Name that Section - Frequently Used Education Code and Title 5 Sections for Community College Districts

performance of their duties. Such procedures and standards shall be uniform for all contract employees of the district with similar general duties and responsibilities and shall be uniform for all regular employees of the district with similar general duties and responsibilities.

Contract employees must be evaluated at least once each academic year. Regular (permanent) employees must be evaluated at least once in every three academic years.

Required evaluations of community college district faculty members must be conducted in accordance with the standards and procedures established by the governing board’s rules and regulations. 26 Moreover, evaluations must include, but are not be limited to, a peer review process, which reflects the diversity of California and is sensitive to equal opportunity concerns. 27 The Education Code also states that it is the intent of the Legislature that faculty evaluations include a student-evaluation component, to the extent practicable. 28 Minimally, district evaluation procedures must afford faculty members the right to be evaluated under clear, fair, and equitable procedures that are locally defined through the collective bargaining process where the faculty has chosen to elect an exclusive representative. Those procedures shall ensure good-faith treatment of the probationary faculty member, but may not afford de facto tenure rights. 29 D. S ENIORITY VS . T ENURE It is important to understand the distinction between tenure and seniority; the two are separate concepts. Tenure describes an employee’s right to employment in the district. Seniority, in contrast, describes the right of an employee to employment compared to his/her/their colleagues. Community colleges are generally expected to staff their academic positions with contract and regular employees. Tenure is the rule and temporary employment the exception. Nevertheless, various scenarios create a need for temporary employment such as district acquisition of categorical program funds, temporary vacancies caused by an employee leave, and fluctuations in student enrollment. In these instances, districts are permitted to hire part-time, temporary faculty (known variously as “adjunct,” “hourly,” “temporary,” or “part-time”). While such employment is permitted, the Education Code squarely places the burden on districts to demonstrate legally and factually that an employee is temporary. Further, to ensure that districts do not overstaff their campuses with temporary faculty, the Education Code establishes several restrictions on temporary employment. First, the Education Code places a limit on the number of part-time faculty members that a district may hire. Second, the Education Code defines the types of service that may properly be provided by a temporary Section 2 T EMPORARY A CADEMIC E MPLOYEES

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