Opinion No. (2004)

BILL LOCKYER Attorney General GREGORY L. GONOT Deputy Attorney General THE HONORABLE DENNIS BUNTING, COUNTY COUNSEL, COUNTY OF SOLANO, has requested an opinion on the following question: May the governing board of a school district employ a teacher as a permanent employee if she has been a probationary teacher for more than one year before her spouse became a member of the governing board? CONCLUSION The governing board of a school district may employ a teacher as a permanent employee if she has been a probationary teacher for more than one year before her spouse became a member of the governing board. ANALYSIS The question presented for analysis concerns a probationary teacher whose spouse has recently been elected to the school district's board of trustees. We are asked whether the teacher may attain permanent classification while her husband is a trustee of the district. We conclude that since she has been a probationary teacher for more than one year before the election, she may become a permanent employee during her spouse's term of office. Education Code section 44929.21 , subdivision (b), governs the employment of the probationary classroom teacher in question. It provides:…