Updates on Ed Eval

Dear Members,

You may have noticed there was a mistake in Baseline Edge regarding the Educator Plans due on December 6. Per CBA, the Plan is "owned" by the evaluator, and is thus created by the evaluator, with a follow up signature and response from the educator. In Baseline, the owner of the plan was erroneously assigned to the educator--which meant it was not visible to the evaluator charged with completing it by next Friday. This mistake was brought to the attention of Admin during our monthly Joint Labor-Management meeting. Evaluators were sent instructions to make the change for the educator plans they are responsible for creating. If any educator added information to the Plan form, that information will be preserved, but the evaluator may choose to edit it. As a result of this mistake admin asked for an additional 10 days to complete the plan, and the WEA agreed. All other deadlines will remain in effect.

The next step in the evaluation process is the first, of at least one, unannounced observation, for all teachers on 1-year plans, that must be completed by December 15th. These observations are different from those done under the previous evaluation system. They will likely be much shorter, but at least 5-10 minutes. You will know it was an actual observation, and not just an administrator walk-through because within 3-5 days you will receive feedback from the evaluator. The feedback may be posted to Baseline, or you may see a "rough draft" version sent via email or delivered personally.If the feedback results in one or more standards being judged unsatisfactory, then there must be a follow up 30 minute observation within 30 school days. This observation will be unannounced, but can not take place any sooner than 2 days after the feedback from the original observation has been given. If you wish to read the language yourself refer to section 11 starting on page 12. Each Unit A member was sent a copy via school email on September 12. It is also posted to the Weymouth Public Schools site under the school committee tab.

The next step after evaluations is the Examination of Artifacts. All evidence must be posted by January 5th. Garry Pelletier and Laura Stevenson have a training session planned on how to post evidence to Baseline Edge that will take place during our monthly staff meetings in December.

Lastly, on this Thanksgiving, I am so very thankful for all of our building reps, executive board members, officers, and special committee members. I am especially pleased that the new committee positions are all filled, and will start their work next month. The Time Committee is now represented by WEA Members: Maggie Murphy (point), Doreen Feeney, Lynn Howard, and Sarah Hickey. The JLM for Ed Eval is now represented by WEA Members: Cheryl Taylor (point), Diane Cohen, Suzanne Ferrari, and Marty McIsaac. I am also thankful for the Unit D bargaining team who will begin training on December 9th, and will start negotiating their contract shortly thereafter.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend! As always, please share this information with colleagues whose contact information is not in the data base.

Thank you!
Mary Lou