Name That Section - Frequently Used Education Code and Title 5 Sections for Community College Districts

Be careful about the use of student complaints when deciding whether to grant tenure. Many collective bargaining agreements include student complaints in the evaluation procedure and have rules about their use. If the district wishes to include student complaints, it must follow the CBA rules. If the district fails to follow the CBA procedure and uses the student complaints to deny tenure, the employee may win a grievance.

LCW Practice Advisor

C. G RANTING T ENURE Education Code section 87660 et seq . controls the tenure process. As provided above, a contract faculty member normally serves under three probationary contracts, with the final contract lasting for two academic years (years 3 and 4). A faculty member must serve a full academic year for the year to count towards acquisition of tenure. Generally, the Education Code provides that a First Contract employee, who serves at least 75 percent of the number of days the district is maintained, or the number of hours considered a full-time assignment for regular employees performing similar duties, shall be deemed to have served a complete college year. 23 A faculty member, however, may be deemed to have completed the second, third, or fourth contract year if the faculty member provides service for a percentage of the academic year under an agreement between the governing board and the exclusive bargaining representative of the faculty member. 24 The Education Code states that for probationary faculty members working in their second, third, or fourth year, time spent on paid or unpaid leave of absence may be included in computing service if the faculty member serves sufficient time during the year to allow for the evaluation of the faculty member as required by any negotiated evaluation procedure. 25 Given the recent trend in the California courts, districts must seriously consider extending this consideration to first year probationary faculty members as well.

Districts may properly non-reelect probationary employees for any nondiscriminatory reason by March 15 of each year. But it is best to make the decision sooner rather than later. The sooner the district makes this decision, the sooner each party can move on. The challenge to the decision is a more limited after the first or second year.

LCW Practice Advisor

Education Code section 87664 provides:

The governing board of each district, in consultation with the faculty, shall adopt rules and regulations establishing the specific procedures for the evaluation of its contract and regular employees on an individual basis and setting forth reasonable but specific standards which it expects its faculty to meet in the

Name that Section: Frequently Used Education Code and Title 5 Sections for Community College Districts ©2019 (c) Liebert Cassidy Whitmore 11