FILE:  GBA

Cf:  GBD

COMPENSATION GUIDES AND CONTRACTS

The Beauregard Parish School Board and its professional employees, with approval by the School Board, shall enter into contracts of employment for a specified period of time and compensation each year, with exceptions as determined by the School Board.  All employees shall meet all stated position qualifications and/or certification requirements before any contract shall become valid.  Non-tenured administrators and supervisory personnel shall be hired under the terms of a performance contract for a term of not less than two (2) nor more than four (4) years, which shall be agreed to by both the employee and the School Board.  Renewal or issuance, when possible, of contracts of employment, as well as dismissal or nonrenewal of contract notices, shall be issued on or before the last day of each school year, whenever possible.

The amount of compensation paid may include any authorized salary supplements and may be changed for any succeeding year in accordance with the School Board's salary schedule.  The amount of the annual salary paid to any teacher in any school year shall not be reduced below the amount of such salary paid during the previous school year, nor shall the amount of the annual salary paid to any teacher be reduced at any time during an academic year.  The limitations on the reduction in the amount of the annual salary paid to any teacher shall not be applicable to the correction of any accounting errors or to a reduction necessitated by the elimination of a state program or state funding.   Any salary reduction shall not apply to any local salary supplement funded, in whole or in part, from a revenue source requiring voter approval when such voter approval has not been obtained.

No teacher shall be placed on the payroll of the school district unless the teacher holds a valid certificate as required by law, and a copy of the teacher's contract has been filed with the Superintendent.  Exceptions shall be made only when teachers with valid certification are not available for employment, subject to School Board approval. 

The salaries of all personnel shall be established by the School Board upon the recommendation of the Superintendent.  The salaries of all personnel are generally based upon an established salary schedule; provided however, that salaries may be stated in and controlled by an employment contract.  Creditable service for salary determination purposes shall be all service for which employees are eligible to receive credit in their respective retirement systems.  The schedule shall be adopted by the School Board, upon the recommendation of the Superintendent, and may be changed as the discretion of the School Board from year to year to make salary adjustments as a result of the changing revenue and state laws.  

The School Board, at its discretion, may allow salary supplements to certain instructional personnel who assume special duties. Such supplements shall be reviewed and adopted upon the recommendation of the Superintendent.

The execution of an employee contract by the School Board and employee shall be legally binding upon both parties.  The failure of a teacher to sign a contract for the ensuing school session within the specified time will be considered as voluntary termination of employment on the part of the teacher, unless, under extenuating circumstances, an extension is granted by the Superintendent.  Any subsequent resignation or termination of said contract for reasons other than extreme emergencies, as defined by the School Board, shall constitute a breach of contract against which legal action may be taken by the School Board and the employee dealt with accordingly.

Any teacher holding a valid Louisiana teaching certificate in the public school system of Louisiana who has transferred to Louisiana from a public school system of another state and who, at the time of such transfer, held a valid teacher's certificate from that state, shall be given full credit under the state minimum salary schedule for the years of satisfactory teaching service previously rendered in the public school system of that state.  Credit for previous teaching experience shall also be granted to anyone employed by the School Board who holds a valid Louisiana teaching certificate and is employed or has been employed by another public school system in the state.

When a teacher is awarded an advanced degree or receives additional training that would result in an increase in salary, said teacher shall be paid according to the salary schedule for the advanced degree or training beginning with the next payroll period following notification of receipt of the advanced degree, or of training.  It shall be the responsibility of the employee to assure proper notification is given to the Superintendent or designee.

SCHOOL EMPLOYEES

School employees are generally hired on an at-will employment basis unless employment is specifically covered by a written employment contract expressly entered into by the individual employee and the School Board.

With limited exception, the School Board shall be prohibited from reducing the hourly wage or annual salary paid to any school employee for any school year below the amount paid the school employee for the previous school year.  The School Board shall be further prohibited from reducing the hourly wage or annual salary of a school employee at any time during the academic year.  For the purposes of this subsection, ”school employee” shall mean any employee of the School Board that is not required to hold a teacher's certificate as a condition of employment including but not limited to, bus operator, food service worker, teacher aide, custodian and maintenance personnel.

EXCESS SALES TAX DISTRIBUTION

Excess sales tax shall be dispersed at a ratio of 3:2, (3) for all employees who are paid from the Beauregard Teacher Salary Schedule and (2) for all employees who are paid from the Beauregard Support Salary Schedule; these funds shall be paid twice yearly, based upon accruals as of November 30th and May 31st of each year.  The fund must have a remaining balance of $300,000.

Revised:  December, 1992

Revised:  November, 1993

Revised:  February, 1995

Ref:    29 USC 201 et seq. (Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended)

La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§11:710, 17:81, 17:83, 17:84, 17:84.1, 17:411, 17:413, 17:414, 17:419.2, 17:421.4, 17:422.6, 17:424.1, 17:424.2, 17:424.3, 17:442, 17:444, 17:491, 17:492, 17:496, 17:496.1, 17:497, 17:497.1, 17:498, 17:1203, 17:3881, 17:3882, 17:3883, 17:3884, 17:3901, 17:3902, 17:3903, 17:3904

Harrah Independent School District v. Martin, 99 S.Ct. 1062 (1979)

Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority et al., 469 U.S. 528 (1985)

Wright v. Caldwell Parish School Board, 30.448 (La. App. 2 Cir. 6/16/99)

Board minutes, 1-12-95

Beauregard Parish School Board