SUMMARY:  This bill would amend Chapter 2 of Title 20 to enact a bill of rights for teachers.

REQUIREMENTS:

• Board members and administrators would have to respect independent thought and constructive criticism from teachers;
• Teachers would have the right to remove a disruptive student for a minimum of one day and administrators would be prohibited from questioning the teacher’s account in front of students;
• Teachers would have the right to file a grievance about an evaluation;
• Teachers would have the right to participate in an annual evaluation of each administrator at his or her school with complete confidentiality and anonymity, and the evaluations would be sent to the superintendent who would have to send copies of each evaluation to the LBOE members;
• TOTY’s would have to be selected solely by popular vote of the faculty;
• Teachers would have the right to have an advocate of his/her choosing in a disciplinary proceeding or conference after reasonable notice of the conference would be provided, and the teacher would have the right to record the proceeding;
• If LBOE hearings for a teacher are not held within the legal time frames, the teacher wins, and a specified procedure with time frames for the state superintendent and SBOE is outlined in detail;