§18-9A-2 Definitions. - West Virginia Statutes

§18-9A-2. Definitions.
For the purpose of this article:

(a) "State board" means the West Virginia Board of Education.

(b) "County board" or "board" means a county board of education.

(c) "Professional salaries" means the state legally mandated salaries of the professional educators as provided in article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code.

(d) "Professional educator" shall be synonymous with and shall have the same meaning as "teacher" as defined in section one, article one of this chapter, and includes technology integration specialists.

(e) "Professional instructional personnel" means a professional educator whose regular duty is as that of a classroom teacher, librarian, attendance director or school psychologist. A professional educator having both instructional and administrative or other duties shall be included as professional instructional personnel for that ratio of the school day for which he or she is assigned and serves on a regular full-time basis in appropriate instruction, library, attendance, or psychologist duties.

(f) "Professional student support personnel" means a "teacher" as defined in section one, article one of this chapter who is assigned and serves on a regular full-time basis as a counselor or as a school nurse with a bachelor's degree and who is licensed by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for Registered Professional Nurses. For all purposes except for the determination of the allowance for professional educators pursuant to section four of this article, professional student support personnel are professional educators.

(g) "Service personnel salaries" means the state legally mandated salaries for service personnel as provided in section eight-a, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code.

(h) "Service personnel" means all personnel as provided in section eight, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code. For the purpose of computations under this article of ratios of service personnel to net enrollment, a service employee shall be counted as that number found by dividing his or her number of employment days in a fiscal year by two hundred: Provided, That the computation for any service person employed for three and one-half hours or less per day as provided in section eight-a, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code shall be calculated as one-half an employment day.

(i) "Net enrollment" means the number of pupils enrolled in special education programs, kindergarten programs and grades one to twelve, inclusive, of the public schools of the county. Net enrollment further shall include:

(1) Adults enrolled in regular secondary vocational programs existing as of the effective date of this section, subject to the following:

(A) Net enrollment includes no more than one thousand of those adults counted on the basis of full-time equivalency and apportioned annually to each county in proportion to the adults participating in regular secondary vocational programs in the prior year counted on the basis of full-time equivalency; and

(B) Net enrollment does not include any adult charged tuition or special fees beyond that required of the regular secondary vocational student;

(2) Students enrolled in early childhood education programs as provided in section forty-four, article five of this chapter, counted on the basis of full-time equivalency;

(3) No pupil shall be counted more than once by reason of transfer within the county or from another county within the state, and no pupil shall be counted who attends school in this state from another state;

(4) The enrollment shall be modified to the equivalent of the instructional term and in accordance with the eligibility requirements and rules established by the state board; and

(5) For the purposes of determining the county's basic foundation program, only, for any county whose net enrollment as determined under all other provisions of this definition is less than one thousand four hundred, the net enrollment of the county shall be increased by an amount to be determined in accordance with the following:

(A) Divide the state's lowest county student population density by the county's actual student population density;

(B) Multiply the amount derived from the calculation in paragraph (A) of this subdivision by the difference between one thousand four hundred and the county's actual net enrollment;

(C) If the increase in net enrollment as determined under this subdivision plus the county's net enrollment as determined under all other provisions of this subsection is greater than one thousand four hundred, the increase in net enrollment shall be reduced so that the total does not exceed one thousand four hundred; and

(D) During the 2008-2009 interim period and every three interim periods thereafter, the Legislative Oversight Commission on Education Accountability shall review the provisions of this subdivision to determine whether or not they properly address the needs of counties with low enrollment and a sparse population density.

(j) "Sparse-density county" means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties pursuant to subdivision (5) of the definition of net enrollment, to the square miles of the county is less than five.

(k) "Low-density county" means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties pursuant to subdivision (5) of the definition of net enrollment, to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than five but less than ten.

(l) "Medium-density county" means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties pursuant to subdivision (5) of the definition of net enrollment, to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than ten but less than twenty.

(m) "High-density county" means a county whose ratio of net enrollment, excluding any increase in the net enrollment of counties pursuant to subdivision (5) of the definition of net enrollment, to the square miles of the county is equal to or greater than twenty.

(n) "Levies for general current expense purposes" means ninety-four percent of the levy rate for county boards of education calculated or set by the Legislature pursuant to the provisions of section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of this code: Provided, That beginning July 1, 2008, "levies for general current expense purposes" means ninety percent of the levy rate for county boards of education calculated or set by the Legislature pursuant to the provisions of section six-f, article eight, chapter eleven of this code: Provided, however, That effective July 1, 2010, the definitions set forth in this subsection are subject to the provisions of section two-a of this article.

(o) "Technology integration specialist" means a professional educator who has expertise in the technology field and is assigned as a resource teacher to provide information and guidance to classroom teachers on the integration of technology into the curriculum.

(p) "State aid eligible personnel" means all professional educators and service personnel employed by a county board in positions that are eligible to be funded under this article and whose salaries are not funded by a specific funding source such as a federal or state grant, donation, contribution or other specific funding source not listed.