Legal advice available online regarding summer certificated layoffs
Published: June 16, 2009
School district and county office of education board members who may have been considering another round of certificated layoff notices this summer due to the worsening state budget crisis need to act quickly, legal experts urge in a Webinar that can be viewed on CSBA’s Web site.
Melanie Petersen, president of the California Council of School Attorneys, and Diana Halpenny, attorney-of-counsel in the Sacramento firm of Kronick, Moskovitz, Tiedemann & Girard, explain in the Webinar how local educational agencies can invoke a rarely used provision of the state Education Code provision to authorize certificated layoffs by Aug. 15.
Boards should initiate the summer layoff process as soon as possible—no later than the end of June—to meet the Aug. 15 deadline, said Petersen, a partner in the San Diego area office of Fagen Friedman & Fulfrost. The process is similar to that for regular March 15 layoffs, although with abbreviated timelines. An LEA may set its own schedule for adopting a board resolution identifying services to be cut and numbers of employees affected, sending preliminary notices, holding hearings and issuing final notices.
Even basic aid districts, which are generally less reliant on state funding than revenue limit districts, are being affected this year, Petersen said, because of declines in the property tax revenues that are the mainstay of their funding. However, because the summer layoff provision refers specifically to revenue limits, it is unclear whether it would apply to basic aid districts, since the law has never been tested in court, she said. Basic aid districts are encouraged to consult with district legal counsel.
All LEAs considering summer layoffs should advise employees who are off work for the summer to stay in contact in case their LEA mails them a notice. There are strict laws regarding an employee's right to receive notice, and the summer break presents additional problems for LEAs.
There are misconceptions, Petersen said, that an LEA must have first sent March 15 layoff notices—or, conversely, must not have sent layoff notices then—in order to use the authority for summer layoffs. The processes are independent of one another, she noted.
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