When two is too many but one is not enough, what’s just right?

State statute has changed one word in Powell’s evaluation of district staff policy in order to take the burden off of administrators. But, it is the most complicated word in the entire policy, Superintendent Jay Curtis said. 

Previously, new staff have had to be evaluated at least twice by an administrator when they are up for a continuous contract that will last two to three years. The statute change drops the required amount of evaluations for a continuous contract to at least one.

The nuances of the policy was discussed at a board meeting last month. 

“Here’s why it’s complicated. Because I don’t feel [and] our administrative team does not feel that one evaluation is sufficient to adequately make a decision on whether or not a teacher should continue teaching with us in that initial phase,” Curtis said.

However, they do agree that two evaluations done the way they have been historically can put a time strain on building administrators.

“We agreed that there might be a better way,” Curtis said. “We have not yet agreed on what that better way is.”

It is not uncommon to see principals spending late nights and weekends at school to complete the two evaluations that are a “tremendous burden,” Curtis said. 

Some alternative options that have been floated included replacing the first evaluation with four walkthroughs, including coaching and documentation. While valuable, a peer evaluation would not be an appropriate tool for these evaluations, Curtis said, when asked by board chair Kim Dillivan. The evaluator must have an administrative endorsement. 

All the district technically has to do is to change the wording to comply with statute, additional evaluation procedures are not required.

“But, if we want to do things right we want to do things and make sure that we’re making the best decision for our kids, that is not the right answer,” Curtis said. 

Without additional procedures in writing it could be difficult to carry them out due to the day-to-day workload, he said.

The policy was approved for second reading at the Oct. 9 board meeting with the wording amended to note that each teacher being evaluated for a contract must be evaluated “at least once annually.” Additional procedure was not added in this version of the policy which will undergo another draft before being sent to the board on third reading — at this point the policy will be approved or denied. 

The policy approved on second reading can be viewed by visiting pcsd1.org and navigating to the Oct. 9 school board meeting via the electronic school board link.