school. We worked with the patron and
other stakeholders on the language of the bill before it was filed and we
actively supported it. The bill was
passed by the House 99-0.
Still to Do
We have accomplished much this session, but there is still
work to be done. Of the nearly 200 bills
we were working, about 85 remain in play following crossover. Below are a few of the most significant bills
remaining.
The Governor’s school takeover legislation, which
establishes the Opportunity Educational Institution, passed both the House and
the Senate in slightly differing versions.
Sen. McDougle sponsored SB 1324 and Del. Habeeb sponsored HB2096. We have advised the General Assembly in
strong terms that both bills are unconstitutional. In addition, both bills would require any
local school division that has a school taken over by the Institution to
transfer to the Institution the state and local per pupil funding for each
student in the school. This would
include not only local SOQ required funding, but all local aspirational funds
as well. Both bills also permit the
Institution to take over and use school buildings and facilities, but require
the local school board or local governing body to pay for all capital repairs
and renovations that the Institution deems appropriate. The Senate version of the bill includes what
is known as “The Clause,” an appropriations clause that provides that the
legislation shall not become effective unless there is a corresponding
appropriation of funds. The Senate
Finance Committee removed the Governor’s budget amendment that provided funding
for the legislation. It remains to be
seen whether the funding will be in the final budget bill. We have strongly opposed these bills on
behalf of the VSBA and we opposed funding to effectuate these bills. We will continue to work to defeat this
school takeover legislation and to ensure that, if passed, the legislation is
not funded.
In an apparent recognition of the fact that his school
takeover bills were unconstitutional, the Governor also introduced
constitutional amendments that authorize the General Assembly to establish a
statewide school division to take over schools that have been denied
accreditation. We strongly opposed these
constitutional amendments. After his
SB1324 passed on the Senate floor, Sen. McDougle asked to have his
constitutional amendment passed by and, therefore, it failed without a vote by
the full Senate. Del. Habeeb’s
constitutional amendment, HJ693, was passed by the House 58-37. We will continue to oppose HJ693 and will
work to defeat it in the Senate.
