By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

The "Legal Question of the Week" is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to: legalmailbag@casciac.org.

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Dear Legal Mailbag:

We are off and running with the new teacher evaluation system. But our local teacher union president keeps coming up with new issues. First, she proposed that teachers have the right to have one’s response to an evaluation included in the evaluation file. Then, she proposed that we hire a “neutral” person to adjudicate disputes. Now, she wants teachers to have advance notice of any classroom visit, even informal observations. I told her that we would not be making these changes, and now she is threatening to file a grievance against me and the Board. Can I tell her that teacher evaluation is none of her business?

Signed,
Fearing Death by a Thousand Cuts



Dear Fearing:

Well, even Legal Mailbag would concede that the teachers union and its president have a legitimate interest in the teacher evaluation system. However, the teachers union has a limited role in the process, and it certainly may not validly file a grievance concerning the substantive provisions of the teacher evaluation plan. Under Public Act 13-245, responsibility for the oversight and future revision of teacher evaluation plans is conferred on the board of education and the professional development and evaluation committee (which by statute the board of education must appoint). Teacher evaluation plans are to be developed by mutual agreement between these two parties. The law now goes on to say that, should the parties not agree on a plan, they may adopt the model teacher evaluation and support plan adopted by the State Board of Education, again by mutual agreement. However, if the parties cannot mutually agree to adopt the model plan, then the board of education may adopt (or amend) the plan on its own, as long as the plan is consistent with the state guidelines for teacher evaluation and support plans.

The statutes provide a role for the teachers’ union in two ways. First, in appointing members to the professional development and evaluation committee, boards of education are required to include “representatives” (note the plural) selected by the teachers union. In addition, since 2004, teachers and their unions have had the right to file grievances over the alleged failure to follow the procedures of the teacher evaluation plan. This right to grieve such claims underscores the need to assure that the evaluation procedures are workable and that administrators follow such procedures.