Common use of Procedures for Reduction in Force Clause in Contracts

Procedures for Reduction in Force. a. The SEEA President will be notified in writing of any intended staff reduction at least thirty (30) calendar days prior to June 1st and the Board may not take any official action for at least seven (7) calendar days after said notification. b. To the extent possible, the number of teacher contracts to be suspended will be minimized by not employing replacements for those teachers who have retired, resigned, or whose contract has been non-renewed. It is recognized that attrition alone may not be sufficient to accomplish necessary reductions. c. Seniority shall not govern the suspension of teaching contracts, except when making a decision between teachers who have comparable evaluations as defined below. Teachers who have the same effectiveness rating based on the definition below shall be deemed to have “comparable evaluations” for purposes of this Article. 1) Suspension of contracts shall occur to limited contract teachers first in each teaching field affected. The Board shall only give preference to a teacher with seniority when the teachers involved have comparable evaluations as defined herein or if the teacher to be retained has a higher effectiveness rating as defined by subsection 4) below. 2) Suspension of contracts for tenured teachers shall occur only after all limited contract teachers in the affected teaching field have been suspended. The Board shall only give preference to a teacher with seniority when the teachers involved have comparable evaluations as defined herein or if the teacher to be retained has a higher effectiveness rating as defined by subsection 4) below. 3) A teacher suspended pursuant to this Section may displace a less senior teacher in another certification/licensure area if the more senior teacher is certified/licensed in that area provided that no limited contract teacher may displace a continuing contract teacher and provided further that no teacher shall displace another teacher unless the displacing teacher has a comparable evaluation to the displaced teacher as defined below. 4) Except as set forth in subsection a) below, in determining comparable evaluations, a teacher’s best evaluation over the last two (2) years shall be utilized. Comparable evaluations shall be defined as follows: a) All teachers who were rated “Ineffective” for the last two