NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — An elementary school teacher has been allowed to keep his job even though he was late for work 111 times over a two-year period.
In a decision filed Aug. 19, an arbitrator rejected an attempt by the Roosevelt Elementary School to fire 15-year veteran Arnold Anderson from his $90,000-a-year job, saying he was entitled to progressive discipline.
Anderson was late 46 times in the most recent school year through March 20 and 65 times in the previous school year, the arbitrator said. But the arbitrator criticized Anderson’s claim that the quality of his teaching outweighed his tardiness.
He relied on “micro-quibbles of a few unpersuasive explanations, with a macro-default position that even when he is late he nevertheless delivers a superb educational experience to his grateful students,” the arbitrator wrote.
The arbitrator found that the district failed to provide Anderson with due process by providing him with a formal notice of inefficiency or by giving him 90 days to correct his failings before terminating his employment.
The district has withheld raises for his tardiness and Anderson will remain suspended without pay until Jan. 1.
New state regulations that cover the filing of tenure charges require rulings by state-appointed arbitrators that once took years to occur within 90 days, making it easier to accuse teachers of inefficiency.
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And this is the screw-up, here:
I can guarantee that my HR counterpart (chapter president, here) wouldn’t ever have tried to fire him first.
Look, I am strong supporter of teacher unions. Seen too many friends bullied by administrators for the most petty reasons. But the union here should be working to deal with this guy’s problems. Over 100 times late? That’s just beyond the pale.
How do we know the union isn’t working on his tardiness issue. Due process is due process. The school was foolish not to follow the progressive discipline they have in place. They may have even delayed his termination by jumping the gun on this.
That said, I hope they deal with this appropriately and right away. Schools have a lot of moving parts, and when a teacher isn’t there for his or her duties, lots of people get shifted to cover for him or her. If he can’t clean up his act, they should follow the procedure and get him out.
On the other hand, if we are to take this story as evidence that unions are bad, I don’t think that’s fair at all. We’re talking about one guy here, not the majority of teachers. And we see how badly workers are treated everywhere these days–unions are more needed now than ever, even if that means a few bad apples get a due process that keeps them in their jobs an extra year. The benefits of unions outweigh the downside. Meanwhile, lack of regulations for management is just an invitation to abuse and instability.
I think the union is not so much “supporting” this man as protecting due process according to their contract; in that way, they are protecting all teachers.
he won on a technicality. He should have been fired.
Is he right? Is he a good teacher? If he is I don’t care if he comes to school an hour late and starts class by standing on his head and reciting the alphabet backwards and gets paid double.
This article is just another example of the disrespect shown for teachers and an trying to evoke jealousy of their pay levels.
Teachers get paid less than other people with equivalent educations. The bargain used to be thatthey got some control of their working conditions and a safe pension. That implicit bargain has been broken and suddenly there is a shortage of teachers. Odd, isn’t it?
I am neither a teacher nor a parent.