NY Educ L § 211-E (2021)
2021 New York Laws EDN - Education Title 1 - General Provisions Article 5 - University of the State of New York Part 1 - General Organization 211-E - Educational Partnership Organizations.

§  211-e.  Educational  partnership  organizations.  1.  The  board of education of a school district, and the chancellor of  the  city  school district  of  the  city  of  New  York,  subject  to the approval of the commissioner, shall be authorized to contract, for a term of up to  five years,  with  an  educational  partnership organization pursuant to this section to intervene in a school designated by  the  commissioner  as  a persistently    lowest-achieving   school,   consistent   with   federal requirements, or a school under registration review.   2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or  regulation  to the  contrary,  and  except  as otherwise provided in this section, such contract  shall   contain   provisions   authorizing   the   educational partnership  organization  to  assume  the  powers  and  duties  of  the superintendent of schools for purposes of implementing  the  educational program   of   the   school,   including  but  not  limited  to,  making recommendations to  the  board  of  education  on  budgetary  decisions, staffing  population  decisions, student discipline decisions, decisions on curriculum and determining the daily schedule  and  school  calendar, all  of  which  recommendations  shall  be  consistent  with  applicable collective bargaining agreements. Such contract shall  include  district performance  expectations  and/or  benchmarks  for school operations and academic outcomes, and failure to meet such expectations  or  benchmarks may  be  grounds for termination of the contract prior to the expiration of its term. Such contract  shall  also  address  the  manner  in  which students  will  be  assigned to the school, the process for employees to transfer into the school, the services that the district will provide to the school, and the manner in which  the  school  shall  apply  for  and receive allocational and competitive grants.   3.  The  board  of education shall retain the ultimate decision-making authority  over  the  hiring,  evaluating,  termination,   disciplining, granting  of  tenure,  assignment  of employees serving in the school as well as with respect to staff development for those employees,  together with  authority concerning all other terms and conditions of employment, all of which decisions  shall  be  made  in  a  manner  consistent  with applicable  collective  bargaining  agreements. However, notwithstanding any law, rule or regulation to the contrary, upon the effective date  of the   contract,   the  educational  partnership  organization  shall  be authorized to exercise all powers of a superintendent  of  schools  with respect  to  such  employment  decisions,  including  but not limited to making recommendations, as applicable, to  the  board  of  education  in connection  with  and  prior  to the board of education making decisions regarding staff assignments, the hiring, the  granting  of  tenure,  the evaluating,  the  disciplining  and termination of employees, as well as concerning staff development. The employees assigned to the school shall solely be in the employ of the school district and  shall  retain  their tenure  rights  and  all  other  employment rights conferred by law, and service in the school shall constitute service to  the  school  district for  all  purposes,  including  but not limited to, the requirements for criminal history record checks and participation  in  public  retirement systems. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, for purposes  of article fourteen of the civil service law, employees in the school shall be public employees of the school district  as  defined  in subdivision  seven  of  section two hundred one of the civil service law and shall  not  be  deemed  employees  of  the  educational  partnership organization  by  reason  of  the  powers  granted  to  the  educational partnership organization by this section. All such  employees  shall  be members  of  the  applicable  negotiating unit containing like titles or positions for the  public  school  district  in  which  such  school  is located,  and  shall  be  covered by the collective bargaining agreement  covering that public school district's negotiating unit, except that the duly recognized or certified collective  bargaining  representative  for that  negotiating  unit  may  modify  or  supplement,  in  writing,  the collective  bargaining  agreement  in consultation with the employees of the negotiating unit working in the school. All such  modifications  of, or  supplements  to  the  collective bargaining agreement are subject to ratification by the employees employed within  the  school  and  by  the board  of  education  of  the  public  school  district, consistent with article fourteen of the civil service law. Upon the  effective  date  of the   school   district's  contract  with  the  educational  partnership organization,  the  educational  partnership   organization   shall   be empowered to make recommendations to the board of education with respect to  the  scope of, and process for making modifications and additions to the collective bargaining agreement.   4. Where a recommendation  is  made  by  the  educational  partnership organization  to  the  board of education pursuant to subdivision two or three of this section, and such recommendation is denied, the  board  of education shall state its reasons for the denial, which shall include an explanation  of  how  such  denial  will  promote improvement of student achievement in the school and how such action  is  consistent  with  all accountability plans approved by the commissioner for the school and the school  district.  Nothing  in  this  subdivision  shall be construed to prevent a board of  education  from  denying  a  recommendation  of  the educational partnership organization based upon the board of education's determination  that  carrying  out such recommendation would result in a violation of law or violation of the terms of an  applicable  collective bargaining agreement. If the board of education rejects a recommendation of  the educational partnership organization to terminate a probationary employee assigned to the  school  or  to  deny  tenure  to  an  employee assigned  to  the school, it shall be the duty of the board of education to transfer such employee to another position  in  the  school  district within  such employee's tenure area for which the employee is qualified, or to create such a position.   5. For purposes of this section the following  terms  shall  have  the following meanings:  (i)   "educational   partnership   organization"   means  a  board  of cooperative educational services, a public  or  independent,  non-profit institution  of  higher education, a cultural institution, or a private, non-profit organization with a proven record of success  in  intervening in  low-performing  schools, as determined by the commissioner, provided that such term shall not include a charter school;  (ii) "board of education" means the trustees or board of education  of a  school  district, or, in the case of a city school district of a city having a population of one million or more, the chancellor of such  city district;  (iii)  "school  district" means a common, union free, central, central high school or city school district, other than  a  special  act  school district as defined in section four thousand one of this chapter.  (iv)  "superintendent  of schools" means the superintendent of schools of a school district, and, in the case of a city school  district  of  a city   having   a  population  of  one  million  or  more,  a  community superintendent and the chancellor of such city district when  acting  in the role of a superintendent of schools.