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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2013 - 2014
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | March 4, 2013 11:08 AM |
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| From: | Representative Jaret Gibbons |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | Hiring Preferences for Furloughed Employees of Intermediate Units (New Castle Youth Development Center) |
| In the near future, I will be introducing legislation which will amend the Public School Code of 1949 to provide for hiring preferences for employees of intermediate units furloughed as a result of the termination of a Commonwealth contract. The goal of my legislation is to provide some form of assistance to those faithful and loyal employees who, through no fault of their own, lost their jobs because of the recent closure of New Castle Youth Development Center (NCYDC). This legislation is modeled after a similar preference provided to educational employees in 2009 after the closing by the state of the Scranton School for the Deaf and Scotland School for Veterans’ Children. The Commonwealth recently announced the closure of the NCYDC, resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs. NCYDC had been an integral part of a network of juvenile justice facilities operated by the Department of Public Welfare that provide adjudicated delinquent youth structured programs. Educational services at NCYDC were conducted at the Frew Mill School through a contract between the state and the Midwestern Intermediate Unit IV. The mission of the school was to provide optimal improvement for the youth at NCYDC in academic, vocational and behavioral skills enabling them to re-enter society in a positive, productive manner through educational opportunities and services. My legislation will amend the Public School Code to provide hiring preferences for more than a dozen furloughed educational employees by area school districts in the local intermediate unit. In addition, this legislation will provide protection for future educational employees displaced by similar circumstances as the qualified educational employees at NCYDC should additional closures occur in light of the continued decline in the number of youth in the state juvenile justice system. Under my bill, when the Commonwealth terminates a contract with an intermediate unit, the Department of Education would create a pool of professional employees furloughed as a result of the termination. For three years after the cancellation of the Commonwealth contract, qualified employees of an intermediate unit shall be offered preference with regards to open positions in member school districts of the Intermediate Unit. This preference shall not supersede current or suspended district employees’ right to the open position under a collective bargaining agreement or applicable state law. It is my sincere hope you will join me in this effort. |
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| View Attachment | ||
Introduced as HB1248