Except in cases of emergency, all applications for leave of absence must be on file in the Human Resource Services Department.

The Executive Director of Human Capital must receive requests for sabbatical leave in writing.

The Executive Director of Human Capital must receive requests for 50/50 job shares in writing.

The Executive Director of Human Capital must receive letters of resignation for the purpose of retirement under ASRS in order to receive general leave buyback after June 30.

Deadline for Site administrators to name and justify a limited number of special programs and their accompanying teacher(s) to be exempt from the transfer process in compliance with the TEA, Section X. D., Exempted Programs. This must be done in writing each year to the appropriate District Administrator/Supervisor with a copy to the Association and will include the rationale for the request along with qualifications and requirements for those teachers holding positions in the program.

District seniority lists by category are forwarded by Human Capital to each Principal, to the District Administrators who supervise certificated employees, and to the Director of Special Education for posting. Seniority lists will be posted prior to staffing.

Staffing allocations are forwarded from the Executive Director for Human Capital to principals for posting. General staffing shall be posted after seniority lists.

Requests for Horizontal Movement for the following school year must be received in Human Capital by 4:15 p.m. Certificated staff may want to hand deliver or fax those requests to Human Capital after February 23 to ensure that that they are received by the deadline.

Principals post number of staffed positions by grade level/content area.

Staff Adjustment Period - Based upon tentative staffing allocations, principals identify the number of needed sections in each content area, discipline, or grade level. District wide programs in Special Education and English Immersion Studies will follow the same practice and will operate as a district wide school with the Director of Special Education and the Director of Language Acquisition respectively acting as principal.

The full amount of staffing must be designated within each site. Principals will post the number of sections projected for the next year’s schedule, and the staff assigned to the sections. These assignments will be made by seniority within each category. Teachers are not to be identified as unassigned from their existing assignment, unless that assignment or any portion thereof is surplus, during the staff adjustment period. Teachers may apply for any vacancy within their site for which they are certified and have the necessary credit hours in the content area.

Special Education and English Immersion Studies will hold a second staff adjustment period for two weeks in May. (May 7-21)

Any teacher may voluntarily declare him/herself unassigned during site adjustment. This declaration must be in writing to both the site administrator and Human Capital. The teacher must understand that by voluntarily declaring himself/herself unassigned from the site, he/she is relinquishing all rights to his/her former position but is still guaranteed placement in the district. A person on an improvement plan or remediation plan must have approval of the Superintendent or designee to declare himself/herself unassigned from a site.

Principals working with the Executive Director of Human Capital will inform all teachers at their site of their tentative assignment for next year.

Principals send to Human Capital their tentative assignment sheet for next year, transfer forms for transfers completed during the staff adjustment period, an accurate listing of vacancies, and names of teachers who are identified as unassigned at their site. Principals will also send to Human Capital documentation for transfers completed during this period.

Vacant positions will be posted internally and externally. As new vacancies occur, they will be posted in the Department of Human Capital, in the designated location(s) in each of the schools, and on the district Web site (www.susd.org). Vacancy lists will also be distributed to all teachers who are on the unassigned list. Principals may interview both external and internal candidates. All positions for which an unassigned teacher is qualified will be closed to external hire.

Prior to the posting of vacancies, principals, under the auspices of the appropriate Executive Director, with Association observers, may meet with Human Capital staff to group partial vacancies for schedule and travel time considerations. Every effort will be made to appropriately match partial positions to create jobs considering calendars, geographical locations, subject, grade level and percentage of assignment.

First Unassigned Teacher Placement - Following site adjustment, Human Capital will forward to each site administrator a listing of all unassigned teachers along with a copy of their preference sheets. Principals may contact and select teachers from the unassigned listing for placement in vacancies at their site. This placement will occur with the agreement of the Principal and the unassigned teacher. No interviews will be necessary. Principals must file a transfer sheet for each unassigned teacher placed during this period.

When any unassigned teacher is certified for only one position remaining on the vacancy list, that position will be removed from the vacancy list until it is offered to that teacher.

Voluntary Transfer - To the extent possible, prior to the beginning of the voluntary transfer period, the Superintendent will make all principal appointments for the following year. Human Capital will immediately prepare and have posted in one or more locations in each school, a list of all the principals and their assigned schools for the forthcoming school year.

All teachers, except those who have been notified of the District’s intent not to reemploy them, who are interested in transferring to a vacant position in any category as posted, must contact the principal or their Executive Director as appropriate, for an interview during the voluntary transfer period.

Principals, District Administrators who supervise certificated employees or the Director of Special Education have the options of either interviewing for open positions and must then interview all internal applicants or choosing from the unassigned listing without interviewing any applicants.  If one internal applicant is interviewed then all internal applicants must be interviewed.  Principals will identify the selected teacher no sooner than three (3) working days following the first day of posting.

The Principals, District Administrators who supervise certificated employees or the Director of Special Education as appropriate, will, by the end of the next working day after filling a position, make telephone contact with the selected teacher, make telephone contact with the other applicants (if interviews occurred) to inform them of the decision, and submit a completed transfer form to the Department of Human Capital.

Transfers across categories will be permitted only if they do not result in further unassigned teachers. Transfers across category must be approved by the Transfer Committee Co-chairs.

All part-time teachers will be allowed into the voluntary transfer process as long as they do not displace an unassigned teacher’s position.  Previously continuing tenured teachers who voluntarily reduced their contract and wish to go back to full time, will be given a choice by seniority of jobs available for which they are certified after the remaining unassigned teachers are placed during the second unassigned teacher placement period if they have not successfully garnered a full time job during the voluntary transfer period.

Second Unassigned Teacher Placement - Following the close of the voluntary transfer period, those unassigned teachers who have not been placed in positions, will be assigned to the remaining vacant positions. The site administrators with vacancies remaining, the appropriate Executive Directors, the Executive Director of Human Capital and an Association representative will meet to match unassigned teachers with remaining vacancies taking into consideration the teacher preferences as indicated on the Assignment Preference Sheet filed with Human Capital after site adjustment.  (Meeting to be held in Board Room at the Education Center, April 23, 2008, 8:30 - 11:30 a.m.)

If more than one job matches a teacher’s preference sheet, then the teacher will be consulted prior to placement.

Once all unassigned teachers have been matched with vacancies, the site administrator will call those teachers selected for their site as soon as possible to welcome them.

Every teacher for whom there is a vacancy needs to accept an assignment. If a teacher does not accept an assignment, the District has no further legal obligation to provide him/her with a teaching position.

If the teacher declines the position, that position will then be returned to the vacancy list and the regular unassigned teacher placement process.