If you are hired to teach in a Texas school district during the school year, there's a good chance you may wind up working for a few days before the school board meets to vote on your contract. It happens this way: a position comes open, and the principal needs to fill it ASAP. A few interviews are held, the principal makes an offer, and the new teacher goes to work the next day because she needs the money and the school needs a teacher.
A couple of weeks later the school board meeting occurs and the proposed teaching contract comes before the board for a vote. If the board votes to hire the candidate, everyone is happy and things go on without anyone even noticing. But in the small number of cases where the board votes not to hire the teacher who is already working in the classroom, what rights does the teacher have?
The teacher does have a right to be paid for the time spent working for the district, but the pay and employment rights will be those of a substitute teacher. A contract cannot be formed between a teacher and district simply by putting the teacher to work. Without the affirmative action of the board, there is not contract. This was clearly stated by the Commissioner of Education in Olivarez v. La Villa ISD.
Comments