SECTION A: STAFFING DECISIONS

The SPS and SEA believe that staffing decisions should offer students the teachers who can best help them meet their learning goals, promote excellent teaching and allow resources to be expended where they have the highest educational value. The SPS and SEA also believe that school staff should have a meaningful role in the decisions that affect them.

SECTION B: TWO-PHASE STAFFING PROCESS:

1. Eligibility for Vacancies, Phase I:

a. Phase I: September 1-June 15: Any certificated teacher or certificated staff other than teachers, from within or outside of the SPS (including new recruits), is eligible to be considered on the basis of his/her qualifications for any opening for which the teacher is certified. Hiring packets must be in Human Resources by June 15 or by the last workday if June 15 is on a weekend, otherwise the position will be made available through Phase II hiring.

b. With the direction from Human Resources, schools will have the opportunity to retain remaining non-continuing contracted staff during spring staffing, if site funding is available and the principal recommends the conversion.

c. If a non-continuing contracted employee receives a satisfactory recommendation from the principal, and if funding is available at the building/program for the following year, the employee shall be offered a provisional contract and retained in the building/program for the following school year.

d. Employees with non-continuing contracts, who have been recommended by their principal/supervisor, may be hired to the SPS’s unassigned pool if they teach in a critical shortage area and budget and staffing projections indicate a need.

e. If no displaced pool candidates are available for identified open positions, Phase I will remain in effect for those positions.

f. For purposes of this section, “displaced” staff are defined as staff who:

1) Are involuntarily removed from a building or program as a result of being least senior in their category because the number of staff exceeds the building’s requirements for the following year.

2) Volunteer to leave the building or program either because the number of staff exceeds the building’s requirements for the following year or the school direction has changed and the displacement removes the need to displace someone else. If there are more volunteers than necessary, the most senior volunteer will be offered the opportunity to move.

3) Volunteer to leave a school or program that SEA and the SPS have mutually agreed is undergoing a significant change in direction.

4) Volunteer to leave a “school requiring SPS intervention” as described in Article VIII, G, below.

5) Are involuntarily removed due to a building or program closure.

6) Are returning from leave.

7) Are new recruits to the SPS who have been offered contracts and need assignments.

2. Eligibility for Vacancies, Phase II:

a. Phase II: June 15th - until all displaced staff has been placed. Phase II requires that principals and building leadership teams consider the remaining unassigned staff for openings.

b. All Requests to Staff Vacant Positions (RSVP’s) received after June 1 and any other positions remaining unfilled by June 15 of the current school year will be subject to Phase II’s displaced pool selection or assignment.

c. The SPS will schedule a Job Fair prior to the last day of the school year to provide an opportunity for schools and remaining unassigned staff to meet to discuss openings and recommend employees for selection. Staff recommended by more than one school will have the opportunity to choose their assignment, provided the hiring packets are received within 24 hours of each other.

d. Before the Job Fair all displaced employees who hold a 504 status granted by the SPS will be contacted and told what vacancies remain. They may choose a position, in seniority order, after making contact with the principal.

e. After the 504 placements, and before others, employees from closed schools or from programs that are undergoing a significant change in direction (and mutually agreed to by SEA/SPS) may choose a position in seniority order after making contact with the principal.

f. Principals and hiring teams will be required to review the files of displaced staff and new recruits who qualify for remaining vacancies and to request meetings with them to discuss their current opening(s).

g. All individuals remaining in the displaced pool on July 1st, including new recruits, will have a temporary assignment prior to the opening of school. These temporary assignments will be in vacant positions for which they qualify or, if no position for which they qualify exists, they may be placed on temporary assignments in buildings to assist as a substitute on contract until another position for which they are qualified is available.

h. At the start of the school year unassigned staff placed as temporary substitutes into vacant positions for which they are qualified but do not hold the right category will receive consideration for permanent placement in the positions.

i. Except as provided elsewhere, any contracted teacher who is displaced from a building, and no position for which he/she is qualified is available, he/she will be designated a substitute-on-contract (SOC) at full pay and benefits until he/she is assigned a position.

j. An employee who is displaced shall have the right to return to his/her immediate previous work location if that former assignment becomes available within two years of the teacher’s being displaced. Employees must notify Human Resources in writing by February 1st of the current year if they wish to exercise their right to return the second year.

k. Employees may only transfer once during the current school year unless a transfer would result in a promotion involving a stipend. Positions accepted prior to the start of the school year for the upcoming school year are final.

l. Schools will submit a plan describing the hiring process to be used during the summer months. The plan will be turned in to Human Resources in the school’s staffing packet submitted in March.

m. SPS responsibility regarding notification of vacancies:

1) Request to Staff a Vacant Position (RSVPs): Principals/

program managers shall file a RSVP upon knowledge that a vacancy has occurred. The SPS shall not unreasonably delay in establishing a permanent position in order to hold or save a position or potential position for a particular unassigned employee or other potential applicants. Delays for necessary and unavoidable or otherwise justifiable reasons shall be approved/disapproved by the administrative supervisors.

2) Principals/program managers shall make every reasonable effort to establish teaching schedules to avoid assignments and the establishment of RSVP’s that require more than one (1) category. Any assignment will be reviewed by Human Resources and, if deemed appropriate, Human Resources will request the approval/disapproval of the administrative supervisor before processing.

n. The SPS must provide notification of vacancies one week prior to the closing date for applications.

1) Candidates on leave shall receive information describing their rights and responsibilities in interviewing for a position. The employee must provide the SPS with a reliable means for contacting them or their designee.

2) The SPS shall send a notice and directions to the SPS’s web site concerning job postings for the next school year (sometime in April) to candidates on leave. Thereafter job announcements and standardized application procedures will be available on the internal electronic mail system. Candidates are responsible for monitoring the SPS’s web site and job postings to identify current openings.

3) Candidates are responsible for submitting site-based applications to schools and participating in interviews.

SECTION C: SITE-BASED HIRING PROCESS

1. The hiring process must have the following features:

a. All members of the hiring teams will participate in a joint SEA/SPS interview training session which includes communication of the legal constraints against discrimination based on age, race, gender and other factors. Participation in Waiver Training conducted prior to 9/1/94 meets this requirement.

b. The hiring team will screen applications and resumes. The SPS will verify appropriate certification for candidates recommended by the school.

c. If there are qualified internal candidates for a position, a hiring team will interview at least two for vacant positions.

d. Teachers returning from leave, displaced from buildings, and new recruits will be given full consideration in the hiring process.

e. Applicants who best meet the hiring team’s criteria will be interviewed by a hiring team that includes a group of teachers who are knowledgeable about the requirements of the position and the school’s Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan.

f. The hiring team should reflect the diversity at that school in the areas of seniority, educational specialty and culture.

g. The hiring team may contain parents and/or other school staff appropriate to the selection process.

h. The hiring team and the principal will jointly develop criteria for staff selection that are in alignment with the school’s Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan.

i. The hiring team may also decide to ask applicants for additional information not included in the standardized Site-Based Application.

j. Both the SPS and SEA agree that the goal is to complete the majority of the hiring prior to the end of the school year.

2. Any school that currently uses a hiring process that gives staff a more significant role in hiring than is described below as the minimum may retain their process if the school team and principal find the process serves the school well. The ideal hiring process would be based on consensus of principal and staff. Other options include, but are not limited to:

a. The principal is part of the hiring team.

b. The hiring team makes the final decision.

c. The principal agrees to hire the number one applicant recommended by the hiring team.

d. The hiring team recommends 2-3 top candidates in preference order and the principal selects.

3. The minimum requirement as to staff participation in choosing among candidates is: The hiring team will interview candidates and submit three recommendations in preference order to the principal. The principal must select from among these choices, unless the principal and the hiring team find in checking with references that none of the candidates in fact meet the selection criteria. In that case, three additional recommendations from the hiring team will be made to the principal. If the pool contains no candidates who meet the criteria specified for the opening, the position must be reopened.

4. Conditions for suspension of qualifications-based hiring: Because the designation of substitutes-on-contract may in some years be beyond the SPS’s financial ability to support, the SPS reserves the right to set a limit on the number of substitutes-on-contract it will support or the available budget for substitutes-on-contract and to suspend the qualifications-based hiring in order to preserve full time teaching positions for existing employees.

5. Relationship of hiring policy to conditions for layoff and direct reassignments:

a. No part of the hiring process and conditions described in this section shall be construed as changing or qualifying the conditions for staff adjustment (layoff) or the SPS’s rights and responsibilities outlined in Article XII of this Agreement.

b. SPS and SEA can agree at any time to bypass the hiring process in exceptional cases.

6. During the first school year in a new position, a teacher cannot be reassigned to another position other than that for which he/she was hired, without mutual agreement between the principal, the hiring team and the teacher.

SECTION D: HIRING PROCESS FOR CERTIFICATED NON-SUPERVISORY PERSONNEL OTHER THAN TEACHERS.

1. Librarians and secondary counselors will have the same hiring process as provided for above. The hiring process for certificated non-supervisory personnel other than teachers, librarians and secondary counselors (i.e., speech/language pathologists, occupational and physical therapists, school psychologists and nurses) will be the same as that outlined with the following exception:

a. A hiring team will be assembled. The hiring team will include staff from the supervising department in central administration, staff from buildings who are performing similar professional tasks, and other staff who are knowledgeable about the requirements of the position.

b. The hiring team will submit three candidates in order of preference to the director of the supervising department. If none of the candidates referred by the hiring team are found suitable for the position, the director of the supervising department must explain to the hiring team why the information discovered in checking references makes one of the candidates unsuitable for the position. In that case, the department must request three additional recommendations from the hiring team. If the pool contains no candidates who meet the criteria specified for the vacancy, the position must be reopened.

SECTION E: MID-YEAR TRANSFERS

1. Employees may apply for advertised positions and transfer at any time of the school year, if selected, but may only transfer once per year. If an employee has not transferred during the current school year, they may apply for and accept any position that is offered to them at any time.

2. Employees who accept a position in the spring for the following school year must remain in the new position for the entire year.

3. Employees may apply and be selected for a stipend position at any time of year if it constitutes a promotional opportunity.

SECTION F: ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSFER PROCEDURES

The following procedures for transfers shall apply to all employees within the bargaining unit:

1. Guidelines for Administrative Transfers: The SPS has the legal responsibility to establish the educational programs, services and staff in accordance with the SPS's basic educational goals and program continuity consistent with the financial resources available. The SPS has the authority to make necessary adjustments in the SPS's educational programs, services and staff to be consistent with financial resources available and the provisions of this Agreement.

a. The appropriateness of the assignment of employees has a significant impact on the morale of the employee and his/her effectiveness in the total educational program.

b. The SPS shall comply with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the 1972 Amendments, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Affirmative Action goals of the SPS in placing and transferring employees.

c. The SPS and SEA may agree that it is in the best interest of the employee, the site, students and the SPS to transfer an employee from his/her assignment or building. When there is such agreement by SPS and SEA the decision is not grievable.

2. Transfer by Administrative Decision:

a. Employees who are transferred by administrative decision for the following year shall be notified in writing as soon as practicable, but no later than 06/01 of the school year. Employees who are to be transferred at other times shall be given at least one (1) week's notice. The written notification shall include the reasons for the transfer.

b. The building principal/program manager will confer with the individual tentatively selected for administrative transfer, shall provide tentative notice of transfer in writing, and shall provide the employee with an opportunity to comment.

c. Criteria listed in Item 1 above shall be utilized for administrative transfer.

d. An employee who is selected to transfer as a result of administrative decision after the beginning of the school year shall be assigned to a position as expeditiously as possible. Unless there are some unusual circumstances, he/she will remain in the original assignment until a position is available.

e. Employees who are on probation are prohibited from transferring from one site or assignment to another site or assignment without the approval of the principal/program managers of the schools/buildings and/or the appropriate education directors. The SPS will notify the SEA of any proposed transfers.

3. Impact of School Closure: Movement/Transfer of Equipment, Teaching Materials, Personnel and Programs:

a. Employees from closed schools will be responsible for transporting their personal materials and equipment to their new work location; for example: self-made teaching materials, gifts, and items purchased by the employee. However, the SPS will transport the above-mentioned materials on an exception basis for handicapped employees.

b. Employees from closed schools may personally transport SPS-owned personal-use items, such as: pens, scissors, rulers, binders and staplers, to their new work locations after filling out an inventory list and submitting it to the building principal/program manager.

c. The SPS will develop a process whereby employees from closed schools will be given the opportunity to request the transfer of SPS textual materials and/or equipment they presently use to their new SPS locations. Textual materials and/or equipment approved for transfer will be transported to the employees' new assignments by the SPS.

d. Every effort shall be made to have the materials of transferring employees from closed schools transported by the SPS to their new work locations by August 17.

e. It will be a top priority of the SPS to have essential equipment, supplies and textual materials assigned and available in all buildings by August 17.

f. In the event that an employee, who has been reassigned as a result of school closure or relocation of programs, performs duties as mutually determined are necessary by the employee and the SPS which are associated with school closure or relocation of programs, he/she will be compensated for duties performed beyond his/her contracted work year at his/her per diem rate.

SECTION G: SPECIAL STAFFING ISSUES AT SCHOOLS REQUIRING SPS INTERVENTION

1. This provision will be reviewed by the Partner’s committee during the 2004 –2005 school year to reconcile it with the intent and direction being taken to close the achievement gap.

2. A school requiring special SPS intervention is a school identified by the SPS as qualifying for additional support or resources according to the SPS’s review process.

3. The principal and staff at each school requiring special intervention will identify by January 31st any professional development or training that will be required of staff to participate successfully in implementing the building’s Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan.

4. By the end of February of the current academic year individual staff members will make a choice and state their intention to commit to successfully complete the training by September (or by a later date defined in the Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan) or not to remain at that school.

5. If a new category is required by the school’s Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan, adequate time will be allowed to complete necessary training.

6. A teacher who completes the training shall retain a position at the building for the following year (possibly including training required to earn a new category).

7. Staff members choosing to participate in the training must also commit to make the adjustment in curriculum or instruction as required by the Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan adopted for the following academic year.

8. Staff members who choose not to remain at that school will be prepared to participate in the site-based hiring process. The positions that they have chosen to vacate will be filled through this hiring process as well.

9. A staff member who chooses not to remain at the school requiring special assistance is eligible to apply for open positions elsewhere in the SPS. Staff members will qualify for the displaced pool under the terms described in Section B above.

SECTION H: PROGRAM MOVEMENT OR CLOSURE

1. Instructional staff associated with a program that moves from one work site to another are assumed to move with the program. A teacher who prefers to stay at the original site may do so, if there is a vacancy for which he/she is qualified/certified and if he/she commits to the training or changes in curriculum as the Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan requires for the next year. A teacher who chooses not to move with the program or to accept a position at the original site (or for whom no vacancy is available) will be displaced and must apply and compete for other positions in the SPS.

2. If a program is terminated and then reinstated within two (2) school years, teachers who were in that program shall have first priority for the re-openings. The teacher will successfully complete the training as required in the school’s Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan and will revise curriculum and instructional methods to reflect the new direction of the program.

3. Prior to terminating a program or the closure of a school, any displaced teacher may choose from the following options: to remain at the original site if there is a vacancy for which he/she is qualified/certified and if he/she commits to the training or changes in curriculum as required in the Academic Achievement or Transformation Plan for the next year or shall select or be placed in a vacancy during Phase II, after those needing 504 accommodation have been placed.

SECTION I: EMPLOYEES COVERED UNDER SECTION 504 OF THE REHABILITATION ACT OF 1973

The SPS shall comply with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 when placing or transferring employees. In addition to the selection rights of all employees during the year and in Phase I, displaced employees covered under Section 504 who require transfers or adjustments of their assignments will select an assignment for which they qualify during Phase II of the Two-Phase Staffing Process after they have met with the building principal.

SECTION J: AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

1. The Seattle School Board selects employees as needed on the basis of merit, training and experience so that there shall be no discrimination against any employee or applicant because of race, creed, religion, color, national origin, gender, age, marital status, sexual orientation or disability except as may be permitted to meet a bona fide occupational qualification and the SPS shall comply with State or national laws as may pertain thereto.

2. The SPS has as its goal an Affirmative Action program of recruiting, hiring and assigning staffs in every department, every school and at every level of operation with proportions of racial minority to total employees corresponding to the SPS Affirmative Action program.

3. In implementing the Affirmative Action program, the SPS shall recruit, employ and assign personnel in conformity with State and federal laws, rules, regulations and directives.

4. The SPS's Affirmative Action goals shall not serve as ceilings or quotas for representation of racial groups among SPS employees.