State Supreme Court rules in favor of NJ teacher who lost tenure after child was born

TRENTON – The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday that a former tenured teacher at Van Derveer School in Somerville should have gotten her full-time job back after she switched to a part-time position to spend more time with her newborn son.

The state's highest court agreed with rulings by the commissioner of the state Department of Education and an Appellate Court that Catherine Parsells, now principal of Immaculate Conception School, did not waive her tenure rights when she requested the part-time position and was entitled to a full-time job.

Parsells, who earned her tenure in 2013, applied for full-time positions when she wanted to leave the part-time job in 2018, but the Somerville school board rejected her applications for "at least" six jobs, court papers say.

For some of those positions, according to court papers, the school board hired non-tenured teachers from outside the district.

Because she was not getting health benefits and all the full-time positions were filled, Parsells found employment elsewhere.

Both the Department of Education and the Appellate Court had ruled that the school district should return Parsells to her full-time position at Van Derveer School and reward her back pay.

Parsells argued that she was entitled to a full-time job because she had not "knowingly and voluntarily" given up her tenure rights.

The Supreme Court wrote that the Somerville School District had "presented no proofs" that Parsells had given up her tenure rights and that her applications for the full-time jobs "clearly show that she believed she had a right, as a tenured teacher, to return to work full-time."

But, the Court ruled, school districts do not have to notify tenured teachers in advance that if they work part-time after working full-time, they might not have a right to return to the full-time position. The Court, however, "encourages" school districts to address the issue at the time the request for part-time work is made.

"Any waiver of a teacher's tenure rights must be clear, knowing and unequivocal," the Court wrote in its unanimous decision.

In February 2020, the state Department of Education overturned an administrative law judge's ruling that Parsells had relinquished her tenure rights after a maternity leave.

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But the Somerville school board appealed that decision in the courts, saying the state's decision was "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable."

But the Appellate Court disagreed, saying that the school district failed to disclose to Parsells the consequences of full-time teachers accepting part-time positions

According to the Department of Education's ruling, Parsells was a full-time preschool teacher for six years, who had earned tenure, before voluntarily taking a part-time position with health benefits for the 2016-17 school year.

In February 2017, just before beginning a maternity and child care leave of absence, she expressed interest in continuing as a part-time teacher for the next school year if she could still receive health benefits, court papers say.

But in July 2017, according to court papers, Parsells was told by former Superintendent Tim Purnell, who is now executive director of the New Jersey School Boards Association, that the part-time position no longer carried health benefits, so she had to choose between a full-time job with benefits or a part-time job with no benefits.

Parsells decided to extend her maternity leave.

In April 2018, the new superintendent, Tim Teehan, who is retiring, told Parsells she could return for the 2018-19 school year to a part-time position with no benefits. If a full-time position became available, she would have to apply for it, court papers say.

Parsells applied for full-time positions, but the district did not select her.

Parsells appealed the school district's action, arguing that the board denied her tenure rights by hiring untenured people for the full-time positions. She also argued that she had not voluntarily relinquished her tenure rights by accepting a temporary placement in a part-time position.

Parsells contended that she did not know that changing from a full-time to a part-time position would affect her tenure rights and the district never informed her of the possible consequences.

The Department of Education found that Parsells did not knowingly and voluntarily waive her right to a full-time position. The waiver of the tenure, the Department of Education wrote, "can only be waived knowingly and voluntarily through a clear, unequivocal and decisive act."

The department also wrote that the district "had all the information and nonetheless kept (Parsells) in the dark."

The state also ruled that Parsells' request to continue her maternity leave also was not a waiver of her tenure rights.

The Appellate Court agreed, writing in the 14-page decision, that a teacher "should be notified of the risks to her full-time job before making that fateful decision."

"It also ensures teachers are armed with the knowledge they need to make an informed career choice," the court continued.

In addition, the court wrote that the school board's argument "misses the mark" because "it suggests that an employer's lack of transparency with its own employees is somehow good operational policy."

Email: mdeak@mycentraljersey.com

Mike Deak is a reporter for mycentraljersey.com. To get unlimited access to his articles on Somerset and Hunterdon counties, please subscribe or activate your digital account.

This article originally appeared on MyCentralJersey.com: NJ Supreme Court rules for teacher who lost tenure after child birth