In this article, we continue diving into Kirk Strang’s legal update from April’s WASDA Spring Conference. Our focus is on Hot Tip #3: Write an Essay — which covers teacher evaluations and nonrenewal.
Hot Tip #3: Evaluations: Write an Essay!
EVALUATIONS: TEACHER
Nonrenewal
- Establish a Timeline for Nonrenewal. Have a timeline with your administrative team which includes:
- Identifying possible nonrenewal and schedule for preparing necessary materials (evaluations, POI, etc.)
- Observation and preparing a rough draft of the evaluation
- A period for the superintendent and counsel to review and advise
- A period for finalizing the recommendation
- Time for superintendent review
- Identifying the board meeting to make recommendation
- EE Requirements. Boards must evaluate, in writing, the performance of all certified school personnel at the end of their first year and at least every 3rd year thereafter.
- Evaluation Deadline for Building Administrators. Principals and others that evaluate teachers should be advised that all evaluations must be completed by “X” (I prefer the end of February or mid-March). A superintendent’s ability to go forward with nonrenewal is limited if annual evaluations have not been completed or — where they have been completed — do not support the recommendation.
Final notice of renewal/nonrenewal must be given by May 15
Preliminary notice must be given 15 days before final notice (there is no specific date established for preliminary notice) -
Plans of Improvement. Always complete — and tell your principals to complete — plans of improvement before the statutory time limits expire.
If a principal puts a teacher on a plan of improvement for the remainder of this school year and states that failure to satisfy the plan’s terms may result in nonrenewal, you can end up being forced to give preliminary and final notice before the plan of improvement has run its course.
- Role of Evaluations. With the exception of true misconduct cases (which may wind up being discharge cases instead of nonrenewals), nonrenewal recommendations often are and, indeed, may need to be supported by thorough evaluations (formal and informal). If you are considering nonrenewal of a teacher, consider whether you have been adequately briefed by the principal so that you are satisfied that the evaluations support the recommendation (and certainly don’t serve to undermine it).
- Limits of Evaluations. If the evaluation instrument doesn’t really cover the primary concerns with the teacher’s performance, that is cause for reviewing the tool/rubric/form, but also calls for more written evaluation material.
- Import of Grievance Procedure. In school districts where nonrenewal is subject to the grievance procedure, failure to perform an evaluation may support reversal of the nonrenewal.
Next up, we’ll tackle Hot Tip #4: Evaluations & Managing the Form, Teacher Evaluations, Administrator Evaluations, and More.
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