The Turner Unified School District believes in the growth and development of all employees. This belief is especially prevalent regarding teachers who are new to the district. Our goal is to make your early experiences in Turner comfortable and successful through a framework of support and guidance. The entire program is two-fold:

Mentor Program
A new employee coming in as a first or second year teacher is assigned a formal mentor at the beginning of the school year. "First year in the profession" teachers will be assigned a year-long mentor. "Second year in profession" teachers will be assigned a mentor for the first semester only.

Buddy System
A new employee coming in with at least two years of experience is assigned a "buddy" for more informal building and district orientation.

Mentor Program Components

• The general assistance and orientation is given in the classroom, building, and district level.
• Thirty observable behaviors are divided into multiple phases dealing with such things as classroom management, instruction, and student evaluation.
• Each phase includes a pre-conference to review observable behaviors, the actual observation, and then a post-conference to review the results on the observation.
• The post-conference is an avenue for feedback, assistance if needed, ideas for implementation, and general dialogue between the mentor and new teacher.
• This program is not tied to an evaluation/appraisal process; it stands as a means to provide positive, consistent support at an individual level.

As a new teacher in USD 202, staff will attend monthly New Teacher Induction meetings, which are led by administrators and instructional coaches. The purpose of these meetings is to provide support and professional development to new teachers. Topics include parent communication, data driven instruction, cooperative learning, integrated technology, among others. 

As a teacher in the Turner Unified School District you may qualify to have your student loans forgiven. Additional program information can be found here.

In coordination with Security Benefit, this is an opportunity for USD 202 to help employees save for retirement by offering a match of up to 1.25% of their base salary in contributions into a 403(b) retirement savings plan. 

When we retire, we will have different sources of income - KPERS, Social Security, and personal savings. The 403(b) Matching Program will help build employee's personal savings. You can learn more through the link below:

403b District Matching Program