From State Sen. Bob Cassilly:
Friends,
I am very disappointed that the General Assembly voted this week to override Governor Hogan’s veto of Senate Bill – 639 / House Bill 1758. Those bills remove the authority county the Superintendents of Schools and Boards of Education currently have to dismiss teachers for incompetency or willful neglect of duty. That final authority will now be shifted to an arbitrator from outside of Harford County with no connection to our schools.
It is shocking to me that the General Assembly trusts our educational system with our children’s lives but does not trust them to decide whether to terminate a very small number of incompetent or willfully neglectful teachers. This is no way to run our schools. Our students, parents, and taxpayers deserve better. So do the overwhelming number of fantastic teachers who will now have to work even harder to cover for the very small minority of incompetent and willfully neglectful teachers who will now likely remain in place due to this new law.
SB-639 and HB-1758 effectively make the incompetent and neglectful teachers the most protected public employees in our State, far more protected than police officers. Under prior law, the very small number of teachers charged with incompetence or will full neglect were allowed a hearing. The County Superintendent of Schools would then determine the appropriate remedy, including a possible termination. That decision was then subject to the approval of the entire Board of Education. The new law will delay that process, tie it up in expensive arbitration, and shift the final decision to second guessing by an outsider who is not a part of the extensive educational establishment that we trust to teach and protect our children and to hire and train our teachers.
Supporters argue that the Bills impose “Due Process.” It is a shame to see that concept so misapplied. The intent of the new law is clearly not due process. Rather, it is to thwart the existing, extensive due process by which we currently remove incompetency and neglect, making it too expensive and risky for the Board to act. The considerable time and expense of terminating an incompetent or willfully neglectful teacher will now be subject to nullification at the whim of an outside arbitrator, leaving the Board and Superintendent standing helplessly and disempowered. The Board will also need to transfer funds from teaching children to paying the considerable expenses of arbitration.
While arbitration is an appropriate mechanism for resolving matters of policy (pay, benefits, and the like), it has no legitimate role in the disciplinary process. That is why I voted to sustain Governor Hogan’s veto of these very bad bills.
Bob Cassilly
Senator, District 34
On what basis within a school system is a teacher deemed to be incompetent or willfully neglectful? Who constitute the hearing examiners who make a recommendation to the Superintendent? Are there appeals anywhere in the process?
To what extent should the perception of any possible “expense” (the most common word in the Senator’s statement) be of concern in a matter of justice?
What happens when the Superintendent is incompetent? Bob Cassilly is opposed to proper and fair due process of teachers when accused of incompetence or neglect..Arbitration is necessary to override political and personal bias in the local jurisdiction.
Cassilly was against fair sick leave pay for small business workers!
He is against a fair $15 hourly wage! Cassilly is just against fairness in general.
Time to get rid of Cassilly in Annapolis
In all fairness Mike, it seems as if a system of “due process” was already on the books. What he is saying is that this new law actually protects those whom have shown incompetence and neglect from the “due process” that is already established. There is nothing worse in an educational system of allowing a teacher who can’t do their job or doesn’t care enough to do their job, to be allowed to keep their job, while an arbitrator comes in to decide what the Board of Education has already ruled. In reality, the students are the ones who suffer from an improper education by a hapless incompetent teacher that doesn’t care if their students are learning. However, if a teacher is being railroaded because they are not liked by other faculty members and NOT because of incompetence or neglect, I’m with you all the way.
I know Bob Cassilly is an” alleged” lawyer but when talking about teacher’s accused of “incompetence” and “neglect” he never properly refers to their charges as “alleged”. That’s a political decision of word choice not a legal choice.
Since the teachers are only “alleged” to have been wrong doers, their innocents is assumed until proven guilty..
The law, not politics, says all those accused of malfeasance should rightfully have the right to appeal any decision.
The Harford school system does not provide an adequate appeal system .
Thus to make the Harford school systems judicial process a fair one, the State is requiring an adequate appeal process
Sen Cassilly being an “alleged” lawyer should know better not to denigrate any appeals process in a judical matter.
That would be unfair..
We all want fairness and justice in the end,
Right?
We are not talking about a legal matter. We are talking about an administrative matter. Unless a teacher is accused of a crime or a teacher has been dismissed in a way that violates a civil statute, it is not a legal matter. All other issues fall in the jurisdiction of administrative process. I know it can be confusing, but these are administrative matters…..
Administrative law is law !.
That makes it a legal matter!
Workers have due process and a right to appeal administrative legal decisions.
Fairness and justice are the goal.
Cassilly an “alleged lawyer is not interested in either fairness and justice
He just wants teachers fire guilty or not..
Administrative Law and Judicial Law are not the same. You need to look up the definitions of both and hopefully you’ll get it. If not, I’m afraid you’ll never understand the difference between the two. The concept of “justice” is rarely conferred into decisions of Administrative Law as it is more a question of operational procedures and not that of guilt or innocence.
As someone with a little experience with an administrative law judge, I can tell you that they are no bias interpreters of facts. In my case, the judge saw through an erroneous accusation and ruled against the school system who banned me without any evidence or cause. This is case in point for why teachers should have the right to an unbiased ruling on their dismissal. The appeal process is fraught with issues, unfairness and lack of transparency. An unbiased arbitrator can look at the facts, the issues at play, the testimony presented and make a fair ruling.
Well said Senator Cassilly, the old system had plenty of safegurards, this seems to be just another act to take away the authority of our Republican Govenor. This and other things were not a problem when we had a Democrat as Govenor.
The old system had no safeguards. This was a problem under Democrat governors too. The change to binding arbitration will have only a positive impact. Senator Cassilly failed to mention that the old system allowed for an appeal to a hearing examiner, who was hired solely by the school system, who’s salary and livelihood are dependent on pleasing the school system; since if they were to overturn decisions on appeal, they would not be hired again. The school system was responsible for 100% of the cost. The change to the law not only provides increased fairness but discourages frivolous cases by holding the appellant responsible for half the cost if they lose.
I can not say I disagree with Senator Cassilly on this and if a teacher is allowed to stay on while showing incompetence and neglect there is something wrong with the system. Now if you can only get some legislation passed that removes the politics from the classrooms and maybe even knock common core out of the system, you will probably have some new support for your efforts.
Crusher why in the world are debating an idiot. Let him keep making stupid remarks. He only shows his true ignorance.
I’m beginning to see what you mean.
“Those bills remove the authority county the Superintendents of Schools and Boards of Education currently have to dismiss teachers for incompetency or willful neglect of duty.”
What is an “authority county.” ?
Anyone?
The best I can figure is that it’s a typo and should read “remove the authority the county Superintendents of School and Boards of Education.”
does anyone else find it at least ironic a man railing on about educators failed to proof read his dissertation on incompetent teachers?
That is a staff failure. I’m sure that any politician has a secretary or some sort of staff that takes dictations of memos and letters where the proof reading should be done. If you think that Senator Cassilly sat in front of the computer and physically typed that letter himself, you’d be wrong. Remember, spell checkers only check spelling, not the actual structure of sentences…..
It’s still incompetent!
No, it is an error of sentence structure, not incompetence. Incompetent means to not have or show the necessary skills to do something successfully. An error in sentence structure shows human error, not incompetence. I don’t think that an error such as this shows that Bob Cassilly does not have the skills needed to hold his office. If you do, I think you might be being a little over critical of something that in no way shows an incompetence of performing his job as a Senator.
It might be different if he was trying to get a job as an English teacher….
It is incompetent and SC is an idiot.
I don’t think so. Maybe you do, but I believe the definition supports what I’m saying and not what you’re saying. As for me being an idiot, I’ll consider the source.
I think he meant to say “county authority” and not “authority county”.
If Bob Casilly wants to see the most protected public employees he needs to meet me at the Hickory WAWA any weekday morning and be prepared it ain’t going to be a “small number”.
Awwww…we missed you Jimbo
Marshall in Baltimore
What about the incompetent and negletful administrators in the school system? Yes there are a few of them who should never have been promoted to administrative positions. I believe that prejudices that some administrators carry can lead to an effective teacher being terminated simply because an administrator decides he or she does not like a particular ethnic group within the teaching community. I think te legislation is good because it gets an independent arbiter involved to make an objective decision over any preconceived prejudices an administrator ay carry just to get rid of an otherwise effective and respected teacher.
There is no question that politics within any business or organization is used to advance some, while leaving others to the wolves. I believe a showing of incompetence or neglect isn’t the same as someone not being liked or popular. A showing of incompetence would be someone not demonstrating the skills required that they are supposed to be teaching. A showing of neglect would be someone not caring about the learning of a group of students or even a particular student they are supposed to be teaching. Firing someone simply because you don’t like them is inappropriate and is against labor laws as well.
I agree with what you said but in education, and I suppose in other fields, an evaluation of a teacher performance is very subjective and can be twisted to suit the goals of the person doing the evaluation. If the person doing the evaluating has a personal dislike of the teacher, that supervisor has the power to make the performance unsatisfactory for any reason even though the performance was satisfactory in every way. I feel that the needs to be more objectivity in teacher observations done by administrators who do not have a hidden agenda to give an unsatisfactory rating just for the purpose of having the teacher terminated because of preconceived prejudice. The big problem for the teacher is to be able to prove that the administrator is prejudice which make it nearly impossible for a teacher to be exonerated in any way. That teacher would be doomed to harassment as well a being demeaned for no reason related to his or her performance.
Senator Cassilly’s ill-informed, poorly proofread and blatantly ignorant missive is disgusting. The only change is that instead of being entitled to a hearing examiner who is selected bought and paid for by the school system, teachers who choose to pursue their appeal beyond the superintendent will have the right to a neutral arbitrator who will examine the facts of the case and will issue a binding opinion. No “neglectful” or “incompetent” teachers will be protected. HCEA will issue a more detailed response in the coming days. Happy Sunday everyone. State Senator Cassilly couldn’t wait until Monday morning to bash teachers.
He didn’t bash teachers just the process the union wants to protect bad teachers.
If Hogan bent over and kissed your a&& and through millions at you, you would still bash him! You just can’t hide your pure disgust for republicans! Please leave the HCEA as you have already disgusted many teachers in the county and they are embarrassed that you represent them! Do us a favor and resign.
I think the correct verbage is threw not through, dum-a–
And there you have it… if the union backs it then it’s meant to protect union members at any cost. If we tasked the union with identifying those who are incompetent we’d suddenly find ourselves in possession of the most capable teaching force in the history of the world and we just didn’t realize it.
WTF is a neutral arbitrator? Someone who isn’t HCPS administration? Someone who isn’t even an employee with HCPS?
So, this person has to be the middle man per se, look over work place drama, and make a decision why someone should or shouldn’t get fired?
Shows you how fukt up the school system has become, hasn’t it?
Hey…have you guys heard of a man name Bob Firsch…He’s been right hear teaching, protecting and molding kids by a very sound curriculum, and Authority of the public, I met him and his wonderful wife Carla whom has a sound profession in the field of accounting too..volunteer ing , My pleasure to met y’all, great people!
Because hear and here sound the same they are not interchangeable.
Another “gotcha” by the spell checker.
Spell checkers correct for spelling not for the way words sound dumbass.
Do you really take the “bias” out by introducing another layer of bureaucracy? What happens when the “nuetral arbitrator” doesn’t like someone? They are human, after all.
It sounds like you really should flip a coin to make it the ultimate amount of being fair. Heads You get to keep the job, Tails you have to find another job.
Accusing someone of negligence and/or incompetence in their profession is a very serious charge. It is effectively a career stopper. A person so accused should have the right to appeal to someone who does not have any preconceived notions about the people involved with the charges. Appeals are part of the United States Constitution’s definition of “due process.:
I am ignorant of Harford County Public School’s right to appeal these sorts of charges, but apparently there was room for improvement. I hope this legislation corrects any deficiencies in the current procedure.
Jerry Scarborough is unhinged