with the two thousand and seven two thousand and eight school year it was a new principal point to school someone would never been a principal before it never taught art it never evaluated the single teacher and had actually been in the classroom for twenty years at the end of her first year of the point that mr macdonald was evaluated as on satisfactory and that triggered a number of procedural requirements under article twenty four school or were to cure early it required board of education to prepare remediation plan it provides for a ninety day remediation period with evaluations every thirty days is whether procedural violations of the school code the administrative regulations evaluation plan and mr mcdonald's remediation plan require a court to reverse the decision hearing officer in this case i will say to you that the procedural violations are numerous and they are done with impunity while this and i would also say that the court that in my estimation any one of these procedural violations in another itself would be a basis for reversal but what we have this multiple violations which taken together i think require they have in fact cleared the dismissal the way because of the limitations of time i'm going to try to get some of what i think are some of the most important point and we'll have to leave the rest were written argument but i just want to make clear that by doing so we're not waiving those arguments the first procedural problem that i want to talk to you about has to do with the preparation of the remediation under article twenty four a dash five as well as the school districts evaluation plan a district is required to prepare remediation plan within thirty days of one satisfactory evaluation in this case given him the opportunity to know what he had to do and take steps to prepare for it as matter of fact i mean he did use some things even based on the un satisfactory evaluation begin preparing himself such as going headline computer system where they would race so it does have a benefit to give the teacher this even when school is not in session certainly a lot of preparation takes place over the summer so but there can't be a new valuation and kill the new school year stars right that's correct we're saying that it should have been implemented on the first day but the statute clearly says you have prepare and provide to the teacher within thirty days of the on satisfactory evaluation mediation actually i think if you talk days to prepare and provide to mr macdonald for the first time copy of the remediation when the statute says you have to do that within thirty days the last line of section twenty four a dash by j which is i know what the court's referring to says that strict compliance with the time requirement of section twenty four a five shall not invalidate results of the remediation but what it doesn't say is you can totally disregard those timelines it's a strict compliance that doesn't that doesn't excuse all compliance we're not talking about a situation here where they missed it by a few days or even a few weeks we're talking about over five times the length of time allowed by the stache but in addition to that provision that you're referring to which you know i'm happy to answer that question because it isn't or doesn't excuse compliance with the evaluation only talks about strict compliance with respect to the statute and the district's evaluation plan also provided for he the district in addition to arguing the provision which of course just addressed also says that part of the reason why it took so long was that it took them a difficult time finding  teacher but the statute doesn't excuse compliance with thirty day requirement because it's difficult or inconvenient and furthermore i would say to you and we we lay this out pretty much in our read it really made precious little effort to try to find a console teacher that periods of time that went by where nothing was done to try to find a consultant teacher for the first about a month and a half well beyond the thirty day period the only thing that the absolute only thing they did was contact the union representative and see if he had some suggestions first of all he didn't have any  requirement that he provide that information and secondly there's no way that he could have provided that information if he had wanted to because one of the requirements is that the consulting teacher have an excellent evaluation something which he would not have had that information so that's the only effort they made until mid july then superintendent sent around an e mail to some of his colleagues in the area to see if they had any suggestion waited a couple more weeks to call the state board of education to see if they had suggest waited another month to see to basically recontact the area superintendents for suggestions and then waited until october some two months later before any other effort which made so when they're trying to say that it was difficult to find a consultant teacher they didn't even follow the administrative regulation which says the first thing you do is you go to the teachers in your district  it one of them might be willing to serve this process maybe you could just by inference but i thought i read somewhere that during the summer there was actually discussion between the superintendent and the union representative correct but if that was that the one you mean where he said do you have any suggestions or that actually talk of they were worried that the union rep said something t yes thank you for reminding me that to cover that point the second thing the second procedural problem that i want to talk about fast to do with the appointment the console teacher now this is a very critical requirement because a consulting teacher is a teacher with an excellent evaluation who is expected to help the teacher successfully complete the remediation because the idea of this the whole premise of the evaluation plan and article twenty four a is to help people correct any deficiencies which might which might be pres and the consulting teacher has a number of different responsibilities including participating in the development of the remediation providing advice to the teacher on how to improve performance being informed  results of the parties evaluation order to provide assistance and being informed throughout the post evaluation conferences about the results of the evaluation in this case there's various procedural components of what the consulting teacher is expected to do in the statute and the administrative regulations in the district's evaluation plan and in the remediation plan itself in this case the consulting teacher truly did virtually a consulting teacher never once and this is extremely important my estimation never once observed mr macdonald teaching a the consulting teacher must observe no no you are you are correct but as you said logically speaking how can you do this without actually seeing the person teaching the let's assume that they can ok let's assume that there's another method they can do that i suppose they could read the evaluations and see what the evaluations say but in this case the district never provided any copies of any of evalu consulting teacher i suppose conceivably they could do it by attending the pre or post evaluation conferences with the administration but in this case that didn't happen either so it's sort of any of the possible ways that you could actually give vice to somebody if you don't do any of these so but really what's worse in this case than them not doing any of these things and this is howard not doing any of these things it's a district understood from the very beginning that the consulting teacher didn't want to participate in stuff she said i'm not going to be involved in the evaluation process  of school district cannot locate a cooperating consultant teacher they can never be built these your honor they can always find a consultant teacher i mean this was the only consoling teacher available but they were able to locate this is the only consulting teacher that they found but that doesn't mean they made much of an effort they didn't do it in the administrative regulation  procedure by which they're supposed to go to one of the things is contacting teachers in your district who qualified which you know they have to have an excellent evaluation to see of any one of them are willing to participate they don't even do that i mean there are there are teachers in the area this is not you know the edge of the moon we have a lot of school districts around here and it doesn't have to be it doesn't have to be an art teacher all it has to be is someone who's got an excellent evaluation is willing to do that i suppose they could probably have even said to one of their teachers we want you to do this but so when you say they could never dismiss somebody if they she also told them that you know the only time that she would be even available to come over to school was when she wished she had teacher institute day which are few and far between she told  them she didn't want to participate in the evaluation process she didn't want to attend any of the career post conferences they knew that she had been over there and yet that not only didn't they tell mr mcdonnell that she didn't want to criticize and not only didn't they try to encourage her to practice but they didn't attempt to replace her when they found out that she wasn't willing to to do these things they just sat on the information we found this out on the back end when we're trying the case the hearing officer although he was concerned about this thing seeks to place the blame on mr macdonald for not doing more to try to encourage the consulting teacher to participate i would say that really that's placing the responsibility on the wrong person but in fact mr mcdonald was the only one who really made any effort at all to try to get rid of participate first of all he waited about halfway into the remediation period when the consulting teacher had know his patient all before he stepped up and said i'll take this on myself to try to get her involved then he went over to the school district where she taught he taught popular principal he gave the principal eight days where she could potentially come over then he went to the consulting teach question of whether that somehow excuses the board for not doing what they're held by stashing mr macdonald you know he couldn't release the teacher from her class  school district clearly didn't do their job as required by statute mistreated regulation their own evaluation plan and the remediation plan the third procedural thing that i want to talk about is the length of the remediation plan and the spacing valuation statute requires and the remediation plan both require that you have a remediation plan of ninety school days where students are present with thirty day evaluation with evaluations every thirty days and the reason for this is to give a sufficiently long period of time to correct the on satisfactory evaluation say to the court that is in possibility and it's an impossibility for the following reason mr mcdonald met with the administration on october thirty first two thousand  discussed the remediation plan something that required by statute has to be consultation with the consulting teacher ministration a number of matters were discussed some of those suggested changes looking for it in the final plan some were not a was absolutely certain is that there was no final remediation plan available for mr mcdonald on that day mcdonald says the first time received it was november twenty first and it's clear that it was signed by all parties on december eighth while we read that signature is not required believe that it's  put all my name is susan necklace and i'm here for the court of education upon me community and school district number eleven one of the most important things to point out to begin with is that mr mcdonald's was dismissed for a failure to complete a remediation plan with a rating of satisfactory or better and this is personal to twenty four eighty five of the school that incorporates then section twenty four deficiencies in the teacher however twenty forty five also occur by that failure to strictly comply with the time requirements does not invalidate remediation and i feel the need to correct a couple of things about the record that were stated by opposing counsel the fact is immediately after that on satisfactory rating a letter went to the pawnee education association the local bargaining unit for the school district teachers and  that was a request for recommendations for consulting teacher part of the reason that's done is because the administrative code requires that they asked it to rats that when looking for consulting teacher agent also be given the opportunity to give names that said that happened june sakit immediately after the on satisfactory valuation then in the middle of june the superintendent sat an emailed the area superintendent asking for lack mendacious or assistance again still seeking to find someone qualified to be the consulting teacher becomes housing teacher has to meet certain requirements under the school and one of those is that they have to have an excellent evaluation rating in their last evaluation now another important thing to point out is where and upon the education association responded to the request for names they insisted that no teacher in the if the district is going to seek a consulting teacher from the roster at the state board of education they also have to contact the regional superintendent to see abbas for from the regional superintendent the superintendent did so and at that time learned that the regional superintendent had no roster and was directed to talk to the state board of education which he did he contacted the state board of education and learned at that point in time the state board of education despite d the superintendent did those things and had absolutely no success he was them but i the state board of education back down the ladder talked to the regional superintendent and talked to our superintendents in the area and that is eventually how they found a qualified consulting teacher that's sad yes they went beyond the thirty days there is no question about it i despite the reliance of mr macdonald on he and i believe it's pronounced who cannot but i want to do a case that is not controlling here that he specifically dealt with the situation of his district not using the appropriate  apply to the evaluation ratings use basically directly and had the legislature wanted to provide some kind of exception for this they want it done it like they did here so that he says not all employment and specifically does i mean what's the what's the outside date and it's really not to find anywhere to be but we're going to end up defining we're going to say that it was ok in this case or it was not and what i would suggest is there are two issues that need to be considered and making have to sit in the first as it was summer and in the summer the school slow down teachers are not easy to reach strangers on twelve month contract that's true but teachers are not know and it's a consulting teacher that was necessary or there could be no progress on mediation remediation plan without consulting feature while being the way the statute is written is that consulting teacher actually should be early on for the end of summer they got no we had on another possible consulting teacher that would be qualified unfortunately that person never called them back so i don't want to say there are no other teachers anywhere there are qualified now with regard to the consulting teachers her to sit on the console the teacher has a position where they provide advice to the teacher who is rated on satisfactory on how to improve teaching skills and to successfully  going in either direction and it's basically that very basic definition of how to prove teaching skills and successfully complete the remediation plan now that's sad again it's important to look at the visited her two times in total once prior to the remediation plan even going to go back before the district was even aware of mrs howard and once after and then he disregarded the remaining suggestions that he go and visit indicated that he wanted her to come visit his classroom mrs wilson the administrator asked if he would like her to make those arrangements and he insisted that he wanted to do so and she agreed to that a come visit then went to mrs howard's classroom told her hey i talked to her principal this visit might be happening and when you come to judge the art show he testified he never told her of the dates he have in mind and then he went back to  i where he never told any of the administrators there are the dates he have in mind mrs howard didn't pack come to judge the earth shall and she came early and she came before the end of the school day and observed then after the art show she lacked mr macdonald apparently did not believe that that was an observation but he never talked to anybody about it he never complained to the administrators he never talked to his consulting teacher about it and he never even howard had come to visit she did not know intel after the remediation thing and was over that mr howard did not consider mr macdonald to not consider that a real visit a real classroom observation most recent head when the one mediation plan and he requested changes and the district agreed to those changes every single change that was made from that over thirty one meeting was the suggestion by mr mcconnell what's more mr mcdowell testified that on that day he knew what the plan sat he understood the terms of the fine and it had been discussed that it would start that day that have been noted in the prior evaluation and then directly below that was the word mediation that was necessary so it was virtually entirely based on the on satisfactory evaluation what case mr mcdonald assisted in selecting the last things that he wanted obstruct he wanted it to be a new last an where he was doing from the beginning that particular project that's virtually hasa all and when you look at the case on something that's never been specifically interpreted now ok sad as it means this or it means that if you read through the cases and look at the evaluation remediation plan went into effect october thirty one so i have two weeks yes if that were occurring in the classroom and the response was either to argue with the evaluator or in my case the evaluator walked away with the impression that mr mcdonald did not understand what she was saying however since maybe there are points i have only able to comprehend having a teacher in a classroom that the administration has said is it and satisfactory teacher and letting them teach my child from the third week of august to october thirty first without there being a plan or remediation that i simply cannot understand and i do not know if it is because i'm naive i'm divorced or to disengage with the real world because some of the things that you've suggested are understand  that year at that time i believe the only mr mcallister i don't detect any sense of urgency from the record for anything to happen and i guess i guess rate i would make it my business to make sure that that remediation plain went into effect for one of two reasons i want to get rid of the scar and i don't think you can meet meet the remediation plan or he's worthwhile i want to keep him he needs help either one of those requires urgency one requires urgency to get him out of the classroom one requires urgency to restore him to the good standing apparently wants and i guess the other thing i would say with respect to your concern about capturing hockey and i believe his attorney playing at the southeast while mr mcdonald actually did some things during that time including contacting who eventually ended up being his consulting teacher and then tack to make some improvements himself so by that point she was not his consulting teacher he also made the district aware that he was speaking with someone out of the district to get some help and seek some tips and things along that lines that it when it comes down to it the remediation plan it's not could not be again  strict compliance doesn't mean that there doesn't have to be any compliance and there wasn't any urgency scates in the fact that they even offered the fact that well it was over the summer so that made it more difficult waited until the first day of the following school year to give them the evaluation they're the ones who decided to give it to him on the last day of school and if it complicated their difficulty in getting a consulting evaluation plan says with respect to that but they do decide when they do the evaluation they decide how long it takes to complete the evaluation and actually give it to the teacher they certainly could have done this march and give it they could have done an evaluation at the beginning of september and given it to him and that point so you know to say that it made their life more difficult because they decided to give it on the last day of school  be that's a tough management decision in terms of maybe you saw spirit periodic periods of improvement and finally it just came to the point where you thought no i have to shoot this rain and you know decide that until may you can look back over your shoulder and say i wish i would decide this in march to get off the board or get out you know get it started but instead i don't decide it until you know i have a principle i've got to the school district i think if if any one of the three of us or a few our council got that satisfactory evaluation i'm sure there would have a sense of urgency on our part to make sure that that discuss some of these various things as did my client at a meeting with the superintendent over the summer he did do a number of things to try to satisfactorily complete the deficiencies which they believe that he had the other thing going on too to a different point unless i have an answer to your question you know i was i was just preaching well i only asked a question and i think that it goes to how long do we have to wait to do or drop here which was one of the points i really really good question is how long the students have to wait for both sides to do last related per question there wasn't anything that we could do more than what you know consulting teacher fordham in an effort to improve his teaching he sought out help including locating mrs howard and going over there who observe her classroom not once but twice once before