<p>Hard to figure why they wouldn’t do the French and Spanish exams, if they do Latin. Why not bring it up?</p>
<p>kayf- now I see why public school teachers believe in tenure. Imagine what would happen in a political environment. Believe me private school politics pale in comparison to what would go on.</p>
<p>^^^^^^ yes, exactly.</p>
<p>I like the idea that you may be able to participate in the Concordia program here in the US, rather than have to travel abroad. That certainly makes sense financially. I think if you present this as a viable option then the school may be happy you are committed to “improving” (if that’s what they’re hoping) while keeping the costs and time commitment to a minimum.</p>
<p>But, I still hope you can have an in-depth and honest conversation with your supervisor to understand why this was recommended in the first place. Is it because (s)/he felt your teaching needed updating, or is this a delay tactic? I’ll never forget what happened at the private school where i worked. The HeadMaster sent the Spanish teacher to Concordia, but they didn’t address the real problem: she had no classroom management skills. She thought the problem was that she was a native from Peru and needed to improve her Spanish.</p>
<p>Franglish, I am a public school teacher and also a union rep for my building. As deserving of bad press as unions can be, in some regards, your situation illustrates the need for them. I totally agree with the advice to document every conversation, interaction etc with all other employees that may bear upon your situation and especially contact with administrators. I would also consider having another teacher present at your meeting with the principal. In teachers unions, that is common practice in such situations. A rep will be present to witness and record (in writing) the entire conversation. If you feel that this will put your principal on the defensive, at least record the conversation, yourself. Leave nothing out.</p>
<p>I also agree with the advice about parental influence. It might be unseemly to tell parents about what is happening but once word gets out, and it usually does quickly, they may storm the castle, so to speak. I also suggest that the expectation that you will travel out of the country, on your own dime, is absurd and likely designed to force you out. I would have a conversation with your dept. chair in which you convey your “assumptions” that the expenses of said trip will be absorbed by the school. Act as if you have been assuming that all along and see what the reaction is. I would also look up, maybe with the help of some of the friendly lawyers here, any worker protection that may help you with that and define that as harassment.</p>
<p>“As deserving of bad press as unions can be, in some regards, your situation illustrates the need for them.”</p>
<p>Agree 100%.</p>
<p>Actually - most jobs don’t have job security, so I’m not torn up about unions. Every work place can be political. And sometimes you hear about teachers who are just dialing it in and they can’t get fired - I’d much prefer the ability to move unmotivated teachers out of the classroom.</p>
<p>However, many times teachers at private schools don’t get the influence parents can have on administrators. With this person leaving it is either that persons last stand at doing something obnoxious, or the next person in wants a friend/family member or colleague to get that job. Are you friends with any of the parents? Or former parents who could maybe discretely spread the word? No parent wants to hand in a contract with the teachers up in the air.</p>
<p>Usually schools want to be able to talk about long term staff! People with a history of the school and its traditions. But if enrollment is going down, or more kids are on financial aid they need to start cutting the budget. </p>
<p>Hopefully this is all about nothing and once the new person comes in it will all be fine. For now I suggest keeping your head down, doing a great job and playing by the rules.</p>
<p>eyema- the public sector politics would be at an entirely different level if it was not for civil service, unions and tenure. None of those are perfect but without them you have Tammany Hall, By the way- can’t be fired is not true. Maybe will not be fired. To me that is on the manager. Document the nonperformance
Civil service and tenure are processes that provide a system that allows the employee to challenge why the are being terminated. If I have my documentation in order I win. There is nothing in the union contract or civil service rules that allow an employee to not perform.</p>
<p>Franglish,</p>
<p>I want to add a thanks. It’s hard to write about issues like this, even if we are anonymous. You introduced a very sensitive topic and opened yourself as having a possible weakness and yet never know what comments you’ll get. I hope this week avails you to some of the solutions mentioned here. I’m sorry you’re going through this. Good luck!</p>
<p>^^^^
Thank you Tom,
My post was not designed to start a debate about the merit of unions and I did NOT want to hijack Franglish’s thread to debate the issue. As you said, unions, at their best, protect good employees from unfair treatment or termination. Are they perfect? No. And I did qualify my response with that observation. I appreciate your back up. I was hoping that some of what I said about union protocol might help Franglish with her strategy when dealing with the problem.</p>
<p>I do have a question, Franglish. You mentioned that you normally get evaluated every five years? And then a formal evaluation is written up? I assume that administrators can and will drop in unexpectedly. What is the policy on these visits? Can an administrator use an informal visit as basis for a formal evaluation? And if you have never had a negative comment made as part of an evaluation, how can one informal visit be used for such a dramatic consequence? Is there no warning system that gets ramped up when an employee doesn’t meet expectations? My opinion is that the drop-in visit was designed to find fault in some way so that they would have a basis for the wrist slapping.</p>
<p>@limabeans-- so nice…
@EPTR-- yes, evaluated every 5 years at this point. Yes, the eval is written up, and yes anyone can drop in at any time. No real policy, sort of just accepted-- I mean who would say no… It was not my impression that an informal visit could be used as a basis for a formal eval-- that is, until now. You are asking all the same questions I am asking! It feels like more than a wrist slap, but you may be right.</p>
<p>Yes, I apologize. It is more than a wrist slap. In my public school setting, we are evaluated every year until we reach professional status at three years(assuming we do well the first three). At that point we are evaluated every two years. These are usually formal visits, prearranged and planned with lesson plan submitted ahead of time etc. This does not prohibit drop in visits both by the principal and/or dept. chair. Or, on the extremely rare occasion, the superintendent (once in my 16 year career!) It has been my experience as a union rep that a principal may witness something at a drop in visit that he/she doesn’t like and call a teacher out on it. This would get filed with the principals record and the principal would be following up on that teacher and giving instructions for improvement. If there was another issue, the teacher might get a formal write up and this would go into the teachers permanent file. These could lead to termination if there is no improvement on the part of the teacher. Something like probation (if given after ONE instance) would be reserved for a very serious violation such as alleged abuse, contact with a student, drinking, drugs, etc.</p>
<p>Would you be able to bring someone into the meeting with the principal? Or is that too awkward?</p>
<p>In a private school we aren’t really bound by the same limits. In many ways that’s liberating. But in others, and maybe this is one, it’s a real problem-- too murky. I’m going to ask for mediation, and see what happens.</p>
<p>I thought of bringing someone in with me, because I’m scared and wimpy… but I think I’m going to try to go it alone. I think it will be better and less threatening to him. I really and truly think he’s going to try to help. I will be shocked again if he comes down smack on the side of the division head in this one. I’ll keep y’all posted. You’ve all been soooooooo great…</p>
<p>If you have copies of your previous written evaluations, bring them with you to the meeting. If he is a new administrator it will help him to understand that this has come out of nowhere and may also help him to realize that a valued employee is in danger of being dismissed. Try to stay unemotional (easier said than done) during the meeting, as well, and do not mention that you felt that the class that was observed was going poorly.</p>
<p>Good luck, Franglish. Keep us posted.</p>
<p>thinking of you, Franglish. I hope things are going more your way.</p>
<p>Franglish - I understand the wanting to go in alone. However, I think you would be better served to bring someone with you. At our school there was a development director, who was a real teacher advocate. Is there someone is some quasi-“leadership” position who could come with you and listen in and help mediate? They could keep you from inadvertently making it worse.</p>
<p>franglish, any news? How did your meeting go??</p>
<p>Things have been interesting this week, and my meeting is tomorrow, Thursday, so I’m a bit nervous. I will update this post afterwards. But in the meantime, I have had tons of support from my colleagues because this is so bizarre. I have learned that two other teachers (maybe more, people don’t really like to talk about this) have also been placed on probation. In my opinion, even though these are seasoned teachers as well, these two others are more deserving of it, as there were a lot of complaints about them over the years. But the main thing to develop is that there is no real process to go from even a little concern to such a major sanction. That will be the focus of my meeting with the head of school tomorrow. I have been able to break this into two main parts: the need for professional development, which I am not contesting, in fact I agree with, and the sanction of probation, which I am fighting.</p>
<p>By the way, the Concordia course was approved, by the department chair, so I am sooooo grateful for that suggestion, SteveMA. I am planning to ask that the school pay for this cost and the transportation to get there. It doesn’t feel right for me to have to pay for it, even though the school denied a colleague $75 for a day-long conference… </p>
<p>I feel like I am in a surreal movie…</p>
<p>Thanks for the support and the kind words…</p>
<p>franglish - I wish you all the best. I will tell you a cautionary tale. A head of school tortured teachers and for YEARS and no one outside the teachers knew about it. He fired one teacher for making a legit complaint to the appropriate board member.</p>
<p>Last year it started seeping into the classroom. The teachers were such a nervous wreck and so unhappy the school started spiraling out of control. Parents got wind of everything and pieced a lot of info together. Parents took a stand demanding something be done. The board members had their heads up their you know whats. The exec members either knew and didn’t care or were truly clueless. </p>
<p>Throughout this teachers were leaving like rats off a ship. The entire math and most of the science department left. (it’s what made us have to leave the school for my sons senior year)</p>
<p>Finally it became clear what was going on and the head of the school and the head of every single division is stepping down (or thrown out I don’t know).</p>
<p>During all of this when the parents were having a fit, the teachers were too cowardly to step up. If as a group they had stuck together and gone to the exec committee things would have changed. It deteriorated over the years.</p>
<p>The school is basically in free fall now. Enrollment down significantly, only a few long term teachers remain, now the leadership is leaving and I don’t know if they can turn it around.</p>
<p>The way they were able to do it was by scaring the teachers individually and not having a process in place for parents to get together in a pta type forum. </p>
<p>Go to the meeting, but you may discover there is a way bigger situation going on than just you and the two other teachers. Remember there is power in numbers.</p>
<p>That is good news about the colleague support. Good luck!</p>