Teacher reported to SBEC for contract abandonment

A complaint was filed against a teacher with the State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC), alleging that her teaching certificate should be sanctioned for contract abandonment. The teacher requested a hearing before the State Office of Administrative Hearings.

At the hearing, the teacher introduced evidence to show that she was hired in July as a life skills teacher. She asked to be removed from her assigned classroom to a classroom without carpets or with windows due to allergic reactions she was experiencing to the carpeting. The district asked her to produce medical documentation to support her request but she did not do this. The teacher was informed that no other classroom was available. She resigned from her position on Aug. 9. 

On the Employee Resignation Review sheet, she listed her reason for resignation as "opportunity for full-time employment" and stated that when she was hired, she was not told that she would be the only life skills teacher. She also stated that she was concerned that her request for a different classroom would generate resentment toward her. The teacher stopped reporting for work after that date.

The administrative law judge noted that a teacher may resign from their contract due to a serious health condition or illness. However, in this case the teacher failed to produce anything to support her claim that she suffered a serious health condition. The other reasons provided by the teacher for her resignation, namely an opportunity for full-time employment and a lack of support due to the fact that she would be the only life skills teacher, are not factors that allow a teacher to resign from their contract. Therefore, the administrative law judge found that the teacher had abandoned her contract without good cause and recommended that the SBEC impose a one-year suspension on her teaching certificate.

SBEC accepted that recommendation and suspended the teacher's credentials for a year.