Hiring And Termination Practices Of Teachers

Hiring and Termination practices

Hiring and termination of teachers is one area that I am still a little afraid of facing. One message we keep hearing in class in that we will inherit a problem and so I know that this is something that I will need to face. I look at my current principal and see that he has hired over thirty teachers since he was hired, the total could be higher than that. Thus, I have seen the issues that come with new teachers and have seen what needs to be done with a teacher termination. The real trick to all of this is making sure that you are hiring quality teachers to fit your school vision.

The termination process at Wahlert is really no different than any of the other school districts that I looked up. There needs to be documentation, documentation, and more documentation. Mr. Meyers stated that “you really have to be endangering kids to be terminated.” We talked at length about how documentation is the key component to a termination and how it needs to be collected over time. The worst part for him is when you make a hire and then realize that the teacher is really not good. This leads to a very awkward termination process that can be made a little easier if it is a beginning teacher. We discussed one case where he hired a speech teacher over a phone interview. The teacher arrived on campus and he knew after the first year the mistake he had made. The teacher lacked the ability to relate to students and refused to do any grading. The school put pressure on him to find a new teaching position because they were not going to sign off on his license. I did not get a lot more on the particulars but do know that the teacher found a new job in northern Wisconsin. Thus begging the point of did ...

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...egarding involvement. For a position that is only roughly three months long and for about three hours a day, we involve a lot more people. Generally, we have the principal, athletic director, a couple of parents, and sometimes a student committee. I know that coaching is a little different hire but we do a great job of involving stakeholders for that but not for education. I would suggest adding a couple of teachers to the hiring process, which seems to be a more normal process in other schools. Also having parent input on the committee would give a completely different set of standards and views that otherwise gets lost in the process. This would have all give the interview process a different feel. We are a private school where parents pay money for the education of their children and I feel that their expectations for teachers should be part of the process.