Opinion ID: 1365689
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Preliminary Explanation

Text: The district employs between 1200 and 1300 instructors at its five campuses. There are three classes of instructors: regular (`permanent' or `tenured'), contract (`probationary') and temporary. [Fn. omitted.] Some regular and contract teachers are employed part time, and these are paid a salary prorated to the salary of a full-time teacher. Temporary teachers are paid a flat hourly rate which is less than the rate which the salaried employee receives; they do not receive certain fringe benefits which are accorded those of the two higher classes; they may be dismissed without notice or hearing. Plaintiffs all work less than 60 percent of full time. They receive a written letter of notification from the district regarding their employment for the coming academic year. The letter states the instructor's potential assignment and specifies that his position is a temporary one. They are hired from quarter to quarter or from semester to semester, as the case may be. They are uniformly dismissed at the end of each year. Because different questions of law are applicable to teachers hired at different times, it is necessary to divide the twelve individual plaintiffs into two categories and to consider each category separately. (This is not a class action.)