Teacher contracts and uranium mining will get Gov. Bob McDonnell’s attention during this General Assembly session.
McDonnell said he will ask legislators to require all teachers undergo performance reviews every year, and “remove the continuing contract status from teachers and principals.”
Instead, annual contracts would be offered to teachers, McDonnell said.
“This will allow us to implement an improved evaluation system that really works, and give principals a new tool” for managing schools, McDonnell said during his State of the Commonwealth speech to the Senate and House of Delegates.
Del. Ben Cline, R-Rockbridge County, said he expects to support many of the governor’s education-reform proposals, but the continuing-contract idea was a new one.
“I had not heard of that proposal yet, and I look forward to reviewing it,” Cline said.
Other parts of McDonnell’s education package were more familiar.
He wants to expand charter schools, and require part of the state funding provided for each student would “follow the child to an approved charter school.”
The governor said he wants to repeal the state mandate that schools open after Labor Day. More than half of Virginia’s school divisions already have a waiver to the mandate.
McDonnell said more merit-pay incentives will be offered for teachers.
The governor, in his speech, didn’t say anything about a proposal to lift Virginia’s moratorium on uranium mining.
But in a post-speech news conference, McDonnell said he expects to make a uranium-related proposal sometime soon.
A recent study by the National Academy of Sciences “didn’t say yes and didn’t say no” to mining a uranium deposit in Pittsylvania County, McDonnell said.
“We still need to evaluate what is the proper next course of action.
“I’m going to be guided by one thing and that is public safety,” McDonnell said.
“If it can be done safely, there are tremendous new severance taxes and jobs that can be created for Virginia.
“But first and foremost, what impact does it have on the environment, drinking water, and human health and safety, and the report was a little shade of gray,” McDonnell said.
“We are looking at whether or not there is something that can be done to at least take the next step in evaluation, and I’m still discussing it with leaders” in the General Assembly, the governor said.
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