Why does the Board of Education allow teachers who are not meeting expectations and have had many complaints to remain teachers even after their tenure?

In response to your inquiry about teachers who do not meet expectations, please be advised of the law, policies, negotiated agreement, and procedures observed by Wicomico County Public Schools.

Per COMAR (Annotated Code of Maryland), all employees holding a Standard Professional Certificate I, or Standard Professional Certificate II, must be evaluated each year. A teacher holding an Advanced Professional Certificate must be evaluated twice during an APC cycle (5 years).
Observations are also conducted twice per year and must be done by two different administrators. These are the minimum requirements set by COMAR. The school system is permitted to observe and evaluate as often as it deems necessary.

When a teacher is not meeting expectations, the following may occur:

-Frequent observations by administrators, supervisor, and/or director -Assistance provided by teacher mentor, professional development coach, school administrators (principal and assistant principal), content supervisor; assistance may include writing and implementation of lesson plans, lesson modeling, techniques and stategies for various issues such as content, classroom management, differentiated instruction -Second class a teaching certificate (a measure provided by the Annotated Code of Maryland); formal plan of assistance and formal monthly observations and evaluations -Termination - Annotated Code of Maryland 6-202 provides five reasons for which a tenured teacher can be terminated; note that the entire disciplinary process for a tenured teacher is governed by law and mandates a very specific process in which a school system is permitted to discipline a teacher.