Teachers unions have asked a judge to declare the pay and benefit cuts that Boone County Board of Education members voted for last month unconstitutional.
The American Federation of Teachers, with the AFL-CIO and the West Virginia Education Association, filed two lawsuits against the Boone County Board of Education on Tuesday, claiming employees' due-process rights were ignored with the vote.
Boone County school board members voted July 18 to severely cut their 556 employees' pay and benefits to avert a looming West Virginia Board of Education takeover.
"This situation is unprecedented," said Christine Campbell, president of the American Federation of Teachers-West Virginia. "The state Board of Education believes that Boone County can alter the contracts, and we are questioning their ability to do so. We have time lines in state code, and this happened outside of those time lines."
State law says that the nearly all public school employees obtain a "continuing contract" after being employed by a board of education for more than three consecutive years, and that contract isn't to be altered unless it's agreed upon by the parties or terminated by the board. If it's to be terminated, a teacher must be given notice by March 1 of that school year, and service personnel have to be notified before April 1, according to the complaints filed in Boone County Circuit Court.
"Here, the new contract year already began before the Respondent attempted to change the terms of its employees' contracts," the lawsuits state. The "rights of the plaintiff's members under state law were ignored."
The part of state law that permits boards of education to change the terms of a contract, as it relates to duration and compensation without a hearing, is unlawful, the unions argue.
Boone's public school employees - previously second to Putnam County for average school worker pay - will each lose thousands of dollars in annual pay, and their employer-paid dental and vision insurance coverage. Retirees also will lose that coverage.
West Virginia Department of Education spokeswoman Kristin Anderson has said the cuts would mean a $3,800 to $4,000 salary cut per full-time professional employee, including teachers and school administrators, and a $3,650 to $3,850 salary cut per full-time service employee, including custodians and bus drivers. She said that would bring Boone down to the state-minimum salaries that about 25 other counties pay.
Boone County board members twice refused to make the cuts, but the state board had threatened to make them anyway. In June, state lawmakers and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin gave the school system an extra $2.2 million, to help pay employees through June 30. At a special Boone board meeting on that date, though, the orders from state schools Superintendent Michael Martirano to make the severe cuts were revealed.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.