Opinion No. (2009)

EDMUND G. BROWN JR. Attorney General TAYLOR S. CAREY Deputy Attorney General THE HONORABLE CATHLEEN GALGIANI, MEMBER OF THE STATE ASSEMBLY, has requested an opinion on the following question: May a school district grant a request from a teacher, whose spouse became a board member more than one year after the teacher's employment with the District, to transfer from one teaching position to another that has the same compensation, but involves different teaching duties? CONCLUSION A school district may grant a request from a teacher, whose spouse became a board member more than one year after the teacher's employment with the district, to transfer from one teaching position to another that has the same compensation, but involves different teaching duties. *Page 2 ANALYSIS A tenured teacher who was hired by a school district in 1998, and whose spouse became a member of the district's governing board in 2001, seeks a transfer from the position of literacy resource teacher to the position of reading specialist teacher. Both literacy resource teachers and reading specialist teachers work to improve students' reading skills. An important difference between these positions is that the…