Policies

[Michelle]

Okay--another question that has been in the back of my mind throughout the discussion of the teacher dismissal.

If there is a policy on the books (whether you agree with it or not--it's there), should you be expected to be bound by that policy? If you sign the papers that say you've read the policy, is it reasonable to expect that your administration can hold you to that policy?

This teacher says she had no idea about MI Conf policy. Either she 1) didn't read the policy book but signed her contract anyway or 2) read it but didn't understand it or 3) read it but assumed it didn't apply to her.

When I taught in HI (and I understand it's the same in AK), I signed a document that said if I taught in the state at least 4 years, the conference would pay my shipping back to the mainland if I went to another school after those 4 years. If I decided to leave before those 4 years were up, I had to pay my own way back to the mainland PLUS pay a pro-rated amount of money back to the conference for moving me out there. It is expensive to move to these conferences and they have this policy to keep them from having to ship people back and forth every year.

Now, at the end of my second year of teaching, God sent me a wonderful little gift--my first son. This was NOT my plan! (I was married, so that's not the issue.) I had always planned on quitting teaching when I had kids, to be a SAHM. However, I had signed a contract to stay for 4 years. I talked with my superintendent to see if there were any way I could "get out of" the contract. There was not--either stay or pay. We didn't have the money to pay, so we stayed 2 more years.

Now, were they wrong to hold me to the contract I signed? Would I have been within my rights to have stated I didn't know the policy applied to me? If I had quit and the conference had asked me for the money, or, if I had quit and the conference had "been merciful" and not charged me the pro-rated amount, leaving me to pay my own shipping back to the mainland, could I have reasonably gotten the media involved with how unfair they were being to me? Could I have invoked a lawsuit? No, because I knew or should have known what the consequences were. If I didn't like the consequences or the policy I was not compelled to sign the contract. There are plenty of other places I can go.

I understand there are differences in these situations, as I didn't lose my job. However, if the policy says X, should we reasonably expect that X applies? Not asking whether you agree or disagree with the policy or its enforcement--only if you sign to abide by the policy book, should we actually expect you to abide by it?

M