Virginia Code Title 22.1. Education § 22.1-295. Employment of teachers

A. The teachers in the public schools of a school division shall be employed and placed in appropriate schools by the school board upon recommendation of the division superintendent.  In placing teachers, school boards shall fill positions with licensed instructional personnel qualified in the relevant subject areas.

B. School boards shall adopt employment policies and practices designed to promote the employment and retention of highly qualified teachers and to effectively serve the educational needs of students.  Such policies shall include, but need not be limited to, incentives for excellence in teaching, including financial support for teachers attending professional development seminars or those seeking and obtaining national certification.

C. School boards shall develop a procedure for use by division superintendents and principals in evaluating teachers that is appropriate to the tasks performed and addresses, among other things, student academic progress and the skills and knowledge of instructional personnel, including, but not limited to, instructional methodology, classroom management, and subject matter knowledge.

Teachers employed by local school boards who have achieved continuing contract status shall be formally evaluated at least once every three years and more often as deemed necessary by the principal, and they shall be evaluated informally during each year in which they are not formally evaluated.  Any teacher who has achieved continuing contract status who receives an unsatisfactory formal evaluation and who continues to be employed by the local school board shall be formally evaluated in the following year.  The evaluation shall be maintained in the employee's personnel file.

Each local superintendent shall annually certify divisionwide compliance with the provisions of this section to the Department.