Individuals working in educational leadership positions may find themselves in situations where they must examine the legal and ethical guidelines for determining whether an employee should be retaine

Individuals working in educational leadership positions may find themselves in situations where they must examine the legal and ethical guidelines for determining whether an employee should be retaine 1

Ms. Turner Case Study

Recently the English department supervisor at Delaware Cliffs High School retired and three internal and sixteen external candidates applied for the position. The top four candidates were invited to the second round of interviews, and the top three candidates were selected for the final round of interviews.

Note the following facts related to the interview process:

Prior to the interview process, the English department faculty were surveyed regarding the skills, experience, qualities, and characteristics the administration should be seeking in the new English department supervisor, and this information was used to formulate the standardized interview questions asked of each candidate during each round of interviews.
Ten of the 12 current English department faculty members submitted a letter of recommendation indicating they thought Ms. Turner, a veteran teacher with 30 years of experience as a teacher in a 12-member English department at Delaware Cliffs High School would be the best candidate to fill the position. Mr. Jones, an 8 year veteran in the English department, also applied for the department supervisor position and did not sign the letter of recommendation for Ms. Turner. Several staff members noted that for the past 2 years Mr. Jones has frequently attended district functions with the superintendent of schools and that there seems to be a personal friendship between the two of them.
A hiring committee was used to screen candidates in each round of the interview process. The current school leadership team (principal and assistant principals) consists of six males and two females. Committee members for each round of interviews were as follows:
- Round 1 Committee: Two English teachers, the school principal, one assistant principal, and the math department supervisor.
- Round 2 Committee: The school principal, two assistant principals, and the social studies department supervisor.
- Round 3 Committee: The superintendent of schools and the school principal. Note that the superintendent of schools asked the Round 1 and Round 2 committee members to rank the candidates after each round of interviews. In both the first and second rounds, one candidate, Ms. Turner, was unanimously ranked first by all committee members. Mr. Jones was ranked third by both committees, and an external candidate received the second-place ranking.
As part of the interview process, each candidate selected for the third round of interviews was asked to provide the committee members with copies of their formal classroom observations for the past 3 years. All three candidates were noted as “Highly Effective” teachers and Ms. Turner had the highest summative score of the three finalists for the position.

After a three-week interview process that encompassed three rounds of interviews, the English department faculty at Delaware Cliffs High School was notified that Mr. Jones, who has been employed by the district for the past 8 years, was selected for the role of department supervisor.

Ms. Turner was notified that she had not been selected for the position, and she became very angry. Ms. Turner screamed at the principal and threatened to sue the school district. Ms. Turner also sent an email to the retiring department supervisor, who was her friend, and in it said, “The principal is a clueless fool.” She also shared that she was considering suing the school district. In her rush to send the email, Ms. Turner accidentally copied the school principal on that email.

Based on her earlier verbal outburst and the email, the principal notified Ms. Turner that he would be seeking disciplinary action which could include termination, despite an exceptional personnel file with no disciplinary action and only letters of praise over her past 30 years working in the district.