How S.B. 8 will change the way you do business

By now you’ve no doubt heard plenty about Senate Bill (S.B.) 8, the recently passed “flexibility bill,” a legislative attempt to offer school districts new options to help them manage and operate their schools in the state’s austere budget climate. S.B. 8 rewrites educator contract rules to provide districts with new ways to manage personnel costs.

Teacher organizations have called S.B. 8 a “relentless attack” on teacher pay and contract rights and labeled the components “unjustified and ill-advised.” From a management perspective, HR administrators are likely to see parts of the new law—particularly the streamlined contract administration rules—as welcome changes.

Here’s a closer look at the contract and salary reduction provisions that are part of S.B. 8:

Moves the nonrenewal notice deadline. The law extends the deadline for notification of proposed term contract nonrenewal from 45 days to 10 days before the last day of instruction, effectively moving it from April to May. That change accomplishes the following:

• Allows additional time for personnel evaluations
• Provides districts with more time to get a read on legislative budget plans and property taxes when planning their own budgets
• Separates the contract nonrenewal notice date from the annual state standardized testing period, deferring a potential source of stress for teachers at a critical time
• Reduces the chance that districts will put employees through a painful firing process to comply with notification deadlines, only to rehire them at a later date
• Limits the duration of employment for employees following notice of nonrenewal

Changes the nonrenewal notification requirements. S.B. 8 requires that a proposed nonrenewal notice or termination of a probationary contract be hand-delivered to the employee’s campus. If the employee isn’t there, notice must be sent by certified mail, return receipt requested, or by express delivery service to the employee’s home address.

Lessens the requirements and costs of nonrenewal and termination hearings. Another bill (H.B. 1610) removed the requirement for a hearing when an employee is terminated because of a felony conviction or deferred adjudication. S.B. 8:

• Removes the right to a hearing by an independent hearing examiner when an educator is terminated due to financial exigency (applies to all contract types)
• Allows school boards in districts with 5,000 or more students to designate an attorney to hold nonrenewal hearings on behalf of the board; the attorney can’t be a district employee and can’t work for a firm with employment relationships that might represent a conflict of interest

Aligns termination of continuing contracts with term contracts. School districts that need to reduce their workforces due to financial exigency will now follow essentially the same set of rules for employees on continuing and term contracts.

• Eliminates the requirement that continuing contract employees be terminated in reverse order of seniority; instead, districts must base such decisions on teacher appraisals and other criteria determined by their boards
• Allows districts to suspend continuing contract employees without pay pending discharge, as with term contracts

Permits districts to declare an educator’s contract void for lack of certification. If an educator fails to renew or extend his or her certificate through the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC), the district can immediately declare his or her contract void without a due-process hearing (but remember that H.B. 1334 prevents districts from declaring an educator’s contract void if the certification was not renewed or extended simply because SBEC has not had a chance to approve the renewal).

Offers school districts more options when they need to reduce personnel costs. Districts will have choices other than a reduction in force when they need to cut personnel costs.

• Repeals salary protections to allow districts to reduce pay below 2010-11 levels if necessary
• Authorizes up to six furlough days if, by July 1, the commissioner certifies that a district’s state and local funding will be reduced
  
  
  • Instructional days cannot be designated as furlough days
  • All contract personnel must take the same number of furlough days
  • Employees are prohibited from taking paid leave while on furlough
  • Districts may reduce the salary of furloughed employees in proportion to the number of furlough days
  • A board’s decision to implement furlough days is final, can’t be appealed, and isn’t subject to collective bargaining
    
    
• Requires that districts adopting widespread salary reductions reduce salaries for all administrators and professionals by the same percent
• Requires that districts go through the process set out in law before approving a furlough or salary reduction plan
   
  
  • The district must include professional staff in the development process
  • The district must hold a public meeting to present the district’s budget options, explain how the measure will save jobs, and consider other options; employees and members of the public must be allowed to comment