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By Kimberly Beltran
Monday, September 16, 2013
As the mid-point in the legislation session ended last week, advocates for school districts turned their attention to lobbying the governor to either support or veto pressing issues.
Toward that end, the Association of California School Administrators has called on members to reject AB 375, legislation designed to streamline thesuspension and dismissal hearing process for teachers and save schools time and money.
Authored by Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, AB 375 would maintain the ability of school districts to immediately remove the teacher from the classroom as a result of allegations of child or sexual abuse. It would also provide the ability to issue a notice of dismissal at any time during the calendar year.
The bill is one of scores delivered out of the Legislature before action was gaveled down in the early hours of Friday. Brown has until mid-October to act.
AB 375 places limits on the amount of time the appeals process can last, and restricts the introduction of new evidence after a certain point in the proceedings.
While it has the support of teacher unions, the bill is opposed by various organizations representing schools, including ACSA, which represents more than 14,500 superintendents, principals and school leaders, and the California Association of School Business Officials.
“The problems created for school districts far outweigh any modest improvements contained in the bill,” ACSA