How do you use your school advisory committee or leadership team in carrying out the mission of your school/district?
1. Title Page
2. Page 2 – Description of your school, site, or job and that of the person you are interviewing. The following information is required and should include a minimum of two detailed paragraphs:
a. Name of school and county, school district, and state
b. Name of the interviewee including his/her title and responsibilities (can be anonymous/Dr. X)
c. School setting – urban, rural, inner city; number of students; socioeconomic status of students;
d. Your position and grade or subject taught.
3. Page 3 – List the 20 questions you submitted to your supervisor, principal, or superintendent of schools before the interview. You are to use the 15 questions plus 5 questions developed by you. (NOTE: If interviewing central office personnel, etc. you should modify/customize the questions accordingly. Each response should be a minimum of two sentences. Candidates should encourage the interviewee to expand upon his/her responses if they are too brief or cryptic.
4. Page 4 and forward – Type the question number and the question in bold. Below the question type the supervisor’s responses to that question. Candidates should encourage the interviewee to expand upon his/her responses if they are too brief.
1. How do you use your school advisory committee or leadership team in carrying out the mission of your school/district?
2. Please cite one case where you had to consider both teacher and student rights.
3. What is the most difficult aspect of your job when it comes to teacher employment, supervision and/or constitutional law?
4. Have you ever recommended a teacher or support employee for termination or non-reappointment? Why? If yes, why and how did you handle the situation? If no, what did you do to avoid the termination or non-reappointment situation?
5. Have you ever had an employee or employees file a grievance with the union or, in the absence of a union, with the school district or state? If yes, why and how did you handle the grievance? What contract section or legal right was alleged to be violated?
6. Could you describe a recently encountered conflict with which you had to deal?
7. What is your policy on teacher’s rights to speak on controversial issues in the classroom?
8. How do you inform parents of their rights to inspect student records?
9. How would you respond to the following: A staff member tweets on several occasions to complain about the number of students assigned to each of his classes and the lack of administrative support for student discipline at the school.
10. How would you respond to the following: A teacher is a widely popular teacher in your school? Everybody loves her, and students seek her advice on a variety of personal issues 24 hours a day, seven days a week through her Facebook account. She freely admits to having more than 350 current students as Facebook “friends.” Several parents have raised questions about her private one-on-one Facebook interactions as well as her advice to vulnerable students.
11. How would you respond to the following: School band teacher Fred Smith writes a letter to the editor of the local newspaper outlining his concerns about district financial support for band students?
12. How would you respond to the following: One of your teachers joins a local political group? The group advocates for reduced taxes, smaller local government, the abolition of the local school board, and the legalization and taxation of marijuana. Some concern was expressed to you by a school board member about Michele’s association with the political group.
13. How would you respond to the following: You sit in on the rehearsal of a school play? The rehearsal indicates that the play centers around a sexual encounter between two naïve 18-year-olds and the consequences of the encounter on their lives 10-years later. The sexual encounter scene is very explicit. After voicing your concern the teacher protests saying academic freedom trumps your decision.
14. How would you respond to the following: A teacher has a Twitter account and a
Facebook page? She only tweets or posts to her Facebook page from home on her personal computer. She does not access either account while at school. She has one student, 19-year old Susanne, listed as a ‘friend’ on Facebook.
15. How would you respond to the following: You receive a phone call from a parent with allegations of sexual misconduct on the part of a teacher in the school?
Questions 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 are your questions. You may ask additional questions if you wish. Be certain to include them in your report.
5. From your experience in school law and reading Chapters 11 and 12 in Stader, describe how your interviewee’s responses to Questions 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 were/were not appropriate and legally defensible. How would you have handled the situation differently? Address each question and his/her response individually in a minimum of one paragraph each.
6. Provide your impressions of the interview by responding to the following questions.
Type the four questions and provide your response below each. Please note that your responses should be a minimum of one paragraph each.
a. What did you learn about the decisions your principal or supervisor principal or supervisor has to make involving school law?
b. Did any of your supervisor’s responses (or reactions) surprise you during the interview?
c. What did you learn about the complexities of applying law in a school environment?
d. What does your principal/supervisor have to do to apply law properly in a school related environment?
7. References – Cite all of your references in alphabetical order and follow the current
APA format.
