Arbitrator Orders Suspension For New Brunswick Teacher Late To Work More Than 100 Times

A New Brunswick teacher who was late to work more than 100 times over two school years will be suspended without pay until January, but can keep his job, an arbitrator ruled.

“With a decade and a half of service, progressive discipline and due process sufficiently militate against summary discharge in this case,” the state-appointed arbitrator said in his decision.

In two related decisions, issued this summer, the arbitrator said the school district had proven “conduct unbecoming chronic tardiness” in the case of Roosevelt School teacher Arnold Anderson.

But the arbitrator dismissed charges of inefficiency the district brought against Anderson.

That’s because the teacher did not receive a formal notice of inefficiency from the school district and did not receive a mandatory 90-day period to try to correct those inefficiencies.

During the 2013-2014 school year, the elementary school teacher was late a total of 65 times, and during the following school year, he was late a total of 46 times.

The school principal “meticulously tracked (Anderson’s) cascades of tardiness, none of which is plausibly explained by (the teacher.)”

Anderson offered a few unpersuasive explanations, and claimed that even when he was late, he delivered “a superb educational experience to his grateful students,” the decision said.

“His self-serving inflated characterization of his substantive abilities misses the essential point,’’ the arbitrator said, adding that Anderson’s students are entitled receive the teacher’s best efforts for an entire period, not for just the portion of time that remains after he shows up to work late.

He has no credible explanations for his lateness, and withholding increment increases didn’t improve his punctuality, the decision said.

But, Anderson is still entitled to “due process and fundamental fairness.”

So, he will be in a “no-pay disciplinary status” until Jan. 1, when he can return to the classroom at full pay.

Anderson has about 14 years of experience and earns about $90,000 a year, according to mycentraljersey.com.