SF 97

as introduced - 89th Legislature (2015 - 2016) Posted on 01/16/2015 08:56am

A bill for an act
relating to education; modifying requirements for placing teachers on unrequested
leave of absence or discontinuing or terminating teachers; amending Minnesota
Statutes 2014, sections 122A.245, subdivision 1; 122A.40, subdivisions 5, 10,
11; 122A.41, subdivisions 2, 14; 123A.75, subdivision 1; 179A.20, by adding a
subdivision.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:

Section 1.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 122A.245, subdivision 1, is amended to
read:

Subdivision 1.

Requirements.

(a) To improve academic excellence, improve ethnic
and cultural diversity in the classroom, and close the academic achievement gap, the
Board of Teaching must approve qualified teacher preparation programs under this section
that are a means to acquire a two-year limited-term license, which the board may renew
one time for an additional one-year term, and to prepare for acquiring a standard license.
The following entities are eligible to participate under this section:

(1) a school district or charter school that forms a partnership with a college or
university that has a board-approved alternative teacher preparation program; or

(2) a school district or charter school, after consulting with a college or university
with a board-approved teacher preparation program, that forms a partnership with a
nonprofit corporation organized under chapter 317A for an education-related purpose that
has a board-approved teacher preparation program.

(b) Before participating in this program, a candidate must:

(1) have a bachelor's degree with a 3.0 or higher grade point average unless the
board waives the grade point average requirement based on board-adopted criteria;

(2) pass the reading, writing, and mathematics skills examination under section
122A.09, subdivision 4, paragraph (b); and

(3) obtain qualifying scores on applicable board-approved rigorous content area and
pedagogy examinations under section 122A.09, subdivision 4, paragraph (e).

(c) The Board of Teaching must issue a two-year limited-term license to a person
who enrolls in an alternative teacher preparation program. This limited-term license is not
a provisional license under section 122A.40 or 122A.41.

EFFECTIVE DATE.

This section is effective the day following final enactment.

Sec. 2.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 122A.40, subdivision 5, is amended to read:

Subd. 5.

Probationary period.

(a) The first three consecutive years of a teacher's
first teaching experience in Minnesota in a single district is deemed to be a probationary
period of employment, and, the probationary period in each district in which the teacher is
thereafter employed shall be one year. The school board must adopt a plan for written
evaluation of teachers during the probationary period that is consistent with subdivision
8. Evaluation must occur at least three times periodically throughout each school year
for a teacher performing services during that school year; the first evaluation must occur
within the first 90 days of teaching service. Days devoted to parent-teacher conferences,
teachers' workshops, and other staff development opportunities and days on which a
teacher is absent from school must not be included in determining the number of school
days on which a teacher performs services. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph
(b), during the probationary period any annual contract with any teacher may or may not
be renewed (1) as the school board shall see fit, or (2) consistent with the negotiated
unrequested leave of absence plan in effect under subdivision 10. However, the board
must give any such teacher whose contract it declines to renew for the following school
year written notice to that effect before July 1. If the teacher requests reasons for any
nonrenewal of a teaching contract, the board must give the teacher its reason in writing,
including a statement that appropriate supervision was furnished describing the nature and
the extent of such supervision furnished the teacher during the employment by the board,
within ten days after receiving such request. The school board may, after a hearing held
upon due notice, discharge a teacher during the probationary period for cause, effective
immediately, under section 122A.44.

(b) A board must discharge a probationary teacher, effective immediately, upon
receipt of notice under section 122A.20, subdivision 1, paragraph (b), that the teacher's
license has been revoked due to a conviction for child abuse or sexual abuse.

(c) A probationary teacher whose first three years of consecutive employment are
interrupted for active military service and who promptly resumes teaching consistent with
federal reemployment timelines for uniformed service personnel under United States
Code, title 38, section 4312(e), is considered to have a consecutive teaching experience
for purposes of paragraph (a).

(d) A probationary teacher whose first three years of consecutive employment are
interrupted for maternity, paternity, or medical leave and who resumes teaching within 12
months of when the leave began is considered to have a consecutive teaching experience
for purposes of paragraph (a) if the probationary teacher completes a combined total of
three years of teaching service immediately before and after the leave.

(e) A probationary teacher must complete at least 120 days of teaching service each
year during the probationary period. Days devoted to parent-teacher conferences, teachers'
workshops, and other staff development opportunities and days on which a teacher is
absent from school do not count as days of teaching service under this paragraph.

EFFECTIVE DATE.

This section is effective the day following final enactment.

Sec. 3.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 122A.40, subdivision 10, is amended to read:

Subd. 10.

Negotiated unrequested leave of absence.

(a) The school board
and the exclusive bargaining representative of the teachers may must negotiate a plan,
consistent with subdivision 8, providing for unrequested leave of absence without pay or
fringe benefits for as many teachers as may be necessary because of discontinuance of
position, lack of pupils, financial limitations, or merger of classes caused by consolidation
of districts. Failing to successfully negotiate such a plan, the provisions of subdivision
11 shall apply. The negotiated plan must not include provisions which would result in
the exercise of seniority by a teacher holding only a provisional license, other than a
vocational education license, contrary to the provisions of subdivision 11, paragraph (c)
if required for the position, or the reinstatement of a teacher holding only a provisional
license, other than a vocational education license, contrary to the provisions of subdivision
11, paragraph (e) required for the position. The provisions of section 179A.16 do not
apply for the purposes of this subdivision.

(b) Beginning in the 2016-2017 school year and later, and notwithstanding any law to
the contrary, a school board must place teachers on unrequested leave of absence based on
their subject matter licensure fields and most recent evaluation outcomes and effectiveness
category under subdivision 8, among other locally determined criteria, and may include
both probationary teachers and continuing contract teachers within an effectiveness
category. Notwithstanding section 13.43, subdivision 2, paragraph (a), clause (5), or
any other law to the contrary, a teacher's effectiveness category and the underlying data
on the individual teacher generated under the teacher evaluation process in subdivision
8, paragraph (b), used to determine a teacher's effectiveness category for purposes of
this subdivision are private data on individuals. For purposes of placing a teacher on
unrequested leave of absence or recalling a teacher from unrequested leave of absence, a
school board is not required to reassign a teacher with more seniority to accommodate the
seniority claims of a teacher who is similarly licensed and effective but with less seniority.
Nothing in this paragraph permits a school board to use a teacher's remuneration as a basis
for making unrequested leave of absence decisions. Any executed employment contract
between the school board and the exclusive representative of the teachers must contain the
negotiated unrequested leave of absence plan. The school board must publish in a readily
accessible format the unrequested leave of absence plan it negotiates under this paragraph.

(c) A teacher who receives notice of being placed on unrequested leave of absence
under paragraph (b) may submit to the board, within 14 days of receiving the notice, a
written request for a hearing before a neutral hearing officer to establish whether the district
met the following teacher evaluation requirements under subdivision 8: if the teacher is
a probationary teacher, all evaluations required under subdivision 5 were provided; a
three-year professional review cycle was established for the teacher; any summative
evaluation of the teacher was performed by a qualified and trained evaluator; a peer review
evaluation occurred in any year when the teacher was not evaluated by a qualified and
trained evaluator; and if the teacher did not meet professional teaching standards, a teacher
improvement process with goals and timelines was established. The school board and the
exclusive representative of the teachers must agree on a panel of people and a process
to select the person to hear the matter. The hearing officer must issue a decision within
14 days of the request for the hearing. Nothing in this paragraph prevents a school board
and the exclusive representative of the teachers from negotiating a different process for
determining whether the teacher evaluation requirements listed in this paragraph were met.

(d) For purposes of this subdivision, a provisional license is a license to teach issued
by the Board of Teaching under a waiver or variance.

EFFECTIVE DATE.

This section is effective the day following final enactment and
applies to negotiated plans for unrequested leave of absence agreed to on or after that date.

Sec. 4.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 122A.40, subdivision 11, is amended to read:

Subd. 11.

Unrequested leave of absence.

(a) The board may place on unrequested
leave of absence, without pay or fringe benefits, as many teachers as may be necessary
because of discontinuance of position, lack of pupils, financial limitations, or merger of
classes caused by consolidation or reorganization of districts under chapter 123A. The
unrequested leave is effective at the close of the school year.

(b) In placing teachers on unrequested leave in the 2014-2015 through 2015-2016
school years only, the board is governed by the following provisions: in this subdivision.

(a) (c) The board may place probationary teachers on unrequested leave first in the
inverse order of their employment. A teacher who has acquired continuing contract rights
must not be placed on unrequested leave of absence while probationary teachers are retained
in positions for which the teacher who has acquired continuing contract rights is licensed;.

(b) (d) Teachers who have acquired continuing contract rights shall be placed on
unrequested leave of absence in fields in which they are licensed in the inverse order
in which they were employed by the school district. In the case of equal seniority, the
order in which teachers who have acquired continuing contract rights shall be placed on
unrequested leave of absence in fields in which they are licensed is negotiable;.

(c) (e) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph (b) (d), a teacher is not entitled
to exercise any seniority when that exercise results in that teacher being retained by the
district in a field for which the teacher holds only a provisional license, as defined by the
board of teaching, unless that exercise of seniority results in the placement on unrequested
leave of absence of another teacher who also holds a provisional license in the same field.
The provisions of this paragraph do not apply to vocational education licenses; required
for the available positions.

(d) (f) Notwithstanding paragraphs (a), (b), and (c), (d), and (e), if the placing of a
probationary teacher on unrequested leave before a teacher who has acquired continuing
rights, the placing of a teacher who has acquired continuing contract rights on unrequested
leave before another teacher who has acquired continuing contract rights but who has
greater seniority, or the restriction imposed by the provisions of paragraph (c) (e) would
place the district in violation of its affirmative action program, the district may retain the
probationary teacher, the teacher with less seniority, or the provisionally licensed teacher;.

(e) (g) For purposes of placing a teacher on unrequested leave of absence or
recalling a teacher from unrequested leave of absence, nothing in this subdivision requires
a school board to reassign a teacher to accommodate the seniority claims of a teacher who
is similarly licensed and effective but with less seniority.

(h) Teachers placed on unrequested leave of absence must be reinstated to the
positions from which they have been given leaves of absence or, if not available, to
other available positions in the school district in fields in which they are licensed.
Reinstatement must be in the inverse order of placement on leave of absence. A teacher
must not be reinstated to a position in a field in which the teacher holds only a provisional
license, other than a vocational education license, while another teacher who holds a
nonprovisional license in the same field remains on unrequested leave. The order of
reinstatement of teachers who have equal seniority and who are placed on unrequested
leave in the same school year is negotiable;.

(f) (i) Appointment of a new teacher must not be made while there is available, on
unrequested leave, a teacher who is properly licensed to fill such vacancy, unless the
teacher fails to advise the school board within 30 days of the date of notification that a
position is available to that teacher who may return to employment and assume the duties
of the position to which appointed on a future date determined by the board;.

(g) (j) A teacher placed on unrequested leave of absence may engage in teaching
or any other occupation during the period of this leave;.

(h) (k) The unrequested leave of absence must not impair the continuing contract
rights of a teacher or result in a loss of credit for previous years of service;.

(i) (l) Consistent with subdivision 10, the unrequested leave of absence of a teacher
who is categorized as effective or better under subdivision 8, who is placed on unrequested
leave of absence, and who is not reinstated shall continue for a period of five years,
after which the right to reinstatement shall terminate terminates. The teacher's right to
reinstatement shall also terminate terminates if the teacher fails to file with the board by
April 1 of any each year a written statement requesting reinstatement;.

(m) Consistent with subdivision 10, the unrequested leave of absence of a teacher
who is categorized as ineffective or less under subdivision 8, who is placed on unrequested
leave of absence, and who is not reinstated continues for the following school year
only, after which the teacher's right to reinstatement terminates. The teacher's right to
reinstatement also terminates if the teacher fails to file with the board by April 1 in that
following school year a written statement requesting reinstatement.

(j) (n) The same provisions applicable to terminations of probationary or continuing
contracts in subdivisions 5 and 7 must apply to placement on unrequested leave of absence;.

(k) (o) Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to impair the rights of teachers
placed on unrequested leave of absence to receive unemployment benefits if otherwise
eligible.

EFFECTIVE DATE.

This section is effective the day following final enactment.

Sec. 5.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 122A.41, subdivision 2, is amended to read:

Subd. 2.

Probationary period; discharge or demotion.

(a) All teachers in
the public schools in cities of the first class during the first three years of consecutive
employment shall be deemed to be in a probationary period of employment during which
period any annual contract with any teacher may, or may not, be renewed (1) as the school
board, after consulting with the peer review committee charged with evaluating the
probationary teachers under subdivision 3, shall see fit, or (2) consistent with the negotiated
plan for discontinuing or terminating teachers in effect under subdivision 14. The school
site management team or the school board if there is no school site management team, shall
adopt a plan for a written evaluation of teachers during the probationary period according
to subdivisions 3 and 5. Evaluation by the peer review committee charged with evaluating
probationary teachers under subdivision 3 shall occur at least three times periodically
throughout each school year for a teacher performing services during that school year; the
first evaluation must occur within the first 90 days of teaching service. Days devoted to
parent-teacher conferences, teachers' workshops, and other staff development opportunities
and days on which a teacher is absent from school shall not be included in determining the
number of school days on which a teacher performs services. The school board may, during
such probationary period, discharge or demote a teacher for any of the causes as specified
in this code. A written statement of the cause of such discharge or demotion shall be given
to the teacher by the school board at least 30 days before such removal or demotion shall
become effective, and the teacher so notified shall have no right of appeal therefrom.

(b) A probationary teacher whose first three years of consecutive employment are
interrupted for active military service and who promptly resumes teaching consistent with
federal reemployment timelines for uniformed service personnel under United States
Code, title 38, section 4312(e), is considered to have a consecutive teaching experience
for purposes of paragraph (a).

(c) A probationary teacher whose first three years of consecutive employment are
interrupted for maternity, paternity, or medical leave and who resumes teaching within 12
months of when the leave began is considered to have a consecutive teaching experience
for purposes of paragraph (a) if the probationary teacher completes a combined total of
three years of teaching service immediately before and after the leave.

(d) A probationary teacher must complete at least 120 days of teaching service each
year during the probationary period. Days devoted to parent-teacher conferences, teachers'
workshops, and other staff development opportunities and days on which a teacher is
absent from school do not count as days of teaching service under this paragraph.

EFFECTIVE DATE.

This section is effective the day following final enactment.

Sec. 6.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 122A.41, subdivision 14, is amended to read:

Subd. 14.

Services terminated by discontinuance or lack of pupils; preference
given.

(a) A teacher whose services are terminated on account of discontinuance of
position or lack of pupils must receive first consideration for other positions in the district
for which that teacher is qualified. In the event it becomes necessary to discontinue one
or more positions in the 2014-2015 through 2015-2016 school years, in making such
discontinuance, teachers must receive first consideration for other positions in the district
for which that teacher is qualified and must be discontinued in any department in the
inverse order in which they were employed, unless.

(b) Beginning in the 2016-2017 school year and later, a board and the exclusive
representative of teachers in the district must negotiate a plan providing otherwise.,
consistent with subdivision 5, for discontinuing and terminating teachers under this
subdivision based on their subject matter licensure fields and most recent evaluation
outcomes and effectiveness category under subdivision 5, among other locally determined
criteria, and may include both probationary teachers and continuing contract teachers
within an effectiveness category. Notwithstanding section 13.43, subdivision 2, paragraph
(a), clause (5), or any other law to the contrary, a teacher's effectiveness category and
the underlying data on the individual teacher generated under the teacher evaluation
process in subdivision 5, paragraph (b), used to determine a teacher's effectiveness
category for purposes of this subdivision are private data on individuals. For purposes
of discharging, demoting, or recalling a teacher whose services are discontinued or
terminated under this subdivision, a school board is not required to reassign a teacher with
more seniority to accommodate the seniority claims of a teacher who is similarly licensed
and effective but with less seniority. Nothing in this paragraph permits a school board to
use a teacher's remuneration as a basis for discontinuing or terminating a teacher. Any
executed employment contract between the school board and the exclusive representative
of the teachers must contain the negotiated plan for discontinuing or terminating teachers.
The school board must publish in a readily accessible format any plan it negotiates for
discontinuing or terminating teachers under this paragraph.

(c) A teacher who receives notice of discontinuance or termination under paragraph
(b) may submit to the board, within 14 days of receiving the notice, a written request
for a hearing before a neutral hearing officer to establish whether the district met the
following teacher evaluation requirements under subdivision 5: if the teacher is a
probationary teacher, all evaluations required under subdivision 2 were provided; a
three-year professional review cycle was established for the teacher; any summative
evaluation of the teacher was performed by a qualified and trained evaluator; a peer review
evaluation occurred in any year when the teacher was not evaluated by a qualified and
trained evaluator; and if the teacher did not meet professional teaching standards, a teacher
improvement process with goals and timelines was established. The school board and the
exclusive representative of the teachers must agree on a panel of people and a process
to select the person to hear the matter. The hearing officer must issue a decision within
14 days of the request for the hearing. Nothing in this paragraph prevents a school board
and the exclusive representative of the teachers from negotiating a different process for
determining whether the teacher evaluation requirements listed in this paragraph were met.

(b) (d) Notwithstanding the provisions of clause paragraph (a), for the 2014-2015
through 2015-2016 school years, a teacher is not entitled to exercise any seniority when
that exercise results in that teacher being retained by the district in a field for which the
teacher holds only a provisional license, as defined by the Board of Teaching, unless that
exercise of seniority results in the termination of terminating the services, on account
of discontinuance of position or lack of pupils, of another teacher who also holds a
provisional license in the same field. The provisions of this clause paragraph do not apply
to vocational education licenses.

(c) (e) Notwithstanding the provisions of clause paragraph (a), for the 2014-2015
through 2015-2016 school years, a teacher must not be reinstated to a position in a field
in which the teacher holds only a provisional license, other than a vocational education
license, while another teacher who holds a nonprovisional license in the same field is
available for reinstatement.

EFFECTIVE DATE.

This section is effective the day following final enactment
and applies to negotiated plans for discontinuing or terminating teachers agreed to on or
after that date.

Sec. 7.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 123A.75, subdivision 1, is amended to read:

Subdivision 1.

Teacher assignment.

(a) As of the effective date of a consolidation
in which a district is divided or the dissolution of a district and its attachment to two or
more existing districts, each teacher employed by an affected district shall be assigned to
the newly created or enlarged district on the basis of a ratio of the pupils assigned to each
district according to the new district boundaries. The district receiving the greatest number
of pupils must be assigned the most effective teacher under section 122A.40, subdivision 8,
with the greatest seniority, and the remaining teachers must be alternately assigned to each
district from most to least effective and with most to least seniority within each category of
effectiveness until the district receiving the fewest pupils has received its ratio of teachers
who will not be retiring before the effective date of the consolidation or dissolution.

(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the board and the exclusive representative of
teachers in each district involved in the consolidation or dissolution and attachment may
negotiate a plan for assigning teachers to each newly created or enlarged district.

(c) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, the provisions of this section apply
only to the extent they are consistent with section 122A.40, subdivisions 8, 10, and 11.

EFFECTIVE DATE.

This section is effective the day following final enactment.

Sec. 8.

Minnesota Statutes 2014, section 179A.20, is amended by adding a subdivision
to read:

Subd. 4a.

Unrequested leave of absence for teachers.

A school board and the
exclusive representative of the teachers may not execute a contract effective for the
2016-2017 school year or later unless the contract contains a plan for unrequested leave of
absence under section 122A.40, subdivision 10, or a plan for discontinuing or terminating
teachers under section 122A.41, subdivision 14.

EFFECTIVE DATE.

This section is effective the day following final enactment.