Mathews is one of the few reliable and unbiased reporters at the paper.
There is a widespread feeling of hopelessness and apathy that tends to keep us from doing more to get the best possible teachers in the classroom in urban and rural schools.-- Jay Mathews, Washington Post, Oct. 3, 2008
How hard is it to fire a tenured teacher? They might find out in Salamanca, NY.
October 26, 2008 - When a teacher was arrested recently, Salamanca school officials discovered that it was just the beginning of the process that might take years to resolve. The article is called, "Salamanca Blindsided."
Salamanca City School District superintendent Doug Hay said he believes the state Education Department will take charge in deciding what happens to Dupont professionally. If the Education Department decides to revoke Dupont's certification, it may allow the district to move more quickly through the hearing process to ultimately fire Dupont.
''My understanding from a legal aspect is the state Education Department will take ... this,'' he said. ''An individual certification will be removed by the state.''
However, if Dupont is found guilty of the charges, it still may be difficult for school officials to remove the teacher, especially since he is tenured. The district may have to hold a 3020a hearing, which would require someone impartial to the case to hear both sides. The process is lengthy even after a teacher's certification is revoked.Even if a teacher is convicted of a sex crime, the district would have to go through the 3020a hearing process to fire a tenured teacher.
''That's a law that's only applicable to tenured teachers,'' said Jay Worona, New York State School Boards Association general counsel. ''It affords a great degree of due process for those people who would be facing charges ... in some type of disciplinary proceeding. It really is very much like a real trial in the sense that it takes a long time.''
According to Brian Butry, New York State School Boards Association spokesperson, the hearing process can be expensive and time consuming. He said 10 years ago, the average length of proceedings was 319 days and it costs an average of $94,000. Now, the hearings, on average, last 520 days and cost almost $130,000.
''We think that process is flawed,'' Butry said. ''We've helped sponsor legislation in the last year that was actually introduced.''
Taxpayers are also responsible for additional costs, Worona said, including, in most cases, having to pay the suspended teacher, the substitute who is replacing him and any litigation expenses.
''A big chunk of that expense is the fact that the teacher in most cases collects their full salary while the hearing is (proceeding),'' said Patricia Gould, New York State School Boards Association assistant council, adding upon a conviction, then the individual is no longer paid his salary.
This Code shall not be used as a basis for discipline by any employer and shall not be used by the State Education Department as a basis for a proceeding under Part 83 of Commissioner's Regulations, nor shall it serve as a basis for decisions pertaining to certification or employment in New York State.
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 $19,119 in health benefit premiums on Oonk's behalf from March 2008 to May 2009, she said.
Nothing in the separation agreement prevents Oonk from taking a position in another school system, but Iorio said he doesn't know Oonk's plans.
"No matter how strong a tenure case is, it's in the best interest of the district to settle before it goes to a hearing," Mutch said. "The law requires the district to continue paying the teacher until there's a decision, and there's never any certainty of outcome if you go through the whole process."---------------------------------
No school board member explained why the teacher in question hadn't been fired.
August 14, 2008 - An unnamed intermediate school teacher is being considered for tenure status despite having been charged in two counties with drunken driving on two separate occasions.
The first offense occurred December 2005 and was expunged after she completed an Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for one year. In addition, the teacher was required to attend an alcohol highway safety school and had driving privileges suspended for one month.No school board member explained why the teacher in question hadn't been fired.
The teacher's second offense occurred less than a year later in September 2006. In May 2007, the teacher was sentenced to 90 days of electronic monitoring and six months probation following the monitoring.
Leading causes? Research shows which behaviors contribute to teen-related crashes. Inexperience and immaturity combined with speed, drinking and driving, not wearing seat belts, distracted driving (cell phone use, loud music, other teen passengers, etc.), drowsy driving, nighttime driving, and other drug use aggravate this problem.
Firing a tenured teacher can be co$tly.
June 28, 2008 - AP writer Frank Eltman on the cost of and frustration over disciplining a tenured teacher in "Removing a troubled teacher can be vexing." And not just vexing.
In New York City, it often costs taxpayers $250,000 just to fire one incompetent teacher. Some teachers are convicted of serious felonies and still remain on the payroll, forcing districts to hold disciplinary hearings behind prison walls.Read the whole thing.
Tenure hearing - a first.
June 25, 2008 - The first tenure hearing in the district's 50-year history begins today as veteran teacher Karl Nadolsky, 58, fights to keep his job.
Tenure hearings are relatively rare because a buyout often can be negotiated for less money, attorneys say. Only about 50 each year are held statewide and it takes an average of 10 1/2 months to resolve one, according to the State Office of Hearings and Rules.The board voted 7-0 to fire Nadolsky in January. Fil Iorio, Nadolsky's attorney, is sponsored by the Michigan Education Association.
Vegan teacher dismissal hearing.
June 23, 2008 - A Board of Education dismissal hearing for a middle school teacher who was fired for "turning his classroom into a forum on veganism," abandoning the art curriculum and asking students to keep it a secret from their parents according to school board documents.
What began as a simple be-kind-to-animals project approved by administrators who even participated--marshmallow Easter "Peeps" were made into "pets" to be cared for--got out of hand when Warwak put the "pets" in cages, pots and pans and between slices of bread.The hearing officer repeatedly admonished that the hearing wasn't about whether veganism, "is right or wrong or good or bad."
"The problem was when it turned into a PETA advertisement and it was against the school lunch program," testified Fox River Grove Middle School Principal Tim Mahaffy at the Illinois Board of Education's three day closed hearings into Warwak's dismissal conducted at the Fox River Grove City Hall in April.
We told you firing a tenured teacher was hard to do. More people are finding out just how true that is.
June 5, 2008 - A report from Jessica Taloney at WKRG.com Ch 5 on the attempt to fire Charlene Schmitz.
A Washington County teacher is collecting a paycheck from jail.TT entry for Schmitz.
Charlene Schmitz, 55, was sentenced Monday to ten years and one month for using a computer to make sexual advances on one of her eighth grade students. Schmitz was convicted on two counts of the federal charge by a jury in February.
Two weeks after her conviction, the Washington School District voted to fire Schmitz and terminate her $51,666 a year salary, but News Five has learned the Alabama Office of Administrative hearings overturned the school board's decision.
"The board has done everything they could do to get her off the payroll," said Martin Pearson, the school district's attorney. "They're aware it's taking tax payer dollars, but at this point their hands are tied," he said.
Pearson says Schmitz, who still faces state charges for rape and sodomy, appealed her termination. In an opinion issued on April 23rd by Walter Turner, Alabama's Chief Administrative Law Judge, the Office of the Attorney General sided with Schmitz, saying "there is no provision in the Alabama Teacher Tenure Act, or any other statue, for the suspension of a teacher's salary pending the termination or suspension process under any circumstances."
Basically, Pearson says that means Schmitz must have an administrative hearing before she can be terminiated, and based on the concept of due process, Schmitz can't be forced to testify at an administrative hearing until after her criminal proceedings are over.
"I don't think it's fair at all," said Kesler Weaver, who serves on the school board and voted to fire Schmitz. "We should be able to terminate her under the circumstances.Donna Marks, the victim's mother, agrees. "She is in prison, she is drawing a paycheck, paying an attorney to fight us, the victims," said Marks. "It makes absolutely no sense."
Schmitz attorney says he expects to appeal the federal conviction and sentence. Schmitz's state trial is scheduled to begin in November.
"Why, why, why won't my heart give up?"
(Luckily, a school district won't give up trying to fire her.)
June 3, 2008 - Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Sheila Abdus-Salaam overruled an arbitrator that recommended that Colleen McGraham, 39, be suspended for 90-days without pay for her dogged pursuit of a 
15-year-old male student via e-mail and a blog.
Ms. McGraham, a tenured teacher of English who has been at New Dorp since 2002, hounded the 11th-grader through instant messages and e-mails in 2005, when she was 36 and the student 15.The district moved her to an administrative office where she would have no contact students.
Ms. McGraham also started a blog on the Web site Xanga.com where she poured her heart out, according to court documents. The relationship never became physical.
"My feelings for him are so strong, and I can't say or do anything," Ms. McGraham wrote in a May 2, 2005, posting. "Today he was standing behind me so close I could feel the heat from his body radiate to me.
"I wanted to just let myself go, lean backwards and sink into him."
In ordering a new penalty, the judge called the recommended suspension irrational and said it fails to protect children from "teachers who cannot control their emotions."While the judge sent the case back for a new penalty, the Department of Education will seek to have McGraham fired during an upcoming hearing.
Justice Abdus-Salaam cited one of Ms McGraham's blog postings, where she wrote on June 26, 2005: "If he contacted me and said let's talk, let's meet at the beach. I would be out that door pretty quick. Damn the consequences."
"The fact that a romantic, sexual relationship did not develop may say more about the student's maturity than the teacher's ability to conduct herself appropriately," Justice Abdus-Salaam wrote in the decision.
Board votes to revoke tenure and fire teacher.
Jan 31, 2008 - The West Ottawa Board of Education voted this week to revoke tenure and attempt to fire West Ottawa High School biology teacher Karl Nadolsky for "allegedly ensuring students passed his course."
A test in October had the correct answers to 27 of 34 multiple choice questions italicized. On two other exam questions, Nadolsky is accused of using a larger-size print and of bold-facing the correct answers. During a second test in November, Nadolsky allowed students use a study guide during the exam. The documents were obtained by The Press through the Freedom of Information Act
When a student alerted administrators, it is alleged that Nadolsky named the student and allowed other students in the to berate the person. Administrators have branded Nadolsky "unfit to teach." Nadolsky is is expected to file an appeal with the Michigan Tenure Commission.
The difficulty of actually firing him or revoking his tenure is summed up by a board member.
"The guy should resign, retire and leave," said Bill Bloemendaal, a retired teacher and a 12-year member of the West Ottawa board.While they paid him full wages, of course.
Bloemendaal, however, voted against trying to fire Nadolsky, noting tenure battles are lengthy and that the teacher would be paid during the fight. The board member feels Nadolsky could supervise a study hall or perform another school function.
Tenure hearings are relatively rare because a buyout often can be negotiated for less money, attorneys say. Only about 50 each year are held statewide and it takes an average of 10 1/2 months to resolve one, according to the State Office of Hearings and Rules.Nadolsky, like most teachers, requested his hearing be closed to the public.
Delaying tenure in California.
Jan 14, 2008 - A California Assemblywoman will be introducing a bill - AB 1761 - to require teachers to work four years before they are granted tenure. Currently the probationary period is two years.
The Assemblywoman was a school district superintendent for several years.
August 31, 2007 (Date is publication date) - Tracy Rockhold, 38, a kindergarten teacher, was fired by the school board this week. She has 10 days to appeal the decision.
She was terminated after shepleaded guilty to second-degree theft, a felony, on July 26, 2007.
In her plea in Scott County District Court, she admitted to taking $2,195.60 in merchandise from SuperTarget on Nov. 12, 2006, according to East Moline School District superintendent Barry Green.THE PROCESS: STEP A: The teacher has a right to request, within 10 days of receiving notice, a hearing before the school board about the termination.
She was given a deferred judgment and sentence, meaning if she does not commit another crime for two years her record will be wiped clean.
Underming local control of schools.
Even when you aren't tenured, you can't be fired.
August 28, 2007 - First an arbitrator then a superior court judge have ruled that Alice Haseltine should not have lost her job because she didn’t receive a thorough enough review by school administrators before she was notified that she would not be brought back for the school year beginning September 2003.
She wasn't tenured, but "town’s contract with the Hull Teachers Association said teachers were supposed to be formally observed by a superior three times, and be given the results of those observations and a chance to respond."
The court ruling does not state the reason Hull school administrators gave for firing Haseltine. The Hull Teachers Association brought the lawsuit.
RANT
UPDATED to discuss newspaper editorial on the need to fire teachers convicted of felonies.
July 24, 2007 - A school can't fire a teacher who was sentenced for her fourth DUI. The school district doesn't have a policy for dealing with convicted employees, and they probably never will since collective bargaining would likely be required because the grounds for termination are laid out in each union's contract.
Kathleen Burley, 47, was the teacher who kicked one officer in the groin, bit another and had to be wrestled to the floor. She was sentenced to 4 1/2 years and 10 years' probation. TT - LINK She was found guilty of three counts of assault and battery on a police officer. Despite all that, the school claims they can't fire her. The responsibility is, apparently, on the Massachusetts Department of Education.
TT - It's up to the Massachusetts Department of Education to revoke her license, but don't expect much. They found no cause to revoke the teaching license of a Weymouth health education teacher who was convicted of his fifth drunk driving conviction last December. TT - LINK
UPDATE July 25 - The Gloucester Times editorial ("Felony policy needed in schools") on the need to adopt a school policy that would "state that felons have forfeited their right to work in the local schools." They write:
This is particularly important regarding alcohol abuse. Alcoholism is a disease, but drunken driving is a crime.TT - The editorial board of the Gloucester Times doesn't link to the collective bargaining agreement between their school committee members and the Gloucester Teacher's Association. Nor, the Gloucester Policy Manual, also online, that clearly states in Section note GBEC that
School leaders regularly tell students that there will be harsh consequences for drinking and driving. That message will be lost if students see that such consequences don't apply to faculty.If anything, the standards for teachers ought to be higher.
They are supposed to be setting an example for students.
disciplinary action will be taken in accordance with contracts negotiated by the Gloucester School Committee with the bargaining unit representing the employee.Source: Policy Manual PDF Section G pg 5
July 23, 2007 - Despite pleading guilty and being sentenced on harassment charges, a Georgia teacher has yet to fulfill part of the plea agreement to drop his appeal of his termination.
Current School Superintendent David Carpenter said Taylor “has to notify us in writing of his intent not to appeal and he has not done so yet. We expect him to, but he has not yet.”TT - LINK to Taylor entry.
David Carpenter said “we want to make sure to follow the law, so the personnel hearing is still scheduled.” The charges stem from May 26 incident with a co-worker at Northside Middle School at her home The reasons for the personnel hearing, beyond the indictment were spelled out in a letter from Carpenter sent to Taylor the week after his arrest.
According to a letter from Danny Carpenter, Taylor was told on Feb. 9, 2006 and April 1, 2004 about unprofessional behavior and discussing his personal life with students.
Carpenter said Taylor apparently “willfully and intentionally violated the directives contained in these letters,” by discussing the relationship with other teacher and one or more students including using students to deliver personal notes and messages.
“In doing so,” Carpenter wrote, “you have behaved unprofessionally and in direct violation of my directives, all of which constitute insubordination.”
Taylor’s arrest for the criminal offenses above toward another teacher at the school was also cited. “Your behavior can not and will not be tolerated by this school district as such behavior is wrong, unprofessional for an educator employed by this district,” Carpenter said, “and constitutes immorality and other good an sufficient cause as defined by the Fair Dismissal Act.”
Carpenter also referred to previous criminal charges, saying in the letter, “unfortunately this is not the first occasion in which you have been charged with criminal charges involving your personal life.”
These charges, according tot the District Attorney’s Office include a guilty plea to a violation of family violence order on Nov. 10, 2004, which Taylor was given 12 months probation and ordered to stay away from the victim and abide by a custody order.
The charges were reduced on the Aug. 27, 2003, offense from the original three count indictment on aggravated stalking, battery - family violence and terroristic threats or acts. Taylor also pled guilty less than a year later, on July 21, 2005, to simple assault and harassing phone calls for a June 30, 2005, incident. He was sentenced to 24 months probation and ordered to have no contact with the victim or her family.
RANT OF THE DAY
A good many teacher misconduct cases are finalized in a plea bargain agreement. Whether it's an Alford plea or it's called "No Contest," or a guilty plea, not infrequently the news reports include "As part of the plea agreement, he accepted the loss of his teaching license." or "The teacher agreed to surrender their teaching license." It ought to be automatic that the teacher loses his license for engaging in sex with a child, but the vagaries of the Education Establishment is that it is not a foregone conclusion.
A recent case illustrates perfectly how the difficulty of firing a teacher gives the defendant a bargaining chip that no other group of citizens is given. Lance Diefenderfer, a 38-year-old assistant principal was sentenced to 1 year of home confinement for sex with a 16-year-old student. In a story on the sentencing, there was this rationale for the conclusion of the case.
Assistant Solicitor Julie Anders said the main goal was to ensure that Diefenderfer never taught again. As a condition of the plea agreement, his teaching license was permanently revoked last week, Anders said in court Thursday.Not justice for the victim, mind you, but convenience for the state of South Carolina.
What is "unethical behavior?"
July 19, 2007 - Firing teachers is a legal dance.
A veteran Godwin Heights High School teacher is on paid leave while the district files tenure charges to have him fired over what administrators call "performance issues."TT - Chances are the newspaper will not follow up on the attempt to fire the teacher, the teacher will incur no cost whatsoever in fighting the action, the school will continue to pay him for not being in the classroom as well as the cost of a substitute to replace him when this drags on to the new school year. Taxpayers will also pay for the school district attorney's time as well as the tenure commission. No final report will ever be public as both sides claim "confidentiality."
Superintendent Valdis Gailitis said Wednesday the Board of Education voted Tuesday to dismiss science teacher Robert Czachorski for "unethical behavior."
Czachorski has taught in the district for 37 years.
Gailitis said he could not discuss details of the charges because Czachorski requested the session be conducted behind closed doors. A hearing before the state teacher tenure commission, which will determine whether he will be fired, has yet to be scheduled.
Gailitis said the teacher was placed on administrative leave near the end of the school year because of classroom performance issues.
He said there are no criminal charges and no students were involved.
Czachorski referred questions to his union attorney, Fil Iorio, who said he will fight charges of poor performance.
"You don't last 37 years as a teacher if there are performance issues," he said. "Mr. Czachorski has had good evaluations, and we will challenge this."
Bad hiring decisions cost taxpayers millions each year.
July 10 - Schools and universities don't call them Bad Hiring Decisions. They're buyouts - paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to teachers and faculty or administrators who are tenured. In Missouri State University, it was $700,000 to nine departing employees in the past five years.
“You try to make some sort of judgment on the merits of litigation. What is it worth to the university to resolve it?” said Missouri State President Mike Nietzel, who has agreed to five such buyouts in his two years at the university.How do you explain a $275,000 was given to a coach because the university could see increases in both ticket sales and fan support with a new coach?
“It’s not (a) $10,000 (agreement) versus nothing, but it’s $10,000 versus two months of a court case.”
Most of the agreements are made with tenured faculty. Under state statute, such workers can only be fired for “incompetence, neglect or refusal to perform his duties, dishonesty, drunkenness or immoral conduct.”TT - you would be hard-pressed to find teachers fired for any of those breaches. The reason is that teachers unions provide free legal aid to tenured teachers which helps to reinforce this perception of invulnerability. The best most districts can do is negotiate a resignation, leaving the incompetent teacher free to teach in another district.
July 7, 2007 - The graphic from the New York Post says it all.
The ones that are fired are non-tenured.
Although there is a stipulation in the teachers contract allowing the DOE to freeze the pay of teachers involved in sex crimes even while a criminal trial is going on, a "probable-cause hearing" is needed.
"The reason I am not tenured is I will not sell my integrity out."
June 22, 2007 - A school principal is just giving up and resigning in face of opposition from teachers and their union. Jeannie Henry's appointed angered many faculty and staff members who supported another in-house candidate.
A member of the Mexico High School faculty said employees there were split over whether to support Henry or not.Henry is planning legal action against the school district for the bullying and harassment.
Henry said that controversy stemmed from her criticism of a popular teacher who allegedly targeted a student because of his ethnicity. The student's parent filed a complaint against the district, which ended with the state Division of Human Rights ruling against the teacher.
