Policy 6214.1 – Reduction in Certified Personnel

Reduction in certified personnel may, from time to time, be made necessary by decreased enrollments, revenue limitations, or other events beyond the control of the Board of Education.  Should the Board of Education decide to reduce the number of positions and such reduction results in the layoff of certified staff members, such reduction shall be accomplished in accordance with the procedures defined herein.

Reductions-In-Force will deal with positions, not individual staff members.  When positions are terminated, the person with the least seniority in that area of certification will be released.  Part 30.1(f) of the Rules of the Board of Regents defines seniority as the “length of service in a designated tenure area, rather than length of service in the district; such service need not have been consecutive, but shall during each term for which seniority credit is sought, have constituted a substantial portion of the time of the professional educator.”

Seniority lists will be made by tenure area and shall be updated annually to take into account any leaves of absence or changes in tenure area, and shall be shared with the collective bargaining unit for confirmation of accuracy.

To determine seniority, start with the original date of appointment within the tenure area.  Only full time service should be counted toward seniority; part-time service, except in very limited circumstances, does not count.  Although paid leaves of absence count toward seniority, any period of unpaid leave should be “deducted” from a teacher’s seniority.

If two people commenced working for the district in the same tenure area on the same date, the following “tiebreaker” shall be applied:  seniority shall be determined by using the date of the board meeting at which the persons were appointed.  If those dates are the same, seniority shall be determined by using the order in which their names appeared on the board agenda.

Adopted: 11/15/06