Minnesota Session Laws - 2005, Regular Session

                             CHAPTER 36-S.F.No. 244 
                  An act relating to education; providing for 
                  consecutive teaching experience for a teacher whose 
                  probationary employment is interrupted by military 
                  service; amending Minnesota Statutes 2004, sections 
                  122A.40, subdivision 5; 122A.41, subdivision 2. 
        BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA: 
           Section 1.  Minnesota Statutes 2004, 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 after completion thereof, 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.  Evaluation must occur at least three times 
        each year for a teacher performing services on 120 or more 
        school days, at least two times each year for a teacher 
        performing services on 60 to 119 school days, and at least one 
        time each year for a teacher performing services on fewer than 
        60 school days.  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 as the 
        school board shall see fit.  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). 
           [EFFECTIVE DATE.] This section is effective retroactively 
        from September 10, 2001, and applies to those probationary 
        teachers absent for active military service beginning on 
        September 10, 2001, or later. 
           Sec. 2.  Minnesota Statutes 2004, 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 as the school board, after consulting with the peer 
        review committee charged with evaluating the probationary 
        teachers under subdivision 3, shall see fit.  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 subdivision 
        3.  Evaluation by the peer review committee charged with 
        evaluating probationary teachers under subdivision 3 shall occur 
        at least three times each year for a teacher performing services 
        on 120 or more school days, at least two times each year for a 
        teacher performing services on 60 to 119 school days, and at 
        least one time each year for a teacher performing services on 
        fewer than 60 school days.  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). 
           [EFFECTIVE DATE.] This section is effective retroactively 
        from September 10, 2001, and applies to those probationary 
        teachers absent for active military service beginning on 
        September 10, 2001, or later. 
           Presented to the governor May 2, 2005 
           Signed by the governor May 5, 2005, 3:17 p.m.