Chapter 362
2013 -- S 0889 SUBSTITUTE A
Enacted 07/15/13
A N A C T
RELATING TO
EDUCATION - TEACHERS' TENURE
Introduced By: Senators Lombardi, Cool Rumsey, Ciccone, Archambault, and Conley
Date Introduced: April 25, 2013
It is enacted by the
General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 16-13-3 of the General Laws in Chapter
16-13 entitled "Teachers'
Tenure" is hereby
amended to read as follows:
16-13-3.
Probationary period -- Tenure after probation. --
(a) Three (3) annual
contracts within five (5) successive school years shall be
considered evidence of satisfactory
teaching and shall constitute a probationary period. Teachers
who complete the probationary
period shall be considered in continuous service and shall
not be subject to annual renewal or
nonrenewal of their contracts. No tenured teacher in continuous
service shall be dismissed except
for good and just cause. Whenever a tenured teacher in
continuous service is to be dismissed, the
notice of the dismissal shall be given to the teacher, in
writing, on or before March 1st of the
school year immediately preceding the school year in which
the dismissal is to become effective.
The teacher shall be furnished with a complete
statement of the cause(s) for the dismissal by the
governing body of the school and shall be entitled to a hearing
and appeal pursuant to the
procedure set forth in section 16-13-4.
(b) Nothing contained
in this section shall be construed to prohibit or at any time to have
prohibited a school committee from agreeing, in a collective
bargaining agreement, to the
arbitration of disputes arising out of the dismissal of a tenured
teacher pursuant to subsection (a)
of this section.
(c) Any teacher
appointed to a position of principal, assistant principal, or vice principal
within the school system in which the teacher has attained
tenure shall, upon termination or
resignation of the administrative position, be allowed to return
to his or her former status as a
tenured teacher within the system. Any teacher employed by a local or regional school
committee
who has attained tenure in a
administrative position of principal, assistant principal, vice
principal, superintendent, assistant
superintendent, director, or other central office personnel in any
system, including the original school district of
employment, or who is hired for an administrative
position as a fellow, education specialist, or director by the
education, shall be granted an unpaid leave of absence, not to
exceed three (3) years, in order to
be employed in an administrative position of principal,
assistant principal, vice principal,
superintendent, assistant superintendent, director, or other central
office personnel in any Rhode
Island school system or the
completion of their administrative position employment contract,
or termination or resignation of
the administrative position, be allowed to return to his
or her former status as a tenured teacher
within the system from which the leave of absence was taken.
Such leaves of absence shall not be
deemed to be an interruption of service for the purposes of
seniority and teacher retirement.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC02422/SUB A
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