Read more at: https://www.prp.group/blog/7-tips-for-staying-right-with-your-district-while-edugigging
During a recent episode of The Education Insider podcast, I chatted with education lawyer Steve Wellvang. He’s the former president and CEO of ECMC Holdings Corp., an education-focused private equity investment company, and the former general counsel of ECMC Group, Inc., a higher-education services company, so he’s quite qualified to talk about the legal considerations, risks, and opportunities related to consulting, influencing, and other forms of “edugigging” income. Here’s what he had to say.
Learn your district’s policies.
If you’re thinking of moonlighting, the first step is to familiarize yourself with your district’s policies, which can often be found online. If you find that outside employment is barred for district employees in your position, that may be the end of it for you. But even if there is no specific policy against it, you’re not in the clear yet. Wellvang said that you want to go beyond the specific policies and look at codes of conduct as well.
As he explained districts typically have, “a code of ethics and also typically a conflict of interest code. And so in Minnesota, for example, there's a state law that school administrators have a code of ethics just for school administrators and every school district.” However, he added, “It tends to be more general in nature and doesn't specifically address outside employment, but there are some provisions in that code of ethics for administrators that do have some implications for outside work.”
Policies you should pay special attention to include:
Conflict of Interest policies;
Outside work policies; and
Procurement and purchasing policies, which may involve educators who help choose what products or services the school or district will adopt.
You can read and interpret these policies on their own, but for further peace of mind you can bring questions to your supervisor or your district’s legal counsel. You can also speak with your ethics officer.
Follow your district’s procedures.
Knowing your district’s rules and policies isn’t enough. You also have to follow them. That includes policies like not entering into conflicts of interest, not disclosing confidential information, and never acting against the interests of your employer, even if you didn’t find any specific formal guidance about it.
When in doubt, disclose everything.
Your district policies likely require some level of disclosure regarding outside work, but when in doubt, opt for full disclosure. “Get your thoughts together about what you would like to do, and then talk to your supervisor, your superintendent, or your school board chair If that's the only person” available, said Wellvang. “If you're a superintendent, talk to the ethics officer to get a sense” where to disclose if there is no specific, clear guidance for your situation.
“Making appropriate disclosures in advance is the way to generally avoid problems down the road,” said Wellvang. “People, frankly, in this sector get crosswise with their district when there has not been proper disclosure and it surprises someone.”
Never use district-issued devices.
If you do end up doing outside work, never use a phone, computer or other electronic device issued by the school district, even if it’s authorized for personal use. To be safe, be sure to use your own equipment and devices. And, of course, that includes things like email and social media: always use your own, never your school account.
If you have a business, register and insure it.
If you’re just being paid to give the occasional lecture or otherwise picking up piecework here and there, maybe you don’t have a business. But if your moonlighting does amount to a small business, you should treat it as such by...
