Labor & Employment Law

Part-time service not credited for the purpose of completing a probationary period

By Harvey Randall, Esq.

Part-time service not credited for the purpose of completing a probationary period
Matter of Mazzone v Hauppauge Union Free School Dist., 41 A.D.3d 480, Appellate Division, Second Department

The Hauppauge Union Free School District terminated Patricia Mazzone, a probationary employee, from her teaching assistant position.

Claiming that she had already attained tenure as a teaching assistant, Mazzone filed a petition in Supreme Court seeking reinstatement to her former position arguing that she was denied ?due process? as she was not given a pretermination hearing.

The Appellate Division ruled that Hauppauge Union Free School District correctly determined that Mazzone?s employment as a three-hour-per-day, part-time teaching assistant did not constitute creditable service for the purpose of satisfying tenure requirements. Accordingly, said the court, Mazzone was terminated during the probationary period required upon her appointment to a full-time position.

Citing Matter of Cohoes City School Dist. v Cohoes Teachers Assn., 40 NY2d 77, the court concluded that as Mazzone was serving as a probationary employee at the time she was dismissed, she was not entitled to a hearing pursuant to Education Law Section 3020-a and thus she was not terminated in violation of her due process rights.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on March 26, 2008 (boomark / email).