ASTI - Ireland's main second level teachers union

ASTI Guidelines for the Submission of Appeals Under the Independent Appeals System for Posts of Responsibility in Community and Comprehensive Schools

1.  CIRCULAR LETTERS 15/97, 32/00 AND 32(A)/00:

The Department of Education and Science Circular Letters 15/97, 32/00 and 32(a)/00 set out the inschool management arrangements in Community and Comprehensive Schools. The circulars contain the appointment procedures for the filling of the posts of Assistant Principal and Special Duties Teacher and the appeal procedure which may be utilised by applicants. Appeals should be submitted in accordance with the terms of these circulars.

2. THE ROLE OF THE ARBITRATOR: 

Arbitrator is appointed in accordance with the terms of this circular and is a person agreed between the ASTI, TUI and ACS.

3. THE ROLE OF THE ADVISORS:

The ASTI, the TUI and the ACS each nominate an advisor to advise the Arbitrator. The Arbitrator consults the advisors on the written statements from the management and the appellant. The role of the ASTI advisor is not to favour any particular teacher involved in the appeal be it the appellant or the person appointed to the post:  the teachers involved may be members of the ASTI or may be members of the TUI. His or her role is to ensure that the ASTI's interpretation of the terms of the circular are understood by the Arbitrator having regard to the particular circumstances of each appeal. In addition, the advisors bring their understanding and knowledge of the practicalities of the school system to the arbitration process. 

4. THE ROLE OF ASTI OFFICIALS:

In appeals there may be two ASTI members involved, that is the appellant and the person initially appointed to the post. In this context therefore ASTI officials will give general advice to all ASTI members involved in an appeal and will give specific advice on matters of fact, e.g. length of service in the school.

5. SUBMITTING THE APPEAL:

The appeal must be submitted to the secretary of the Board of Management concerned within five school days of the announcement of the Board of Management's decision. The decision of the Board of Management which is being appealed should be stated, e.g. "I wish to appeal against the decision of the Board of Management of (insert name and address of the school) not to appoint (insert name of appellant) to the post of Assistant Principal / Special Duties Teacher". 

6. THE GROUNDS FOR THE APPEAL: 

The written appeal must set forth the grounds for the appeal. The Arbitrator can only base his / her findings on the grounds for the appeal as submitted, therefore the appellant should furnish the widest possible range of reasons to support the case being made. 

The grounds for appeal are that the agreed criteria were not applied or were applied in an unfair manner.

The following criteria must be adopted by the Selection Committee when determining their order of merit for submission to the Board of Management:

• Capacity of the applicant to meet the needs of the school and the case made at interview - 50
• Service to school - 30
• Experience of a professional nature in the field of education and involvement in the school  - 20

In the appellant's statement in support of their appeal the appellant should illustrate either that these three criteria were not applied or were applied in an unfair manner or mistaken manner.

The selection committee may have applied only two of the criteria or applied the criteria in a mistaken manner, e.g. in their computation of service to the school there may have been an under-computation of the appellant's service.

The Annex attached to Circular 15/97 gives a breakdown of the areas under which the three criteria may be considered and appellants should analyse these areas and state how they fulfil these criteria and that the Selection Board did not take adequate account of these areas. This may involve setting forth as many of the following which are appropriate and relative:

• the appellant's experience as a teacher
• the contribution the appellant has made to the school
• experience of duties performed
• experience in curricular areas
• professional development engaged in
• experience as a post holder in a temporary capacity
• experience as co-ordinator of school projects
• record of the appellant's care for pupils
• disciplinary record
• record as a dedicated and conscientious teacher
• work experience.  

The Board of Management must be able to demonstrate to the Arbitrator 

(a) that they applied the designated criteria, and

(b) the fairness of this application.

7. PROCESSING THE APPEAL:

When the Board of Management receives the appeal it must furnish the appeal and the Board's written response to the Arbitrator within ten school days of the receipt of the appeal. The Board's response is then forwarded to the appellant. The appellant at this stage can make a further response in support of his or her appeal and this response should endeavour to refute, if possible, the points made by the Board of Management. These three written documents are made available by the Arbitrator to the parties. The current address for correspondence to the Arbitrator is:

The Secretary to the Arbitrator, C/O ACCS, 2 Herbert Avenue, Dublin 4

8. THE HEARING:

The Arbitrator may hold a hearing if he or she deems it necessary. The appellant may be represented or accompanied at a hearing by a colleague other than a Standing Committee member or an ASTI official. 

The appellant should be prepared, if necessary, to expand upon, explain and give any background information helpful to their appeal.

If a matter arises at the hearing which the appellant needs to reflect upon before continuing, an adjournment may be sought. The adjournment could be for a period of time, e.g. twenty minutes, or in exceptional circumstances the hearing could be adjourned to another day. 

New grounds for appeal should not be introduced at the hearing and will normally not be entertained by the Arbitrator. However, if new information comes to hand which is not available at the time of the submission of the appeal the Arbitrator will most probably adjourn the hearing so as to allow all parties to consider this new information. 

At industrial relations tribunals such as an appeal hearing legal representation is unnecessary and is discouraged.

9. THE ARBITRATOR'S DECISION: 

The Arbitrator can reject the appeal and in that case the Board of Management will request the Department of Education and Science to sanction the post.

If the appeal is upheld, the Board of Management, in accordance with section 7(v) of the Articles of Management of the Deeds of Trust and paragraph 7.6.5. of circular letter 15/97, will submit the matter to the Minister for Education and Science for determination. Upon receipt of the Minister's determination, which can be expected to be in line with that of the Arbitrator, the Board of Management will establish a new competition for the post of responsibility. 

 

While every effort is made to ensure that this information is accurate and up to date changes in schemes and arrangements take place regularly. The ASTI cannot accept any liability arising from any errors or omissions.