Northwest Indiana Discussion

Here are the highlights of the meeting:

All board members were present.

Special presentation:

Theresa Mayerik and David Safstrom, the co-chairs of the new School City Of Hammond Teacher Evaluation Program(STEP), gave a presentation on the new process to evaluate Certified Teachers in the SCH. They will be evaluated a minimum of twice a year, both times as one announced, and one random evaluation in the classrooms. 4 Teachers are now Consultant Teachers, who for the most part, will no longer be teaching, but doing evaluations on other Teachers. A support system is in place for those Teachers who are struggling with classroom issues. Teachers are in 2 classifications. All Teachers hired before July 1, 2012 will be considered "Established Teachers", and those hired after July 1,2012 will be considered "Probationary Teachers". There is a differant criteria being put in place to release the Teachers, depending on their classification, if their classroom performance is not up to standard.

Calender:

Regular School Board meetings:

Wednesday September 26, 2012 6pm 41 Williams Street
Monday October 8, 2012 6pm 41 Williams Street
Monday October 22, 2012 6pm 41 Williams Street

My Take:

Interesting program. We will have to do a wait and see how it pans out. If a Teacher will be released from their contract for poor performance, the union regs will have to be tweeked to allow this.
After the meeting, I was told by a member of the public, there was a possible conflict of interest for a board member on the personnel report vote. The board member should have declared a conflict of interest, or abstained from voting on this particular section.