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School Employee Initiative Enters Circulation

School Employees. Dismissal or
Suspension for Egregious Misconduct. Initiative Statute.

SACRAMENTO - Secretary of State Debra Bowen today announced that the proponent of a new initiative may begin collecting petition signatures for her measure.

The Attorney General prepares the legal title and summary that is required to appear on initiative petitions. When the official language is complete, the Attorney General forwards it to the proponent and to the Secretary of State, and the initiative may be circulated for signatures. The Secretary of State then provides calendar deadlines to the proponent and to county elections officials. The Attorney General's official title and summary for the measure is as follows:

SCHOOL EMPLOYEES. DISMISSAL OR SUSPENSION FOR EGREGIOUS MISCONDUCT. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Speeds process and eliminates 4-year statute of limitations to dismiss or suspend school employees accused of egregious misconduct, defined to include child abuse, sexual abuse of minors, sexual assault on minors or adults, and certain drug offenses. Prevents agreements to remove evidence of egregious misconduct from employee’s personnel records or not report employee’s misconduct to law enforcement or teacher credentialing officials. If employee is dismissed, allows school districts to recover salary paid and disallow retirement service credit earned during proceedings, starting 30 days after written notice of dismissal. Summary of estimate by Legislative Analyst and Director of Finance of fiscal impact on state and local government: Minor net annual effect on the state, as small additional administrative costs would be offset by small savings related to dismissal hearings and retirement credit. Small annual savings to school districts because of reduced legal expenses, wages, and pension costs. (13-0032.)

The Secretary of State's tracking number for this measure is 1616 and the Attorney General's tracking number is 13-0032.

The proponent for the measure, Ashlee N. Titus, must collect signatures of 504,760 registered voters – the number equal to five percent of the total votes cast for governor in the 2010 gubernatorial election – in order to qualify it for the ballot. The proponent has 150 days to circulate petitions for the measure, meaning the signatures must be collected by May 19, 2014.

The initiative proponent can be reached at (916) 442-7757.

To sign up for regular ballot measure updates via email, RSS feed, or Twitter, go to www.sos.ca.gov/multimedia.

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