Common use of Seniority and Tenure Clause in Contracts

Seniority and Tenure. The seniority of all part-time teachers with contractual continued service shall be calculated as defined elsewhere in Article II.R of this Agreement for full-time years of employment; for the years in which the teacher served on a part-time basis, seniority continues to accrue at one-half year for each part-time year of service. It is understood that teachers with contractual continued service who in the future are reduced to part-time employment under a reduction-in-force, and tenured teachers who in the future agree to reduce to part-time at a request which was initiated by the District, shall likewise accrue seniority as defined above, will have retained tenure, and shall be included in the above paragraphs as any other tenured teacher. It is further understood that teachers with contractual continued service who themselves initiate the request to be reduced to part-time, shall be deemed to have agreed to reduce to part-time at the behest of the District; therefore, it is understood that such teachers shall retain contractual continued service. However, in initiating the request, the teacher is acknowledging that he or she shall be subject to alternate rights and procedures concerning “bumping rights” and Reduction-in- Force as negotiated in this paragraph. Such part-time teacher shall have no right to “bump” any other teacher, regardless of the contractual continued service of the other teacher and regardless of the seniority of the other teacher, unless failure to allow that “bumping” shall result in complete removal of the part-time teacher from employment. That is, once a teacher initiates the request to be reduced to part-time status and after it is granted, that teacher may no longer demand an occupied position in order to return to full-time status. Notice of a request to return to full-time status shall be submitted in writing to the Superintendent or designee no later than February 15th. Return to full-time status shall occur only into a vacant position for which the teacher is legally qualified, or in order to maintain employment with the District. In the latter case the teacher shall still possess all rights previously possessed. Part-time teachers who have not achieved contractual continued service with the District are not affected by the language of this Section, and it shall not be construed that anything herein gives such teachers any rights they did not otherwise possess. On a case-by-case basis, it shall be the non-precedential determination of the Superintendent or designee whether or not to grant any arrangement for a full-time teacher to reduce to part-time status when the request is made by the teacher.