Interims Story Archives - Page 2 of 3 - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Efforts To Bring Retired Teachers Back Sees Some Success, But Many Positions Still Unfilled

Lawmakers received an update Sunday on an initiative that brings retired personnel back into schools to relieve staff shortages.

Deputy State Superintendent Michele Blatt gave the Joint Committee on Pensions and Retirement an update on the logistics of the program, and how many teachers have come back as long-term substitutes to address “critical need and shortage areas.”

“We’re basically looking at any teacher that desires to work more than 140 days in a fiscal year, [and there’s] a process that code explains has to take place in order for that to happen,” Blatt said.

For a retired teacher to receive critical need status for any given position, there cannot be any existing teacher or applicant locally that is already fully certified for the position, per state code.

Blatt said 248 requests were submitted this school year for retirees to come back and teach as long-term substitutes. The majority of requests received were in special education and elementary education. That accounts for about 20 percent of the current vacancies.

Out of West Virginia’s 55 counties, 45 submitted policies to the state Board of Education this year outlining areas of critical need. That includes positions at the state’s Schools for Diversion and Transition and Schools for the Deaf and Blind. There are currently more than 1,200 vacancies for fully certified teachers statewide.

House Bill 2346 was also passed last session, which similarly addresses the statewide bus driver shortage. That piece of legislation goes into effect July 1.

According to state code, the current legislation that allows retired personnel to be brought in as long-term substitute teachers, speech pathologists, school nurses and school counselors, expires June 30, 2025.

Fruit Farmers, Derailment Waste And Treating Substance Use Disorder On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, this past winter was unseasonably mild. As Chris Schulz reports, that’s put some of the state’s fruit farmers in an unexpectedly precarious position.

On this West Virginia Morning, this past winter was unseasonably mild. As Chris Schulz reports, that’s put some of the state’s fruit farmers in an unexpectedly precarious position.

Also, in this show, lawmakers heard from experts treating substance use disorder during interim session. As Emily Rice reports, long-term programs appear to be more successful.

And, earlier this month, a truck carrying waste from the East Palestine train derailment spilled over 20,000 pounds of contaminated soil. The spill was contained, but it highlighted one question hovering over the cleanup in East Palestine: what happens to the waste? The Allegheny Front’s Reid Frazier found some of it is going to an incinerator in Ohio with a history of problems.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Caroline MacGregor is our assistant news director and produced this episode.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Regular Tax Incentive Evaluation Suggested To Legislature’s Economic Development Committee

A member of public policy organization Pew Charitable Trusts proposed a regular evaluation of state tax incentives during Tuesday afternoon’s interim meeting of the West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Commission on Economic Development.

A Pew Charitable Trusts map detailing how tax incentives are evaluated by state.

“Tax incentives are one of the primary tools that states use to try to create jobs, attract new businesses and strengthen their economies,” said Pew representative Logan Timmerhoff. “But they’re also major budget commitments collectively costing states billions of dollars a year.”

Examples of processes mentioned by Timmerhoff included creating a legislative committee or hiring an outside agency to regularly review these incentives, and analyzing how certain credits impact taxpayer decision making.

“When evaluating incentives, it’s hard to know exactly how much they influence business behavior,” Timmerhoff said. “However, states have used analytic approaches that make reasonable estimates.”

How the evaluation process is done differs by state, but Timmerhoff said evaluations matter because lawmakers nationwide have often lacked good information about how well incentives are working.

The number of states that regularly evaluate tax incentives has increased within the past decade, going from six states to more than 30.

“We don’t have a formal process in West Virginia,” said Sen. Eric Tarr, R-Putnam. “It typically comes when there’s a specific sector that is looking to grow.”

Questions asked by legislators at the meeting included weighing the pros and cons of other states’ evaluation processes, and if a similar process could be used to evaluate the elimination of certain taxes, citing the legislature’s previous effort to eliminate personal property taxes on vehicles.

Legislators Receive Update On EMS Recruitment Initiative

Legislators received an update on the state’s emergency medical services recruitment initiative during Monday’s interim meetings.

Earlier this summer, Gov. Jim Justice announced $10 million for the Answer the Call initiative, designed to recruit, train, and strengthen West Virginia’s EMS workforce.

Dr. Cynthia Persily presented the Joint Committee on Volunteer Fire Departments and Emergency Medical Services with various updates from the initiative, including initial results from a survey of the state’s EMS workforce.

“What we asked is how many years they thought they would be working as an EMS worker before they retired,” she said. “One thousand fifty answered this particular question. Three hundred fifty or close to a third of those people said they’d be retiring within the next zero to five years. So as we think ahead in terms of replacement of this workforce and the need for continued training, this is important information for us to have.”

Persily said the Answer the Call initiative is helping to keep the state’s EMS services going in the face of the high retirement numbers, with more than 500 people having been trained or currently in training through the initiative.

She pointed out that as CARES Act money, the Answer the Call funding must be spent by September 30.

“We are also continuing to work with adult ed on making sure that all of our EMT and paramedic grads are ready for testing,” Persily said. “As we talked about at the last meeting, we don’t have a great percentage of pass rate on our testing.”

She said the initiative has purchased 300 subscriptions to the Platinum EMS Testing Program to address that issue.

Persily also gave an update on the state’s initiative to provide every EMS worker with a medic pack, stocked with all of the equipment that they may need in order to be a first responder.

“We have a distribution plan, it will depend on when they begin arriving in the state,” she said. “Right now we’re on target for the first about 2,000 to come into the state at the end of the month.”

Dr. Beth Wolfe presented on the University of Charleston’s EMS Leadership Training.

“We’re very proud of what the students are already saying that they’re taking out of these classes, and giving back to their teammates, as well as their communities,” she said. “We see this leadership certificate as a way to recruit, retain and prepare EMS professionals to lead.”

Legislators Discuss Improvements To Rail-Trails

At the West Virginia Legislature’s third interim meetings of the year, lawmakers heard about efforts to improve the state’s rail-trail networks.

At the West Virginia Legislature’s third interim meetings of the year, lawmakers heard about efforts to improve the state’s rail-trail networks. Rail-trails refer to public, shared use paths built on a railway’s right of way, often after the railway has been abandoned and the track has been removed.

The Parks, Recreation and Natural Resources Subcommittee met in Charleston Sunday evening.

Assistant Commissioner of Highways Rita Pauley gave an overview of the system, saying there were close to 70 rail-trails across the state. She also discussed legislative activity to expand the system.

“It all comes down to what would be safe to develop and what the railroads are willing to allow because it’s their property,” Pauley said.

Senate Bill 588 dealt with rail line liability and also proposed updating the West Virginia Rail Trails Program with a “rail with trail” system that would develop public trails next to active rail lines.

Representatives from railroad companies CSX and Norfolk Southern were opposed to the idea, telling the subcommittee that inviting the public so close to active trains was inviting injury and possibly death.

“To impose the burden of people using a non motorized right of way next to an active rail line is a really tough burden and a tough threshold for the railroads to accept,” said Pat McCune, an independent public affairs consultant for CSX Rail. “There’s too much risk even with a certain amount of indemnification.”

The bill had widespread support in both chambers, but failed to pass before the end of the legislation’s regular session.

Legislators Discuss Cannabis In The Workplace

West Virginia law protects employees from being fired for using medical cannabis products, but employers can still prohibit employees from being under the influence at work.

Legislators heard a presentation on cannabis and the workplace during Tuesdays’ interim meetings in Morgantown.

West Virginia law protects employees from being fired for using medical cannabis products, but employers can still prohibit employees from being under the influence at work.

The West Virginia Legislature’s Joint Standing Committee on the Judiciary heard from two experts on the challenges of testing for cannabis impairment.

Employment lawyer Nancy Delogu explained that while blood, urine, and saliva analysis can provide evidence of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, in a person’s system, there is no true test for impairment as THC affects each individual differently.

“There’s not a test for an impairment, there has never been a test for impairment,” she said. “We don’t have a test for alcohol impairment, we have a breathalyzer. It measures the amount of alcohol in one’s blood.”

Delogu pointed out that breathalyzers have 75 years of federal highway safety data to back up correlations between blood alcohol levels and the likelihood of driving impairment.

THC also lingers in the body longer than most other substances. A traditional urine analysis could produce a positive result up to a month after cannabis use, making it functionally useless as a test for on the job impairment.

Aaron Lopez of the lobbying firm Political Capital explained that West Virginia has defined impairment as the presence of more than 3 nanograms of cannabis metabolites, byproducts of the body’s metabolism, in a blood test. He said that is a stronger definition than surrounding states, who fall closer to the national average of five or 10 nanograms.

“The blood test is much more accurate but trying to figure out where the blood level correlates with impairment is still something that is being tested around the country,” Lopez said.

While accurate, blood tests take time and require the presence of a trained phlebotomist. Lopez and Delogu both pointed towards saliva or oral fluid testing as the likely future for employers concerned about cannabis-impared employees.

The discussion comes just one month after a miner’s suspension for the use of a CBD product was upheld by the state supreme court.

“Even in the footnotes of Justice Armstead, he noted that we have to deal with this,” Sen. Mike Caputo, D-Marion, said. “We have to figure out a way to deal with this in the workplace.”