Running head: CASE STUDIES 1

Case Studies

Shelly Treleaven

EEA 538: Human Resource Management in Education

M. Ed. in Leadership

City University of Seattle in Canada

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Case Study - Family Ties

Franny Family is the principal of an elementary school in a small city in Alberta. She has

been a teacher for over thirty years and the principal at the same school for over fifteen years and

is now nearing retirement. Franny has two children and has been a single mother for the past

twenty years. She is an introvert and due to social anxiety she struggles in a number of social

situations. She is well read, academic, and a kind person but is often perceived as being arrogant

as she struggles with initiating or maintaining conversations because of her socially awkward

behaviours.

The school she leads offers dual track French and English programs and has a notoriously

high turnover rate. She typically hires two or three new teachers each year due to teachers

transferring to other schools. Teachers in the school have been heard to say that they do not feel

supported which they attribute to the turnover of staff.

In the past three years Franny Family has begun hiring people that are family members of

her staff or have family at Central Office. This new hiring strategy appears to have had an

impact on the turnover rates. Two years ago her oldest daughter graduated with her education

degree with a specialty in French, after a short period of time she was hired as a French teacher

in her mother’s school. Two years later, Franny’s second daughter graduated with an education

degree with a specialty in Elementary Literacy. She was brought into her mother’s school to

cover a medical leave and was then hired by her mother permanently as an English teacher in her

school. The staff was not initially aware that these new hires were Franny’s daughters as their

last names are different from their mother’s. It was only discovered when one daughter

admitted moving back home to live with her mother and shared how odd it was to both live and

work with her mother.

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Questions

In what ways might this be a conflict of interest?

In order for these hires to have been approved by the Superintendent, what reasons might she

have given?

What are the methods of supervision would you recommend she use?

According to the School Act should she be allowed to hire her own children?
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Case Study - Wally Willdo

Wally became a teacher ten years ago and loves his job. He feels that teaching is a

privilege and a noble profession. He is known on staff as the person to ask if you are needing

help as he seldom says ‘no’. He has been a coach for a number of teams, works on the school

newsletter, organizes the school-wide fundraiser, and has a lunch ‘club’ for boys once a week.

Wally teaches a grade that does not have the typical coverage for his prep periods and has

the Vice Principal and Principal cover two periods a week. There are a number of times when

they are not able to get to the class due to emergent issues so there are times when Wally does

not get his preps. He does not complain as he will get an occasional period as a ‘makeup’ prep,

but he is required to leave a sub plan for the person coming in to give him his prep. He does not

keep track of how many periods he has been shorted, but is starting to feel taken advantage of.

At the start of the year, he was assigned a supervision time that is five minutes earlier

than the assignable time that all teachers were to begin. Again he does not complain, as he

enjoys this supervision assignment.

Lately there have been a number of people complaining that their assignable time is too

high and as they have challenged administration. This has resulted in those people getting

additional prep time during the week. Wally is certain his assignable time is also over, but does

not want to be a complainer or make waves, and besides, he likes that his principal compliments

him all the time for his dedication and commitment to the students.
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Questions

If Wally continues to volunteer or not say ‘no’, is he being taken advantage of?

If the administrators in the building are aware that he is over on his assigned time is it wrong to

not say anything to Wally?

Is this typical behaviour of teachers to volunteer and not expect to be compensated?

Is there an ATA policy that is applicable in this case?

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Case Study - Sam Sickly

Sam has been a teacher for 25 years. His wife is a teacher at another school in the same

school division and one of his two children is enrolled in an education program at a local

university. His other child is in grade twelve at the local high school. He has always seemed to

enjoy being a teacher and is known for his musicality and his creative lesson planning. He is

very well liked by his colleagues and often in the past was known to organize large social

functions for the staff.

About a year and a half ago his behaviour seemed to begin to change. He has been

spending less time in the staff room on breaks and he has begun to separate himself from those

that he typically socialized with in the past. He continues to volunteer as a coach but no longer

requests support from his peers and does not engage in conversations in the hallways.

Sam, up until two years ago, had only taken the occasional day off due to illness but

lately he has missed at least one day every other week on average. He does not talk about his

health and on the days he is at school seems to be of generally good health.

The principal has noticed that this teacher’s behaviour has changed and has started to

make extra walkthroughs in order to get a feel for the classroom culture and climate. He sees

that Sam’s class is less orderly that it has been in the past but his teaching continues to seem

strong.

The teacher in the classroom next door has approached the principal to express concern

for their peers. They indicate to the principal that their classroom behaviour seems to have

changed from previous years and shares that he feels that his neighbour is potentially struggling

with classroom management as his volume is higher lately than was his typical with previous
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classes. The principal asks the teacher if they have talked with Sam about the changes that they

have noticed, but the teacher indicates that they are uncomfortable doing this.

Questions

What are your greatest concerns for Sam?

Are there policies that govern the colleague’s questioning of another teacher’s behaviour?

Is the principal doing all that he should be?

What steps should be taken to support Sam?