Settlement agreement avoids tenure hearing. (And the endless reviews that would mean.)
August 26, 2008 - Zeeland Public Schools reached a settlement agreement that will allow Timothy S. Oonk, 50 to resign, avoiding a tenure hearing where Oonk planned to fight to regain his job.
The school board voted in April to fire Oonk, despite his tenure, for what administrators called unprofessional and unethical misconduct, including a violation of a "last chance agreement" Oonk signed in May 2006 after testing positive for alcohol while teaching.The Grand Rapids Press filed a Freedom of Information request and got a copy of the agreement.
The agreement, obtained by The Press through the Freedom of Information Act, calls for the school district to continue paying Oonk his salary until Dec. 9, and his union-sponsored insurance, except for long-term disability, through May 2009, or until he obtains comparable coverage through another employer.A tenure hearing had been scheduled for last week, but the settlement agreement avoided it.
Oonk will have been paid $59,412 in salary from March 6, when he was placed on leave, to the date in the separation agreement, Assistant Superintendent Mary Colton said. The district also will have paid $19,119 in health benefit premiums on Oonk's behalf from March 2008 to May 2009, she said.
Nothing in the separation agreement prevents Oonk from taking a position in another school system, but Iorio said he doesn't know Oonk's plans.
The reason?
"No matter how strong a tenure case is, it's in the best interest of the district to settle before it goes to a hearing," Mutch said. "The law requires the district to continue paying the teacher until there's a decision, and there's never any certainty of outcome if you go through the whole process."---------------------------------
RECOMMENDED: Scott Ridder's award-winning series, "The Hidden Costs of Tenure," was the result of a six-month investigation into tenure. Some findings. It costs, on average, $219,000 to fire a tenured teacher. Few are ever fired for incompetence. Of 95,000 teachers, only an average of two are fired for incompetence. Read the whole thing. Because what he found is true in every state.
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Google Map for the district. The district rates a 7 at GreatSchools.net
