The SSIS Contract Renewal Process

Dear SSIS Faculty –

The year seems only just begun, but here we are at the end of September and, believe it or not, a reminder on contracts for the 2016-2017 school year.

If you are in your first year at SSIS, you can stop reading and trash this email. You came to SSIS in July under an initial two-year contract and there is nothing for you to do this year but concentrate on teaching and learning and enjoying yourself in Vietnam. We’ll talk next year. This email is for the rest of our faculty.

To faculty in their second year and beyond, it is certainly our hope that you are finding your work here both challenging and rewarding and that you’re planning to continue with us next year.

There are several possible scenarios of which I need to advise you:

1. You already have decided that it’s time to move on. We are grateful for the service you have given SSIS and its students and for all you have contributed to your division and colleagues. Whether you are looking for your next great adventure, to experience another culture and country, or for a better “fit,” we wish you all the best. Let us know this by October 1 and we offer a “bonus” of USD $500 in gratitude for letting us get an early start on the hiring season and more time to make plans for your position. You also have up to five days of “recruitment leave” to visit a job fair or a school. Yes, there are limits to this leave: the first two days are your personal days; you can only take this benefit all at once; if the job fair doesn’t require five days absence, you don’t get to take a small vacation or “bank” the days until some later date, etc. [see your Terms and Conditions if you have questions]. Still, the ability to participate in a job fair is important and we recognize this with the “recruitment leave.”

2. You know now that you would like to return next year. Great! It’s our hope that you feel this way. In this case, please send me an email by 15 November indicating your interest in returning for the next school year. This is helpful to the principals and to me as we are making lots of plans for next year. Contracts at SSIS are prepared on a rolling basis but issued no later than 1 December. Teachers have until 5 December to sign and return the contract to my office, otherwise the offer lapses and is no longer valid.

3. You are not sure right now how you feel, but you make up your mind before 15 November that you are going to leave. OK, while the USD $500 “bonus” is no longer on the table, if you send me an email by 15 November that you are NOT coming back next year, you are still eligible for up to five days of recruitment leave as stipulated in your contract with the school. We will post the position immediately on our website. There has been an explosion of new schools in the past few years and it is an excellent market for great teachers looking for a change.

4. As of November 15 you are still unsure as to whether you want to come back. Perhaps you are actively searching, or you are waiting for an offer from a school you’ve been talking with. If I don’t hear back from you by 15 November from options #1, #2, or #3, I assume you are in this category. I will post the potential opening on our SSIS website BUT you are not risking your job quite yet. While the principals and I will begin looking for an equally great replacement, if we find a possible new hire before we break for the winter holiday (18 December 2015 this year), we will still have a chance to check with you before we make a job offer to another candidate. [In the interest of full-disclosure – yes, we do tell candidates that the position is not guaranteed to be open for the following year. We don’t want to start discussions with someone under false pretenses.] If we do find someone and are interested in making them an offer, you will need to decide immediately if you want to come back or not. This call for a decision on your part could happen anytime between 15 November 2015 and 18 December 2015.

Finally, I just need to remind everyone that after noon on 18 December 2015, if we don’t have a signed contract from you, we can no longer guarantee that we will be able to contact you before the open position is offered to another candidate. Yes, that includes that very same day we go on break, as happened once in the past, so this is an important date to keep in mind. As you all know, recruiting moves at a very quick pace and decisions are made in a moment.

All of us on the admin team feel privileged to work in this community and with each and every one of you as teaching professionals. We would like to see everyone return next year and are eager to get contract season behind us and continue on with the most important work here – the teaching and learning that goes on every day at SSIS.

Sincerely yours, Mark