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Departments: Personnel Commission

What is a Merit System?

October 19, 2001

The classified employees of the Torrance Unified School District have operated under the Merit System since 1989. The system provides for equal opportunity for applicants by requiring competition for positions. The Merit System is a system of rules and procedures, simillar to civil service. Its fundamental purpose is to ensure that employees are selected, promoted, and retained without favoritism and prejudice on the basis of merit and fitness, with the Personnel Commission playing a crucial part in the recruitment, selection and retention of the District's excellent classified staff. The Commissioners usually meet twice a month to consider examinations, eligibility lists, reclassifications, salary studies, rule changes, disciplinary appeals, and other areas of impotance to all classified employees.

The Personnel Commission's purpose is multi-faceted. In accordance with the provisions of Education Code Sections 45220 - 45320, the Commission establishes and amends Personnel Commission rules that are binding on the District as a whole; conducts classification studies; recommends equity salary adjustments; conducts all classified recruitment and selction processes; establishes procedures for transfers; interprets rules and regulations; and conducts disciplinary hearings and appeals.

Merit systems operate in approximately 100 school districts in California. Almost 60 percent of all classified school personnel in the State work under the framework of a Merit System and enjoy the equal opportunity and fair selection procedures which it generates.

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