(a) Notwithstanding any other law, the Big Sur Unified School District, the Leggett Valley Unified School District, and the Reeds Creek Elementary School District may operate one or more schools in their respective school districts on a four-day school week, if the school district complies with the instructional time requirements specified in Section 37701 and the other requirements of this chapter.

(b) (1) A school district operating one or more schools on a four-day school week pursuant to this section shall annually, not later than June 1, submit to the department for review and approval a plan for how the school district will ensure that the minimum instructional minutes required under Section 46207 will be met in the following school year.

(2) If the school district offered less than the minimum instructional minutes required under Section 46207, the school district shall be subject to the penalties described in subdivision (b) of Section 46207 and subdivision (c) of Section 46208. Nothing in this section shall be construed to subject a school district that has met the minimum instructional minutes required under Section 46207 to those penalties.

(c) A school district with an exclusive bargaining representative may operate a school on a four-day school week pursuant to this section only if the school district and the representative of each bargaining unit of school district employees mutually agree to that operation in a memorandum of understanding.

(d) Instructional time penalties shall not be imposed pursuant to this section, as this section read on June 1, 2019, for the 2016–17 fiscal year to the 2018–19 fiscal year, inclusive, on a school district operating one or more schools on a four-day school week.

(Amended by Stats. 2019, Ch. 51, Sec. 19. (SB 75) Effective July 1, 2019.)