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By KEVIN HOFFMAN khoffman@leader.net
Sunday, February 06, 2000 Page: 5
A revised Hazleton Area School District hiring policy proposed by Dr.
Robert Childs suggests teachers should get credit for substituting in the
district and that an applicants’ screening scores should be included in the
final tally.
But School Board members still wouldn’t score the candidates.
Superintendent Geraldine Shepperson had put that option on the table and said
it could be the most significant change if adopted, though she didn’t
recommend doing so.
The suggested changes to the hiring policy carry no weight until they are
adopted through a School Board vote, but at least one of Childs’ fellow board
members was not pleased he had apparently codified the revisions.
Gloria Pesock, who wrote the old hiring policy, hadn’t looked at the
revisions yet but said Childs’s was taking too much power into his hands by
writing the new policy without input from her and some other board members.
“Instead of the board sitting down and doing it, he hands out these
papers. Well, who is he?” Pesock asked. “I don’t think it’s right that we
finally have a fair hiring policy and he wants to mess with it.”
Childs did not immediately return phone calls requesting comment.
Under the suggested policy, applicants would get credit for substituting in
the district for at least one year. Candidates could get up to two points
through recommendations from district principals for whom they’ve worked.
The applicants’ final score – which is used to rank candidates for a hiring
list the School Board uses when positions are open – would include the
screening score plus the average score from four interviewers.
Last summer, School District administrators didn’t average the scores or
include the screening score in the final tally even though the written policy
that existed at the time instructed them to do so.
Shepperson has said that her suggested modifications of the hiring policy
are meant to clarify and tighten the hiring process so that no one would be
able to question it’s integrity.
Call Hoffman at 829-7139.