Grant County School
Bylaws & Policies
 

3120 - EMPLOYMENT OF PROFESSIONAL PERSONNEL

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

The employment of professional personnel shall be made by the Board only upon nomination and recommendation of the Superintendent. The Superintendent shall provide the principal at the school at which the professional educator is to be employed an opportunity to interview all qualified applicants and make recommendations to the County Superintendent regarding their employment; however, nothing shall prohibit the timely employment of persons to perform necessary duties. The faculty senate at each school may establish a process for faculty members to interview new prospective professional educators for their school and submit recommendations regarding employment to the principal, who may also make independent recommendations, for submission to the County Superintendent. The faculty senate process shall be chaired by the school principal and must permit the timely employment of persons to perform necessary duties.

In case the Board refuses to employ any or all of the persons nominated, the Superintendent shall nominate others and submit the same to the Board at such time as the Board may direct.

All personnel so nominated and recommended for employment and for subsequent assignment shall meet the certification, licensing, training, and other eligibility classifications as may be required by law and by State Board regulations. In addition to any other information required, the application for any certification or licensing shall include the applicant’s social security number.

Professional personnel employed as deputy, associate, or assistant superintendents by the Board in offices, departments or divisions at locations other than a school and who are directly answerable to the Superintendent shall serve at the will and pleasure of the Superintendent and may be removed by the Superintendent upon approval of the Board. Such professional personnel shall retain seniority rights only in the area or areas in which they hold valid certification or licensure.

"Professional personnel" means persons who meet the certification requirements of the State, licensing requirements of the State or both and includes the professional educator and other professional employees.

 A."Professional educator" has the same meaning as "teacher" as defined in section one (18-1-1), article one, chapter eighteen of the W. Va. Code. Professional educators shall be classified as:
  1."Classroom teacher" means a professional educator who has a direct instructional or counseling relationship with students, spending the majority of his/her time in this capacity.
  2."Principal" means a professional educator who, as agent of the County Board, has responsibility for the supervision, management, and control of a school or schools within the guidelines established by the County Board. The major area of the responsibility shall be the general supervision of all the schools and all school activities involving students, teachers, and other school personnel;
  3."Supervisor" means a professional educator who, whether by this or other appropriate title, is responsible for working primarily in the field with professional and other personnel in instructional and other school improvement; and
  4."Central Office administrator" means a superintendent, associate superintendent, assistant superintendent and other professional educators, whether by these or other appropriate titles, who are charged with the administering and supervising of the whole or some assigned part of the total program of the countywide school system;
 B."Other professional employee" means a person from another profession who is properly licensed and is employed to serve the public schools and includes a registered professional nurse, licensed by the West Virginia Board of Examiners for registered professional nurses and employed by a county board, who has completed either a two (2) year (sixty-four (64) semester hours) or a three (3) year (ninety-six (96) semester hours) nursing program.

Spouses of Board members may be employed by the Board, as principals or teachers provided the Board member whose spouse is being considered for employment does not participate in any way in the discussion or vote on such employment, and does not subsequently discuss or vote upon discipline, salary level, or other matter directly affecting the employee. Further, The Board member shall leave the Board meeting during the discussion and vote of such.

The Board will not employ the unemancipated children or, except for a spouse, a bona fide dependents (IRS criteria) of any member of the Board. The Board may employ a member’s siblings, parents, or in-laws, provided that such siblings, parents, and/or in-laws may not be dependents of any member of the Board.

Applications for employment will not be accepted from any current Board member. If a Board member wishes to apply for a position, his/her resignation must be accepted by the Board prior to submitting an application and circumstances must be such as to avoid the Board member’s apparent use of his/her authority or influence as a Board member to secure the employment position. Employment, as used herein, shall include positions for which no compensation will be paid.

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

No candidate for employment as a professional staff member shall receive recommendation for such employment without having proffered visual evidence of proper licensing or that application for such licensing is in process. Said licensing shall meet the minimum requirements of State law for the position for which s/he is being recommended. The Superintendent shall request an appropriate criminal background check regarding the prospective employee prior to making any recommendation to the Board. Additionally, if a teacher is employed in good faith on the anticipation that s/he is eligible for a certificate and it is later determine that the teacher was not eligible, the State Superintendent of School may authorize payment by the County Board of Education to the teacher for a time not exceeding three (3) school months or the date of notification of his/her ineligibility, whichever shall occur first.

A county board of education shall make decisions affecting the hiring of professional personnel other than classroom teachers on the basis of the applicant with the highest qualifications.

The County Board shall make decisions affecting the hiring of new classroom teachers on the basis of the applicant with the highest qualifications.

In judging qualifications for hiring professional personnel other than classroom teachers and new classroom teachers, consideration shall be given to each of the following:

 A.appropriate certification and/or licensure
 B.amount of experience relevant to the position; or, in the case of a classroom teaching position, the amount to teaching experience in the subject area
 C.the amount of course work and/or degree level in the relevant field and degree level generally
 D.academic achievement
 E.relevant specialized training
 F.past performance evaluations conducted pursuant to WV Code 18A-2-12
 G.other measures or indicators upon which the relative qualifications of the applicant may fairly be judged

The Board is free, within its discretion, to assign whatever weight it wishes to the above seven (7) factors as long as it considers each factor.

If one (1) or more permanently employed instructional personnel apply for a classroom teaching position and meet the standards set forth in the job posting, the County Board of Education shall make decisions affecting the filling of such positions on the basis of the following criteria with each criterion being given equal weight:

 A.appropriate certification and/or licensure
 B.total amount of teaching experience
 C.the existence of teaching experience in the required certification area
 D.degree level in the required certification area
 E.specialized training directly related to the performance of the job as stated in the job description
 F.receiving an overall rating of satisfactory in evaluations over the previous two (2) years and
 G.seniority;

If an applicant with the most seniority is not selected for the position, upon the request of the applicant, a written statement of reasons shall be given to the applicant with suggestions for improving the applicant’s qualifications.

The Superintendent shall prepare administrative guidelines for the recruitment and selection of all professional staff.

REQUIREMENTS FOR TITLE I TEACHERS

All teachers hired after the first day of the 2002-2003 school year for a Title I supported program must be "highly qualified" as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). By the end of the 2005-2006 school year, all teachers delivering instruction in the core academic subject areas must meet the NCLB definition of highly qualified teacher.

The core academic subjects include the arts, reading/language arts, English, foreign language, mathematics, science, civics and government, economics, geography, and history. West Virginia defines the arts as dance, music, theater, and visual art.

"Highly Qualified" means:

 A.Regular Teacher
  1.a teacher who meets WVBE requirements for the professional teaching certificate;
  2.meets state certification requirements, including those certified through a WVBE approved alternative route to certification program, with an endorsement(s) in the core academic subject(s) being taught; and
  3.demonstrates subject matter competency by:
   a.passing the State competency test for which a state minimum score was established by the WVBE in the content area(s); or
   b.having an academic major or advanced credential(s) in the subject taught as defined WV Board of Education Policy 5202;
   c.satisfying West Virginia's HOUSSE definition as defined below.
 B.Title I Reading Teacher – According to the No Child Left Behind guidelines, a Title I reading specialist is considered highly qualified if s/he holds certification in elementary education or multi-subjects. For State certification as a reading teacher, the WVBE requires a master’s degree in reading specialist, completion of a graduate level reading specialist program, a reading authorization, or completion of a reading endorsement program on a professional teaching certificate.
 C.Vocational Teacher – Vocational teachers who teach any core academic course as defined in the NCLB Act are required to meet the definition of highly qualified teacher.
 D.Special Education Teacher – A special education teacher who is responsible for providing instruction and course credit for any course included in the No Child Left Behind defined core curriculum for students with exceptionalities must hold a minimum of a bachelor's degree, must meet State certification requirements with the appropriate endorsement in special education, and demonstrate subject matter competency in order to be considered highly qualified. The No Child Left Behind Act requires that all teachers be highly qualified by 2005-2006. If a special education teacher does not hold the appropriate content specialization, s/he must act as a consultative special education teacher in a collaborative role in the planning and delivery of instruction with a teacher(s) who holds the appropriate content specialization.
 

The State Board of Education now provides an alternative route to certification through a content endorsement in English, general science, mathematics, and/or social studies. The certification program results in the completion of an academic major (twenty-one (21) semester hours) of coursework in the appropriate content area. The twenty-one (21) semester hours consist of fifteen (15) hours of content-specific coursework or equivalent professional development, three (3) hours of content-specific methods, and three (3) hours of reading in specific-content area. There are certain prerequisites for enrollment in the alternative route to certification for a general education endorsement, including:
  1.possession of a minimum of a bachelors degree, with a minimum overall 2.5 GPA from a regionally accredited institution of higher education in a subject area taught in the public schools of West Virginia;
  2.meeting the proficiency scores on the State competency exam(s) in preprofessional skills and or qualifies for an exemption; and
  3.meeting the proficiency score(s) on the State competency exam(s) in content or qualifies for an exemption in the area for which s/he is seeking certification or provides acceptable documentation of related life experiences to the entity providing the program for those content areas that do not have a required competency exam;
  4.completion of a West Virginia State Police and FBI background check and receipt of approval by the WVDE.

HIGH OBJECTIVE UNIFORM STATE STANDARD OF EVALUATION (HOUSSE)

High Objective Uniform State Standard of Evaluation (HOUSSE) is an optional method of documenting subject matter competency in (a core academic subject) (core academic subjects) for a teacher in order to meet the definition of highly qualified teacher. Section I of the Teacher Evaluation Form (Form 3220 F2) identified in WVBE Policy 5310, Performance Evaluation of School Personnel, that addresses a teacher's knowledge of the subject has been designated as West Virginia's HOUSSE. A general education teacher not new to the professional and a special education teacher eligible to use HOUSSE as defined in WVBE Policy 5202 may use a rating of "meets standards" or higher on Section I of the Teacher Evaluation Form (WVBE Policy 5310) to document his/her subject matter competency in order to meet the definition of highly qualified teacher in the content area being evaluated that year. Special Education Teachers who must rely on HOUSSE to demonstrate subject matter competency may use WVBE-approved professional development for the purpose of demonstrating subject matter competence.

REQUIREMENTS FOR TEACHERS IN COUNTIES RECEIVING TITLE I FUNDING

By the 2005-2006 school year, all teachers in the County receiving Title I funds shall be "highly qualified" as described above. The Board must have a plan and show annual progress towards meeting these teacher qualification requirements.

WV State Board of Education Policy 5202 and 5310
WV Code 18-1-1, 18-4-10(2), 18A-1-1, 18A-2-1, 18A-2-3, 18A-2-12, 18A-4-7a and b
20 U.S.C. 6319
20 U.S.C. 7801