Conduct Unbecoming Arbitrator determined that tenured secretary did in fact place her daughter in the temporary care and custody of her brother due to family instability and not for the purpose of avoiding tuition payments. The fact that both mother and child were observed exiting an out-of-district location on two successive mornings did not defeat proofs of in-district residential guardianship. Reinstatement with back pay and full emoluments ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Hearing of Clark-Huff, Elizabeth City Bd. of Educ., (TEACHNJ, 2016: Jan. 15).
Arbitrator determined that approximately 380 absences over a 19 year period did not constitute chronic absenteeism where tenured secretary’s use of time did not exceed the days to which she was entitled. Time that secretary was assigned to the “rubber-room” which tenure charges were investigated should not be held against her. Reinstatement with back pay and full emoluments ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Hearing of Clark-Huff, Elizabeth City Bd. of Educ., (TEACHNJ, 2016: Jan. 15).
Arbitrator determined that school district did not demonstrate that a special education teacher engaged in conduct unbecoming by failing to unreport absences where evidence demonstrated a legitimate work-related injury and that teacher reported her health status to the heath office instead of the attendance office. Charges dismissed. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Vaughn, Newark State-Operated Sch. Dist., (TEACHNJ 2016: Feb. 22).
Arbitrator determined that the district demonstrated that special education director engaged in unbecoming conduct where she falsely certified that a special education placement was a religious school and therefore ineligible for a public placement during a special education due process hearing. Dismissal ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Tobia, Lakewood Sch. Dist. (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 4).
Arbitrator determined that the district demonstrated that special education director engaged in unbecoming conduct where she unilaterally determined that a child was ineligible for special education and related services in advance of a special education eligibility meeting. Such conduct violated state and federal laws and deprived a student of necessary services. Dismissal ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Tobia, Lakewood Sch. Dist. (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 4).
Arbitrator determined that the district demonstrated that special education director engaged in unbecoming conduct where she precluded staff from providing Section 504 services to future students and instead directed that all requests for services be referred to the child study team for a special education evaluation and directed a staff member to throw out a student’s existing 504 plan. Dismissal ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Tobia, Lakewood Sch. Dist. (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 4).
Arbitrator determined that the district demonstrated that special education director engaged in unbecoming conduct where she directed that special education students be placed at unaccredited unapproved religious schools absent Commissioner approval by entering into private agreements with parents that required direct reimbursement. Dismissal ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Tobia, Lakewood Sch. Dist. (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 4).
Arbitrator determined that the district demonstrated that special education director engaged in unbecoming conduct where she engaged in outrageous conduct by refusing to leave the mediation room at the mediator’s request during a special education mediation, slammed the door in the face of the board attorney, and took positions that were diametrically opposed to the district’s best interests and contrary to board counsel’s legitimate and legal positions. Dismissal ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Tobia, Lakewood Sch. Dist. (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 4).
Arbitrator determined that the district demonstrated that special education director’s testimony was incredible where she argued that she was set up as the “fall guy” where the public schools were controlled by members of a religious community. Arbitrator applied the Abbott Northwestern Hospital balancing test to assess credibility. Dismissal ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Tobia, Lakewood Sch. Dist. (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 4).
Arbitrator determined that the district failed to demonstrate conduct unbecoming against a tenured custodian who provided students with electrical tape while in the boys bathroom. No evidence demonstrated that the custodian bound or gagged the boys, restrained their departure from the bathroom. Custodian not fully responsible for substantial media attention garnered when the facts were “mis-reported” and did not cause lawsuits to be filed. Reinstatement with back pay and full emoluments ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Garifine, Long Branch (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 15).
Arbitrator determined that tenure charges based upon institutional abuse should be dismissed where the Institutional Abuse Investigation Unit determined that the allegations of child abuse were unfounded. Upon such a finding, all references to the complaint and investigation must be removed from the employee’s personnel file. Reinstatement with back pay and full emoluments ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Garifine, Long Branch (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 15).
Arbitrator determined that special education teacher of 23 years acted reasonably in failing to respond to district denial of a disability leave that had already been approved and was ongoing. Teacher’s failure to contact the district in response to allegations that he was absent without official leave does not rise to the level of tenure charges. Reinstatement with 90 days back pay and full emoluments ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Wright, Newark State-Operated School District (TEACHNJ, 2016: Jan. 28).
Arbitrator determined that the district failed to substantiate charges of inefficiency where no mid-year observation was completed and observations took place late in the year, due to an approved leave of absence, giving teacher on a CAP little time to demonstrate improvement. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Ebert, Newark State-Operated School District (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 22).
Arbitrator determined that the district demonstrated unbecoming conduct where art teacher filed excessive student incident reports and made derogatory statements to and about students and requested “better-behaved” students for her classes. Teacher’s acknowledgment of fear in regard to her students was taken as an expression of racism by the district. Teacher was found to have generally failed to manage her students. Reinstatement ordered, without back pay and an independent medical evaluation to determine her fitness to manage students. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Ebert, Newark State-Operated School District (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 22).
Arbitrator determined that board failed to sustain charges of conduct unbecoming where teacher was videotaped in the classroom directing profanity at a student. Arbitrator discredited video as full and accurate representation of events and credited teacher’s unrebutted testimony that the video was play acting and designed with the legitimate purpose of correcting the conduct of a disruptive student. The arbitrator determined that the video was clearly not a bona fide altercation, the words were not spoken in anger or with bad intent. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration Okundaye, Newark State Operated School District (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 9)
Arbitrator determined that board was obligated to refer a tenured teacher to an independent medical examiner for a fitness for duty determination and anger management. The Arbitrator found that filing tenure charges instead of suspending the teacher and implementing the above referrals in a timely fashion was arbitrary, two of eleven charges were dismissed. Teacher was restored to duty with a 120-day loss of salary. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Carr, Carlstadt-East Rutherford Regional High School (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 1).
Arbitrator found that tenured faculty advisor culpable where he forged vendor signatures on district requisitions over a period of many years as a matter of expedience and not for financial gain. While forgery would normally sustain summary judgment in favor of dismissal, here both the auditor and business administrator testified credibly that such forgery did not violate any law or policy. Reinstatement with two-year increment withholding ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Carr, Carlstadt-East Rutherford Regional High School (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 1).
District failed to show that respondent teacher’s interactions with peers were grumpy and arrogant, and that the teacher failed to reform his conduct despite repeated admonitions, respondent teacher was never physically threatening nor so verbally abusive as to warrant dismissal. Counseling and progressive discipline should have been implemented. Charges were dismissed. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Carr, Carlstadt-East Rutherford Regional High School (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 1).
Where tenured teacher’s response to unruly students was an overt over-reaction, district’s intervention by filing tenure charges was unwarranted, arbitrary, and capricious. Teacher should have been placed on involuntary leave pending an independent medical evaluation and treatment or received progressive discipline. District ordered to refer teacher for fitness for duty examination and restored to duty, will all back pay and emoluments if found fit. I.M.O. Tenure Arbitration of Carr, Carlstadt-East Rutherford Regional High School (TEACHNJ, 2016: Feb. 1).
Inefficiency Tenured art teacher who was rated partially effective on 2013-14 summative evaluation and ineffective on 2014-15 summative evaluation filed motion to dismiss asserting a fatally defective evaluation process where the district did not (1) provide at least three observations, (2) did not provide at least one announced observation, preceded by a pre-conference; and (3) did not observe at least once each semester. Arbitrator found that she had authority to rule on dispositive motions, Arbitrator found that despite several other evaluations, the district’s failure to comply with the statutory requirements deprived the teacher of due process protections and materially affected the outcome of Hannah’s evaluations. Reinstatement with back pay and emoluments ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Hearing of Hannah, State-Operated Sch. Dist. Newark, (TEACHNJ: Feb. 6).
Arbitrator determined that charges of inefficiency were proven where teacher scored partially proficient on during two consecutive summative evaluations. Despite scoring highly effective on the student growth objective portion of the evaluation, Respondent teacher’ average was scored partially effective on the four domains of the performance evaluation. Despite the fact that no evidence was produced that an evaluator was properly trained in the evaluation tool, the observations arising from that evaluation were consistent with the other evaluations conducted and therefore did not impact the overall evaluation. Dismissal ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Hearing of Lewis, (TEACHNJ: 2016, Jan. 12).
Teacher’s arguments that her transition from teaching high school special education classes to a second grade inclusion class should have been considered in her evaluations and that she did not receive sufficient support from her co-teacher were arguments of an educational nature and was beyond the arbitrator’s authority. No statutory requirement that the district implement a research-based monitoring program for other than first year teachers, therefore the multi-phased corrective action plan implemented by the district was educationally based and not subject to the arbitrator’s substantive review. Dismissal ordered. I.M.O. Tenure Hearing of Lewis, (TEACHNJ: 2016, Jan. 12).
In a consolidated matter, Arbitrator determined that she lacked sufficient evidence to determine that student growth objectives were unilaterally implemented by administration, there was also insufficient evidence for the Arbitrator to determine whether evaluation scores were calculated incorrectly where it was unclear as to how sub-indicators were factored into the scoring rubric. Accordingly, the Arbitrator was unable to determine that the district failed to comply with evaluation procedures and left such determination to the individual arbitrators. I.M.O. Tenure Hearing of Osborne, Paterson State-Operated Sch. Dist., (TEACHNJ: 2016, Jan. 14).
Rules Arbitrator determined that arbitrators have inherent authority to hear and determine dispositive motions despite the lack of such authority in the statute in light of Commissioner’s express delegation of that authority to the arbitrator in the instant matter. I.M.O. Tenure Hearing of Churchill, Camden City Bd. of Educ., (TEACHNJ: 2016, Jan. 5).
Arbitrator determined that 141-day delay between summative conference and the filing of tenure charges did not act as a time bar to the prosecution of tenure charges. The drafting and review of tenure charges are not comparable to the transcription and publication of meeting minutes required by the Open Public Meetings Act. Moreover, respondent failed to demonstrate that the time lapse materially supported one or more of the four statutory factors to be determined by the arbitrator. Teacher’s motion for summary judgment held in abeyance during the arbitration proceedings. I.M.O. Tenure Hearing of Churchill, Camden City Bd. of Educ., (TEACHNJ: 2016, Jan. 5).