POLICY 5-2.6                HIRING: TEMPORARY PERSONNEL, PART-TIME AND SUBSTITUTE PROFESSIONAL STAFF

 

Substitute Teachers

 

Persons who hold a baccalaureate degree from an accredited institution of higher learning or who are enrolled in a full-time four (4)-year program leading to a baccalaureate degree shall be eligible to substitute teach on a daily basis.  A substitute teacher who teaches continuously in excess of ninety (90) days shall hold a valid teaching license. A substitute teacher may not fill a particular teacher vacancy for longer than ninety (90) teaching days during one school year, unless otherwise approved by the Superintendent of Public Instruction on a case-by-case basis.

 

Substitute teachers must have completed sixty (60) college semester credit hours or ninety (90) college quarter credit hours to substitute teach in Montgomery County elementary schools.  Substitute teachers must have completed sixty (60) college semester credit hours or ninety (90) college quarter hours and be at least twenty-one (21) years of age to teach in Montgomery County middle and high schools.

 

Substitute teachers will be paid at a daily rate identified on the current Montgomery County School Board substitute teacher salary scale.  Any substitute teacher placed in a long-term assignment extending more than fifteen (15) days shall begin to earn the higher substitute salary from the substitute teacher salary scale on the sixteenth (16th) day of the assignment.

 

All persons newly employed as substitute teachers must complete all required employment paperwork required by applicable Virginia law and School Board policy, including, but not limited to:

 

1.             A medical certificate stating that such person appears free from communicable                                                      tuberculosis;

2.             Fingerprints and descriptive information to be submitted along with the fingerprints                                            through the Central Records Exchange to the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the                                                 purpose of obtaining criminal record information; and

3.             Written consent and the necessary personal information to obtain a search of the registry                                                 of founded complaints of child abuse and neglect maintained by the Virginia Department                                        of Social Services.

 

Before being assigned to a classroom as a substitute teacher, the candidate must participate in the Substitute Orientation Program presented by the school division’s human resources department.  The program shall provide substitutes with information concerning the school division and building procedures, class routines, division and school philosophy, the use of the division’s automated substitute calling system, the division’s policies regarding sexual harassment, student and employee health, and other relevant policies.

 

The division’s human resources department will maintain a centralized calling system to secure substitute teachers from the approved, official list.  Only those substitutes on the approved list maintained by the human resources department are eligible for employment.  Principals may not utilize substitutes who have not completed the mandatory orientation program and who are not on the approved substitute list.  Any school, which uses a substitute not on the approved list, shall reimburse the School Board for the cost of such substitute.

 

No substitute placed on the approved list is guaranteed or entitled to any appointment or to regular appointments.  The human resources department may remove substitutes from the approved list based on poor performance or repeated failure to accept daily assignments.

 

Homebound Teachers

 

Homebound teachers will be employed on a part-time, hourly basis.  They will be selected from the approved substitute teacher list and shall hold a valid teaching license.

 

Part-Time Teachers

 

                A teacher working less than 180 days or less than six (6) hours per day or who is restricted to temporary or interim employment is considered part-time.  Part-time teachers shall meet the same licensure requirements and other requirements (such as criminal history check, tine test for TB, reference checks, etc.) as those demanded of full-time employees, and all other pertinent standards of the Virginia Board of Education shall be met.

 

Summer School Teachers

 

                Summer school teachers shall meet all licensure and health requirements of full-time teaching personnel.  No benefits or leave programs applicable to teachers during the regular session are available to summer school teachers.

 

Interns

 

                Arrangements for the utilization of interns in the Montgomery County Public School system should be initiated through the division superintendent or his/her designee.

 

Student Teachers

 

The school division will accept student teachers only from accredited institutions.  All student teachers shall meet the same health requirements as all other personnel.  The division superintendent shall have the responsibility for the assignment and placement of student teachers in the school system.          Student teachers who are enrolled in a graduate internship model may be used as substitute teachers when it does not conflict with responsibilities associated with their internship. Student teachers enjoy the same coverage of Tort Liability Insurance as any other teacher.

 

LEGAL REFERENCE: Code of Virginia, 1950, as amended, §§ 22-1.281, 22.1-282, 22.1-283, 22.1-299, 22.1-302; Licensure Regulations for School Personnel, 8 VAC 20-22-10.

 

Adopted:  April 2004

Revised:  September  2005, June 2010