It is the responsibility of the Board to employ and retain the certificated staff necessary to have an effective and efficient educational program and the safe operation of its schools.

The Board shall eliminate certificated positions and reduce the number of certificated staff when the Board finds that curricular changes, changes in enrollment, return to duty from leave of a certificated staff, closing of schools, territorial changes, or other good cause warrants.

As required by I.C. 20-28-7.5-1(d), once the positions to be eliminated are identified by the Board, the certificated staff members to be dismissed shall be identified on the basis of licensure and merit not years of service or seniority. Teachers with multiple licensure areas will not be allowed to bump other teachers out of their current position at the time of the Reduction in Force.

As used in this policy, "licensure" means the scope of the license issued by the Office of Educator Licensing and Employment in the Indiana Department of Education, and "merit" means a performance category assigned to an educator pursuant to I.C. 20-28-11.5, i.e. "highly effective", "effective", and "improvement necessary" or "ineffective". Where two (2) certificated staff members are in the same performance category, the following factors would be the sequence used in determining the order of staff that would be affected in a Reduction in Force (RIF) situation within MSD of Decatur Township:

Certificated staff selected to be terminated pursuant to this policy shall receive the initial notification of possible contract cancellation required by I.C. 20-28-7.5-2(a)(2) between May 1^st and July 1^st preceding the proposed cancellation of their contract with the Board.

I.C. 20-28-7.5-1(d), 20-28-7.5-2(a)(2)

Revised 4/15/14