Senate Education committee advances bill to allow county school superintendents to live anywhere in West Virginia
By Autumn Shelton, RealWV
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – The Senate Education committee met on Tuesday, where they advanced a bill that will permit a county school superintendent to live outside of the county in which they will be employed.
Senate Bill 694 would change current state law that a county school superintendent must either live within the county they serve, or in a neighboring contiguous county. A committee substitute of the bill initially set forth the requirement that a superintendent must live within a two-hour drive of the county board office in which they will be employed. However, after amending the bill, that requirement was removed.
The bill states that a county superintendent must reside in West Virginia.
Drew McClanahan, legislative policy officer for the West Virginia Department of Education provided testimony regarding the bill.
According to McClanahan, county boards of education need the authority to choose the best candidate for a superintendent position, which is the intent of the bill.
“The current statute requires, you know, a contiguous county or to live in the county,” McClanahan explained. “So, for instance, if you’re living on the western side of Kanawha you could maybe travel to Fayette as a contiguous county, but you would not necessarily be allowed to take the superintendent position in Cabell because it’s two counties over.”
McClanahan added that it does become difficult to find a person in-county who can fill the role of superintendent in the event of state takeover.
“If they would want to choose to drive two hours or an hour and a half and the county board is not happy with their performance, you know, they do, obviously, have the ability to reevaluate that individual after the term of their contract is up,” McClanahan said.
Pendleton County Schools Superintendent Nicole Hevener also provided testimony regarding the bill.
“Having been in [human resources] as an HR director for eight years, I can tell you that Pendleton County has lost several applicants because we did not have a place for them to reside,” Hevener said, adding that there aren’t a lot of homes or rentals available.
“A superintendent doing a good job is going to do a good job,” Hevener continued. “They are going to be there. It’s not an eight hour day . . . if they’re not committed to the job then they probably need to leave anyway.”
Sen. Craig Hart, R-Mingo, expressed concern that this bill would take local county board authority away if a state takeover were to happen, although he did support the bill’s intent.
“I have a lot of concern that the state department can come in and take over a board, tell their elected board that ‘You no longer have a voice and we’re going to put in a stranger from far, far away,’” Hart said. “That is what gives me pause.”
Hart offered a conceptual amendment that only local county boards can hire an out-of-county superintendent, or determine remote work hours, not the state department during a county takeover.
“So, it would allow the state to continue to employ, say, a superintendent that lives outside of the county, but if they choose to select someone, they do not have this exception,” Hart explained of his amendment.
Howard O’Cull, executive director of the West Virginia School Board Association, was present during the meeting, and spoke regarding the amendment and the bill as a whole.
O’Cull explained that a county board of education is a “legislative governing body at the local level,” and can be suspended in extraordinary circumstances per state law.
“When we really look at this, this gives, in a time when it’s very difficult to find superintendents, it gives another opportunity for county boards,” O’Cull said. “And, if they hire someone in Mingo to work in Monongalia, they’ll have to defend that. Some of them would do that well, some of them wouldn’t.”
After discussion on the temporary nature of a state takeover, as well as the need to, at times, bring in a superintendent who can excel in extraordinary or emergency circumstances, the amendment was voted down.
Sen. Trenton Barnhart, R-Pleasants, also offered a conceptual amendment to change the bill to only allow for a one-hour drive from any county board to be eligible as a county school superintendent, but after some discussion about possible limiting effects, the amendment was withdrawn.
Sen. Scott Allen Fuller, R-Wayne, proposed a conceptual amendment to remove all driving time restrictions on the employment of a county superintendent.
“I don’t think we should restrict from putting the best person for the job based on a timeline,” Fuller said.
This amendment was adopted by the committee, and the bill will now go before the full Senate for their consideration.
