SD31 - The Continuing Contract Status Law for Instructional and Administrative Personnel

  • Published: 1988
  • Author: Joint Subcommittee
  • Enabling Authority: Senate Joint Resolution 125 (Regular Session, 1987)

Executive Summary:
In March of 1986, Governor Gerald L. Baliles established the Virginia Commission on Excellence in Education and directed the Commission to develop recommendations focused on developing Virginia's public educational system into one of the most outstanding systems in the country. In its report, Excellence in Education, A Plan for Virginia's Future, the Commission stated:

"Accountability requires us to recognize where "the buck stops." If we are to be accountable, one more problem needs to be addressed. There is no place in Virginia's schools for ineffective teachers, principals, and superintendents. Contracts under which superintendents are employed usually have termination arrangements that work; however, most divisions which have tried to remove poor teachers or principals will tell you that it is easier and quicker to move a cemetery. Constitutional rights are protected and will continue to be, but the legal process for removing unsatisfactory teachers and principals must be made to work so that students also can be protected. We recommend that the present continuing contract law be reviewed by the General Assembly. Recommended procedures should be in place by July 1, 1987, to help school boards remove teachers and principals who aren't doing the job."

During the 1987 Session, Senate Joint Resolution No. 125, patroned by Senator Stanley C. Walker, was approved. SJR 125 established the Joint Subcommittee to Study the Continuing Contract Status Law for Instructional and Administrative Personnel, consisting of three members of the Senate Committee on Education and Health and four members of the House Committee on Education. The following members were appointed: Senator Elmon T. Gray of Waverly, Senator Elliot S. Schewel of Lynchburg and Senator Stanley C. Walker of Norfolk; and Delegate George P. Beard, Jr., of Culpeper, Delegate John G. Dicks, III of Chesterfield, Delegate J. Robert Dobyns of Dublin, and Delegate V. Thomas Forehand, Jr., of Chesapeake. Senator Stanley C. Walker served as Chairman and Delegate V. Thomas Forehand served as Vice-Chairman.

The joint subcommittee was directed to conduct "a thorough review of the continuing contract laws and the statutory grievance procedure, and an examination of the benefits and disadvantages of the continuing contract system relative to the provisions of the grievance procedure as provided by §§ 22.1-294, 22.1-303 to 22.1-315 of the Code of Virginia, and a review of the relationship between the teacher evaluation process, as implemented in the local school divisions, and the continuing contract law."