All persons employed on a full-time basis by the President of Northeast Alabama Community College and whose salary is derived from Salary Schedules B, C, or E as established and adopted by the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees regulations shall be deemed employed on a probationary status for a period of three years from the date of initial employment. Those employees whose salary is derived from Salary Schedule D as established and adopted by the Alabama Community College System Board of Trustees shall be deemed employed on a probationary status for a period of six consecutive fall and spring semesters from initial employment, excluding summer terms, at the institution. Non-probationary status cannot be attained by the chief executive officer, a chief school financial officer, as president, as vice-president, or in or by virtue of employment in temporary, part-time, occasional, seasonal, supplemental, irregular, or like forces of employment or in positions that are created to serve experimental, pilot, temporary, or like special programs, projects, or purposes, the funding and duration of which are finite (Students’ First Act, 16-24C-4, 3b.).
During the probationary period, the employee’s performance is evaluated. Full-time instructors shall attain non-probationary status upon the completion of six consecutive semesters, excluding summer terms, at the College unless the President issues notice of termination to the instructor on or before 15 days prior to the end of the sixth consecutive semester of employment, excluding summer terms. Only complete academic years of service (fall and spring semesters) may be credited toward the attainment of non-probationary status. An instructor must be hired by October 1 in order for that semester to count as part of a complete school year, provided he or she is also employed the following spring [Alabama Code §16-24C-4(1)]. Full-time classified employees shall attain non-probationary status upon the completion of 36 consecutive months of employment at the College unless the President issues notice of termination to the employee on or before 15 days prior to the end of the thirty-sixth month of employment.
If a non-probationary employee under contract is terminated within the period of an appointment, the employee is entitled to be given cause and the opportunity for due process under the procedures adopted by the Students First Act of 2011.
Upon completion by the employee of said probationary period, the employee shall be deemed employed on a non-probationary status, and the employee’s employment shall, thereafter, not be terminated except for failure to perform his or her duties in a satisfactory manner, incompetency, neglect of duty, insubordination, immorality, justifiable decrease in jobs in the institution, or other good and just causes. The college complies with the Students First Act of 2011 in the termination of employees on non-probationary status.