BILL REQ. #:  S-3034.1 

Read first time 05/17/11.   Referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

     AN ACT Relating to K-12 educator employment, including compensation and building assignment; amending RCW 28A.400.201; adding new sections to chapter 28A.405 RCW; and declaring an emergency.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 28A.400.201 and 2010 c 236 s 7 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) The legislature recognizes that providing students with the opportunity to access a world-class educational system depends on our continuing ability to provide students with access to world-class educators. The legislature also understands that continuing to attract and retain the highest quality educators will require increased investments. The legislature intends to enhance the current salary allocation model and recognizes that changes to the current model cannot be imposed without great deliberation and input from teachers, administrators, and classified employees. Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to begin the process of developing an enhanced salary allocation model that is collaboratively designed to ensure the rationality of any conclusions regarding what constitutes adequate compensation.
     (2) Beginning July 1, 2011, the office of the superintendent of public instruction, in collaboration with the office of financial management, shall convene a technical working group to recommend the details of an enhanced salary allocation model that aligns state expectations for educator development and certification with the compensation system and establishes recommendations for a concurrent implementation schedule. In addition to any other details the technical working group deems necessary, the technical working group shall consider how a new compensation system should reward educational attainment, years of service, multiple measures of performance including those described in RCW 28A.405.100, service in high-demand fields, and national board for professional teaching standards certification. The working group shall also make recommendations on the following:
     (a) How to reduce the number of tiers within the existing salary allocation model;
     (b) How to account for labor market adjustments;
     (c) How to account for different geographic regions of the state where districts may encounter difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers;
     (d) The role of and types of bonuses available;
     (e) Ways to eliminate or phase out grandfathered salaries for certificated, classified, and administrative employees to accomplish salary equalization over a set number of years; ((and))
     (f) Initial fiscal estimates for implementing the recommendations including a recognition that staff on the existing salary allocation model would have the option to grandfather in permanently to the existing schedule; and
     (g) How to use school-based incentives to encourage and reward school-wide improvements.
     (3) As part of its work, the technical working group shall conduct or contract for a preliminary comparative labor market analysis of salaries and other compensation for school district employees to be conducted and shall include the results in any reports to the legislature. For the purposes of this subsection, "salaries and other compensation" includes average base salaries, average total salaries, average employee basic benefits, and retirement benefits.
     (4) The analysis required under subsection (1) of this section must:
     (a) Examine salaries and other compensation for teachers, other certificated instructional staff, principals, and other building-level certificated administrators, and the types of classified employees for whom salaries are allocated;
     (b) Be calculated at a statewide level that identifies labor markets in Washington through the use of data from the United States bureau of the census and the bureau of labor statistics; and
     (c) Include a comparison of salaries and other compensation to the appropriate labor market for at least the following subgroups of educators: Beginning teachers and types of educational staff associates.
     (5) The working group shall include four legislators, with one member from each of the major caucuses in the house of representatives appointed by the speaker of the house of representatives; and one member from each of the major caucuses in the senate appointed by the president of the senate. Additional members shall include representatives of the department of personnel, the professional educator standards board, the office of the superintendent of public instruction, the Washington education association, the Washington association of school administrators, the association of Washington school principals, the Washington state school directors' association, the public school employees of Washington, and other interested stakeholders with appropriate expertise in compensation related matters. The working group may convene advisory subgroups on specific topics as necessary to assure participation and input from a broad array of diverse stakeholders.
     (6) The working group shall be monitored and overseen by the legislature and the quality education council created in RCW 28A.290.010. The working group shall make an initial report to the legislature by June 30, 2012, and shall include in its report recommendations for whether additional further work of the group is necessary.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 28A.405 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) When reductions in the workforce occur due to enrollment decline or revenue loss, the employment contracts of any postprobationary certificated classroom teachers who received the lowest evaluation rating, as described in RCW 28A.405.100, must have their contracts nonrenewed first and be recalled last if a recall occurs.
     (2) The board of directors of each school district shall adopt a written policy governing procedures for the nonrenewal of employment contracts for certificated classroom teachers as provided for in subsection (1) of this section.
     (3) All collective bargaining agreements and other contracts entered into between a school district and an employee bargaining unit or an employee after the effective date of this section, as well as bargaining agreements existing on the effective date of this section, but renewed or extended after the effective date of this section, must be consistent with this section.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 3   A new section is added to chapter 28A.405 RCW to read as follows:
     Any policy adopted by a school district board of directors after the effective date of this section under RCW 28A.150.230 or in a locally bargained agreement must contain provisions that prohibit assignment of a certificated classroom teacher to a school in the lowest tier of the state board of education's accountability index, unless agreed to by the building principal.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 4   Sections 1 and 2 of this act are necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and take effect immediately.