Annually, the District may have the need to layoff certificated employees as a result of the reduction or discontinuance of particular kinds of services or “PKS”. When the District has the need to reduce or discontinue services, certificated employees must receive proper notification per guidelines established in Education Code sections 44955 and 44949. Working with enrollment projections, students' course requests, and staffing allocations, in collaboration with site administrators and aligned with the statutes above, the District identified the particular kinds of services that needed to be reduced for the 2019-2020 school year and completed the following actions: 1. Issued a seniority list to be reviewed by all certificated employees (January 2019) 2. Board adopted the certificated seniority list (February 5, 2019) 3. Board adopted a resolution regarding criteria for determining order of seniority for those employees with the same date of first paid probationary service (February 5, 2019) 4. Board adopted a resolution to decrease the number of certificated employees due to a reduction in particular kinds of services by a total of 2.0 FTE: 1.0 FTE in Information Technology and 1.0 FTE in Early Childhood Education Specialist (March 5, 2019) 5. Per Education Code 44955, assignments and reassignments must be made in such a manner that employees shall be retained to render any service which their seniority and qualifications entitle them to render. In order to attempt to reassign affected certificated employees, Human Resources notified Morgan Hill Federation of Teachers of the decision to reduce particular kinds of service and met with the president to review the seniority list, the affected employees, and to identify possible alternate assignments within the District for which the employees might be qualified to hold (February and March 2019) 6. The affected least senior certificated employees in positions affected by the reduction of particular kinds of service were notified via personal delivery that services within their primary credential area would be reduced, affecting their position in the District for 2019-20 (March 8, 2019) 7. After receiving the layoff notice, each affected certificated employee was able to request a hearing or continue to work with Human Resources to identify an alternate assignment within the District for the upcoming year. One certificated employee accepted an alternate assignment for the 2019-20 school year for which his credential qualifies. The other certificated employee stated she was not interested in reviewing a possible reassignment and requested a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. The hearing was held on April 23, 2019, to review all the steps outlined above and to determine whether the District appropriately notified the affected employee. 8. The role of the Administrative Law Judge who conducted the layoff hearing is to determine if the District properly identified the affected employee on the seniority list and if the employee was given appropriate notice. Per Education Code 44949, the decision shall be submitted to the governing board and to the employee on or before May 7. The Administrative Law judge shall prepare a decision, containing findings of fact and a determination. The proposed decision shall be prepared for the governing board. However, the governing board shall make the final determination.
10. Upon receiving the judge’s decision, the Board of Education must then act to adopt the decision of the Administrative Law Judge and to authorize the issuance of the final certificated layoff notice. 11. No later than by May 15, 2019, the affected certificated employee will be Issued the final layoff notice as the last step of the layoff process. 12. As the District continues to evaluate student enrollment and related staffing needs, should the District determine a need to reinstate the particular kinds of service at any time over the next 39 months, the certificated employee affected by the layoff would be offered the position first and prior to the District posting a vacancy. |