Goose: if you are a long-term professional employee (i.e. A degreed teacher with more than 3years in your district) a non-renewal has to be documented just like a firing. There has to be some documented problem that has been discussed with you, most likely through a growth plan, and you must have failed to complete the requirements of a growth plan for them to initiate non-renewal, according to the legal beagles at our representative association. They can't just decide they don't like you, and decide not to renew your contract. Administrators, though, don't necessarily have the same protection -according to state law, they can be non-renewed if they fall out of favor with the administration of the district.
CJAGlock19: It appears that your district used the sample handbook as presented by TASB, the state school board association, in their model district policies, and as such, as a matter of law, do not prohibit firearms from the vehicles of employees, as long as you're not in the proximity of somewhere that a curricular or co-curricular event is taking place: i.e. Jane sponsors the rocket clu in the field behind the junior high school. Jane leaves her high school's parking lot and drives over to the junior high's back 40 where she'll use her car's battery to power the rocket launch eqipment by jumper cables. Jane is at a place where a co-curricular activity is happening and legally shouldn't have left her gun in her car, especially since the car is open and the gun is in an unlocked glove box. Etc
Houston ISD had a very well publicized foot-in-moth session last year where they arrested a substitute teacher who had a conversation with someone at lunch that led them to believe that she had a gun in her locked car, which was parked in the staff parking lot. The principal had her arrested after confronting her, the woman had to go and open the car and remove it from a locked compartment and give it to the ISD's police, who arrested her for unlawful carrying. The charges were dropped after her lawyer pointed out that exact same clause in the district's policies (most districts just copy and paste then adopt the TASB's policies as their own) and showed that since she had not entered the school with the gun, she had broken no laws. The district fired her, but since she was a substitute, it was going to be hard to get anything from them in a lawsuit, anyway, and I'm not sure if she ever did file against the ISD's police for false arrest.
Anyway, if you're a member of a teacher's union/association, you might want to ask the association's lawyer for clarification, since they would be the one defending you in any claim against your district, should someone there put their foot in their mouth.
G'luck!