Seniority Excess and Recall Wo Last Slide

Seniority, Excessing and Recall

Prepared by the Half Hollow Hills Teachers’ Association

Calculating Seniority

Disclaimer

These materials are only intended to provide information regarding laws and regulations related to seniority and excessing. It is in no way intended to provide legal advice. It is our intent that by providing you with this information you will be in a better position to determine if there is an issue with your seniority and any related personnel actions taken.

By raising your awareness of some of the rules that apply, you can help the Union identify issues which need to be addressed. We regularly confer with our NYSUT Labor Relations Specialist on these matters. Our LRS can, in turn, also refer matters to NYSUT’s legal department as warranted.

Please understand that this information is intended as an overview/guide.

Calculating Tenure Area Seniority for the Purpose of

Excessing

“The first criterion for determining seniority is the actual full-time service rendered within the tenure area. If the full-time service of two or more teachers is equal, the teachers’ respective appointment dates are to be used for determining seniority. When the teachers have equal seniority and the same appointment date, the more senior teacher is the one whose appointment occurred first. But if they were appointed in the same resolution, a school district may use any reasonable method to establish seniority, including factors such as dates on which an employment agreement was signed or returned.” In our district, we use the “binder date” to fulfill the last of these criteria.

Seniority rights apply to onlytenured and probationary teachers

Details and Examples…

Seniority begins to accrue once someone is made probationary. Once that “switch is turned on,” any prior time served in a term position (like a leave replacement) within that tenure area will be added to your accrued seniority.

If a teacher serves as a leave replacement for two years, for example, and is never made probationary, s/he has 0 years of seniority.

If a teacher serves as a leave replacement for one year, then is made probationary in the second year, s/he has 2 years of seniority. Even though this teacher does not yet have tenure, s/he would have seniority and recall rights with the District.

Time spent working outside of a tenure area cannot be

counted towards tenure area seniority.


Excessing is done according to tenure area seniority. With few exceptions, a teacher must be full-time in order to accrue seniority, working either as a regular teacher or a leave replacement in that area. (More guidelines on seniority accrual for teachers split across multiple tenure areas appear later in this presentation.)

If a teacher teaches art for two years, for example, then switches to the music tenure area for one year, s/he would be excessed before a teacher who has worked in the music tenure area for 1.5 years.

A teacher must be given credit for regular substitute service rendered any time prior to a probationary appointment within that tenure

area.


“Regular substitute service” is not well defined in state regulations, but typically constitutes a substantial block of time within your tenure area. Leave replacements, for example, are considered regular substitute positions.

What we call “permanent subs” in the District, however, are typically ineligible for seniority credit. If they are “per diem” or “floaters” who cover a day or two at a time for any number of teachers across a number of departments, this would not count towards seniority.

Unfortunately, the State does not provide strict guidelines on how many days it takes to constitute “regular” service within a tenure area.

When in question, whether or not seniority is owed a teacher for time as a substitute depends more on the nature of his or her work than on what the District called the position.

Seniority “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 teacher. (Commissioner’s Regulation 30.)


Even if there is a “break in service” in your tenure area, time spent teaching or subbing in that area should count towards seniority. (Note: This is different from how service is counted towards tenure, which is not treated in this presentation.)

If, for example, you were a leave replacement from September to January, then a “floating” sub from January to June, and you taught as a F/T probationary teacher the following year, you would have approximately 1.5 years of seniority.

The exception to this rule is an employee’s decision to voluntarily sever his or her terms of employment with the District. If, for example, a teacher chooses to resign to pursue a job elsewhere, but returns after a year, said teacher would have forfeited any seniority accrued prior to the tendered resignation.

Generally, part time service does not count towards seniority, except as

follows-


Part-time service rendered after a full time probationary position if the district requests the change to P/T (reduction or downsizing of the position).

Split assignments to multiple tenure areas if at least 40% in the area.

Once a teacher is regarded as full time within the district, s/he shall accrue one full year of seniority in each tenure area making up 40% or more of his or her teaching time. Teachers working 70/30 (or .7 and .3) across multiple tenure areas, shall only accrue seniority in the tenure area that constitutes the majority of their work.

“Bumping Rights”


Under Commissioner’s Regulation 30.13, a teacher whose position is eliminated in one area and who accrued seniority in a different tenure area can take the position of a teacher in the previous tenure area if s/he has more seniority than another teacher in the previous tenure area.

If, for example, a teacher accrues five years of seniority in special education, then switches to the reading tenure area for one year and is excessed, s/he would be entitled to switch back to the special education tenure area if there is a teacher in it who has less than five years of seniority in special education. In effect, the abolition of one reading position in this case, would actually result in “excessing” a special education teacher who happens to have less seniority in that tenure area than the “bumping” teacher.

Recall Rights

Calculating District Seniority

for the Purpose of Recall


“A teacher who has several probationary or tenure appointments in separate tenure areas accrues seniority separately in each area, depending on the actual service performed. For example, if a teacher serves 50 percent of the time as a mathematics teacher and 50 percent of the time as a science teacher for five years, and then teaches only mathematics 100 percent of the time for two years, then that teacher has seven years of seniority credit in mathematics and five years of seniority credit in science.

“Once a teacher is excessed and placed on a preferred eligibility list for possible call back, however, seniority is determined by length of service within the district, rather than service in a tenure area.”

Preferred Eligibility List (PEL)


Probationary and tenured teachers who are excessed are placed on a preferred eligibility list for the tenure area from which they are excessed in order of district seniority.

Teachers remain on the PEL for 7 years.

Recalling from the PEL -1


Recall is done according to district seniority, which does combine any seniority accrued across multiple tenure areas.

If a teacher works as an elementary teacher for one year, then becomes an art teacher for one year, for example, s/he would have one year of tenure area seniority in each department, but two years of district seniority. If there were another excessed teacher in art department with 1.5 years of service, the teacher with two years of district seniority would be called back first.

Recalling from the PEL -2


Teachers on the PEL must be offered any regular substitute position (5 months or longer in duration). Short substitute positions, however, may be filled at the District’s discretion.

Each time a position is to be filled, the District will begin its calls starting with the most senior teacher, regardless of where any prior attempts to fill a position may have left off.

Teachers who pass on a given position do not forfeit their recall rights.

Similarly, teachers who accept other positions within or outside the District shall remain on the PEL.

Teachers may not be recalled to a position for which they are not qualified to teach. An excessed Spanish teacher, for example, may not be recalled to teach French classes that break unless s/he is qualified (i.e. has necessary certification for the position) to teach those classes.

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Seniority Excess and Recall Wo Last Slide