Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg

Commending Robert Eugene Foster, Jr.

Celebrating the life of Alan Arnold Diamonstein.

Celebrating the life of William Griffith Thomas.

Celebrating the life of the Honorable GeraldL. Baliles.

Constitutional amendment (second resolution);apportionment; Virginia Redistricting Commission. Establishes the VirginiaRedistricting Commission, a 16-member Commission tasked with establishingdistricts for the United States House of Representatives and for the Senate andthe House of Delegates of the General Assembly. The Commission consists ofeight legislative members and eight citizen members. The legislative membersconsist of four members of the Senate of Virginia and four members of the Houseof Delegates, with equal representation given to the political parties havingthe highest and next highest number of members in their respective houses. Thecitizen members are selected by a selection committee consisting of fiveretired judges of the circuit courts of Virginia, from lists submitted to theselection committee by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, the leader in theHouse of Delegates of the political party having the next highest number ofmembers in the House of Delegates, the President pro tempore of the Senate ofVirginia, and the leader in the Senate of the political party having the nexthighest number of members in the Senate. The Commission is required to submit tothe General Assembly plans of districts for the Senate and the House ofDelegates of the General Assembly no later than 45 days following the receiptof census data and plans of districts for the United States House ofRepresentatives no later than 60 days following the receipt of census data, orJuly 1 of that year, whichever occurs later. The measure requires certain votethresholds for plans, depending on the type of district, in order to besubmitted to the General Assembly. No amendments may be made to a plan by theGeneral Assembly, and any plan approved by the General Assembly becomes lawwithout the signature of the Governor. The measure requires additional plans tobe submitted, or additional time to be given to submit a plan, in certaincircumstances, and further provides that districts will be drawn by the SupremeCourt of Virginia if such efforts fail.

Commending The Faison Center.

Commemorating the life and legacy of Dr. RobertRussa Moton.

Standards of Quality; work-based learning; teacher leadersand mentors; principal mentors; certain personnel positions and initiatives. Makesseveral changes to the Standards of Quality, including requiring the establishmentof units in the Department of Education to oversee work-based learning andprincipal mentorship statewide in Standard 1 and requiring the Board ofEducation to establish and oversee the local implementation of teacher leaderand teacher mentor programs in Standard 5. The bill also makes several changesrelating to school personnel in Standard 2, including (i) establishingschoolwide ratios of students to teachers in certain schools with highconcentrations of poverty and granting flexibility to provide compensationadjustments to teachers in such schools; (ii) requiring each school board toassign licensed personnel in a manner that provides an equitable distributionof experienced, effective teachers and other personnel among all schools in thelocal school division; (iii) requiring each school board to employ teacherleaders and teacher mentors at specified student-to-position ratios; (iv)requiring state funding in addition to basic aid to support at-risk studentsand granting flexibility in the use of such funds by school boards; (v)lowering the ratio of English language learner students to teachers; (vi)requiring each school board to employ reading specialists and establishing astudent-to-position ratio for such specialists; (vii) requiring school boardsto employ one full-time principal in each elementary school; (viii) loweringthe ratio of students to assistant principals and school counselors inelementary, middle, and high schools; and (ix) requiring each school board toprovide at least four specialized student support positions, including schoolsocial workers, school psychologists, school nurses, and other licensed healthand behavioral positions, per 1,000 students.

Department of Education and Department of Environmental Quality; sixth grade science curriculum. Directs the Department of Education to coordinate with the Department of Environmental Quality to update the "Window into a Green Virginia" curriculum developed by the Departments for sixth grade science to include a unit on the benefits, including the energy benefits, of recycling and reuse.

General Assembly meetings; streaming and recording. Requires the Clerk of the House of Delegates and the Clerk of theSenate to ensure that every (i) subcommittee or committee meetingof a standing committee of the General Assembly, regardless of meetingdate, and (ii) floor session of the House of Delegates or the Senate,including any joint session of the houses, is streamed with closedcaptioning, recorded and archived. The bill defines "stream" and specifiesthat a qualifying meeting is one the date and time of which havebeen scheduled on a public website of any agency of the General Assemblyfor at least one hour prior to the meeting and that takes place inthe State Capitol, the Pocahontas Building, or the General AssemblyBuilding in Richmond. The bill has a delayed effective date of October1, 2020.