Esta actividad es diseñada para ser utilizada en una clase de la Ley de la Escuela, pero es también apropiado para una clase en Recursos humanos. Teniendo a estudiantes y provee responsable para sus acciones es esencial a un pozo corre la escuela. Los directores de la escuela son preparados para tratar con responsabilidad de estudiante y asuntos de disciplina de estudiante, pero es raramente directores se preparan para tratar con infracciones conductistas por empleados. Este módulo instruccional asegura que el estudiante educativo de liderazgo comprenderá los derechos debidos de proceso, la doctrina de disciplina progresiva, y cómo tener a empleados responsables por documentación. La habilidad crítica que el estudiante educativo de liderazgo obtendrá de esta actividad es la capacidad de escribir una carta completa y legalmente sano de reprimenda o advertencia dirigió a un empleado de la escuela para colocar la base para la acción aún más disciplinaria posible, inclusive despido. La carta de reprimenda o advirtiendo escrito por el estudiante educativo de liderazgo será completo y capaz resiste a averiguación en un tribunal de justicia.

The focus of administrator training is to create educational leaders who can manage a complex organization and the people who staff it. Unfortunately, there are often events that take place which put the administrator in a position where they must hold staff accountable for their actions, including the imposition of disciplinary action. Jacobsen, Sperry and Jensen (1972) reported that teachers who should be dismissed often maintain their employment because school administrators often don't possess the skills or courage to proceed through the disciplinary and dismissal process. Most administrators are not prepared to be effective evaluators or to administer employee discipline (Loup, Garland, Ellet, & Rugutt, 1996). This lack of training in employee discipline is supported by Franklin and Pagan (2006) who reported that a major deterrent to effective employee discipline was a poorly designed system and administrators who are not prepared to effectively administer disciplinary procedures. Bridges (1992) reported that teacher incompetence, which could lead to dismissal, is rarely a single incident event. Teachers who commit acts or violate regulations will often repeat their behaviors unless they are immediately held accountable. It is critical for an administrator to accurately document employee misbehavior to insure that the behavior will not reoccur and if it does reoccur, further disciplinary action up to and including dismissal can be taken. Often a principal may not want to confront a teacher or classified employee in a mistaken effort to avoid disrupting the organization or the employee. This avoidance of employee discipline is referred to by Buttenheim (1997) as the Doctrine of Mistaken Kindness. In an effort to be kind, the principal is not effectively laying a legal foundation for further disciplinary action or possible future dismissal.

In administering employee discipline the most important document is the letter of warning or letter of reprimand which is then presented to the employee and placed in their official personnel file. The basic components of a letter of reprimand were defined by Ramsey (1998) as: a clear statement of the problem and a listing of all deficiencies; a statement of the foundation for the reprimand with references to specific incidences and observations; the negative impact of the employee behavior, the corrective action of behavioral change the employee must make; a list of support interventions the employer will provide including training, mentoring and coaching; and a time by which the employee must conform to the change and demonstrate improved performance. Although most disciplinary action is based upon clearly defined overt behaviors, attitude can also have an effect on the organization and impact behaviors. Flynn (1998) reported that it is extremely difficult to terminate an employee for poor attitude, but poor attitude leads to poor behavior and behavior can be successfully documented. Documentation must include specific examples of behavior and its impact on the workplace. School principals are often over-worked and have little time to conduct extensive evaluations and write lengthy letters of reprimand for which they are ill prepared to compose. Rothstein (2001) reported that schools today are under-staffed at the administrative level with principals often charged with evaluating as many as 30 teachers. Regardless of the challenges and barriers facing the school administrator, to effectively manage the organization and maintain a productive school climate the administrator must be confident in dealing with employee discipline issues and be able to competently write a high quality letter of reprimand or warning.

To insure the educational leadership student has a clear understanding of all the elements needed to document employee misconduct through the writing a comprehensive and legally sound letter of reprimand/warning.

Mrs. Susie Smith is a second grade teacher who has been teaching in the district for the past six years. She was originally hired to work at another school and after three years was transferred to your school. The principal of her previous school acknowledges that he should have never allowed her to receive tenure. You have regularly evaluated her and she has consistently received unsatisfactory evaluations. You have referred her to the Peer Assistance Program and it has brought about almost no improvement. Her classes are disorganized, lessons have gaps of information missing and the students are often confused. At times she just seems oblivious to reality. It's like she doesn't see what's happening around her.

Several times this year she released her students early to lunch. You looked at your calendar and noted that on April 15, 2011, April 27, 2011 and May 18, 2011 you spoke to her and explained that she must wait until the bell rings to release her students. You explained that the campus/lunch supervisors were not yet on duty and there was a liability issue due to a lack of supervision. You also explained that the cafeteria staff was not ready for the students and their early arrival created an undue stress on the staff. Mrs. Smith explained that she was just trying to reward her students for their good behavior and didn't see a problem, but that she wouldn't do it anymore.

Then on May 27, 2011 you get a call from two teachers who reside in classrooms next to Mrs. Smith. They inform you that Mrs. Smith let her students go early to lunch. When the students left their room and walked to the cafeteria, about 8 minutes early, they made a lot of noise that disrupted other classes in the area. This created a problem for Mrs. Smith's neighboring teachers as they complained that their students wanted to know why they couldn't leave early like Mrs. Smith's class. The cafeteria called and said that they run on a very tight timeline and they weren't ready to serve students who arrived 8 minutes early. Since the noon supervisors hadn't arrived yet, the students were rowdy and out of control distracting the cafeteria workers from their jobs. Needless to say, you are not happy about this.

You immediately walk down to Mrs. Smith's room and find her working on math problems with three students. You ask her to send the students on to lunch. When the student's leave you ask her why she let her other students leave early for lunch. Mrs. Smith explains that she had three students that weren't getting the math problems and that she thought if she just had a few minutes alone with them she could help them individually before they left for lunch. Since she didn't want these three students to miss the lunch period or be late to lunch she thought she'd just let the rest of the class go a little early and then she could help the in-need students. You mentioned to her that you had talked to her before about not letting students go early. She said that yes you had mentioned this, but she just didn't see any real problem with it. You are tempted to explode, but you hold your temper and walk away.

You schedule an official meeting with Mrs. Smith and inform her that disciplinary action may result and that she has a right to bring a representative from her union along.

At the meeting you remind Mrs. Smith that you had talked to her on three prior occasions and that you were surprised that she would release her students early. She again states that she was only doing it to help students, which is what her job is all about. She also states that she can't see any harm in what she has done. She says she won't do it again, but then again she said that the last three times! During the meeting the' union representative asked a few questions but is otherwise a little more silent than you usually see her.

You've looked at your contract and after two verbal warnings you can write a letter of warning which will be placed in her personnel file. Now you just have to write the letter.

June 1, 2011

To: Mrs. Susie Smith

From: Hugo Boss, Principal, Happy Valley Elementary School

Subject: Letter of Warning, Incident of May 27, 2011

This Letter of Warning is written in response to an incident that occurred on May 27, 2010 and is written in compliance with Article XXX of the Negotiated Agreement, Disciplinary Action. Prior to the beginning of the lunch period on May 27, 2010, I received calls that your students had been dismissed at least eight (8) minutes prior to the bell, which signifies the beginning of the lunch period, ringing. I immediately went to cafeteria to find approximately twenty-three of your students alone, unsupervised, in the cafeteria prior to the lunch bell ringing. I had to immediately take responsibility for the supervision of your unsupervised students. When a noon supervisor arrived to take over the supervision of your students I immediately went to your classroom to find you working with three students on math problems. After the three students left I asked you why the other students had been dismissed before the bell rang. You stated that you let them go so that you could work with the three students on math problems.

The Faculty Handbook clearly defines the school bell schedule and also states that students are not to be released prior to the ringing of the bells. In checking my calendar I noted that I spoke to you three times this year about releasing students early to lunch. I spoke to you on April 15, 27, 2010 and May 18, 2010 and explained that releasing students early was hazardous to them and exposed the school and district to liability because they were unsupervised. I told you on each occasion that you were not to release your students early to lunch. You stated to me that you wouldn’t release your students early anymore.

Your behavior in this incident has a direct impact on other staff members. I received two calls from teachers who have classes near you who complained that the noise made by your students disrupted their instruction and that their students wanted to be released early too. This was a disruption to these classes that would not have occurred if you had held your students until the bell rang. I also had a call from the cafeteria staff complaining that your unsupervised students were disruptive and made it difficult for them to do their jobs and get ready for the arrival of students for lunch. Since this incident occurred on May 27, 2010 it has become common knowledge among the staff that you did not follow established school procedures. The fact that this incident occurred within a month and a half of me telling you three times not to release your students only underlies the seriousness of this incident.

I know you are aware that students are not to be released prior to the bell ringing because we have talked about it on the three occasions mentioned previously and also at the beginning of the year when we, as a staff, went through the faculty handbook which included a discussion about the bell schedule and student dismissal.

When I asked you why you had released your students early on May 27, 2010 you stated to me that you were doing it so you could work with three students individually on math problems and that by releasing the class early you could help them and that they wouldn’t miss their lunch period. During our conference/meeting on May 30, 2010 you stated that it was your job to help students and that you still didn’t see a major problem in what you had done. Given the fact that I have spoken to you on three prior occasions prior to the incident of May 27, 2010, I must detect a pattern of continued conduct and behavior that has a strong likelihood of recurrence. I must also state that you have no policy or contractual right to release your students early.

I must stress the seriousness of this situation. Your actions have had a negative impact on other staff members and made it difficult for them to perform their jobs. You have also placed this school and the school district at risk. Should one of your students be injured as a result of your actions the school and school district would be liable for those injuries not to mention the needless injury to a student.

In the future you are directed not to release your students prior to the bell ringing unless given specific permission by me, or a member of my administrative staff. I will monitor your classroom on a daily basis to insure that students are not released early and this incident will become a part of your annual evaluation. If you have any questions, at any time, about school procedures you are to ask me as soon as practicable.

Failure to comply with the directives of this Letter of Warning will result in further disciplinary action per Article XXX, up to and including dismissal.

This document will be placed in your personnel file. If you wish to respond to this document either orally or in writing, you may do so within 5 calendar days from the date below. If you submit a written response it will, be attached to this document and placed in your personnel file.

________________ _____________________________

(Date) (Signature, Susie Smith)

________________ ______________________________

(Date) (Signature, Hugo Boss)

Mr. Jose Jones has been a day custodian at Springville Elementary School for ten years. He has done a barely adequate job and seems to know just where the line is between mediocre and poor. Over the last six months you have seen a definite drop off in his job performance in the afternoon. One time you came upon him and it looked as if he may have been sleeping. He just doesn't seem to be "with it." Then, one day you are shocked to find out what is really happening.

You get a phone call from a parent who lives a few blocks away, right across the street from a small neighborhood convenience store. She explained to you that she has been watching out her front window and every day Jose rides a small stingray bicycle (Jose isn't very big and doesn't drive a car) to the little store on his lunch hour (actually it is a half hour). He goes into the store and gets a quart of beer, which he keeps in the brown paper bag. He then sits on the wall next to the store and has a cigarette and the beer for lunch and then rides the stingray back to school.

It would be almost impossible to catch him as he has a pretty good field of vision in all directions, so you get an idea. You give the parent one the schools video cameras and ask her to film him and then go over and pull out the bottle from the trash can where he tosses the bottle and returns to school. Little did you know that this parent is a real prodigy of a film maker. She goes one step further than you suggested and tapes the trash can before lunch to show it is completely empty. On October 16, 2010, she films Jose as he drinks his lunch, tosses the bottle into the trash can and then rides back to school on his stingray. Without stopping the camera she walks it across the street and pans it into the trash can which reveals the can is still empty except for one bottle in a paper bag. You see her hand reach in, pull out the bag, and remove the beer bottle from the bag. Jose likes Budweiser.

The parent then immediately hops in the car and brings you the tape and the empty bottle of beer and its bag. You thank her and then go out looking for Jose. You find Jose and ask him if he has been drinking and he tells you that he hasn't and that he would never drink on the job. You ask to smell his breath and he complies but his breath smells as if he had chomped a whole tin of breath mints. Because of the seriousness of the situation, the Classified Contract, Article XIV, Discipline, allows you to skip most of the progressive steps and you tell him that he is suspended for the remainder of the day and tomorrow, with pay, and that you will meet with him and his union representative on October 18, 2010 at 10:00 am.

On October 18, 2010 you meet with Jose and his Classified Union Field Representative and tell them that it has been reported to you that Jose had been drinking during his lunch break on October 16, 2010. Jose vehemently denies any of it and his field representative vigorously defends him. You then tell them you'd like to share a home movie with them and you also place the beer bottle, in the brown paper bag on your desk. After watching the film you can tell the Classified Union Field Representative is furious with Jose. Jose, being quick on his feet says that he never drank "on the job" because it was off campus and during his lunch hour. The Classified Union Field Representative asks if he can have a moment to speak with Jose. The walls are pretty thin so you can hear that their conversation is a little heated and the Classified Union Field Representative is extremely unhappy that Jose had lied to him. They return and Jose, quite humble, admits his guilt and pleads to be given a second chance and that he not be fired. Being a real bleeding heart liberal you decide that you won't fire him but that you need a very strong letter of reprimand which includes a requirement that Jose attend drug and alcohol counseling.

Now, write a letter of reprimand using as many elements of the "Organization and Content Outline: Letter of Reprimand/Warning" as possible.

Point Total ____________

Additional Comments: