Answer: Always consult with your union representative before you sign and submit a resignation letter to your district!

By signing a resignation letter, you may be waiving the due process rights and employment protections you get under your contract. With prospective resignations, where you sign a resignation letter for some unspecified future date, you may have no control over when the district will accept the resignation and stop your salary and benefits.

Either way, you lose, so don’t resign without first consulting your union representative.

The Texas Education Code requires that school districts employ each classroom teacher, librarian, nurse and counselor under a probationary contract, a continuing contract or a term contract. There are significant differences between each type of contract; however, all of these contracts provide employees with certain protections in the event a district seeks to terminate the contract.

If the district attempts to terminate the contract before the end of the contract period, the law allows the employee to request a hearing before a certified hearing examiner appointed by the Texas Education Agency. This hearing examiner is a neutral party who acts as a judge to determine if the district has good cause for termination. If you have submitted a resignation letter, you waive your right to a hearing before an independent hearing examiner.

Similarly, if the district does not want to renew your term contract at the end of the year and you have signed a resignation letter, you waive your right to a hearing before the school board.

If the school district is pressuring you to resign in lieu of termination or nonrenewal, your union representative may be able to negotiate more favorable terms for a resignation, such as securing a neutral reference and getting the district to agree to terms that will improve your ability to get a job elsewhere. If you resign without attempting any form of negotiation, you immediately lose all your leverage with the district.