Oklahoma § 10-1419 - Administration - Personnel - Retirement system

§ 10-1419. Administration - Personnel - Retirement system

A. The Commission for Rehabilitation Services shall establish

and maintain such methods of administration, including methods

relating to the establishment and maintenance of personnel

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 10. Children

standards, as are necessary for the proper and efficient

administration of the Oklahoma School for the Blind and the Oklahoma

School for the Deaf, and programs thereat; shall maintain records

and reports, shall provide a uniform accounting system; and shall

incur such expenses and make such expenditures as it deems necessary

to maintain and operate such schools.

B. 1. Instructional Personnel. The Director of the State

Department of Rehabilitation Services shall employ or contract with

such qualified instructional personnel including, but not limited

to, teachers, and such other persons serving in an instructional

capacity, as the director deems necessary for the proper operation

of each school and shall fix their duties and compensation. The

superintendent, teachers and other employees shall be eligible for

membership or participation in the Teachers' Retirement System of

Oklahoma to the same extent and on the same basis as teachers and

other employees of other state educational institutions and public

schools. The Director shall not employ or contract with a person as

instructional personnel unless the superintendent of the school has

recommended that person. If there is a vacancy in the

superintendent position or if the superintendent is unable to make a

recommendation within thirty (30) days after a request for a

recommendation is made, the Director is authorized to employ or

contract with any person without a recommendation from the

superintendent.

2. Career Teacher. A career teacher is a member of the

instructional staff who has served in an instructional capacity for

three (3) or more consecutive years in either school, or who has

served in a public school district in such a way so as to meet the

definition of a career teacher as provided for in Section 6-101.3 of

Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes. Career teacher shall not include

a school nurse.

3. Probationary Teacher. A probationary teacher is a member of

the instructional staff who has served in an instructional capacity

for less than three (3) consecutive years in either school, or who

has served in a public school district in such a way so as to meet

the definition of a probationary teacher as provided for in Section

6-101.3 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes.

C. Administrative Personnel.

1. The Director of the State Department of Rehabilitation

Services shall employ or appoint the superintendent of each school

and shall fix their duties and compensation. The superintendents

shall be in the unclassified service.

2. The Director of the State Department of Rehabilitation

Services shall employ or contract with such other administrative

personnel as the Director deems necessary for the proper operation

of each school and shall fix their duties and compensation. The

administrative personnel may include, but is not limited to,

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 10. Children

assistant superintendents, principals, vice-principals and other

persons who devote a majority of their time to service in a

supervisory or administrative capacity.

D. An orientation and mobility specialist employed by the State

Department of Rehabilitation Services to serve at the Oklahoma

School for the Blind shall be accorded the same protection of laws

and all other benefits accorded instructional personnel, including

but not limited to, the minimum salary level for instructional

personnel.

E. 1. The Commission shall, pursuant to the Administrative

Procedures Act, adopt personnel policies for instructional and

administrative personnel, except for superintendents, that are

consistent with the law applicable to public school district

employees, including, but not limited to, leave, payment for unused

personal leave and employment policies, evaluation policy, grievance

procedures, professional development, and a minimum salary schedule.

The Commission shall initiate a rulemaking process for the personnel

policies for instructional and administrative personnel no later

than October 1, 2003. The minimum salary level for qualified

instructional personnel shall meet or exceed the minimum salary

level provided for public school teachers in Section 18-114.14 of

Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes or any additional minimum salary

schedule enacted by the Legislature and the Commission shall meet or

exceed any other legislatively mandated pay raises for teachers that

are not part of the minimum salary schedule. The Department shall

notify teachers and other personnel on or before the first Monday in

June of each year concerning the renewal of contracts consistent

with the requirements for public school teachers as provided for in

Section 6-101 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes. The policy for

professional development programs for instructional and

administrative personnel shall be consistent with the requirements

for professional development programs for public school teachers as

provided in Section 6-194 of Title 70 of the Oklahoma Statutes.

2. Final disciplinary action taken against a member of the

instructional or administrative staff, except superintendents,

including termination or the nonrenewal of a contract, shall be

subject to the administrative hearing procedures as set forth in

Article II of the Oklahoma Administrative Procedures Act. If the

final decision of the Director is to terminate or to not renew the

contract of a career teacher or administrator, the career teacher or

administrator, except superintendent, shall not have a right to

judicial review pursuant to Article II of the Oklahoma

Administrative Procedures Act, but shall have a right to a trial de

novo as provided for in Section 1419a of this title. Disciplinary

action against a probationary teacher shall be final unless

otherwise provided for by law.

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 10. Children

F. The State Department of Education shall insure that any

funds which have been received in Oklahoma by the State Department

of Education because of students who are enrolled and attending the

Oklahoma School for the Blind and the Oklahoma School for the Deaf

are transferred to the State Department of Rehabilitation Services

for use by these schools in proportion to the number of students

enrolled and attending who were the basis for the receipt of these

federal funds.

G. School personnel who have entered into contracts with the

schools on or before July 1, 1995, shall be entitled to longevity

pay as provided in Section 840-2.18 of Title 74 of the Oklahoma

Statutes.

Added by Laws 1965, c. 193, § 3, eff. July 1, 1965. Renumbered from

§ 322 of Title 56 by Laws 1982, c. 312, § 48, emerg. eff. May 28,

1982. Amended by Laws 1993, c. 364, § 8, emerg. eff. June 11, 1993;

Laws 1995, c. 269, § 1, eff. July 1, 1995; Laws 2001, c. 166, § 1,

eff. July 1, 2001; Laws 2003, c. 93, § 1, eff. July 1, 2003; Laws

2005, c. 379, § 1, eff. July 1, 2005; Laws 2014, c. 278, § 1, eff.

July 1, 2014; Laws 2019, c. 159, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2019.

§10-1419a. Dismissal or nonrenewal of contract of career teacher or

administrative personnel other than principal – Trial de novo.

A. A career teacher, as described in Section 1419 of Title 10

of the Oklahoma Statutes, or any administrative personnel other than

a superintendent who has been dismissed or whose contract has not

been renewed shall be entitled to a trial de novo in the district

court of the county in which the school is located.

B. In the event that a career teacher is dismissed or the

teacher’s contract is not renewed, the Director of the State

Department of Rehabilitation Services shall notify the teacher of

the right to trial de novo within ten (10) days of receipt of the

final order of the Director.

C. Within ten (10) days of receipt of the notification of the

right to a trial de novo, the career teacher may file a petition for

a trial de novo.

Upon filing the petition, the court clerk shall issue a summons

and cause service by mail to be made upon the State Department of

Rehabilitation Services by certified mail, restricted delivery with

return receipt requested, or substitute process as provided by law.

D. If, within the ten-day period, the career teacher fails to

file a petition for a trial de novo concerning the dismissal or

nonreemployment, the teacher shall be deemed to have waived the

right to trial de novo and the decision of the Director to dismiss

or not to renew the contract shall be final.

E. The Department shall serve its answer within twenty (20)

days of the service of summons and petition upon it. The trial de

novo shall be scheduled at the earliest possible date which will

Oklahoma Statutes - Title 10. Children

permit both parties adequate time to prepare for a just trial of the

issues involved; provided, however, said trial de novo shall be

scheduled and held not less than ten (10) days and no later than

thirty (30) days after the answer has been filed.

F. Except as otherwise provided specifically in this section,

the law generally applicable to civil suits filed in district court

shall apply to the proceedings for trial de novo under this section.

At the trial de novo the standard of proof shall be by the

preponderance of the evidence and the burden of proof shall be on

the State Department of Rehabilitation Services to establish de novo

that the career teacher’s dismissal or nonreemployment is warranted.

The trial de novo shall proceed as a nonjury trial before the court.

The court shall determine de novo all issues of fact and law

necessary for full adjudication of the dispute at the trial. The

court shall not, by applying principles of collateral estoppel or

res adjudicata or otherwise, give preclusive effect to findings of

fact of determinations of the Director with regard to the issue

necessary to determine the adequacy of the dismissal or

nonreemployment of the career teacher in the trial de novo. Within

three (3) days following the conclusion of the trial de novo, the

judge shall prepare written findings of fact and conclusions of law

and shall enter judgment directing either of the following:

1. That the State Department of Rehabilitation Services

reinstate the career teacher with full employment status and

benefits; or

2. That the decision of the State Department of Rehabilitation

Services for the dismissal or nonreemployment of the career teacher

be sustained.

G. The time limits set forth in this section for the

proceedings before the district court may be extended by mutual

agreement of the parties with the approval of the district court.

H. The decision of the district court shall be final and

binding upon the career teacher and the State Department of

Rehabilitation Services unless the teacher or the Department appeals

the decision of the district court in the manner provided by law for

the appeal of civil cases from the district court.

I. This section shall not apply to the following:

1. Superintendents;

2. Instructional personnel serving under a temporary contract

or as a substitute teacher as defined in Section 6-105 of Title 70

of the Oklahoma Statutes; and

3. Probationary teachers.

Added by Laws 2001, c. 93, § 2, eff. July 1, 2003.