“Stay Put” Provisions For Professional Educational Personnel in West Virginia

This time of the year the personnel office is busy filling both professional and service personnel positions for the 2012-13 school year. Many of the professional positions are filled by the transferring of regular employees. However, House Bill 4583 changed the “stay put” period as it relates to the transfer of professional personnel. 

W. Va. Code § 18A-4-7a(l) previously provided that:

1. After the fifth day prior to the beginning of the instructional term, no person employed and assigned to a professional position may transfer to another professional position in the county during that instructional term unless the person holding that position does not have valid certification. The provisions of this subsection are subject to the following: 
2. The person may apply for any posted, vacant positions with the successful applicant assuming the position at the beginning of the next instructional term; 
3. Professional personnel who have been on an approved leave of absence may fill these vacancies upon their return from the approved leave of absence; and 
4. The county board, upon recommendation of the superintendent may fill a position before the next instructional term when it is determined to be in the best interest of the students: Provided, That the county superintendent shall notify the state board of each transfer of a person employed in a professional position to another professional position after the fifth day prior to the beginning of the instructional term. The Legislature finds that it is not in the best interest of the students, particularly in the elementary grades, to have multiple teachers for any one grade level or course during the instructional term. It is the intent of the Legislature that the filling of positions through transfers of personnel from one professional position to another after the fifth day prior to the beginning of the instructional term should be kept to a minimum.

W. Va. Code § 18A-4-7a(l) now provides that:

1. After the twentieth day prior to the beginning of the instructional term, no person employed and assigned to a professional position may transfer to another professional position in the county during that instructional term unless the person holding that position does not have valid certification. The provisions of this subsection are subject to the following: 
2. The person may apply for any posted, vacant positions with the successful applicant assuming the position at the beginning of the next instructional term; 
3. Professional personnel who have been on an approved leave of absence may fill these vacancies upon their return from the approved leave of absence; 
4. The county board, upon recommendation of the superintendent may fill a position before the next instructional term when it is determined to be in the best interest of the students. The county superintendent shall notify the State Board of each transfer of a person employed in a professional position to another professional position after the twentieth day prior to the beginning of the instructional term; 
5. The provisions of this subsection do not apply to the filling of a position vacated because of resignation or retirement that became effective on or before the twentieth day prior to the beginning of the instructional term, but not posted until after that date; and 
6. The Legislature finds that it is not in the best interest of the students, particularly in the elementary grades, to have multiple teachers for any one grade level or course during the instructional term. It is the intent of the Legislature that the filling of positions through transfers of personnel from one professional position to another after the twentieth day prior to the beginning of the instructional term should be kept to a minimum.

In short, the statutory changes provide that after the twentieth day prior to the beginning of the instructional year, no professional employee may transfer to another professional position in the county during the instructional year. However, the same exceptions still apply as in prior years should a transfer be recommended by the superintendent. And, as indicated above in paragraph (5), the new statutory language provides that the “stay put” rule is not applicable to filling vacancy that resulted from a “resignation or retirement that took effect on or before the twentieth day prior to the beginning of the instructional term, but not posted until after that date.”