What If I Choose NOT To Resign? What Can I Do Now?

If an employee chooses not to resign from a school district, now you have a few choices available to you.  But timing is everything!  Some of the answers here apply to all districts in Texas and some are specific to Fort Bend ISD.

You can find out more information from the AFT here: What to do if you receive a Reduction In Force notice...

First, about your contract: The vast majority of Texas school districts offer term contracts. A term contract is for a time certain, usually 1 or 2 years.  If a teacher is proposed for termination during the contract term, the employee is entitled to the same sub-chapter F proceeding that the continuing contract teacher gets. (We refer to this type of hearing as a "sub-chapter F" hearing, referring to Chapter 21, sub-chapter F of the Texas Education Code).  If a term contract teacher is proposed for non-renewal at the end of the contract term, he or she is entitled to written notice from the board of the proposed non-renewal at least 45 days before the last day of instruction.  If the board does not timely provide this notice, the teacher is automatically renewed for the next school year. Upon receipt of the notice, the term contract teacher has 15 days to request a hearing before the school board concerning the non-renewal.

With that said, in some circumstances non-renewal hearings can be fruitful for teachers, with or without board impartiality. They can, on occasion, allow a teacher to expose illegalities perpetrated by the district, which may be reviewed on appeal.  The hearing can also be a very cathartic process for some teachers.  Win, lose or draw, they get their "day in court" before the school board and get to make the administration answer some tough questions. 

With that said, human resources notified teachers of non-renewal.  Now they must have an emergency meeting to approve the non-renewals that were handed out on April 1, 2011.  This meeting will be held on Monday, April 4, 2011.

Your rights as of now

1) If you have a local union, advocate or lawyer, call them immediately and get them involved.

2) If you signed the resignation form, you still have seven (7) days to revoke it.  That's right, you can change your mind.  This might cause a glitch in Fort Bend's timing of all this, since the board meets on the 4th but people are allowed to revoke their resignations until the 8th of April.

Addendum:  As of April 5, 2011, Fort Bend ISD human resources is trying to find a loop hole to tell teachers and employees that they CANNOT revoke their resignation, only their INCENTIVE bonus of 10% of base pay.  

3) You have to receive your non-renewal notice 45 CALENDAR days prior to the last INSTRUCTIONAL day of school.  In 2010 the district missed that day by one and was forced to offer jobs back to those who filed grievances.  This time they started two weeks early and must have learned their lesson.

4) Upon receipt of the notice, you now have 15 DAYS to request a hearing in writing before the school board concerning the non-renewal.  Make sure you do this quickly.  Don't be afraid of a hearing.  Have documents and people ready to support the fact that you are a good employee or specialist or teacher.  Talk to them about your age and current salary and years in teaching, if it is a factor.  Remember that at this point you have nothing to lose, you have already been put on a list to have your contract not renewed.

Rick Casey of the Houston Chronicle has this to say about teachers who have been laid off and are considering substituting.  He says, "don't do it."

I have one piece of advice for the tens of thousands of teachers and other school personnel here and across Texas who are about to enter the ranks of the unemployed.

Do not substitute teach!

Don't do it five days a week. Don't do it one day a week. Unless you are independently wealthy, have a spouse whose income supports you, or have some other means of support so you won't have to seek unemployment benefits...

* LEGAL DISCLAIMER