(a) The Legislature hereby grants an exception to the statute or statutes indicated for the following schools pursuant to and for the purposes enumerated in their innovation zone plans approved by the state board at its meeting on the date specified. The grant of an exception to a statute means that the school or schools granted the exception may implement the actions as specifically described in their approved innovation zone plan notwithstanding the provisions of this code from which they are specifically excepted. These exceptions are limited to the purposes as specifically described in the plan approved on the date indicated and are expressly repealed for any plan modification or plan implementation which changes those purposes. However, nothing in this section prohibits a school or schools with an approved innovation zone plan from requesting plan modifications, subject to approval of the state board, and if the modifications change the purposes for which an exception to a statute was granted, the state board shall request an exception to achieve the new purposes in the manner provided in section five of this article for requesting exceptions to a statute. If the approved innovation zone plan of a school or schools is withdrawn by the state board, or the innovation zone designation of a school or schools is revoked by the state board, the exception granted to that school or those schools is expressly repealed.
(b) The following exceptions are granted:
(1) Piedmont Elementary School, Kanawha County, is excepted from subsection (3), section fourteen, article four, chapter eighteen-a of this code for the purpose of allowing specialist teachers to take their planning period before and after school totaling one hour, three days per week, and from section eighteen-a, article five of this chapter for the purpose of permitting a number of students in music and physical education classes in excess of the class size limits to provide the time and structure for teams to meet in professional learning communities, which purposes are as more specifically described in the school's innovation zone plan approved by the state board on January 13, 2010;