A state educator training agency has seen annual budget cuts for about the past decade, but the one in store for next fiscal year is almost as large as all those cuts combined and equals about a third of its current state funding.
The West Virginia Center for Professional Development saw its state funding decrease nearly $900,000 from fiscal year 2008-2009 to this fiscal year, according to data provided by its chief operations officer Lorrie Smith. And the budget for next fiscal year, which begins July 1, will cut state funding from $2.3 million to $1.5 million, a nearly $800,000 cut.
Christy Day, the center's communications director, said state law requires the agency to collect "nominal fees" for most of its sessions, which are "heavily subsidized" by state funding. She said the center estimates its total budget for next fiscal year will be about $2.5 million.
Smith said the cut has already led to the cancellation of the agency's program to help teachers achieve National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Certification, a voluntary extra certification program that's meant to increase teacher quality and can grant educators a $3,500 salary boost. She said the National Board Certification program could've helped about 50 teachers this year.
The agency's annual Advanced Placement Fall Institute - meant to keep educators fresh in teaching AP courses, through which students can receive college credit if they score high enough on AP exit exams - will also have to reduce the number of participants and the number of sessions. Center officials said that program could also be cut entirely, alongside other services and possible layoffs to the agency's 16-member staff.
Chief Executive Officer Dixie Billheimer said her agency only recently found out what its state funding will be for next fiscal year, so it's still considering what cuts to make.
"We're going to look strictly at what's required of us in [state] code, and those will be the sessions we provide first," Billheimer said.
She said these legally required programs include a year-long leadership program for new principals, which serves about 120-150 principals annually.
Billheimer said other services the center provides include training for principals to grow AP programs, help for low-income kids to receive AP course fee waivers and technology training for teachers, including a three-day session for about 70 educators that started Monday in Charleston. The agency is planning to proceed with two AP Summer Institute sessions, one next week in Morgantown for about 250 teachers and another in July at Kanawha County's Capital High School for another 250.
On Friday, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin signed a $4.187 billion 2016-17 fiscal year state budget bill, following lawmakers' passage of the bill last Tuesday. Tomblin's suggested budget would've kept state funding for the center about the same as this fiscal year, Billheimer said, but the Senate suggested cutting all of the center's funding while the House suggested providing just $1.5 million - the amount lawmakers and the governor ultimately agreed to.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Mike Hall, R-Putnam, said the governor didn't initially propose cutting the center's money, but after the Legislature passed an initial budget bill that cut all its funding, and Tomblin vetoed that bill citing overall concerns with the legislation, the next budget Tomblin proposed suggested cutting all the agency's funding.
Hall said the Senate moved forward again with the full cut, but the House put the $1.5 million in and the Senate and governor concurred. Hall said it was the opinion of himself and others that some of the center's services were duplicative.
"There wasn't a lot of noise about this cut until the very end, when the House restored it, and we didn't challenge them on it," he said.
Delegate Dave Perry, D-Fayette, said he proposed the House amendment that provided the $1.5 million, and he had about 25 lawmakers co-sponsoring the idea. He said surveys of in-state educators supported it and he was familiar with it from his 32 years as a principal in Fayette County.
"It's obvious they provided services that would have left a void in the system that no one else had the expertise to provide," Perry said. "Not even the Department of Education."
Reach Ryan Quinn at ryan.quinn@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1254, facebook.com/ryanedwinquinn or follow @RyanEQuinn on Twitter.