Opinion ID: 806387
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The District’s Tenure Decision

Text: Under the District’s tenure evaluation process, a teacher is evaluated throughout the three-year probationary period. Near the conclusion of that period, the teacher’s head principal – in Donnelly’s case, Chakar – reviews all the evaluations, and speaks to the teacher’s colleagues and supervisors. The principal then makes a recommendation to the assistant superintendent as to whether tenure should be granted. The assistant superintendent then recommends a decision to the Superintendent, who in turn recommends a decision to the Board of Education. See N.Y. Educ. Law § 3012(2). (“At the expiration of the probationary term . . . the superintendent of schools shall make a 9 written report to the board of education . . . recommending for appointment on tenure those persons who have been found competent, efficient, and satisfactory . . . .”). In evaluating Donnelly for tenure, Chakar reviewed only Donnelly’s teaching evaluations at Woodlands and excluded Donnelly’s uniformly positive reviews at WMA. The District admits that Chakar failed to include Donnelly’s evaluations from WMA “because he could not locate them.” Appellee’s Br. 10. In March 2007, Chakar notified the assistant superintendent, defendant-appellee Hasna Muhammad, that he did not recommend Donnelly for tenure. Muhammad, after reviewing only the evaluations from Woodlands High School, accepted Chakar’s assessment of Donnelly’s tenure candidacy and made no independent inquiry beyond reading those evaluations and speaking with Chakar and Washington. Muhammad knew at the time she made the decision that many of Donnelly’s significant absences were related to gallbladder surgery. Donnelly learned that he had been denied tenure in a meeting with Chakar, Muhammad, and Donnelly’s union representative. When Donnelly protested the reliance on Washington’s singularly negative evaluation, Muhammad and Chakar decided to allow Washington to conduct an additional teaching evaluation, the outcome of which would determine Muhammad’s final recommendation to the Board of Education, via the District superintendent. Donnelly prepared for that final evaluation in part by working with and providing his final lesson plans to two master teachers. Both teachers approved his lesson. 10 Nevertheless, Washington’s evaluation, on April 18, 2007, gave Donnelly an overall rating of “Unsatisfactory.” That evaluation specifically and emphatically criticized Donnelly’s absences, including absences during his leave, as “unacceptable” (emphasis in original). Washington later testified that the source of Donnelly’s absences, whether personal or protected under the FMLA, was not relevant to his critique. Donnelly strongly disagreed with Washington’s evaluation, but, on the advice of the union representative, he nevertheless submitted a letter of resignation in lieu of the termination that otherwise would have been forthcoming.