A. 1. On and after the date on which the State Board of Education approves a school, zone, or district as an empowered school, zone, or district, any collective bargaining agreement of the empowered school, zone, or district shall include a provision that allows each empowered school, zone, or district to waive any provisions of the collective bargaining agreement identified in the empowerment plan as needing to be waived for the empowered school, zone, or district to implement its identified innovations.
2. For an empowered school, waiver of one or more of the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement shall be based on obtaining the approval, by means of a secret ballot vote, of at least sixty percent (60%) of the members of the collective bargaining unit who are employed at the empowered school.
3. For an empowered school zone or district, waiver of one or more of the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement shall be based on obtaining, at each school included in the empowered school zone or district, the approval, by means of a secret ballot vote, of at least sixty percent (60%) of the members of the collective bargaining unit who are employed in the zone or district. The school district board of education for the empowered zone or district may choose to revise the plan for creating an empowered zone or district to remove from the zone or district any school in which at least sixty percent (60%) of the members of the collective bargaining unit employed at the school do not vote to waive the identified provisions of the collective bargaining agreement.
4. If a school district board of education, in collaboration with the empowered school, zone, or district, revises the empowerment plan, as provided in Section 9 of this act, and the revisions include changes to the identified provisions of the collective bargaining agreement that need to be waived to implement the innovations that are included in the empowerment plan, the school district board of education shall seek such additional waivers or revision or revocation of the existing waivers of provisions of the collective bargaining agreement as are necessary to implement the revised empowerment plan. Any changes to waivers, or additional waivers, of the identified provisions of the collective bargaining agreement shall be subject to approval in the same manner as provided in paragraphs 2 and 3 of this subsection for the initial approval of waivers of provisions of the collective bargaining agreement.
5. Except as otherwise provided in paragraph 4 of this subsection, waiver of identified provisions of a collective bargaining agreement for an empowered school, zone, or district pursuant to this subsection shall continue as long as the school, zone, or district remains an empowered school, zone, or district. A waiver approved pursuant to this subsection shall continue to apply to any substantially similar provision that is included in a new or renewed collective bargaining agreement for the schools of the empowered school, zone, or district.
B. A person who is a member of the collective bargaining unit and is employed at an empowered school or zone may request a transfer to another public school in the district. The school district board of education shall make every reasonable effort to accommodate the request of the person.
Added by Laws 2010, c. 353, § 8.