Opinion
12284 Index No. 100062/18 Case No. 2019-2696
11-05-2020
In re Brian FORD, Petitioner–Respondent, v. The BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF the CITY OF NEW YORK, etc., et al., Respondents–Appellants.
Georgia M. Pestana, Acting Corporation Counsel, New York (Melanie T. West of counsel), for appellants. Hagan, Coury & Associates, Brooklyn (Paul Golden of counsel), for respondent.
Georgia M. Pestana, Acting Corporation Counsel, New York (Melanie T. West of counsel), for appellants.
Hagan, Coury & Associates, Brooklyn (Paul Golden of counsel), for respondent.
Acosta, P.J., Singh, Kennedy, Shulman, JJ.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Carmen Victoria St. George, J.), entered January 17, 2019, vacating the penalty portion of an arbitration award and remanding the matter to respondents for the imposition of a lesser penalty, unanimously reversed, on the law, the penalty reinstated, and the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 75 dismissed, without costs.
We do not find the penalty of termination of petitioner's employment as a teacher shocking to one's sense of fairness (see Matter of Pell v. Board of Educ. of Union Free School Dist. No. 1 of Towns of Scarsdale & Mamaroneck, Westchester County, 34 N.Y.2d 222, 233, 356 N.Y.S.2d 833, 313 N.E.2d 321 [1974] ), given the evidence of petitioner's pedagogical shortcomings, documented by supervisors and a peer evaluator, and his lack of improvement during two school years (see Matter of Johnson v. Board of Educ. of the City Sch. Dist. of the City of N.Y., 171 A.D.3d 548, 98 N.Y.S.3d 573 [1st Dept. 2019] ; Matter of Russo v. New York City Dept. of Educ., 25 N.Y.3d 946, 948, 6 N.Y.S.3d 549, 29 N.E.3d 896 [2015], cert denied 577 U.S. 957, 136 S.Ct. 416, 193 L.Ed.2d 317 [2015] [notwithstanding 18 years of satisfactory teaching, termination after three years of unsatisfactory ratings that followed was not shocking to sense of fairness] ).
We have considered petitioner's remaining contentions and find them unavailing.