N.Y. Education Law § 211-e: Educational partnership organizations

§ 211-e. Educational partnership organizations. 1. The board of

education of a school district, and the chancellor of the city school

district of the city of New York, subject to the approval of the

commissioner, shall be authorized to contract, for a term of up to five

years, with an educational partnership organization pursuant to this

section to intervene in a school designated by the commissioner as a

persistently lowest-achieving school, consistent with federal

requirements, or a school under registration review.

2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, rule or regulation to

the contrary, and except as otherwise provided in this section, such

contract shall contain provisions authorizing the educational

partnership organization to assume the powers and duties of the

superintendent of schools for purposes of implementing the educational

program of the school, including but not limited to, making

recommendations to the board of education on budgetary decisions,

staffing population decisions, student discipline decisions, decisions

on curriculum and determining the daily schedule and school calendar,

all of which recommendations shall be consistent with applicable

collective bargaining agreements. Such contract shall include district

performance expectations and/or benchmarks for school operations and

academic outcomes, and failure to meet such expectations or benchmarks

may be grounds for termination of the contract prior to the expiration

of its term. Such contract shall also address the manner in which

students will be assigned to the school, the process for employees to

transfer into the school, the services that the district will provide to

the school, and the manner in which the school shall apply for and

receive allocational and competitive grants.

3. The board of education shall retain the ultimate decision-making

authority over the hiring, evaluating, termination, disciplining,

granting of tenure, assignment of employees serving in the school as

well as with respect to staff development for those employees, together

with authority concerning all other terms and conditions of employment,

all of which decisions shall be made in a manner consistent with

applicable collective bargaining agreements. However, notwithstanding

any law, rule or regulation to the contrary, upon the effective date of

the contract, the educational partnership organization shall be

authorized to exercise all powers of a superintendent of schools with

respect to such employment decisions, including but not limited to

making recommendations, as applicable, to the board of education in

connection with and prior to the board of education making decisions

regarding staff assignments, the hiring, the granting of tenure, the

evaluating, the disciplining and termination of employees, as well as

concerning staff development. The employees assigned to the school shall

solely be in the employ of the school district and shall retain their

tenure rights and all other employment rights conferred by law, and

service in the school shall constitute service to the school district

for all purposes, including but not limited to, the requirements for

criminal history record checks and participation in public retirement

systems. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, for

purposes of article fourteen of the civil service law, employees in the

school shall be public employees of the school district as defined in

subdivision seven of section two hundred one of the civil service law

and shall not be deemed employees of the educational partnership

organization by reason of the powers granted to the educational

partnership organization by this section. All such employees shall be

members of the applicable negotiating unit containing like titles or

positions for the public school district in which such school is

located, and shall be covered by the collective bargaining agreement

covering that public school district's negotiating unit, except that the

duly recognized or certified collective bargaining representative for

that negotiating unit may modify or supplement, in writing, the

collective bargaining agreement in consultation with the employees of

the negotiating unit working in the school. All such modifications of,

or supplements to the collective bargaining agreement are subject to

ratification by the employees employed within the school and by the

board of education of the public school district, consistent with

article fourteen of the civil service law. Upon the effective date of

the school district's contract with the educational partnership

organization, the educational partnership organization shall be

empowered to make recommendations to the board of education with respect

to the scope of, and process for making modifications and additions to

the collective bargaining agreement.

4. Where a recommendation is made by the educational partnership

organization to the board of education pursuant to subdivision two or

three of this section, and such recommendation is denied, the board of

education shall state its reasons for the denial, which shall include an

explanation of how such denial will promote improvement of student

achievement in the school and how such action is consistent with all

accountability plans approved by the commissioner for the school and the

school district. Nothing in this subdivision shall be construed to

prevent a board of education from denying a recommendation of the

educational partnership organization based upon the board of education's

determination that carrying out such recommendation would result in a

violation of law or violation of the terms of an applicable collective

bargaining agreement. If the board of education rejects a recommendation

of the educational partnership organization to terminate a probationary

employee assigned to the school or to deny tenure to an employee

assigned to the school, it shall be the duty of the board of education

to transfer such employee to another position in the school district

within such employee's tenure area for which the employee is qualified,

or to create such a position.

5. For purposes of this section the following terms shall have the

following meanings:

(i) "educational partnership organization" means a board of

cooperative educational services, a public or independent, non-profit

institution of higher education, a cultural institution, or a private,

non-profit organization with a proven record of success in intervening

in low-performing schools, as determined by the commissioner, provided

that such term shall not include a charter school;

(ii) "board of education" means the trustees or board of education of

a school district, or, in the case of a city school district of a city

having a population of one million or more, the chancellor of such city

district;

(iii) "school district" means a common, union free, central, central

high school or city school district, other than a special act school

district as defined in section four thousand one of this chapter.

(iv) "superintendent of schools" means the superintendent of schools

of a school district, and, in the case of a city school district of a

city having a population of one million or more, a community

superintendent and the chancellor of such city district when acting in

the role of a superintendent of schools.