Scranton teachers evaluating their principals is a meaningless, unauthorized process that could open teachers up to civil litigation, according to a lawyer representing Scranton School District administrators.
As the teachers union proceeds with plans to evaluate school principals, the lawyer for the Scranton Association of Administrators and Supervisors calls the action a "roadblock to progress" in the district.
"If they think it's something that's going to be helpful, it's not," attorney Frank J. Tunis Jr. said Monday. "The last thing we're going to accept is to have the people we supervise evaluate us."
The Scranton Federation of Teachers is now circulating principal evaluation forms in two buildings: John F. Kennedy and Frances Willard elementary schools. The union plans to expand the effort to all of the district's schools, and to all administrators, including the superintendent. In November, teachers passed a vote of "no confidence" in district administrators.
The evaluation forms include questions with a ranking scale and are anonymous. Teachers will receive the evaluation results first, and the union will decide who else will have access to them. The forms have not been authorized by the district, and the union may be the only in the region, and beyond, to try evaluating principals.
In a letter sent last week to union President Rosemary Boland and provided to The Times-Tribune, Mr. Tunis warns that teachers could face civil litigation if the survey results become public and there is disparaging or defamatory information about supervisors included.
"While you think this unilateral process may be helpful, it is not. This is the kind of tactic that will only serve to further alienate staff and administrators. The district does not need any further roadblocks to progress," he wrote.
He also writes that because the forms have not been authorized by the district, they should not be distributed or completed during the school day.
The forms will also have no impact on official evaluations, he said Monday. Principals will continue to be evaluated by the superintendent and other higher-level officials, and the state plans to implement a principal evaluation system in the 2014-15 school year. If teachers have an issue with actions taken by a principal, they can grieve that through the correct process, he said.
"The administrators and supervisors of our association will not allow the individuals who they supervise to dictate or interfere with how they run their respective buildings or how they discipline their staff, whether through self-serving performance evaluations or otherwise," he wrote.
In his letter, Mr. Tunis is trying to intimidate the union, Ms. Boland said Monday.
Teachers have been told by the union to complete the forms at home, and the union's contract allows for union correspondence to be placed in teachers' mailboxes at school, Ms. Boland said.
"Our goal is not to browbeat," she said. "We most certainly plan on going forward."
Contact the writer: shofius@timesshamrock.com, @hofiushallTT on Twitte