FARMINGTON — Mt. Blue School District’s (RSU 9) teacher evaluation committee chairs presented plans to the board of directors for teacher and staff evaluations during the 2021-22 school year.

Co-chairs Doug Hodum, a high school teacher and president of the Mt. Blue Education Association, and Laura Columbia, director of curriculum, updated the board on how they plan to handle a new state law “that allows local districts’ evaluation steering committees to decide how to proceed on staff evaluations (for teachers and administrators) next year,” Hodum said.

The committee has decided that “it would be prudent to suspend, for one year, evaluations for continuing contract teachers … and administrators,” Hodum said.

Columbia said this decision was made — “after lengthy conversation” — “to try to focus the work of our current teachers” on continuing contracts, which opens the opportunity for those teachers to “help the probationary teachers … the younger teachers” (who are still required by law to undergo evaluations) and provide them “more support.”

In those evaluations, probationary teachers will focus on one goal, undergo observations and get feedback on those goals.

Columbia said the priority for these evaluations is to focus on “what is the essence of a good observation, evaluation for our staff that will help them improve and grow, but also make it as simple as possible as we know that this year is a very complicated year with a lot going on.”

Hodum clarified that though continuing contract staff are not required to undergo evaluations, “at any time an educator can be observed.”

“There is no limit or restriction … this is not a ban on (observations),” Hodum said. “Any staff on action plans or who are placed on action plans over the course of this year will continue to work on those.”

Hodum said that in addition, the steering committee will be reassessing Mt. Blue’s “evaluation system,” which was last formally updated in 2016.

Hodum clarified the process in previous years:

“Once you are on that continuing contract, it’s a three year cycle. The first two years you are working on goals and peer observations. The third year, you are formally evaluated by an administrator, where they come in and have two formal observations and one informal observation. All of the data from that, including growth plans every year as well as whether you are leading your action steps, all of that is calculated (on a software program) …

“The way the original statute is, if a teacher is defined as ineffective for two years, that could be grounds for dismissal,” he said. “Typically the way that is utilized in most places, especially here, this system is really for growth, so teachers and staff are encouraged to identify areas where they can improve. It’s not necessarily about being innovative in everything. It’s showing improvement in the areas that staff find on their own or an administrator has identified as areas for growth.”

During discussion on the 2021-22 evaluation plans, Director Kirk Doyle raised concerns about “the risks of not having evaluations this year” for all staff members.

“Realistically, if it’s not required, (observations) will probably be lower down on what (administrators’) priorities are,” Doyle said. “I’m curious what the steering committee identified as risks that this might bring up by not observing regularly and not evaluating and if there are any mitigation strategies put in place.”

Columbia said that she sees the effects of the lack of evaluation as a “drawback” rather than a “risk.”

“The only drawback that we talked about as a committee was … are the new staff feeling targeted?” she said.

“A lot of our staff who are on continuing  contracts are also mentors. By taking off something on their plate, we are allowing them to put more time into helping out new teachers,” Columbia said. “I am personally not concerned about any risks and not observing. I feel like our principals and directors will go into a classroom if there is a concern ever … we will go into classrooms if there are any concerns for observations.”

“Risks that I identify are things like not getting people to support the need before it becomes a habit that now it’s harder to break or identifying when a teacher … is not in the right profession,” Doyle said.

“If there are teachers who are identified as struggling, they are put on action plans … that will continue even if that teacher is a continuing contract teacher,” Hodum answered.

“So it means we won’t identify new ones,” Doyle said.

“There is nothing that is limiting an administrator’s ability to do their job, support their staff and make sure students are getting the experiences they need,” Hodum said.

Doyle was concerned that “we are limiting the primary tools that we might use to identify those” (issues).

Hodum said that administrators really enjoy going into classrooms and as a result, doing observations “is still a priority for them.”

Superintendent Chris Elkington then cut in, explaining that because of the large amount of hires this past year, the district needs to “give them a large focus of our time.”

“When we talked about this … to make a decision, was based on giving more focus to individuals, with all the new staff, all the other COVID things going on, with heightened tensions around communications, we thought, ‘lets try to help those new people as much as possible,'” Elkington said. “Especially because several of them were hired under emergency certificates and this was not their first choice. They need more time than we ordinarily give.”

Hodum also said the steering committee is planning to advise continuing contract staff, especially those not doing mentorships, to “make sure you’re still looking in on your neighbors, make sure you’re still helping.”

Ultimately, Hodum said that suspending evaluations is a “relief” for continuing contract teachers.