Subdivision 1. Teacher assignment. (a) As of the effective date of a consolidation in which a district is divided or the dissolution of a district and its attachment to two or more existing districts, each teacher employed by an affected district shall be assigned to the newly created or enlarged district on the basis of a ratio of the pupils assigned to each district according to the new district boundaries. The district receiving the greatest number of pupils must be assigned the teacher with the greatest seniority, and the remaining teachers must be alternately assigned to each district until the district receiving the fewest pupils has received its ratio of teachers who will not be retiring before the effective date of the consolidation or dissolution.

(b) Notwithstanding paragraph (a), the board and the exclusive representative of teachers in each district involved in the consolidation or dissolution and attachment may negotiate a plan for assigning teachers to each newly created or enlarged district.

Subd. 2. Collective bargaining. The organization certified as the exclusive bargaining representative for the teachers in the particular preexisting district which employed the largest proportion of the teachers who are assigned to a new employing district according to subdivision 1 shall be certified as the exclusive bargaining representative for the teachers assigned to that new employing district, until that organization is decertified or another organization is certified in its place pursuant to sections 179A.01 to 179A.25. For purposes of negotiation of a new contract with the board of the new employing district and the certification of an exclusive bargaining representative for purposes of that negotiation, the teachers assigned to that district shall be considered an appropriate unit of employees of that district as of the date the county board orders its interlocutory order of dissolution and attachment to be final and effective or as of the date the commissioner assigns an identification number to a new district created by consolidation. During the school year before the consolidation becomes effective, the newly elected board or the board of the district to which a dissolved district is attached, may place teachers assigned to it on unrequested leave of absence as provided in section 122A.40 according to: (a) a plan negotiated in a new master contract between it and the exclusive bargaining representative of the teachers assigned to it, or (b) if no such plan exists, an applicable plan negotiated in the contract which according to this subdivision will temporarily govern the terms and conditions of employment of teachers assigned to it, or (c) if no plan exists pursuant to either (a) or (b), the provisions of section 122A.40, subdivision 11, on the basis of a combined seniority list of all teachers assigned to it.

Subd. 3. Interim contractual agreements. (a) Until a successor contract is executed between the new board and the exclusive representative of the teachers of the new district, the boards of both districts and the exclusive representatives of the teachers of both districts may agree:

(1) to comply with the contract of either district with respect to all of the teachers assigned to the new district; or

(2) that each of the contracts shall apply to the teachers previously subject to the respective contract.

(b) In the absence of an agreement according to paragraph (a), the following shall apply:

(1) if the effective date is July 1 of an even-numbered year, each of the contracts shall apply to the teachers previously subject to the respective contract and shall be binding on the new board; or

(2) if the effective date is July 1 of an odd-numbered year, the contract of the district that previously employed the largest proportion of teachers assigned to the new district applies to all of the teachers assigned to the new district and shall be binding on the new board. The application of this section shall not result in a reduction in a teacher's basic salary, payments for cocurricular or extracurricular assignments, district contributions toward insurance coverages or tax-sheltered annuities, leaves of absence, or severance pay until a successor contract is executed between the new board and the exclusive representative.

Subd. 4. Contracts; termination; tenure. Except as provided in this section, the provisions of section 122A.40 or 122A.41 shall apply to the employment of each teacher by the new employing district on the same basis as they would have applied to the employment if the teacher had been employed by that new district before the effective date of the consolidation or dissolution and attachment. For the purpose of applying the provisions of subdivision 2, clause (c), and the provisions of section 122A.40, subdivision 11, each district must be considered to have started school each year on the same date.

History: 1978 c 764 s 27; 1Sp1981 c 4 art 1 s 46; 1984 c 462 s 27; 1986 c 444; 1989 c 329 art 6 s 15-17; 1992 c 499 art 6 s 14; 1Sp1995 c 3 art 1 s 5; 1998 c 397 art 5 s 62-64,104; art 11 s 3