20-4-203. Teacher tenure. - Montana Statutes

     20-4-203. Teacher tenure. (1) Except as provided in 20-4-208, whenever a teacher has been elected by the offer and acceptance of a contract for the fourth consecutive year of employment by a district in a position requiring teacher certification except as a district superintendent or specialist, the teacher is considered to be reelected from year to year as a tenured teacher at the same salary and in the same or a comparable position of employment as that provided by the last-executed contract with the teacher unless the trustees resolve by majority vote of their membership to terminate the services of the teacher in accordance with the provisions of 20-4-204.
     (2) The tenure of a teacher with a district may not be impaired upon termination of services of the teacher if the following conditions exist:
     (a) the tenure teacher is terminated because the financial condition of the district requires a reduction in the number of teachers employed; and
     (b) continued employment rights are provided for in a collectively bargained contract of the district.
     (3) (a) For the purposes of subsection (1), "same salary" means the daily rate of pay, excluding benefits and excluding stipends for nonteaching duties, multiplied by the number of days worked under the last-executed contract with the teacher, up to the total number of days funded by the state in the per-ANB entitlements, as provided in 20-9-311, including pupil-instruction-related days. The calculation of daily rate of pay is determined by dividing the salary in the last-executed contract with the teacher for pupil-instruction and pupil-instruction-related days, excluding benefits and excluding stipends for nonteaching duties, by the total number of contracted days under the last-executed contract.
     (b) The definition of same salary may be modified if negotiated and agreed to in a collective bargaining agreement executed by the district and the teacher's exclusive representative pursuant to Title 39, chapter 31, or in an individual contract between the district and a teacher in a district in which the teachers have no exclusive representative as provided in Title 39, chapter 31.
     (4) Upon receiving tenure, the employment of a teacher may be terminated for good cause.

     History: En. 75-6103 by Sec. 84, Ch. 5, L. 1971; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 49, L. 1971; R.C.M. 1947, 75-6103; amd. Sec. 16, Ch. 511, L. 1979; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 521, L. 1983; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 479, L. 1989; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 204, L. 1991; amd. Sec. 1, Ch. 259, L. 1997; amd. Sec. 2, Ch. 438, L. 1997.