TEA DOCKET NO. 114-LH-0510
DALLAS INDEPENDENT § BEFORE VICTORIA F. WELCOME
SCHOOL DISTRICT §
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v. § CERTIFIED HEARING EXAMINER
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BLANCA CASTILLO § TEXAS EDUCATION AGENCY
RECOMMENDATION OF CERTIFIED HEARING OFFICER
Statement of the Case
Dallas Independent School District, Petitioner, has proposed the non-renewal of Blanca Castillo under Texas Education Code §21.206. On April 9, 2010, by letter to Blanca Castillo, the Dallas Independent School District recommended non-renewal of Ms. Castillo’s term employment contract with the District as an EC-4 elementary school bi-lingual teacher at Arturo Salazar Elementary School for alleged violations of Board Policy DFBB Local #1, #2, #3, #5, #14, #19 and #32.
On April 29, 2010, Respondent, Blanca Castillo made a timely request for a local hearing pursuant to Texas Education Code §21.251(b)(2) and 21.253 contesting the recommended non-renewal of her term employment contract as an educator with the Dallas Independent School District. Victoria F. Welcome is the Certified Hearing Officer appointed by the Texas Commissioner of Education to preside over the educator’s local hearing.
Petitioner, Dallas Independent School District, is represented by Ms. Sandra Carpenter, Attorney at Law, Irving, Texas.
Respondent, Blanca Castillo, is represented by Mr. Mark W. Robinett, Austin, Texas.
Findings of Fact
After due consideration of the record and matters officially noticed, the Certified Hearing Examiner finds that the preponderance of the credible testimony and documentary evidence supports the following Findings of Fact and makes the following Findings of Fact:
1. Respondent, Blanca Castillo, was initially employed with the Dallas Independent School District as an EC-4 bi-lingual elementary at Bethune Elementary School and was sent to Salazar Elementary School at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year as a result of the personnel “leveling” process: Respondent was a probationary teacher at the time of her transfer from Bethune to Salazar. From October, 2007 through May, 2008, Respondent continued her employment under her probationary term contract with the District as an EC-4 bi-lingual teacher for the 2007-2008 school year at Salazar. At the end of the 2007-2008 school year Petitioner and Respondent signed a term contract with the District on April 4, 2006. In all years relevant to this recommendation, Respondent (hereinafter referred to as Ms. Castillo or Blanca Castillo) has worked at Salazar Elementary School. In all years relevant to this Recommendation, Ms. Jennifer Parvin (hereinafter referred to as Principal Parvin or Ms. Parvin) was the Principal of Salazar Elementary School and Respondent’s evaluator.
2. One of the undisputed terms of the employment contract between Petitioner and Respondent incorporates the requirement that Respondent adhere to all policies established by the Board of the Dallas Independent School District to meet the standards of professional performance set forth in Dallas Independent School District Board Policy DFBB-Local.
3. During her tenure at Salazar Elementary School, Blanca Castillo was never assigned to a class as a teacher of record but was assigned to function as a substitute teacher, to assist various teachers of record with assorted classroom tasks, most of a non-instructional nature, to assist academically-struggling students in small groups for short periods of time, to administer DRA testing and to work on the Success With Awesome Teachers or “S.W.A.T. “Team.
4. According to Jennifer Parvin, Principal of Salazar Elementary School, all teachers at Salazar were evaluated annually at all times relevant to this Recommendation.
5. On December 2, 2008 through January 5, 2009, Principal Parvin placed Blanca Castillo on a Professional Development and Appraisal System Intervention Plan for Teacher/Professional in Need of Assistance performance plan to address performance deficiencies noted by Principal Parvin in the areas of a) classroom management, specifically failure to notice, intervene in and re-direct off-task student behaviors, b) breaching student confidentiality laws rules and regulations, and c) in making inappropriate remarks about co-workers, and d) in interrupting teachers during instructional time, thereby causing disruptions to their classroom instruction. It is worth noting that many of the alleged deficiencies for which Ms. Castillo was placed on an intervention plan had occurred in the prior school year. (Petitioner’s Exhibit 31, Respondent’s Exhibit 3). Respondent’s intervention plan consisted largely of required readings, classroom observations of three teachers and of lengthy writing assignments about both her readings and observations. Respondent satisfactorily completed her intervention plan on January 5, 2010.
6. On December 15, 2008, Respondent filed a grievance (Respondent’s Exhibit 4) and a written “Response to Growth Plan dated 12/2/08” (Respondent’s Exhibit 5) concerning the growth/intervention plan on which she was placed by her Principal and stating in detail her disagreement with the propriety of being placed on the growth plan. On December 18, 2009, Principal Parvin responded to Ms. Castillo’s grievance by stating that the intervention plan would remain in effect while the grievance remained pending (Petitioner’s Exhibit 22). The local hearing record contains no other evidence of the disposition of the Ms. Castillo’s January 16, 2009.
8. As part of the 2008-2009 annual evaluation process, Principal Parvin performed a classroom observation of Respondent teaching a mathematics lesson in Ms. Garza’s third grade bi-lingual class on February 10, 2009 for forty-five minutes. Thereafter, on April 27, 2009, Respondent received a PDAS Summative Annual Evaluation rating from Jennifer Parvin of “Proficient” in Domains I, II, IV, VI and VIII and “Below Expectations” in Domain III, V, and VII. (Petitioner’s Exhibit 30). On May 11, 2009, Blanca Castillo wrote a rebuttal memorandum to her evaluator, Jennifer Parvin, disputing her ratings for Domains III., V. and VII., characterizing the April 27, 2009 evaluation ratings as harassment and retaliation for a filed a new grievance and requesting that the evaluation be rescinded and not used for any future employment purposes. (Petitioner’s Exhibit 33, Respondent’s Exhibit 11). On May 12, 2009, Principal Parvin responded to Ms. Castillo’s rebuttal to her 2008-2009 performance evaluation, stating that the evaluation would stand as written. (Petitioner’s Exhibit 34)
9. On February 4, 2010, Principal Parvin, heard the new grievance filed by Ms Castillo as the Level I grievance officer: the new grievance grieved both the April 27, 2009 summative annual evaluation and subsequent memoranda from Ms. Parvin reprimanding Ms. Castillo for assorted matters. Ms. Parvin denied Blanca Castillo’s grievance in its entirety, and in particular found that Ms. Castillo had the sole responsibility under District policy for requesting an off-campus impartial evaluator. (Respondent’s Exhibit 9).
10. As part of the 2009-2010 annual evaluation process, Principal Parvin performed a classroom observation of Respondent teaching a language arts lesson in a second grade bi-lingual class on February 8, 2010 for forty-five minutes and on the same day wrote Respondent’s 2009-2010 Summative Annual Appraisal on a form entitled Professional Campus Support Appraisal System (Petitioner’s Exhibit 35). On Respondent’s most recent performance evaluation as an EC-4 bi-lingual teacher at Salazar Elementary School, Respondent received a rating from Jennifer Parvin of “Proficient” in Domains II, and VI and VIII and “Below Expectations” in Domains I, III, IV, V and VII.
11. In addition to the Summative Annual Evaluations referred to later in this Recommendation, Petitioner offered as additional proof of its reasons for on-renewal of Respondent’s employment contract the following documentation in the form of observation reports, memoranda and e-mails given to Ms. Castillo by Ms. Parvin documenting perceived performance deficiencies written on the following dates:
a. Letter dated September 16, 2008 from Jennifer Parvin to Blanca Castillo re: Ms. Parvin’s observations on Ms. Castillo’s classroom management;
b. Letter dated October 28, 2008 from Jennifer Parvin to Blanca Castillo re: classroom management (Petitioner’s Exhibit 20);
c. Undated letter signed on October 30, 2008, from Jennifer Parvin to Blanca Castillo re: incidents demonstrating problems in classroom management (Petitioner’s Exhibit 18);
d. Letter dated November 4, 2008 from Jennifer Parvin to Blanca Castillo re: inappropriate remarks made by Ms. Castillo on November 3, 2008, about two Salazar staff members in the hearing of other Salazar staff members (Petitioner’s Exhibit 21);
e. Letter dated January 23, 2009, from Jennifer Parvin to Blanca Castillo re: unprofessional remarks made by Ms. Castillo in conversation with another teacher on January 21, 2009, about two Salazar teaching staff members in the hearing of other Salazar staff members (Petitioner’s Exhibit 23);
f. Letter dated February 6, 2009 from Jennifer Parvin to Blanca Castillo re: failure to follow work assignments as set forth in an e-mail to Ms. Castillo dated January 29, 2009 (Petitioner’s Exhibit 24, Respondent’s Exhibit 10);
g. Letter dated September 22, 2009 from Jennifer Parvin to Blanca Castillo outlining Respondent’s assignment to the “Success With Awesome Teachers” (S.W.A.T.) Team and outlining behaviors that Respondent should refrain from in her interactions with other Salazar teachers (Petitioner’s Exhibit 27);
h. Letter dated December 12, 2009 from Jennifer Parvin to Blanca Castillo directing Ms. Castillo not to enter the classrooms of other teachers to use any computer in their classrooms based on previous complaints from other teachers about Ms. Castillo’s use of their computers and desk area. Petitioner’s Exhibit 29);
12. Ms. Castillo’s disagreement with the observation reports, memoranda and e-mails given to Respondent by Ms. Parvin is in most instances stated on the face of each letter or memorandum in Ms. Castillo’s own handwriting.
13. The Certified Hearing Officer found as credible the testimony of Respondent’s colleagues that Respondent had significant difficulty in maintaining effective working relationships and good rapport with other teachers at Salazar Elementary School between 2007 and 2010.(Petitioner’s Exhibits 17
13. On April 9, 2010, the Board notified Ms. Castillo, by letter, of its decision not to renew her teaching contract for the 2010-2011, 2011-2012 school years for the reasons set forth therein. (Petitioner’s Exhibit 1).
Discussion
The issue presented in this local hearing is whether Respondent’s performance and conduct as a teacher during the 2007-2008, 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years, taking into consideration any continued performance deficiencies on Respondent’s part noted by Respondent’s supervisor in the 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 school years, support Petitioner’s decision not to renew Respondent’s term teaching contract with the Dallas Independent School District.
Petitioner asserts that Respondent’s performance deficiencies existed over a protracted period of time preceding the 2009-2010 school year. Respondent asserts Salazar Elementary School Principal Jennifer Parvin, having informed her that at the end of the 2007-2008 school year that she “was not a good fit” for the Salazar faculty, set out on a concerted campaign to invent or overstate her alleged performance deficiencies and infractions so as to justify the non-renewal of her contract at the end of her 2009-2010 term contract.
The reasons given for Petitioner’s decision not to renew Respondent’s teaching contract fall into four broad factual categories: a poor working relationship with her fellow teachers and other staff members at Salazar as evidenced by numerous memoranda and e-mails written by fellow teachers detailing their complaints against Blanca Castillo, a poor working relationship with administrators at Salazar, as evidenced by numerous memoranda between Respondent and her Principal, Jennifer Parvin, breaches of District policy and deficient teaching skills,
The Certified Hearing Officer finds that Petitioner has met its burden of proof regarding the non-renewal of Respondent’s teaching contract Dallas Independent School District Board Policies DFBB-Local #1 and #3. The documentation of deficiencies noted in the numerous memoranda listed in Finding of Fact #11, which were brought forward in Respondent’s 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 summative annual evaluations, contain sufficient direct classroom observations of Blanca Castillo by Jennifer Parvin to prove Respondent’s ineffectiveness in the classroom and thus serve as a basis for the Domain ratings given in both evaluations. Admittedly, the allegation that Respondent was incompetent or inefficient in the performance of her duties seems to rest on observations made by Principal Parvin of Respondent while in the performance of duties not regularly assigned to her and in which she had limited opportunity to develop her skills while assigned to Salazar. While Respondent complained that she had virtually no regular classroom teaching responsibilities and little or no opportunity to plan or meet with teachers on the grade levels to which she was assigned, Respondent had been a teacher of record in the 2006-2007 school year at Bethune Elementary School. At all times Respondent professed that she had supreme confidence in her own teaching abilities, making it reasonable to expect Respondent’s instructional performance at Salazar to be comparable to that of a classroom teacher of record.
According to the testimony of three fellow teachers and other evidence introduced at the local hearing, Respondent’s relationships with her peers could at best be characterized as severely strained. It is undisputed that, on more than one occasion, Ms. Castillo wrote memoranda to Jennifer Parvin containing unsolicited critique of other teachers at Salazar, criticizing such things as their command of the English language, the teaching techniques. (See Petitioner’s Exhibit 4 and e-mail attachment from Blanca Castillo to Jennifer Parvin dated May 28, 2008 entitled “accomplishments.doc.” In many instances, Respondent chose not to share her observations about the purported weaknesses of her fellow teachers with them privately and in face-to-face communications. Ms. Castillo’s criticisms of her peers made their way back to the ears of her fellow teachers, as such things have a way of doing in a close community. The result of Respondent’s unsolicited critiques was to render it virtually impossible for her to establish and maintain any sort of collaborative or mentorship relationship with the teachers she criticized to the Principal.
Respondent’s fellow teachers, Rosa Juarez, Rebecca Gonzales Rocha and Cynthia Garza testified to the numerous difficulties that arose between them and Blanca Castillo during the time each of them worked with her. Their testimony and written complaints to Principal Parvin, which were admitted in evidence, was largely undisputed as to the fact of such matters, The witnesses testified about Ms. Castillo’s reluctance to perform tasks Respondent believed were teacher’s aide work, Ms. Castillo’s failure to follow their instructions for working with their students, disputes over DRA test administration and the general tone of Respondent’s communications with them Petitioner’s group, which testimony is also largely undisputed, although Respondent’s disputes any bad intent in her communications with or about or her interactions with these individuals. Exhibit 17 further illustrates behavior of Ms. Castillo’s part, little of which was disputed in the local hearing, that further soured her working relationships with teachers at Salazar other than the three teachers who testified at the hearing.