HB 296

In order to provide for the implementation of biennial budgeting periods, this bill changes the dates of notice of non-renewal and of non-tenure of teachers in the public schools of Alabama and the Alabama Community College System

This bill is contingent upon the approval in referendum of the constitutional amendment proposed by HB ____ providing for biennial budgeting sessions of the legislature which is approved at statewide referendum as provided for by law

To amend current state law changing the dates of non-renewal and notice of non-tenure of teachers in the public schools of Alabama and the Alabama Community College System.

Section 1

Sections 16-24C-4 and 16-24C-5, Code of Alabama 1975, are hereby amended to read as follows:

§16-24C-4.

No action may be proposed or approved based upon personal or political reasons on the part of the employer, chief executive officer, or governing board. A teacher shall attain tenure, and a classified employee shall attain nonprobationary status as follows:

(1) Except as otherwise provided by Section 16-23-3, a teacher who is not an employee of a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System, shall attain tenure upon the completion of three complete, consecutive school years of full-time employment as a teacher with the same employer unless the governing board approves and issues written notice of termination to the teacher on or before the last day June f the teacher's third consecutive, complete school year of employment. For purposes of this chapter, a probationary teacher whose employment or reemployment is effective prior to October 1 of the school year and who completes the school year shall be deemed to have served a complete school year. A teacher employed by a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System shall attain tenured status upon the completion of six consecutive semesters, excluding summer terms, at the same two-year institution, unless the president issues notice of termination to the teacher on or before 15 days the fifteenth day of June prior to the end of the sixth consecutive semester of employment, excluding summer terms. No probationary teacher employed by a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System shall attain tenure during or at the completion of a summer term. For teachers who are required to hold a professional educator's certificate, time in service without such a certificate shall not be credited toward the attainment of tenure.

(2) A probationary classified employee who is not an employee of a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System attains nonprobationary status upon the completion of three complete, consecutive school years of full-time employment with the same employer unless the governing body of the employer approves and issues written notice of termination to the employee on or before the fifteenth day of June immediately following the employee's third consecutive complete school year of employment. In the first year of each legislative quadrennium, the written notice shall be provided on or before June 30. For purposes of this chapter, a probationary classified employee whose employment or reemployment is effective prior to October 1 of the school year and who completes the school year shall be deemed to have served a complete school year. A probationary classified employee of a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System shall attain nonprobationary status upon the completion of 36 consecutive months of employment at the same two-year institution, unless the president issues notice of termination to the classified employee on or before 15 days the fifteenth day of June prior to the end of the thirty-sixth month of employment.

(3) All of the following additional terms, conditions, and limitations apply to the attainment and retention of tenure or nonprobationary status:

a. Only complete school years of service as defined in this chapter, including any leave that is credited to the employee for such purposes under board policy or applicable law, may be credited to the attainment of tenure or nonprobationary status.

b. Neither tenure nor nonprobationary status may be attained as a chief executive officer, a chief school financial officer, as a president or vice president of a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System, or in or by virtue of employment in temporary, part-time, substitute, summer school, occasional, seasonal, supplemental, irregular, or like forms of employment, or in positions that are created to serve experimental, pilot, temporary, or like special programs, projects, or purposes, the funding and duration of which are finite.

c. Except as expressly provided to the contrary elsewhere in this chapter, neither tenure nor nonprobationary status in this chapter creates or confers any enforceable right or protected interest in or to a specific position, rank, work site or location, assignment, title, or rate of compensation within those categories of employment.

d. Service performed as a teacher may not be converted to, recognized, or otherwise credited to the employee for the purpose of attaining nonprobationary status as a classified employee. Service performed in the capacity of a classified employee may not be converted to, recognized, or otherwise credited to the employee for the purpose of attaining tenure as a teacher, whether or not the classified employee holds a certificate issued by the State Department of Education.

e. Neither tenured status nor time in probationary service shall be transferable from one employer subject to this chapter to another such employer, except that employees whose employer changes by virtue of annexation, school district formation, consolidation, or a similar reorganization over which the employee has no control shall retain tenure or nonprobationary status and service credit attained by virtue of employment with the predecessor employer.

§16-24C-5.

(a) Probationary classified employees who are not employees of a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System may be terminated at the discretion of the employer upon written recommendation of the chief executive officer, a majority vote of the governing board, and issuance of written notice of termination to the employee at any time on or before the fifteenth day of June immediately following the employee's third consecutive, complete school year of employment. In the first year of each legislative quadrennium, the written notice shall be provided on or before June 30. A probationary classified employee of a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System may be terminated at the discretion of the president of such institution upon issuance of a written notice of termination to the employee at any time on or before 15 days prior to the end of 36 consecutive months of employment at the same institution.

(b) The compensation and benefits of a probationary classified employee shall not be terminated before the expiration of 15 calendar days from the date notice of termination is issued to the employee.

(c) Probationary teachers who are not employees of a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System may be terminated at the discretion of the employer upon the written recommendation of the chief executive officer, a majority vote of the governing board, and issuance of written notice of termination to the teacher on or before the fifteenth day of June. In the first year of each legislative quadrennium, the written notice shall be provided on or before June 30. A probationary teacher who has not been terminated on or before the dates specified above shall be deemed reemployed as a probationary teacher, except as provided in subdivision (1) of Section 16-24C-4. The employment of any probationary teacher may be terminated before the completion of the school year upon at least 30 calendar days' written notice of the date on which the governing board is scheduled to vote on such recommendation. Upon issuance of such notice, the teacher may submit a written statement to the chief executive officer and the governing board explaining why such action should not be taken. A probationary teacher employed by a two-year educational institution operated under the authority and control of the Department of Postsecondary Education Alabama Community College System may be terminated at the discretion of the president of such institution upon issuance of a written notice of termination to the employee at any time on or before 15 days prior to the end of the sixth consecutive semester of employment, excluding summer terms, at the same institution.

(d) The decision to terminate the employment of any probationary employee shall be final and no compensation shall thereafter be due to the employee, except as provided in subsection (b)."

Section 2

Any provision of law in conflict with the provisions of this Act are hereby repealed.

Section 3

If a court of competent jurisdiction shall adjudge to be invalid or unconstitutional any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part of this Act, such judgment or decree shall not affect, impair, invalidate or nullify the remainder of this Act, but the effect thereof shall be confined to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section, part of this Act so adjudged to be invalid or unconstitutional.

Section 4

This act shall become effective upon its passage and approval by the Governor, or its otherwise becoming law, and contingent upon the constitutional amendment contained in HB ______ becomes law and approval in a statewide referendum as is provided for in law governing such election.