West Warwick - Article 7 Transfers and Assignments

ARTICLE 7 - TRANSFERS AND ASSIGNMENTS

West Warwick School District

Section 1 - Vacancies, Postings and New Positions:

(a) All teaching vacancies and all new positions shall be posted for twenty (20) school calendar days before they are filled. In the event that any true vacancy or any permanent position occurs, or is anticipated to occur after the school year has begun, said true vacancy/new position shall be filled in accordance with R.I.G.L. Title 16-13-2. In the event that any true vacancy or permanent position is anticipated to occur during the summer recess, all members of the bargaining unit who are on record with the West Warwick School Department as being duly certified to hold said position shall be notified via the district’s e-mail system. In addition to e-mail notification, all active postings shall be maintained in a known, accessible location within the district’s information management system (ASPEN). The twenty (20) day posting shall commence with the date appearing on the notice of posting. Upon receipt of a written request from the Superintendent, the Alliance President may grant a written waiver of the twenty (20) day posting requirement in favor of a posting period of shorter duration.

(b) If a vacancy is created as a result of Section 1(a), then the Committee shall not be obligated to apply Section 1(a) to the created vacancy.

(c) Full-year long-term substitute (LTS) positions shall be posted; however, after consultation with the Alliance President, the Superintendent may elect to not post such positions due to reasonable district staffing difficulties.

Section 2 – Transfers:

(a) All voluntary transfer candidates must be appropriately certified to fill any new or vacant position for which they apply. Provided that the voluntary transfer candidate is appropriately certified and further provided that the request for transfer has not been denied by the Superintendent pursuant to Article 7-2(b), requests for voluntary transfer shall be honored in accordance with seniority.

(b) The Superintendent at his/her discretion may deny a voluntary transfer only under the following circumstances:

i. Where the voluntary transfer concerns a teacher who has not completed four (4) years of service in the West Warwick Public Schools or to any non-tenured teacher who has not completed his/her probationary service in the position to which he/she was regularly appointed.

ii. Where the voluntary transfer concerns a teacher requesting to temporarily transfer into a Long Term Substitute (LTS) position pursuant to Section 2(c) of this Article.

iii. Where the voluntary transfer concerns a teacher who, during his/her last complete formal teacher evaluation, received an evaluation rating of Ineffective. For the purposes of this Article, the evaluation rating shall only factor the three professional practice standards (Standards 1, 2 and 3) of the RIIC evaluation system and said rating shall be derived by averaging all of the rated element scores in each of those three standards.

iv. Members whose request for transfer is denied under this Section shall receive a written notification stating the specific reason for denial within ten (10) school days after a new or vacant position is filled.

(c) A regularly appointed teacher may apply to fill any posted long-term substitute position provided that said position is for one (1) full year and the teacher shall return to his/her original position upon the completion of that year.

(d) Teachers involuntarily transferred to a different school because of reduced pupil enrollment and/or as a consequence of the annual PK-12 grade levels reconfiguration or realignment shall have the right of recall to their original school and same job category in the reverse order to that which they were transferred out involuntarily pursuant to Section 3(d) of this Article provided a written request for such a recall is made within one (1) year from the effective date of the involuntary transfer.

(e) Where transfers are required because all or part of the student body is moving to a new or different school, the staff of the school being reduced shall have first priority in transferring to the new or different school.

(f) A teacher’s accrued seniority shall not be affected by transfers regardless of whether said transfers are voluntary or involuntary and regardless of any change(s) in building assignment.

(g) Teacher specialists who are assigned professional duties in two (2) or more non-adjacent schools shall be granted full consideration for transfer as provided in terms of seniority.

(h) The involuntary transfer recall process for special education teachers in grades K-8 related to position of record shall be implemented as follows:

i. The recall shall be in addition to all Article 7 recall rights and must be requested, in writing, within one year of the effective date of the involuntary transfer.

ii. Affected teachers shall be eligible for a right to recall to a previously held position of record within the same school.

iii. Affected teachers may only retain one position of record recall at a time.

iv. The recall shall remain active until such time that it is applied or waived by the teacher and cannot be maintained if there exists an opportunity for application.

Section 3 - Assignment:

(a) No teacher shall be required to teach subjects, grades or classes outside his/her area(s) of certification.

(b) A teacher shall be involuntarily transferred from his/her job category or grade level assignment only when scheduling for the following school year makes such a transfer necessary and then only when no senior teacher presently assigned to that building and in that same job category or grade level agrees to accept an involuntary transfer.

(c) Any elementary teacher involuntarily transferred shall be transferred to the nearest grade level in that building where he/she may displace the teacher with less seniority. Any teacher so displaced, shall be placed in the nearest grade level, to include Grades 5 and 6 at the Middle School, where he/she may displace another teacher with less seniority. In the instance of a Grade 5 or 6 core subject teacher being transferred involuntarily, he/she may be reassigned, pursuant to Subsection (d) immediately below, to an appropriate elementary grade level for which he/she holds valid elementary certification.

(d) If a teacher is involuntarily transferred from their building, they may select from remaining unfilled positions within the same area of certification in other buildings based on seniority. i. For the purposes of this Subsection, said vacancies and/or new positions shall only be those which the School Department anticipates to be available for the next school year by ten (10) school days before the June 1st time limit as set forth in Article 23, Section 2. ii. Such procedure of involuntary assignment (transfer), if so opted by said teacher, shall occur before such time that other teachers might opt by seniority to transfer voluntarily. iii. All vacancies and/or new positions relative to Subsection (d) above shall be communicated to the displaced teacher(s) in lieu of the twenty (20) day posting as set forth in Section 1 of this Article. Page 11 of 68

(e) Involuntary transfers made because of decreased pupil enrollment shall be based on seniority provided that all teachers who wish to voluntarily transfer have had an opportunity to do so. The teacher with the least seniority within the classification being reduced shall be the first transferred, and so on, provided that substitutes filling a vacancy in the same classification have first been removed.

(f) Teachers shall only be involuntarily transferred within the same area of certification unless the teacher agrees to accept a transfer into another certification area.

(g) In the event of the reduction or elimination of any position(s) resulting in the suspension/termination/layoff of the least senior teacher(s), said teacher(s) may invoke the terms and provisions of Article 22 and accordingly, if eligible, shall be recalled or reassigned to a vacancy and/or new position following such time that teachers who are assigned for the following school year have had an opportunity to exercise the privilege of opting for a voluntary transfer to vacant and/or new positions. However, such option for voluntary transfer shall yield and not be implemented if it might result that, by so doing, any laid off teacher would consequently be precluded from his/her priority right of recall to active employment.

Section 4 – Joint Staffing Committee:

(a) Any actions related to the involuntary transfer, assignment and recall processes that are not clearly defined herein, shall be reviewed by a joint labor management staffing committee.

(b) The staffing committee shall consist of two (2) committee members selected by the Superintendent and two (2) committee members selected by the Alliance President.

(d) The staffing committee shall not be authorized to make any recommendations in contravention of the Contract and may not subvert bargaining unit members’ seniority rights.