GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2015

H                                                                                                                                                   2

HOUSE BILL 561

Committee Substitute Favorable 4/15/15

Short Title:        School System Auth. Re: Legal Proceedings.	(Public)
Sponsors:
Referred to:

April 6, 2015

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to modify the authority of school systems with regard to legal proceedings and investigations.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑321(a) reads as rewritten:

"(a)       All information contained in a personnel file, except as otherwise provided in this Chapter, is confidential and shall not be open for inspection and examination except to any of the following persons:

(1)        The employee, applicant for employment, former employee, or his properly authorized agent, who may examine his own personnel file at all reasonable times in its entirety except for letters of reference solicited prior to employment.

(2)        The superintendent and other supervisory personnel.

(3)        Members of the local board of education and the board's attorney.

(4)        A party by authority of a subpoena or proper court order may inspect and examine a particular confidential portion of an employee's personnel file.

(5) Any state or federal administrative agency that has a quasi‑judicial function or any court of law, when disclosure is necessary in the discretion of the superintendent or superintendent's designee to adequately defend against a claim filed by a current or former employee against the local board of education or a school official or employee for any alleged act or omission arising during the course and scope of his or her official duties or employment. Such disclosure shall be limited to those confidential portions of the personnel file of the employee who filed the claim and only to the extent necessary for the defense of the Board of Education."

SECTION 2.  G.S. 115C‑45(a) reads as rewritten:

"(a)       Power to Subpoena and to Punish for Contempt. – Local boards of education shall have power to issue subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses.witnesses and for the production of all tangible things, including, but not limited to, documents, papers, letters, maps, books, photographs, films, sound recordings, magnetic or other tapes, electronic communications, electronic data‑processing records, artifacts, or other documentary material, regardless of physical form or characteristics. Subpoenas for the attendance of witnesses may be issued in any and all matters which may lawfully come within the powers of the board and which, in the discretion of the board, require investigation;investigation. and it shall be the duty of the sheriff or any process serving officer to serve such subpoena upon payment of their lawful fees. Subpoenas for the production of tangible things may be issued in matters where an employee is suspected of committing job‑related misconduct and which, in the discretion of the board or superintendent, require investigation. It shall be the duty of the sheriff or any process serving officer to serve such subpoena upon payment of their lawful fees.

Local boards of education shall have power to punish for contempt for any disorderly conduct or disturbance tending to disrupt them in the transaction of official business."

SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective October 1, 2015.