2. The Employment Interview
• Use a panel to conduct.
• Resist judgement until the interview is over.
• Allot time inbetween interviews to complete an evaluation of each
candidate.
• Use a competency based scoring system.
• Train panel to avoid racial and other bias.
• Assessment of candidates based on factual evidence of past performance,
behavior, and achievements.
• Questions should lead candidates to tell more.
• A record should be maintained regarding why each candidate was or was
not recommended.
• Conduct a thorough reference check for all applicants under serious
consideration.
• A background check should be initiated to ensure students are not
exposed to undesirable personnel.
3. Employment Applications
• Should not request info on: race, age, birth
date, birth place, national origin, marital
status, number of children, gender, height,
weight, home ownership, religious affiliation,
type of military discharge, photography.
4. Hiring Discrimination
• School districts that develop a well-defined
and focused process that is legally defensible
tend to have a greater opportunity to attract
and retain quality personnel while minimizing
legal challenges. Legal challenges do arise
during the employment process.
5. Summary
• A district that projects a professional image and
has well-defined processes to support its mission
is generally more appealing to prospective
candidates.
• It is important to conduct a well-organized and
legally defensible interview process.
• Efforts should be made to recruit and retain the
most diversified pool of qualified candidates the
district can afford to compensate.
6. Dismissal for Cause
• Dismissing a teacher for cause is a serious
matter, since the teacher has an inherent
property right to hold the employment
position. State statutes prescribe permissible
grounds on which dismissal is based. The
burden of proof resides with the board of
education to show cause based on a
preponderance of evidence.
7. Insubordination
• “the willful failure or inability to obey a
reasonable and valid administrative directive.”
• Documented evidence of the alleged
misconduct with further evidence that the
administrative order or directive was valid.
8. Neglect of Duty
• “a teacher fails to execute assigned duties.”
• Intentional or unintentional based on
ineffective performance.
• Not measured against a standard of perfection
but against the standard required of otehrs
performing the same or similar duties.
9. Immortality
• “conduct that violates the ethics of a particular
community.”
• Any act or behavior that substantially interferes
with the education of children and has a direct
impact on the teacher’s fitness to teach.
• Determination of whether the teacher’s alleged
conduct adversely affects teaching performance
and effectiveness.
• Immortality is not considered unconstitutionally
vague in most jurisdictions.
10. Examples of Teacher morality
• Dishonesty
• Pregnant and unmarried
• Unmarried teachers of the opposite sex living
together
• Homosexuality
• Adulterous conduct
• Sex change operations
• Sexual advances toward students
• Related behaviors to the above
11. Incompetency
• “inefficiency, a lack of skill, inadequate knowledge of
subject matter, inability or unvillingness to teach the
curricula, failure to work effectively with colleagues
and parents, failure to maintain discipline,
mismanagement of the classroom, and attitudinal
deficiencies.”
• Characterized by the courts as a lack of knowledge,
skill, intelligence, and, in some instances,
professionalism.
• Requires a systematic and continuous evaluation
process with feedback designed to assist the teacher in
improving performance.
12. Mortality
• Questions involving teacher morality often involve
personal behavior and lifestyle issues, as communities
have developed expectations that teachers serve as
positive role models for their students, particularly in
such areas as dress, grooming, and moral and social
behavior.
• Eight states currently prohibit discrimination on the
basis of sexual orientation: California, Connecticut,
Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey,
Vermont, and Washington recognize the rights of
individuals to determine their particular lifestyles.
13. Criminal Activity
• Charges usually result in dismissal, based on
general unfitness, immorality, and
unprofessional conduct.
• Revocation of the teaching certificate also may
be appropriate, especially in cases where a
conviction occurs.
• The standard of proof is higher to sustain a
conviction than it is to dismiss a teacher.
14. Financial Exigency
• The district faces a bona fide reduction in its
budget that results in abolishing certain
employment positions.
• Reduction in student enrollment.
• Demonstrate:
• 1. A bona fide financial crisis exists.
• 2. A rational relationship between the benefits
derived from dismissal and the alleviation of the
financial crisis exists.
• 3. A fair and uniform set of due process procedures
is followed in dismissal decisions.
15. Good or Just Cause
• Designed to provide the district broader
latitude in dismissing teachers for causes not
specifically identified in state statutes.
