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2004 SESSION

049476812
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 63
Offered January 14, 2004
Prefiled January 14, 2004
Requesting the Board of Education to study the feasibility and appropriateness of granting public school teachers and administrators state employee status. Report.
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Patron-- Ruff
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Referred to Committee on Rules
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WHEREAS, Article VIII, § 7 of the Constitution of Virginia vests local school boards with supervisory authority for the operation of public schools, and the Virginia judiciary has found that policies addressing the employment and management of staff are an essential and indispensable function of local school boards; and

WHEREAS, consistent with state constitutional parameters, the Code of Virginia provides that local school boards are empowered to employ school administrators, and dictates that "the teachers in the public schools of a school division shall be employed and placed...by the school board..."; and

WHEREAS, while local school divisions may participate in the Virginia Retirement System, other comparable state employee benefits may not be available for local school board employees; and

WHEREAS, granting state employee status to public school instructional and administrative personnel requires careful consideration of complex legal, fiscal, and policy issues affecting the Commonwealth as well as localities; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate concurring, the House of Delegates concurring, That the Board of Education be requested to study the feasibility and appropriateness of granting public school teachers and administrators state employee status.

In conducting its study, the Board shall examine (i) state constitutional and statutory requirements as well as judicial interpretation of the supervisory role of school boards; (ii) the fiscal and policy implications for the Commonwealth and local school divisions should responsibility for the employment of administrative and instructional personnel be transferred to the Commonwealth; (iii) the benefits of such a conversion, and alternative methods of procuring such benefits for administrative and instructional personnel; and (iv) such other issues as it deems appropriate.

Technical assistance shall be provided to the Board by the Department of Education, the Office of the Attorney General, and the Virginia Retirement System. All agencies of the Commonwealth shall provide assistance to the Board for this study, upon request.

The Board shall complete its meetings by November 30, 2004, and shall submit to the Governor and the General Assembly an executive summary and a report of its findings and recommendations for publication as a document. The executive summary and report shall be submitted as provided in the procedures of the Division of Legislative Automated Systems for the processing of legislative documents and reports no later than the first day of the 2005 Regular Session of the General Assembly and shall be posted on the General Assembly's website.