By Jennifer Moody, Albany Democrat-Herald | Posted: Thursday, November 19, 2009 9:25 pm
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LEBANON -
Technology teacher Craig Nelson will now spend half his time at
Seven Oak Middle School as its new dean of students, overseeing
student discipline and parent communication.
The job
marks a new direction for Lebanon teachers, who are now eligible to
look for "teacher leader" roles to expand their responsibilities in
the district.
The
Lebanon School Board voted 4-0 Thursday to approve the hiring,
which takes effect immediately. Board member Mike Martin was
absent.
Nelson
will remain a salaried member of the Seven Oak faculty and will not
oversee teachers. He will teach his technology class half the time
and receive a stipend to cover the extra disciplinary duties. The
stipend is $3,500 annually, prorated because the year already has
begun.
Superintendent Rob Hess
said the job is considered temporary. The district will evaluate
the role in the next few months to see whether it remains
necessary, should be expanded, or should stay the
same.
Kim
Fandino, president of the Lebanon Education Association, said
Nelson is the first of what the association hopes will be many
"teacher leaders;" full-time, certified teachers who take on
additional roles.
Bo Yates'
promotion to principal of Lebanon High School this year left Seven
Oak without an assistant principal. But that position usually comes
with a pricetag of about $80,000, Fandino said.
Having a
teacher take on just the student discipline portion of an
assistant's job saves the district money and allows the teacher to
both exercise more leadership and receive more compensation without
leaving the classroom entirely, she said.
"It's
moving up without moving out," she said.
Lebanon
received a grant from the nonprofit Chalkboard Project earlier this
year to become part of a project called, "Creative Leadership
Achieves Student Success," or CLASS. Among other things, the CLASS
project explores ways to reward teachers for finding ways to
increase student achievement by improving their own skills or
taking on new responsibilities.
Lebanon's
CLASS design team has been exploring the "teacher leader" model,
Fandino said. In early October, the union agreed to a memorandum of
understanding with the district to allow for the new roles. The
"dean of students" job is the first.
