School system legally required to provide them At least 500 administrators in D.C. Public Schools don’t have job descriptions — which they’re legally required to have — and say that without them, employees are being asked to do unusual tasks for the school system.
One business manager says she is repeatedly asked to stand on the corner and play crossing guard during dismissal.
A social worker in the special education office said school officials ask her to baby-sit kids — even those without special needs — for full days. “It doesn’t matter that you have therapy, or meetings, or other things that you are asked to do,” said the employee, who has worked in DCPS for more than 20 years and asked to remain nameless for fear of retaliation. “How can you do therapy if you have another student you’re baby-sitting?”
They believe proper job descriptions would provide employees a defense against these odd jobs.
The Code of D.C. Municipal Regulations requires “the administration and maintenance of a sound position classification program for D.C. Public Schools” and says employees are entitled to request and receive their position descriptions.
But Aona Jefferson, president of the Council of School Officers, said her members have been asking for their job descriptions for several years. In her 700-member union, only principals, assistant principals and master educators have job descriptions; at least 500 social workers, special education specialists, speech therapists, psychologists, business managers, coordinators, directors and deans of students do not.
Jefferson questioned how DCPS could evaluate administrators without certified job descriptions to ensure everyone sees eye-to-eye on expectations. She was also concerned that employees whose positions were eliminated during DCPS’ annual excessing would be placed in new jobs that didn’t mesh with their actual skills.
“Think in terms of doctors,” she said. “You have a disease of an eye, and they’re sending you to someone who makes glasses.”
Fred Lewis, a spokesman for Chancellor Kaya Henderson, said the human resources department is working on getting accurate job descriptions, which he acknowledged are “absolutely necessary” for the employees.
“We have archived copies of some position descriptions, but position descriptions should be periodically reviewed and updated to reflect the changing environment,” Lewis said. “Part of that should involve having a formal classification and compensation review, which would guide the auditing of positions and creation of position descriptions.”
The code requires DCPS to take action at least every 24 months to maintain accurate position descriptions.
But DCPS has not contracted for the formal review, and instead is relying on the outdated copies and creating new descriptions “on an as-needed basis, while we wait for the opportunity to conduct formal audits.”
Lewis said managers are encouraged to set milestones and clear expectations for all employees, so that evaluations and job transfers run seamlessly.
