ESOL & 4th Year Annual Contract
Some of our members have received a notice that rather than a Professional Services Contract, they will be on a 4th year annual contract. Most of those notices are due to the audit of the records indicating that they have not complied with the certification requirements for NCLB or ESOL. For the past several years the district has instituted a contract as a condition of employment that teachers will be in compliance for these certification requirements. Until the requirements are met, they will not provide Professional Services Contract. Each year the district loses a considerable amount of money due to non-compliance on certification.
ESOL training is required for any teacher who has taught an ESOL student. Many of our new graduates from Florida Universities have the course work, but must put the endorsement on their certificate to get credit for it. Some other coursework will count toward ESOL training but it must be evaluated by the ESOL department. Only Language arts teachers can be required to take up to 300 hours of training. Specialists (Art, Music, PE, Guidance, related arts) are only required to have 18 hours which is a video course and a short booklet being completed. Core academic areas (Science, Social Studies, and Math) which are not Language Arts or Reading only need 60 hours of training total. Each school year a Language Arts teacher has an ESOL student in their class at FTE count, they receive a notice that 60 hours of training is required until they have completed all 300 hours or passed the certification exam, added it to their certificate and completed 120 hours of training within three years to keep it on their certificate.
If you believe this notice is a mistake, contact the personnel, certification or ESOL department to have it corrected. If you have not completed the training or achieved the certification needed, you will be on an annual contract next year and as long as your performance is not an issue, will be placed on Professional Services Contract next spring.
It is unfortunate that we were not notified earlier about the district’s plan to issue these 4th year annual contracts until the letters were being sent, but we will be available to assist you in resolving any discrepancies or provide support in passing the exam to add areas to your certificate.