Common use of TEACHERS PERSONNEL FILE Clause in Contracts

TEACHERS PERSONNEL FILE. There shall be one (1) official personnel file for each certified employee and said file shall be located at the Central Administration Office. An unofficial file shall be maintained in the office of the Principal as per State Department of Education regulations. The file shall contain only a copy of the teacher's transcript, teaching certificates, documentation of “highly qualified” status as per No Child Left Behind, and a copy of the evaluations on the teacher. The certified employee shall have the right to review the contents of his/her official and Principal's unofficial personnel files at all times when the Central Administration Office or the Principal's office is open to conduct business. The files are accessible to the staff member, Personnel Director, the Board of Education, the evaluator, the in-district administrative staff to which the staff member applies for transfer. By mutual agreement of the teacher and the Superintendent, material may be removed from the teacher's personnel file. Material more than three years old, excluding evaluation documents, may be removed from the teacher's file upon the request of the teacher. Said certified employees shall be entitled to have a representative of his/her choosing to accompany them during review. Said certified employee shall have the right to make copies of the materials in his/her personnel file. No materials will be placed in his/ her personnel file(s) unless the member has had an opportunity to review the material. Documentation of disciplinary actions, evaluations, letters of recommendation or other items that have pertinence to the employment record of the member must be placed in the file within five (5) days of notification or occurrence. The member will acknowledge that he/she has had the opportunity to review such materials by affixing his/her signature to the copy to be filed with the express understanding that such signature in no way indicates agreement with contents thereof. Upon request members may have items placed within their file. The certified employee shall have the right to submit a written response to any materials placed in the file. Such written response shall be attached to the filed material to which the response was written. Teachers will have 30 days in which to file a written response. When an administrator concludes it is necessary to admonish a teacher, prior to admonishing the teacher, the administrator shall provide the teacher with written notification of the impending admonishment and shall allow the teacher to be accompanied by an available TPS staff member, association representative, or legal counsel of his/her choosing to the meeting in which the admonishment is given to the teacher. This does NOT apply to evaluation conferences or development of plans for improvement. (July 2013)