AN ACT Relating to the vocational technology center; adding a new chapter to Title 28C RCW; and declaring an emergency.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature finds and declares as the express purpose of this chapter:

(1) A vocational technology center will provide both direct and indirect civic and economic benefits to the people of the state of Washington;

(2) Economic growth will be enhanced by the increased number of skilled individuals that will enter the job pool in the region and displaced workers will be retrained reducing unemployment and the numbers of persons receiving welfare;

(3) A unique opportunity exists for the business community in Puget Sound to work with the Seattle public school system and the sixth community college district in Seattle to provide effective vocational-technical training to the citizens of this state and to create a program that will become a national model for cooperation between industries and educational systems and institutions;

(4) The program shall be designed to deliver high quality education to high school and adult students, preparing them for jobs in current and future technologies and providing trained workers for business and industry;

(5) The program will help coordinate technology training programs between the secondary and postsecondary educational systems; and

(6) A trained work force is one of the major factors that attracts new business and industries to an area, particularly in a rapidly changing technological age.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. (1) The governor is authorized to form a public nonprofit corporation in the same manner as a private nonprofit corporation is formed under chapter 24.03 RCW. The public corporation shall be an instrumentality of the state and have all the powers and be subject to the same restrictions as are permitted or prescribed to private nonprofit corporations, but shall exercise those powers only for carrying out the purposes of this chapter and those purposes necessarily implied therefrom. The governor shall appoint a board of fifteen directors for the corporation who shall serve terms of six years. The governor shall appoint the members as follows: Nine members shall represent the business community, three members shall represent the sixth community college district board of trustees, and three shall represent the Seattle school board. The terms of the initial members shall be staggered. The directors may provide for the payment of their expenses. The corporation may cause a vocational technical center to be designed and constructed on a site in the city of Seattle. The center shall be named the Washington institute of applied technology.

(2) The powers and duties of the directors shall include:

(a) Having full authority and responsibility for management, policy decisions, curriculum development, and resource allocations involving the center;

(b) Employing a director of the center, who shall serve at the pleasure of the directors of the corporation;

(c) Working with the Seattle school district and the sixth community college district to use existing resources of the Seattle school district and the sixth community college district to provide services for all normal operating functions of the center, including but not limited to, payroll, personnel, accounting, and disbursement of funds, as authorized by the director;

(d) Working closely with the office of the superintendent of public instruction on all fiscal matters;

(e) Negotiating an agreement with the sixth community college district and the Seattle school district which will commit all parties to a plan of governance and operation of the center and the plan shall be completed and agreed upon within forty-five days after the effective date of this section;

(f) Hiring staff as necessary to negotiate, with the approval of the directors, with the applicable public or private service providers to conduct the instructional activities of the center. However, the directors shall not hire instructional staff or faculty;

(g) Designing and implementing the programs offered through the center, but the directors shall not cause a training program in the construction trades to be offered unless the program is approved by recognized trade groups in this state and the directors;

(h) Awarding appropriate diplomas or certificates of completion, or other evidence of satisfactory performance may be awarded as appropriate;

(i) Initiating and causing to be conducted research regarding the needs of businesses and industries in the region and the state for a work force with appropriate training and evaluating the center's programs and courses based upon the research;

(j) Preparing a budget for the center consistent with the requirements applicable to common school districts;

(k) Receiving such gifts, grants, and endowments from public or private sources as may be made from time to time, in trust or otherwise, for the use and benefit of the purposes of the center and expend the same or any income therefrom according to the terms of the gifts, grants, or endowments; and

(l) Charging tuition and fees that shall not be higher than that provided for community colleges under RCW 28B.15.502 and that comply with the applicable provisions under chapter 28B.15 RCW, including but not limited to the provisions defining "resident student," and the board may provide for waivers of tuition and fees and provide scholarships.

(3) The directors shall enter into contracts with participating school districts that provide for a school district to reimburse the center for the costs of a student enrolled in a school in that district attending a course or courses at the center. The reimbursement shall not exceed the proportionate amount of full time equivalent funding received by the district for that student, and for state-funding purposes such student shall be deemed to be attending courses in the applicable school district. (4) The corporation may acquire and transfer real and personal property by lease, purchase, or sale, and further acquire property by gift, accept grants, cause the vocational technical center facilities to be constructed if funds are so appropriated, and do whatever is necessary or appropriate to carry out those purposes. The corporation shall maintain, operate, promote, and manage the vocational technology center.

(5) In order to allow the corporation flexibility in its personnel policies, the corporation is exempt from chapter 41.06 RCW, chapter 41.05 RCW, RCW 43.01.040 through 43.01.044, chapter 41.04 RCW; chapter 28B.16 RCW; and chapter 41.40 RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. Members of the board shall be compensated in accordance with RCW 43.03.250 and shall be reimbursed for travel expenses under RCW 43.03.050 and 43.03.060. The board created by the bill would be required to file an annual report on program and fiscal activities with the legislature and the superintendent of public instruction.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 4. If any provision of this act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other persons or circumstances is not affected.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 5. Sections 1 through 3 of this act shall constitute a new chapter in Title 28C RCW.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety, the support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect immediately.