EMPLOYMENT OF PROFESSIONAL STAFF | Policy Manual | Pardeeville Area School District

3120- EMPLOYMENT OF PROFESSIONAL STAFF

The Board recognizes that it is vital to the successful operation of the District that positions created by the Board be filled with highly-qualified and competent personnel.

All employees other than the District Administrator or support staff members (Policy 0100 – Definitions) are considered professional employees.

The Board shall approve the employment, and also fix the compensation, and establish the term of employment for each professional staff member employed by this District. Teachers may only be employed by contract, and full-time teachers may only be employed following a majority vote of the full membership of the Board or as required or permitted by law. The Board shall approve the employment of any employee required by law to be employed only following the majority vote of the full membership of the Board.

The District Administrator may establish the terms of employment and description of job duties for each professional staff member employed by this District, and shall recommend to the Board for approval contracts for any teachers employed by the District. The Board shall be solely responsible for the approval of the employment of any administrator or teacher as required by State law and shall be employed only by a majority vote of the full membership of the Board. Compensation shall be fixed by an established compensation structure or Board action.

When any recommended candidate has been rejected by the Board, the District Administrator shall make a substitute recommendation.

Relatives of staff members may be employed by the Board, however, arrangements should be made so that the staff member being employed is not placed in a position in which s/he would be supervised directly by, or supervise directly, the relative staff member.

Any professional staff member's intentional misstatement of fact material to his/her qualifications for employment or the determination of salary shall be considered by this Board to constitute grounds for dismissal.

The employment of professional staff members prior to approval by the Board is authorized when their employment is required to maintain continuity in the educational program, except as prohibited by law, including the employment of full-time teachers and certain administrative employees on a substitute basis, pending Board approval. Employment shall be recommended to the Board at the next regular meeting.

No candidate for employment to the professional staff shall receive a recommendation for such employment without having provided visual evidence of proper certification or that application for such certification is in process.

For those staff members who will be instructing children in reading and/or language arts in pre-school and/or grades kindergarten through sixth grade, their certificate must verify successful completion of instruction that includes the teaching of phonics.

There must also be verification that a satisfactory background check has been conducted by the Department of Public Instruction or appropriate State agency.

Any person who signs a contract to teach in the District must, within ten (10) days after signing the contract, file in the office of the District Administrator a statement showing the date of expiration and the grade and character of the certificate or license held, or evidence of a timely filed extension of such certification with the Department of Public Instruction. Only teachers that hold the appropriate license, permit or accepted application for extension of certificate for the subject matter and grade level taught shall be considered qualified.

The District Administrator shall prepare procedures for the recruitment and selection of all professional staff which includes reporting newly hired employees to the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

DISTRICT SUPPORTED ALTERNATIVE LICENSING PROGRAMS

As part of the Board’s efforts to provide the highest quality education for all students in all subject areas, the Board authorizes the District Administrator, where appropriate, to support teacher licensure opportunities.

EXPERIENCED-BASED LICENSURE FOR TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

"Technical education" means technology education and any technology-related occupation.

"Vocational education" means agriculture, child services, clothing services, food services, housing and equipment services, family and consumer education, family and consumer services, home economics-related occupations, healthcare-related occupations, trade specialist, business education, business and office, and marketing education.

The District Administrator may support the application for an experience-based license for a teacher to teach in a technical and/or vocational education field, provided that the individual can be credited with at least 100 points using the following system:

The following points for experience in a technical field (must comprise at least twenty-five (25) of the required 100 points):
1. For a bachelor's degree in any science, technology, engineering, or mathematics field and any teaching license or permit, or in a field related to the vocational subject, 100 points.
2. For a bachelor's degree in any science, technology, engineering, or mathematics field, or in a field related to the vocational subject seventy-five (75) points.
3. For a bachelor's degree in a field other than those described in numbers 1. and 2., above, sixty-five (65) points.
4. For industry or vocational certification, ninety (90) points.
5. For industry experience in a trade or technical field or vocation, five (5) points per forty (40) hours worked up to a maximum of ninety (90) points.
6. For an internship in a trade or technical field or in the vocation, twenty-five (25) points.
7. For being mentored in a trade or technical skill or in the vocation by a colleague or a Wisconsin Technology Education Association or a recognized vocational association approved mentor, twenty-five (25) points.
8. For an apprenticeship in a trade or technical field or in the vocation, five (5) points per forty (40) hours worked up to a maximum of ninety (90) points.
The following points for pedagogical experience (must be at least twenty-five (25) out of the 100 required points):
1. For a bachelor's degree in technical or technology education, 100 points.
2. For a bachelor's degree in a field other than any science, technology, engineering, mathematics, or technical or technology education field, or in a subject related to the vocation and any teaching license or permit, seventy-five (75) points.
3. For credit earned at an accredited institution of higher education or technical college, three (3) points per credit up to a maximum of seventy-five (75) points for technical or technology education courses and science, technology, engineering, or mathematics courses or any field related to the vocation and three (3) points per credit up to a maximum of seventy-five (75) points for education and pedagogical courses.
4. For completing at least 100 hours of training in pedagogy, five (5) points per fifty (50) hours up to a maximum of seventy-five (75) points.

Individuals who have sufficient points may be employed by the District under an experience-based license provided that the District Administrator implements a professional development curriculum for the teacher to follow during the three (3) year period of the initial license. The District Administrator shall monitor the teacher’s progress in fulfilling the curriculum.

PROFESSIONAL TEACHING PERMIT

The District Administrator may support the teaching license application of an individual to teach a course in engineering, mathematics, science, computer science, art, music, or world languages that do not yet hold a professional teacher license provided that the following criteria are met:

The District is experiencing a shortage in the availability of teachers with professional teaching certification in the subject area and is unable to fill a position with an acceptable licensed teacher.
The individual holds at least a bachelor’s degree in engineering, mathematics, science, computer science, art, music, or world languages.
The individual possesses at least five (5) years of verifiable industry experience in the same field as the bachelor’s degree.
The individual has completed at least 100 hours of pedagogical training in an alternative teacher licensing program approved by DPI.
The District Administrator shall implement a plan to provide supervision of the teacher by a teacher that holds regular professional teaching licensure during the two (2) year period of the permit.
The hiring of the teacher under this alternative licensure program will not displace a regularly licensed teacher in the District.