(a) The commission shall classify all employees and positions within the jurisdiction of the governing board of the community college district or of the commission, except those that are exempt from the classified service, as specified in subdivision (b). The employees and positions shall be known as the classified service. “To classify” shall include, but not be limited to, allocating positions to appropriate classes, arranging classes into occupational hierarchies, determining reasonable relationships within occupational hierarchies, and preparing written class specifications.

(b) The following positions and employees are exempt from the classified service:

(1) Academic positions.

(2) Full-time students employed part time.

(3) Part-time students employed part time in a college work-study program or in a work experience education program conducted by a community college that is financed by state or federal funds.

(4) Apprentice positions.

(5) Positions established for the employment of professional experts on a temporary basis for a specific project by the governing board of a community college district or by the commission when so designated by the commission.

(c) Employment of either full-time or part-time students in a college work-study program or in a work experience education program shall not result in the displacement of classified personnel or impair existing contracts for services.

(d) Nothing in this section shall prevent an employee, who has attained regular status in a full-time position, from taking a voluntary reduction in time and retaining his or her regular status under the provisions of this law.

(e) A person whose contribution consists solely in the rendition of individual personal services and whose employment does not come within the scope of the exceptions listed above shall not be employed outside the classified service.

(f) A part-time position is one for which the assigned time, when computed on an hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly basis, is less than 871/2 percent of the normally assigned time of the majority of employees in the classified service.

(g) An employee employed by a community college district in a part-time playground position as of the effective date of the laws placing part-time playground positions into the classified service shall be deemed a permanent employee of the community college district without placement on an eligibility list under Section 88091 or examination under Section 88092.

(Amended by Stats. 2018, Ch. 488, Sec. 3. (AB 2160) Effective January 1, 2019.)