(a) The reorganization of any school district or school districts shall not affect the classification of certificated employees already employed by any school district affected. Those employees have the same status with respect to their classification by the school district, including time served as probationary employees of the school district, after the reorganization as they had before it. If the reorganization results in the school or other place in which the employee is employed being maintained by another school district, the employee, if a permanent employee of the school district that formerly maintained the school or other place of employment, shall be employed as a permanent employee of the school district that thereafter maintains the school or other place of employment, unless the employee elects before February 1 of the year in which the action will become effective for all purposes to continue in the employ of the first school district.

(b) If the employee is a probationary employee of the school district that formerly maintained the school or other place of employment, he or she shall be employed by the school district that thereafter maintains the school or other place of employment, unless the probationary employee is terminated by the school district pursuant to Section 44929.21, 44948, 44948.3, 44949, or 44955, and, if not so terminated, his or her status with respect to classification by the school district shall be the same as it would have been had the school or other place of employment continued to be maintained by the school district that formerly maintained it. As used in this paragraph, “the school or other place in which the employee is employed” and all references thereto, includes, but is not necessarily limited to, the school services or school program that, as a result of any reorganization of a school district, will be provided by another school district, irrespective of whether any particular building or buildings in which the schoolwork or school program was conducted is physically located in the reorganized district and irrespective of whether any reorganized district elects to provide for the education of its pupils by contracting with another school district until the reorganized district constructs its own facilities.

(Amended by Stats. 2016, Ch. 186, Sec. 7. (AB 2659) Effective January 1, 2017.)