3146. 	CONDUCT OF REDUCTION IN FORCE 

A.	Seniority Lists

In order to determine the teaching staff member(s) affected by a reduction in force, a seniority list will be prepared for each seniority category. The Executive Administrative Assistant to the Superintendent will

1.	Determine the category or categories of employment in which each teaching staff member has served by reference to positions held and qualifying certification.

2.	Determine whether the member has earned tenure in the district and in the position in which the category falls, in accordance with N.J.S.A. 18A:28-6. Tenure is earned in the positions of Assistant Superintendent, School Business Administrator, Principal, Assistant Principal, Vice Principal, supervisor, educational services personnel, school nurse, and teacher.

3.	Calculate length of service in each category within a tenure position in which the employee has earned tenure.

a.	Length of service may be expressed in calendar months and days or in calendar years and portions of years, to two decimal places.

b.	Length of service commences from the day on which the employee began service in the category and ends with the end of the current school year or, in the case of previously riffed employees, the day on which the employee’s district service was terminated.

4.	Deduct from time of service in the category any periods of unpaid absence taken for any purpose other than study or research, except that the first thirty days, consecutive and aggregate, of such unpaid absence taken within any one school year will not be deducted.

5.	Add periods of prior active military service, to a maximum of four years, to the member’s length of service in the first category of district employment. Each full year of military service equals one year of seniority; a fraction of a year, ten months or longer, equals one year of seniority for a ten month employee.

6.	Enter the total amount of service for the member’s initial category of employment.

7.	If the member has been transferred to a second category or successive categories, calculate the service time of each category in accordance with A1 through A4 and enter separately.

a.	Service in succeeding categories is included in the member’s seniority in each earlier category.

b.	Each seniority list must clearly indicate the category or categories in which the member has earned seniority and the total accrued time in each.

B.	RIF Procedures

1.	Determine the category or categories of employment to be reduced in number in a reduction in force.

2.	Transfer or dismiss nontenured teaching staff members in the reduced category, in accordance with Policy No. 3146.

3.	If no nontenured member remains in the category, the least senior tenured member shall be transferred to a previous seniority category in the same tenure position over a nontenured member or a less senior member in that category.

4.	If there are no positions within his/her seniority categories in the same tenure position to which the member may be transferred, the member shall be transferred to a position outside his/her seniority categories but within the same tenure position, provided the member is appropriately certified for the position and the position is held by a nontenured employee.

5.	If there are no positions to which he/she can be transferred by right of seniority or tenure in the same tenure position, the member shall revert in reverse chronological order to each seniority category and tenure position in which he/she was previously employed in the district, in accordance with the procedure set forth in B3 through B4 above.

6.	When there are no positions which the tenured member affected by a reduction in staff can claim over other tenured employees by superior seniority or over nontenured employees by tenure, he/she shall be dismissed, shall receive sixty days notice of such dismissal or pay in lieu thereof, and shall be placed on a preferred eligible list for each category in which he/she was employed by the district.

Date Issued:	10/19/09
Date Revised: