§ 211-E — Educational partnership organizations

§ 211-e. Educational partnership organizations. 1. The board of\neducation of a school district, and the chancellor of the city school\ndistrict of the city of New York, subject to the approval of the\ncommissioner, shall be authorized to contract, for a term of up to five\nyears, with an educational partnership organization pursuant to this\nsection to intervene in a school designated by the commissioner as a\npersistently lowest-achieving school, consistent with federal\nrequirements, or a school under registration review.\n 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to\nthe contrary, and except as otherwise provided in this section, such\ncontract shall contain provisions authorizing the educational\npartnership organization to assume the powers and duties of the\nsuperintendent of schools for purposes of implementing the educational\nprogram of the school, including but not limited to, making\nrecommendations to the board of education on budgetary decisions,\nstaffing population decisions, student discipline decisions, decisions\non curriculum and determining the daily schedule and school calendar,\nall of which recommendations shall be consistent with applicable\ncollective bargaining agreements. Such contract shall include district\nperformance expectations and/or benchmarks for school operations and\nacademic outcomes, and failure to meet such expectations or benchmarks\nmay be grounds for termination of the contract prior to the expiration\nof its term. Such contract shall also address the manner in which\nstudents will be assigned to the school, the process for employees to\ntransfer into the school, the services that the district will provide to\nthe school, and the manner in which the school shall apply for and\nreceive allocational and competitive grants.\n 3. The board of education shall retain the ultimate decision-making\nauthority over the hiring, evaluating, termination, disciplining,\ngranting of tenure, assignment of employees serving in the school as\nwell as with respect to staff development for those employees, together\nwith authority concerning all other terms and conditions of employment,\nall of which decisions shall be made in a manner consistent with\napplicable collective bargaining agreements. However, notwithstanding\nany law, rule or regulation to the contrary, upon the effective date of\nthe contract, the educational partnership organization shall be\nauthorized to exercise all powers of a superintendent of schools with\nrespect to such employment decisions, including but not limited to\nmaking recommendations, as applicable, to the board of education in\nconnection with and prior to the board of education making decisions\nregarding staff assignments, the hiring, the granting of tenure, the\nevaluating, the disciplining and termination of employees, as well as\nconcerning staff development. The employees assigned to the school shall\nsolely be in the employ of the school district and shall retain their\ntenure rights and all other employment rights conferred by law, and\nservice in the school shall constitute service to the school district\nfor all purposes, including but not limited to, the requirements for\ncriminal history record checks and participation in public retirement\nsystems. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, for\npurposes of article fourteen of the civil service law, employees in the\nschool shall be public employees of the school district as defined in\nsubdivision seven of section two hundred one of the civil service law\nand shall not be deemed employees of the educational partnership\norganization by reason of the powers granted to the educational\npartnership organization by this section. All such employees shall be\nmembers of the applicable negotiating unit containing like titles or\npositions for the public school district in which such school is\nlocated, and shall be covered by the collective bargaining agreement\ncovering that public school district's negotiating unit, except that the\nduly recognized or certified collective bargaining representative for\nthat negotiating unit may modify or supplement, in writing, the\ncollective bargaining agreement in consultation with the employees of\nthe negotiating unit working in the school. All such modifications of,\nor supplements to the collective bargaining agreement are subject to\nratification by the employees employed within the school and by the\nboard of education of the public school district, consistent with\narticle fourteen of the civil service law. Upon the effective date of\nthe school district's contract with the educational partnership\norganization, the educational partnership organization shall be\nempowered to make recommendations to the board of education with respect\nto the scope of, and process for making modifications and additions to\nthe collective bargaining agreement.\n 4. Where a recommendation is made by the educational partnership\norganization to the board of education pursuant to subdivision two or\nthree of this section, and such recommendation is denied, the board of\neducation shall state its reasons for the denial, which shall include an\nexplanation of how such denial will promote improvement of student\nachievement in the school and how such action is consistent with all\naccountability plans approved by the commissioner for the school and the\nschool district. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to\nprevent a board of education from denying a recommendation of the\neducational partnership organization based upon the board of education's\ndetermination that carrying out such recommendation would result in a\nviolation of law or violation of the terms of an applicable collective\nbargaining agreement. If the board of education rejects a recommendation\nof the educational partnership organization to terminate a probationary\nemployee assigned to the school or to deny tenure to an employee\nassigned to the school, it shall be the duty of the board of education\nto transfer such employee to another position in the school district\nwithin such employee's tenure area for which the employee is qualified,\nor to create such a position.\n 5. For purposes of this section the following terms shall have the\nfollowing meanings:\n (i) "educational partnership organization" means a board of\ncooperative educational services, a public or independent, non-profit\ninstitution of higher education, a cultural institution, or a private,\nnon-profit organization with a proven record of success in intervening\nin low-performing schools, as determined by the commissioner, provided\nthat such term shall not include a charter school;\n (ii) "board of education" means the trustees or board of education of\na school district, or, in the case of a city school district of a city\nhaving a population of one million or more, the chancellor of such city\ndistrict;\n (iii) "school district" means a common, union free, central, central\nhigh school or city school district, other than a special act school\ndistrict as defined in section four thousand one of this chapter.\n (iv) "superintendent of schools" means the superintendent of schools\nof a school district, and, in the case of a city school district of a\ncity having a population of one million or more, a community\nsuperintendent and the chancellor of such city district when acting in\nthe role of a superintendent of schools.\n