An Administrator's Guide to California Private School Law

Chapter 3 – Hiring

B. W HO S HOULD M AINTAIN T HE P ERSONNEL F ILE ? Schools should entrust control over the content and custody of personnel files to the personnel director or director of human resources or a school’s equivalent position. The personnel department should be responsible for maintaining employee records and for ensuring that the files are complete and do not contain any improper information. C. W HERE S HOULD S CHOOLS M AINTAIN T HE P ERSONNEL F ILE ? Because of the personnel department’s responsibilities and need for access to employees’ personnel files, the personnel department should maintain and control the files. This allows the department to regulate access to personnel files and to protect against inappropriate entries, deletions or other improper actions by supervisors and others, including the employees. D. S UPERVISOR ’ S F ILES As a general rule, schools should place any written record that they may rely on to make employment decisions in the employee’s “official” personnel file, i.e., the file maintained by the personnel department. Although a supervisor may wish to maintain a copy of the document in his or her own records, only the records contained in the “official” personnel file should be used as a basis for employment actions. Thus, documents that a supervisor possesses but are not contained in an employee’s personnel file may be of little or no value in the event that the school contemplates discipline against the employee. As a separate matter, a supervisor make keep a temporary supervisor file for the employees that he or she supervises. A supervisor file may contain notations or anecdotal observations about the employees whom the supervisor oversees. A supervisor also may confirm a counseling or oral reprimand in writing. These documents will often be useful in preparing an employee’s performance evaluation, and may be kept in a “drop file” or “desk file” until such time when the information has been transferred to the evaluation. The supervisor should incorporate information in a drop or desk file into the performance evaluation for the relevant rating period, or discard the information at the end of the evaluation rating period. Otherwise, the information may be interpreted as contradictory or existing outside of the formal evaluation process. Either way, the drop or desk file information loses its effectiveness for further rating and disciplinary purposes. This information is also discoverable in litigation. A supervisor should timely discuss his or her observations with the employee. Doing so is not only fair to the employee, but makes it more likely that the information will support future disciplinary actions. E. W HAT I NFORMATION S HOULD S CHOOLS P LACE I N P ERSONNEL F ILES “Official” personnel files should contain any or all of the following:  Employment applications;  Performance evaluations/appraisals;

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