Education Advocates in West Virginia Unhappy With Results of Recent Legislative Session
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CHARLESTON -- Representatives of county school boards in West Virginia, principals, and teachers used Tuesday's monthly meeting of the state Board of Education to express their disappointment in the recent session of the Legislature.
David Gladkosky, executive director of the West Virginia Professional Educators, spoke to state Board of Education members Tuesday morning regarding the 2024 legislative session that began Jan. 10 and ended March 9.
Looking back at the 60-day session, Gladkosky could only point to completed legislation that provided pay raises for teachers and school service personnel, creating a multi-tiered system for school absenteeism, and a bill creating a teachers bill of rights as examples of bills that could help educators.
"The word that comes to my mind that I have to say and have to think of is the word 'disappointment,'" Gladosky said. "It makes me think that education in West Virginia isn't in any better shape at this point than it was before the session."
"We finished a 60-day legislative session that was aggravating, tiring, disappointing, miserable," agreed Dale Lee, president of the West Virginia Education Association which is in the process of merging with the other teacher's union organization in the state, the state chapter of the American Federation of Teachers.
A bill allowing teachers to bank unused personal leave days to enhance their retirement benefits never made it out of the House, and no bills providing a cost-of-living increase to retired teachers and school staff or providing incentives for hiring special education teachers and staff made it over the finish line.
One bill Gladosky said he was disappointed didn't pass was either the House of Delegates or state Senate bills dealing with student discipline in kindergarten through sixth grade. The one bill that was moving, Senate Bill 614, died in the final hours of the legislative session during the back-and-forth between the bodies making minor amendments to the bill.
SB 614 would have required students in elementary grades to be placed in a county behavioral intervention program if their behavior in the classroom was violent, threatening or intimidating toward staff and other students, and allow counties without such programs to partner with neighboring counties.
For counties without behavioral intervention programs, students would have been removed from the classroom following the incidents and suspended from school for one to three days while alternative learning accommodations were made, with the student receiving instruction through alternative learning.
Parents would have been required to pick up the student either immediately or by the end of the school day, with law enforcement being notified of any student not picked up by a parent or guardian by the end of the school day.
The student would not be able to return to school until a risk assessment is done by a school psychologist. Upon completion, the student would return to school on a probationary period between five and 10 days. If another incident occurs, the student would be placed in an alternative learning environment for the remainder of the semester or school year.
"We didn't really get a student discipline bill," Gladosky said. "There were attempts, and I do say kudos to the Senate chair of the education committee and the ... chair of the House Education Committee for working on these and putting together good bills. But I'm just disappointed they didn't come through."
Jim Brown, executive director of the West Virginia School Board Association, also thanked the education committees in the House and Senate for trying to work on student discipline issues, but he raised concerns about SB 614 and the lack of funding and resources for expanding behavioral intervention programs to all 55 counties, the possibility that students could be out of school longer due to lack of resources to quickly complete risk assessments, and the probationary period for students.
"So basically, it's a 'two strikes, you're out' plan because this legislation is not permissive in nature," Brown said. "The end result is these students will likely be placed on homebound services due to a lack of alternative learning environments, and their behaviors will go unaddressed. Having served as an elementary principal and a school district superintendent, I can attest this punitive approach fails to address the underlying issues and to provide these students with the support they need to succeed."
According to online news website West Virginia Watch, Senate leadership is considering placing SB 614 on a possible special session being planned for May. Brown urged board members to support creating a statewide task force with teachers, administrators, parents, and mental health professionals to create a plan for addressing student discipline.
"Given the opportunity, it's highly probable that either the House or Senate education committees' elementary student discipline bills will resurface in some form during the upcoming special legislative session," Brown said. "Therefore, I believe it's crucial to voice our concerns unequivocally."
Mickey Blackwell, the executive director for the West Virginia Association of Elementary and Middle School Principals, said any student discipline bill should include funding for every school in the state to have a full-time counselor on staff.
"For two years in a row, I said we need a full-time principal, a full-time vice principal, and a full-time counselor in every school," Blackwell said. "If the Legislature wants to do something about problem children, children who have problems, children who have disciplinary issues, you've got to have somebody to work with those kids one-on-one, two on one, whatever it takes."
"We have to make sure that our students' mental health is addressed. And when we do that, you'll see achievement rise," Lee said. "If we don't address these emotional and mental issues and the discipline issues for these students, it doesn't matter what program we have, it's not going to be successful."