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July 29, 2010

JISD evaluation instrument sees few tweaks

Nathan Straus Jacksonville Daily Progress

JACKSONVILLE — It happens every year at Jacksonville Independent School District: the board of trustees evaluates the sitting superintendent, then decides whether to renew the superintendents contract.

After this, Board President James Houser said the board looks at what changes might need to be made to the instrument used to evaluate the superintendent.

The school board made several such tweaks to the evaluation formula during July’s school board meeting, he added.

“Our board looks at the evaluation instrument itself and updates it to make it more pertinent to today’s information,” Houser said. “We tweak it every year for things we require of our superintendent.”

Houser said one of the most recent large changes happened last year when the board added a 10-year long range plan to the items required of the superintendent.

JISD’s evaluation instrument, which Houser said dates back to around 2003 as a formal tool, is a series of graded benchmarks on dozens of items such as instructional management, school improvement and management of fiscal functions.

Superintendent Dr. Joe Wardell said the board changed about three items.

He said one, which set up a plan for the cost of improving facilities for safety and Americans with Disabilities Act requirements, was deleted because it had already been fulfilled.

Wardell said an item to establish an administrative code of conduct was deleted for the same reason.

He said the final change was to merge two separate points, which both required up-to-date transcripts be kept ready for high school students within 14 working days after semester completion.

“Most of the things that were changed were basic,” Wardell said. “These were things like where we felt two items were identical.”

Wardell also said the evaluation instrument provides an opportunity to clarify specific things the district needs taken care of.

“My last evaluation was very good,” Wardell said. “One of the nice things about our school board is they’re very focused on the achievement of students and a portion of the instrument deals directly with that. I think it’s important for any employee to have an evaluation.”

Houser said superintendent evaluations generally occur during the winter, while the evaluation instrument is looked over in the summer.

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