PSO Sanctions Area 2-2

By vote of the its full membership, the Professional Staff Organization has imposed sanctions on Service Area 2-2 of the Indiana State Teachers Association due to its unwillingness to give fair and due consideration to the experience of current ISTA staff in filling open positions.

PSO has worked in partnership with ISTA in developing an effective internship program for the express purpose of providing well trained and experienced candidates for vacancies in our staff.  So we were deeply disappointed and concerned to learn that Area 2-2 has chosen not to consider graduates of the program, citing a lack of experience as a reason to seek candidates from outside of ISTA.

Internship participants devote significant amounts of time specifically because of the assurance that their experience will be considered when positions become open. While no position is guaranteed, failing to consider a candidate who has completed the training program due to “lack of experience” is not only disrespectful of the program’s intent, but serves to undermine the partnership between our organizations in this work.

Accordingly, PSO has instructed its members not to apply for the vacant position of UniServ Director for ISTA Service Area 2-2, and calls upon our fellow members of the National Staff Organization (NSO) to refrain from applying for the position.

It is our sincere hope that the leaders of Service Area 2-2 will re-examine their stance regarding graduates of the ISTA Internship program for future vacancies.