Opinion ID: 1365689
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Has any statute consistently with section 13337.5 provided for a change from plaintiffs' temporary status?

Text: (3) The fourth paragraph of section 13337.5 imposes two restrictions on giving other than temporary status to persons employed to teach community college classes only 60 percent of full time: the teacher (1) shall be classified as a temporary employee, and (2) shall not become a probationary employee under the provisions of Section 13446. The second restriction would be superfluous if the first were not construed to apply only to initial classification and not to preclude an otherwise authorized subsequent change from temporary status. That interpretation of the first restriction accords with the policy of strictly construing the temporary classification ( Balen, supra, 11 Cal.3d at p. 826), and we adopt it here. The second restriction prohibits the teacher's becoming a probationary employee under section 13446, which states that a temporary employee who is not dismissed during the first three school months ... of the school term for which he was employed... shall be deemed to have been classified as a probationary employee from the time his services as a temporary employee commenced. That specification of section 13446 implies noninterference with reclassification under any other statute. [3] Yet we find no such statute. None of the sections pointed to by plaintiffs  13334, 13336, 13337, and 13337.3  supports plaintiffs' reclassification as other than temporary within the limitations of the fourth paragraph of section 13337.5. (4) Section 13334, which antedates section 13337.5, provides that districts shall classify as probationary employees, those persons employed in positions requiring certification qualifications for the school year, who have not been classified as permanent employees or as substitute employees. Those words deal not with reclassification but with initial classification. Thus their application to plaintiffs is precluded by section 13337.5's command that they shall be classified as ... temporary.... Before 1971, section 13336 simply required that teachers be classified as substitute employees when employed to fill positions of regularly employed persons absent from service. Plaintiffs do not claim substitute status; and in any event section 13336's application to plaintiffs is precluded by section 13337.5's restriction on initial classification. A 1971 amendment to section 13336 added the following: Any person employed for one complete school year as a temporary employee shall, if reemployed for the following school year in a position requiring certification qualifications, be classified by the governing board as a probationary employee and the previous year's employment as a temporary employee shall be deemed one year's employment as a probationary employee for purposes of acquiring permanent status. Application of those words would not be prohibited by either restriction of section 13337.5's fourth paragraph because they provide not for initial classification but for reclassification under a provision other than section 13346. They apply, however, only to persons employed for one complete school year as a temporary employee. (Italics added.) Other sections define a complete school year of probationary employment as service for 75 percent of the days in the school year (§ 13328) [4] or 75 percent of the number of hours considered a full-time assignment (§ 13328.5). [5] Those 75 percent requirements must have been intended to apply to the year of temporary employment qualifying (under § 13336) as the equivalent of one year's employment as a probationary employee for purposes of acquiring permanent status. Plaintiffs do not claim to have met the 75 percent requirements; nor is it apparent how they could be met by anyone employed to teach for not more than 60 percent of the hours per week considered a full-time assignment (§ 13337.5). [6] Section 13337's first paragraph provides: Governing boards of school districts shall classify as temporary employees those persons requiring certification qualifications, other than substitute employees, who are employed to serve from day to day during the first three school months of any school term to teach temporary classes not to exist after the first three school months of any school term or to perform any other duties which do not last longer than the first three school months of any school term, or to teach in special day and evening classes for adults or in schools of migratory population for not more than four school months of any school term. If the classes or duties continue beyond the first three school months of any school term or four school months for special day and evening classes for adults, or schools for migratory population, the certificated employee, unless a permanent employee, shall be classified as a probationary employee. The school year may be divided into not more than two school terms for the purpose of this section. (Italics added.) (5) Plaintiffs fail to qualify for reclassification under that section because there is no showing that the existence of their duties or the classes they were hired to teach was limited to the first three months of the term, or that they were employed to teach special classes for adults or in migratory schools for not more than four months in a term. (6) Section 13337.3, enacted in 1971, (1) authorizes employment of temporary teachers under conditions that also are stated in the first paragraph of section 13337.5 and were not met by plaintiffs, and (2) provides in the language of section 13336 that a temporary employee for one complete school year, if reemployed for the following year, shall be classified as probationary and the year of temporary employment shall be deemed probationary. [7] As already seen, reclassification under this provision, as under section 13336, required temporary employment for 75 percent of the days or full time teaching hours of a complete school year (§§ 13328, 13328.5) and so was not available to plaintiffs.