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Obscure, but operative

Though the Survival Guide will provide you with much more comprehensive information about Texas law, there are a few little-known provisions of law or rule that deserve some extra attention as the new school year begins. These provisions are operative in all public schools, except charter schools, so your district or campus should be complying. (Unless otherwise noted, all citations are to the Texas Education Code, which should be current for the 2006-07 school year, barring an unanticipated special legislative session or early implementation of new laws during the regular legislative session that begins in January 2007.)

Job vacancies must be posted

In 2005, TCTA initiated successful legislation requiring districts to post notice of job vacancies. TCTA pursued this proposal in response to member complaints that new positions were not publicized and current employees were not given an opportunity to apply.

Section 11.163(d) states that the employment policies of districts must provide that not later than the 10th school day before the date on which the district fills a vacant position for which a certificate or license is required, other than a position affecting the safety and security of students as determined by the board of trustees, the district must provide to each current district employee notice of the position. Notice can be provided by posting the position on a bulletin board at a place convenient to the public in the district’s central administrative office and in the central administrative office of each campus in the district during any time the campus is open, and on the district’s Internet Web site, if the district has a Web site. Current district employees should have a reasonable opportunity to apply for the position. If during the school year a district must fill a vacant position held by a teacher in less than 10 days, the district must provide notice of the position as soon as possible after the vacancy occurs but is not required to provide the notice for 10 school days before filling the position and is not required to provide each school employee a reasonable opportunity to apply.

If you are interested in applying for newly created or vacant positions in your school district, be sure to check office postings and your district’s Web site. Compliance with the posting requirements should allow all current and eligible employees a more meaningful opportunity to apply for available positions, while expanding the applicant pool for districts.

The campus-level committee must approve the portions of the campus plan addressing campus staff development needs

If your campus-level staff development this year isn’t all you’d hoped and dreamed it would be, under the law your campus-level planning and site-based decision making (SBDM) committee is to blame. What campus SBDM committee, you may ask? Sections 11.251 through 11.253 of the Texas Education Code establish district- and campus-level SBDM processes. Though most of the SBDM functions are advisory, the law requires that campus-level committees approve the portions of the campus plan addressing campus staff development needs.

This same campus committee is also to be involved in decisions in the areas of planning, budgeting, curriculum, staffing patterns, staff development and school organization. The campus-level committees are to include representative professional staff, parents of students enrolled in the district, business representatives and community members. Representatives of the professional staff are to be nominated and elected under a procedure established by the board of trustees, with at least two-thirds of elected professional staff representatives being classroom teachers.

If you’re not aware that this committee is operating on your campus, you might want to make some inquiries; it’s been required by law since the 2003-04 school year. In districts where these mechanisms work as intended, they can provide an excellent opportunity for teacher and other faculty views to be discussed and to affect decisions.

Missing textbooks or instructional technology are not your responsibility

Section 31.104 of the Texas Education Code provides that “The board of trustees of a school district may not require an employee of the district to pay for a textbook or instructional technology that is stolen, misplaced, or not returned by a student.” This TCTA-initiated legislation, effective beginning with the 2003-04 school year, was designed to correct the situation in which some districts held their employees responsible for any missing textbooks as a matter of routine. Members also reported issues with instructional technology, such as laptops or CD players that disappeared, resulting in the school district seeking payment from an educator. Though you should, of course, exercise reasonable prudence with all school district equipment, you may not any longer find yourself involuntarily insuring it or the textbooks your students use.

Reassignments outside of your area of certification require consent

Provisions of the Texas Administrative Code restrict the ability of a school district to make out-of-field assignments of teachers without the teacher’s consent as follows:

RULE §230.501 General provisions

(c) The provisions of this subsection apply to a degreed, certified teacher who was employed by a district in the previous year or semester in an assignment for which he or she was fully certified.

(1) The teacher may not be assigned to a position that requires activating a permit unless:

(A) the teacher has given written consent to the activation of the permit; or
(B) because of fluctuations in enrollment or changes in course offerings, the teacher’s previous assignment no longer exists and no alternative assignment for which the teacher is fully certified is available on that campus. If a permit is activated for a teacher under these circumstances, the teacher shall be offered the opportunity to return to his or her previous assignment or an alternative assignment for which the teacher is fully certified on that campus as soon as such an assignment is available. If a teacher accepts the assignment, the actual transfer of duties shall occur not later than the beginning of the next academic year.

(2) If a permit under this subsection is activated for a temporary staffing condition within 30 days of the opening of the school year or later during the contract year, the teacher is exempt from the requirement to complete additional coursework or examination requirements for certification for the remainder of the contract year for which the permit is activated. This exemption is not renewable, and a teacher continuing on an emergency permit for a second year must meet the full requirements of an emergency permit. A teacher who refuses to consent to activation of a permit under this subsection may not be terminated or nonrenewed or otherwise retaliated against because of the teacher’s refusal to consent to the activation of the permit. However, a teacher’s refusal to consent shall not impair a district’s right to implement a necessary reduction in force or other personnel actions in accordance with local district policy.

Your awareness of these provisions could help you avoid an involuntary reassignment to a subject for which you are not certified, or speed your return to an area for which you are fully certified.

Exceptions to duty-free lunch are limited

Though most teachers and librarians are aware of their entitlement to a duty-free lunch, violations of the rules governing when lunch duty can be assigned still occur with some regularity. The law indicates that districts may require a teacher or librarian to supervise students during lunch not more than one day in any school week if necessary because of a personnel shortage, extreme economic conditions or an unavoidable or unforeseen circumstance. But the Texas Administrative Code provisions narrowly define those reasons, as follows:

RULE §153.1001 Duty-free lunch

(a) For the purposes of Texas Education Code, §21.405, a school district shall use the guidelines in this section to determine what constitutes a personnel shortage, extreme economic conditions, or an unavoidable or unforeseen circumstance.
(b) A personnel shortage exists when, despite reasonable efforts of a school district to use nonteaching personnel or the assistance of community volunteers to supervise students during lunch, there are no other personnel available.
(c) Extreme economic conditions exist when the percentage of a local tax increase, including any amounts necessary to implement this section, would place the district in jeopardy with respect to a potential tax roll-back election as provided in the Texas Property Tax Code, §26.08.
(d) Unavoidable or unforeseen circumstances exist when, due to illness, epidemic, or natural or man-made disaster, a school district is unable to find an individual to supervise students during lunch.

As always, this information is not intended to constitute legal advice. If you have a legal question or experience a legal problem, contact one of TCTA’s eight staff attorneys via our toll-free number (888-879-8282) for advice and assistance.

 

The Classroom Teacher, Fall 2006

Archive of other TCTA Publications

THE CLASSROOM TEACHER (ISSN-0279-2494) is the official publication of the Texas Classroom Teachers Association (TCTA), providing news and opinions in the interest of education excellence. All contents are copyrighted and may not be reproduced without the publisher’s permission. The views and opinions contained in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. Copyright © 2006. Publication schedule is quarterly. Annual membership dues for TCTA are $110, $5 of which is allocated to a one-year subscription to THE CLASSROOM TEACHER. Subscriptions for nonmembers are available for $10 per year.