STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6339
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 15, 2011
___________
Introduced by M. of A. CALHOUN -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the abolition of
office or position
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Section 3013 of the education law, as added by chapter 737
2 of the laws of 1992, is amended to read as follows:
3 § 3013. Abolition of office or position. 1. [If] Notwithstanding any
4 other provision of law, rule or regulation to the contrary, a trustee,
5 board of trustees, board of education or board of cooperative educa-
6 tional services and its employees' collective bargaining agents shall
7 establish a procedure governing the abolishment or reduction of teaching
8 or supervisory positions and the rights of employees to return to vacant
9 positions pursuant to the requirements of article fourteen of the civil
10 service law. Until such a process has been established, if a trustee,
11 board of trustees, board of education or board of cooperative educa-
12 tional services abolishes an office or position and creates another
13 office or position for the performance of duties similar to those
14 performed in the office or position abolished, the person filling such
15 office or position at the time of its abolishment shall be appointed to
16 the office or position thus created without reduction in salary or
17 increment, provided the record of such person has been one of faithful,
18 competent service in the office or position he or she has filled.
19 2. [Whenever] Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or
20 regulation to the contrary, until a process is established pursuant to
21 subdivision one of this section, whenever a trustee, board of [trustee]
22 trustees, board of education or board of cooperative educational
23 services abolishes a position under this chapter, the services of the
24 teacher having the least seniority in the system within the tenure of
25 the position abolished shall be discontinued.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10021-01-1
A. 6339 2
1 3. (a) [If] Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regu-
2 lation to the contrary, until a process is established pursuant to
3 subdivision one of this section if an office or position is abolished or
4 if it is consolidated with another position without creating a new posi-
5 tion, the person filling such position at the time of its abolishment or
6 consolidation shall be placed upon a preferred eligible list of candi-
7 dates for appointment to a vacancy that then exists or that may there-
8 after occur in an office or position similar to the one which such
9 person filled without reduction in salary or increment, provided the
10 record of such person has been one of faithful, competent service in the
11 office or position he or she has filled. The persons on such preferred
12 list shall be reinstated or appointed to such vacancies in such corre-
13 sponding or similar positions in the order of their length of service in
14 the system at any time within seven years from the date of abolition or
15 consolidation of such office or position.
16 (b) [The] Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regu-
17 lation to the contrary, until a process is established pursuant to
18 subdivision one of this section, the persons on such preferred list
19 shall be reinstated, in accordance with the terms of paragraph (a) of
20 this subdivision, to such substitute positions of five months or more in
21 duration, as may from time to time occur without losing their preferred
22 status on such list. Declination of such reinstatement shall not
23 adversely affect the persons' preferred eligibility status.
24 4. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to
25 the contrary, the locally established process established pursuant to
26 subdivision one of this section shall:
27 (a) not permit an employee's length of service to be the sole factor
28 in any decision regarding which positions are to be abolished and which
29 persons occupying such positions shall be laid off. Any consideration of
30 an employee's length of faithful and competent service as a factor for
31 the abolishment of positions or persons to be laid off occupying such
32 positions may only be considered in a manner beneficial to an employee;
33 (b) not permit an employee's salary to be a factor in any decision
34 regarding which positions are to be abolished and which persons occupy-
35 ing such positions shall be laid off;
36 (c) ensure that high quality teachers in high-need schools are not
37 laid off and that high-need schools do not bear a disproportionate share
38 of workforce reductions in the event of layoffs, provided however, noth-
39 ing shall prohibit a district from abolishing all positions in a license
40 area. For purposes of this section, a high-need school shall be defined
41 as a school in which at least ninety percent of the enrolled students
42 are eligible applicants for the free and reduced price lunch program;
43 (d) for positions covered by section three thousand twelve-c of this
44 article, any such locally developed process shall be based on the annual
45 professional performance review for teachers and supervisors pursuant to
46 such section three thousand twelve-c and its implementing regulations.
47 § 2. Severability. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part
48 of this act shall be adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to
49 be invalid and after exhaustion of all further judicial review, the
50 judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof,
51 but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, para-
52 graph, section or part of this act directly involved in the controversy
53 in which the judgment shall have been rendered.
54 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.