FILE:  GCN

Cf:  GBK, GBN, GBRA

DISMISSAL OF SUPPORT PERSONNEL

With the exception of lay-offs caused by programmatic changes, budget cuts, staff reorganizations, and/or other personnel actions reducing numbers of employees, no Beauregard Parish School Board employee shall be dismissed except as provided below.  Any school employee shall be dismissed by the Superintendent or the School Board, in accordance with statutory provisions, upon final conviction or pleading nolo contendere of certain crimes enumerated in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §15:587.1 and/or any other felony offense.  In addition, employees may be dismissed for failure to properly report arrests for certain offenses enumerated in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §17:16.

The Superintendent shall notify the State Superintendent of Education of any employee’s dismissal for the criminal offenses above no later than thirty (30) days after such dismissal.

NON-TENURED BUS OPERATORS

No bus operator hired after July 1, 2012 shall earn tenure.

Each school bus operator shall serve a probationary term of three (3) years reckoned from the date of his/her first employment with the School Board.  During such probationary term, any bus operator may be dismissed by the School Board upon the written recommendation of the Superintendent.  Any bus operator employed on or after July 1, 2012, who has successfully completed his/her probationary term, may be dismissed by the Superintendent after providing such bus operator with written reasons therefor and providing the bus operator with the opportunity to respond.  The bus operator shall have ten (10) calendar days from written notice of the charges to respond in person or in writing, and such response shall be included in the bus operator’s personnel file.  Regardless of the date of his/her employment, a non-tenured bus operator shall not be entitled to a hearing before the School Board prior to termination.

A non-tenured bus operator shall be immediately dismissed if he/she is convicted of or has pled nolo contendere to violations of local or existing state law prohibiting operating a vehicle while intoxicated regardless of whether the violation occurred while performing in his/her official capacity as a school bus operator at the time of the offense.

TENURED BUS OPERATORS

A tenured bus operator may be dismissed for willful neglect of duty, or incompetence, or immorality, or drunkenness while on duty, or failure to comply with requirements of La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §17:491.3 relative to being arrested for one or more of the specified offenses, or physical disability to perform his/her duties, or failure to keep his/her transfer equipment in a safe, comfortable, and practical operating condition, or of being a member of or contributing to any group, organization, movement, or corporation that is prohibited by law or injunction from operating in the state.

Additional grounds for the removal from office of any school bus operator shall be:

1. the abolition, discontinuance, or consolidation of routes, but then only if it is found as a fact, based upon a determination by the Superintendent that it is in the best interests of the school system to abolish, discontinue, or consolidate said route or routes.  If abolition, discontinuance, or consolidation of bus routes is approved, the principle of seniority shall apply, so that the last school bus operator hired to serve within the school system to be affected shall be the first to be removed.
   
   

2. conviction of or plea of nolo contendere to a violation of a parish or municipal ordinance that prohibits operating a vehicle while intoxicated or any of the existing state offenses relative to operating a vehicle while intoxicated, as enumerated in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §17:493, regardless of whether the violation occurred while performing in his/her official capacity as a school bus operator at the time of the offense.

A tenured bus operator shall not be removed from his/her position except upon written and signed charges against the bus operator, and the bus operator having been furnished with a copy of such written charges and given the opportunity to respond, in person or in writing, within ten (10) calendar days from written notice of the charges.

The Superintendent shall have ten (10) calendar days to review the school bus operator’s response and to provide written notice to the bus operator of the interim disciplinary action, which may include placing the bus operator on paid administrative leave.  If the bus operator has been arrested for a violation of any of the following:  La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§14:42 through 14:43.5, 14:80 through 14:81.5, any other sexual offense affecting minors, any of the crimes provided in La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §15:587.1, or any justified complaint of child abuse or neglect on file in the central registry pursuant to Children’s Code Article 615, the administrative leave shall be without pay.  Paid administrative leave shall not exceed fifty (50) days from notice of the Superintendent’s interim decision.

Within twenty (20) calendar days after receipt of the Superintendent’s interim disciplinary action, if any, the bus operator may request a hearing before a disciplinary hearing officer, following the hearing procedures for tenured teachers found in policy GBK, Employee Discipline.  If the bus operator fails to timely request a hearing, the disciplinary action shall become final.

SCHOOL EMPLOYEES

All employees of the system whose dismissal is not governed by the provision of La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§17:441-446, or by the provisions of La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§17:491-494, shall be subject to dismissal upon the written recommendation by the Superintendent to the School Board.  Such employees shall not be entitled to a hearing before the School Board.

Ref:    La. Rev. Stat. Ann. §§13:3204, 15:587.1, 17:15, 17:16, 17:81.5, 17:491.3, 17:442, 17:444, 17:491, 17:492, 17:493

Board minutes 1-1-88, 11-18-10, 1-12-12, 7-16-12, 11-14-13, 9-8-22

Beauregard Parish School Board