DVISD Employee Handbook

This is a case study analysis of The New Principal: Managing Human Resources by Jane A. MacDonald (2006). This case study focuses on issues a first year principal may face when entering her school for the first time. Ms. Vera Zola was not only a first year principal; she was also new to the school district. In her previous role as assistant principal, she was in a neighboring school district. In her new district, the Suburban Public School District (SPS), there were approximately 11,000 students enrolled (MacDonald, 2006). Ms. Zola was assigned to Roma Elementary, one of six elementary schools in the district. There were two middle schools and two high schools. Approximately 80% of high school graduates continued on to higher education or a trade school. Community members had diverse cultural backgrounds and lifestyles, and the community was growing.

As a school we are required to have policies and procedures for all the staff/adults and

Lopatka (2014) explains that in composing handbook rules and policies using creative drafting employers find innovative ways to persuasively appeal to the emotional and mental senses of employees, with the goal of protecting the employer’s legitimate interests (p.74). By standard, personnel handbooks serve as written documentation of workplace policies that govern expected behavior and procedures within the workplace. However, in some cases, handbooks formulate contracts between the employer and employee.

I am very interested in a career field in Human Resources. For this paper, I interviewed Lillian Mannino who is a Human Resource and Personnel Manager at the UC San Diego Graduate School of Global Policy and Strategy. As a manager, Lillian serves as the link between the graduate school’s management and its employees. She is in charge of overseeing recruitment, employee relations, policy development, payroll, and benefits. Personnel management is a special branch of management that is focus on the concerns of employees at work and their relationship with the organization. Her educational experiences consist of a bachelor degree at UC San Diego in Management Science and a professional Human Resources certificate from UCSD Extension. She has been working in the academic administration for almost ten years and earned her current position as manager through climbing up the ladder. She started off working in this field as a student affairs officer then was promoted to an administrative specialist. Her prior work experience paved a path for her to build up professional experience as well as a solid network within the UCSD administrative system.

In 1980, a precedent was set in a Michigan court case involving a man named Charles Toussaint who was suing his employer, BlueCross Blue Shield, for wrongful termination based on the guidelines set in the employee manual (Alfred and Bertsche 33). The manual stated that employees would only be terminated for just cause, and the court decided that Blue Cross had violated the agreements in the employee manual (34). The court also ruled that even with Blue Cross’s efforts to provide a document that “issued non-binding guidelines” the employee manual was a contract and Toussiant was wrongfully terminated (34). After the precedent set by this case many employers and employees for that matter were reviewing their employee manuals for the type of

However, I believe that there were more policies that could have been added to the handbook that affects many people, and a few policies could have been explained in further detail. The policies that stood out to me were the “Open door policy”, “Proprietary Information Policy”, “Anti discrimination policy”, “Sexual Harassment”, and the Policy on the use of Personal use of computers. There are a few pros and cons for each policy, if you were to take my opinions that I will be providing in the summary below into consideration, your organization may be able to combat issues that may arise in the future, and answer service member questions and ease concerns.

Every person in the organization with a disability has a different need. Organizations work around the clock in many occasions to comply with the accommodations of each individual in the organization. Educating staff in how to comply with the requirements of ADA can be quite challenging. Organizations are afraid to hire, retain or accommodate workers with disabilities because of lack of awareness of disability and accommodations issues, concern over costs, and legal liability (Kaye et al., 2011). It is therefore the responsibility of the organization to educate management about the law and train on disabilities and accommodations. The guidelines, regulations, and building codes should be implemented to make the facility more welcoming and inviting to workers with disabilities (Stryker, R. (2013).

The Framework for Teaching by Charlotte Danielson has been developed through research as a guideline for current and future teacher’s professional responsibilities in and out of the classroom. Districts throughout the country are using this framework to assess and guide their teachers to build successful methods of planning and preparations, setting up the classroom environment, instruction and professional responsibilities. Each of these domains builds off of each other to form a successful learning environment. Domain 3 focuses more specifically on instruction using communication, discussions, engagement, assessments and flexibility.

An effective school leader possesses skills to create, implement, evaluate, improve and share a staff development plan. I met with Ben Rhodes, Sandy Creek Middle School’s principal, to interview him on the specific elements of his yearly staff development plan. We began with the design process focusing on the district and school goals. District goals include improving literacy across the content areas in reading and writing, Guaranteed and Viable Curriculum (GVC). Guaranteed and Viable Technology (GVT), and Closing the Achievement Gap (Equity in Excellence). Using a variety of assessments to focus on specific needs, Ben Rhodes and Mary Sonya, our Pupil Achievement Specialist, examined CSAP, Explore, MAP, and RAD data. They use the

METHOD The study is descriptive, qualitative research on teachers as they attempted to meet new standards. Specifically it is a case study of an elementary school faculty, done in an attempt to

Bohlander and S. Snell. (2011). Managing Human Resources, 6th Edition. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Nelson Education Ltd., p. 175.

As an experienced educator, the candidate is proficient in all professional dispositions, however, there is always room for improvement. The candidate believes in life-long learning, and is open to enhancing her comprehension of all dispositions. An area the candidate is eager to improve is ongoing reflections. Recently, the candidate has had the opportunity to reflect more with the implementation of a school-wide literacy plan within her organization. Teachers are required to submit samples of student writing along with a teacher reflection on the success of the assignment.

The work place environment must revolved around conditions that will help cultivate positive growth and “psychological success.” The recipe for this success should be centered around a central mission that everyone believes in. As well as, providing ample time to grow professionally through relevant hands-on training. In education circle around the country, districts establish guidelines and expectations

Employees are an important asset to the functions of an organization whose growth is expanded through employee development. With the use of training that is focused on the needs of the organization and the personal career goals of the employee, employee development combines both to provide good skills, abilities and knowledge. Improving the skills, abilities and knowledge of employees enables the organization to experience an increase in productivity and efficiency.

When it comes to following school policies every teacher should be aware of what is in the student handbook. This tool is used to shed light on the different policies that the district holds parents, students and teachers accountable to. I am going to be honest and say before this essay I had not looked at the Round Lake Area School District 116 School Handbook. The reason why I have not looked at the handbook is the fact that almost all handbooks spell out the same policies. In this essay I will discuss the different policies and how I think my school district could improve on their policies.