07-004012 Palm Beach County School Board vs. Shedeidra Edge Status: Closed Recommended Order on Monday, January 7, 2008.

Summary: Suspension and then dismissal for Respondent who, for months, refused to come to work on time and to perform a specific duty assigned to her. Insubordination constitutes just cause for disciplinary action.

STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

PALM BEACH COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) Case No. 07-4012

)

SHEDEIDRA EDGE, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to Notice, this cause was heard by Linda M. Rigot,

the assigned Administrative Law Judge of the Division of

Administrative Hearings, on November 7, 2007, by video

teleconference with sites in West Palm Beach and Tallahassee,

Florida.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Vicki L. Evans-Pare, Esquire

Palm Beach County School Board

Post Office Box 19239

West Palm Beach, Florida 33416-9239

For Respondent: Shedeidra Edge, pro se

1460 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard

West Palm Beach, Florida 33401

STATEMENT OF THE ISSUE

The issue presented is whether Respondent Shedeidra Edge

should be suspended without pay and dismissed from her

employment with Petitioner School Board of Palm Beach County,

Florida, for the reasons set forth in the Petition filed in this

cause.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

By correspondence dated July 16, 2007, the Superintendent

of Schools for the School District of Palm Beach County,

Florida, advised Respondent that he would recommend to the

School Board that Respondent be suspended without pay on

July 31, 2007, and that her employment be terminated on

August 15, 2007, for insubordination. Respondent timely

requested an administrative hearing regarding that proposed

disciplinary action. On September 5, 2007, this cause was

transferred to the Division of Administrative Hearings to

conduct the evidentiary proceeding to resolve the allegations in

the Petition for suspension without pay and dismissal from

employment, filed that same date.

At the commencement of the final hearing, Respondent

clarified that she was contesting the allegations in the

Petition that relate to insubordination but was not denying the

allegations in the Petition as to the specific dates on which

she arrived at work late or the amount of time she was late on

each of those dates.

Petitioner presented the testimony of Kenyetta Haywood,

Kimberly Barker, Kent Heitman, Joan Crawford, and

Paula Nessmith. Respondent testified on her own behalf.

Additionally, Petitioner's Exhibits numbered 2, 3, 5, 11, 12,

15, 17, 20, 24, 27, 29-31, 34a, 39, 41, 43, 47, 50, 53, 57, 61-

63, and 68 were admitted in evidence.

The Transcript of the final hearing was filed on

December 5, 2007. By agreement, both parties filed their

proposed recommended orders on December 14, 2007. Those

documents have been considered in the entry of this Recommended

Order.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Respondent Shedeidra Edge has been employed by

Petitioner School Board of Palm Beach County, Florida, since

1999.

2. Prior to August 2006 Respondent interviewed for an

opening as a secretary in the student services office at Jupiter

High School. During her interview she was advised that the

busiest time of the day in that office was when the students

arrived at 7:00 a.m. until the first class began at around 7:30.

She was advised that there would be two secretaries in that

office, each of whom would be responsible for certain of the

duties required in that office. Since there were four assistant

principals working in that office, each of the secretaries was

informally assigned to two of them to prevent all four from

assigning all of their work to only one secretary.

3. She understood that one of the secretaries would begin

work at 6:45 a.m. and the other at 7:00 a.m. Respondent was

offered the 7:00 a.m. starting time since she would be the first

of the two secretaries for that office to be hired. Respondent

advised the principal and head secretary during the interview

that she did not know if she could accept a job starting at

7:00 a.m. She subsequently telephoned the head secretary and

advised her that she could accept the job and that she had

worked out her transportation and daycare concerns.

4. Respondent began working as a secretary at Jupiter High

School in the student services office in August 2006. From the

beginning she was late arriving at work almost daily. In an

effort to assist Respondent and since Respondent was only a few

minutes late, the principal adjusted Respondent's start time to

7:10 a.m.

5. Respondent started arriving even later, and the

principal, thinking that a slightly-later start time would solve

the problem, adjusted Respondent's start time to 7:20 a.m.,

starting September 11, 2006. With that adjustment, Respondent

began arriving even later most mornings. By January 2007 she

was arriving an hour late regularly.

6. Although Respondent sometimes called to say she would

be late, sometimes she did not. She simply came in, carrying

her breakfast which she had stopped to pick up on her way to

work even though she was late.

7. The impact of Respondent's regular tardiness on the

operation of Jupiter High School was negative and significant.

The before-school rush of business in the student services

office could not be handled by one secretary. Accordingly, when

Respondent was late, an employee from another office was taken

away from that employee's duties to cover for Respondent. Those

employees were unhappy about having to cover for Respondent, who

appeared to them to be permitted to arrive at work whenever she

felt like it with impunity.

8. One of the responsibilities of the student services

office involved retrieving textbooks from students withdrawing

from school and accounting for lost or missing textbooks. Since

Jupiter High School had to reimburse the school district for

textbooks not returned, which would, in turn, impact the

School's operating budget, Kent Heitman, one of the assistant

principals to whom Respondent was informally assigned, was in

charge of making sure that textbooks were returned to the school

before approving a student's withdrawal and release of that

student's records.

9. It was Respondent's job, assigned to her by Assistant

Principal Heitman, to make the initial contact with a student's

parents when a student failed to return a textbook. She was to

provide the parents with the information on the unreturned

textbook, including the price for the parent to replace it. She

was to record the information regarding her contact in a log set

up for that purpose. She was responsible for keeping that log

current, along with the student obligation list of students who

owed money to the school for missing or lost textbooks,

utilizing information obtained from teachers and the school's

cashier. Heitman told Respondent that if she had a problem with

any parent as a result of the initial contact she made, she was

to turn that particular matter over to him, and he would handle

it.

10. Respondent refused to make the phone calls and refused

to make the required entries on the log. She took the position

that it was Heitman's job to do these things and not hers.

11. Although Respondent was counseled regularly about the

need to arrive at work on time, she failed to do so. Therefore,

on November 10, 2006, Dr. Paula Nessmith, the Principal of

Jupiter High School, issued to Respondent a Memorandum of

Specific Incident regarding her continuing late arrivals at

work. That Memorandum pointed out that from Friday, October 20,

2006, through Wednesday, November 8, 2006, Respondent had

arrived at work on time only once. The Memorandum further

advised Respondent that her failure to comply with the

directives to arrive at work on time might result in further

disciplinary action.

12. On December 4, 2006, Principal Nessmith issued a

Written Directive to Respondent, advising her that she had been

late all but two days from November 13 through December 1, 2006.

That Written Directive further advised Respondent that her

continued late arrival would constitute insubordination and

result in disciplinary action up to and including termination.

13. On December 14, 2006, Assistant Principal Heitman

again directed Respondent to call parents of withdrawing

students to retrieve unreturned textbooks. He sent her three e-

mail directives with the same instruction on December 15, 18,

and 19, 2006.

14. On December 22, 2006, Principal Nessmith gave

Respondent a Written Directive as a result of Respondent's

continued failure to call parents of withdrawing students who

had not returned textbooks in accordance with Assistant

Principal Heitman's directives of December 14, 15, 18, and 19

and Principal Nessmith's verbal directive of December 19. The

Written Directive detailed the procedures that Respondent was to

follow in performing that duty. It also advised Respondent that

her continued refusal to comply would be considered

insubordination and could result in disciplinary action up to

and including termination.

15. On January 16, 2007, Principal Nessmith gave

Respondent a Verbal Reprimand with Written Notation for failing

to follow the directives given Respondent on December 4 and 22,

2006. That Verbal Reprimand advised Respondent that her

continued refusal to comply would result in further disciplinary

action up to and including termination.

16. On January 17, 2007, Principal Nessmith gave

Respondent a Written Directive: Textbook and Student Obligation

List Procedures and Responsibilities, detailing the procedure

for Respondent to follow regarding textbooks and student

obligations. The Written Directive again advised Respondent

that her continued refusal to perform her job duties would be

viewed as insubordination and would result in discipline up to

and including termination.

17. On January 25, 2007, Principal Nessmith gave

Respondent a Written Reprimand for not complying with the

January 17, 2007, Verbal Reprimand with Written Notation. The

Written Reprimand noted that Respondent had arrived at work at

least 40 minutes late every day since she had received the

verbal reprimand and had failed to place and log telephone calls

to the parents of withdrawing students who had not returned

textbooks. It further advised Respondent that her continued

refusal to comply with directives constituted gross

insubordination and her continued failure would result in

further disciplinary action up to and including termination.

18. On February 2, 2007, Principal Nessmith issued to

Respondent another Written Reprimand for not complying with the

directives of January 17 and 25. The Written Reprimand noted

that Respondent had arrived at work at least 40 minutes late

every day since the January 25 Written Reprimand. It noted that

Respondent still refused to follow the required procedures

regarding unreturned textbooks as contained in the previous

directives and reprimands. It noted that Respondent's

continuing late arrivals and refusal to follow required

procedures constituted gross insubordination, and that

Respondent's failure to comply would subject her to further

disciplinary action up to and including termination.

19. Respondent continued to fail to comply.

20. By correspondence dated March 7, 2007, Respondent was

advised that a pre-disciplinary meeting to address her

insubordination was scheduled. Respondent attended the meeting

on March 12, 2007. At the conclusion of the meeting, the matter

was referred to the Superintendent.

21. By letter dated July 16, 2007, the Superintendent of

Schools issued his Notice of Suspension and Recommendation for

Termination from Employment advising Respondent that at the

August 1, 2007, School Board meeting he would recommend that she

be suspended without pay as of July 31, 2007, and terminated

from employment as of August 15, 2007, for insubordination,

subject to her timely request for an administrative hearing

before the Division of Administrative Hearings.

22. Upon the School Board's approval of the

Superintendent's recommendation and upon Respondent's timely

request for a hearing, this matter was referred to the Division

of Administrative Hearings and the hearing was conducted as set

forth above.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

23. The Division of Administrative Hearings has

jurisdiction over the subject matter hereof and the parties

hereto. §§ 120.569 and 120.57(1), Fla. Stat.

24. Section 1012.27(5), Florida Statutes, authorizes

school superintendents to recommend employees for dismissal, and

Section 1012.22(1)(f), Florida Statutes, places the ultimate

responsibility for suspending or dismissing employees on the

School Board.

25. The Collective Bargaining Agreement between The Palm

Beach County School District, Florida, and The Association of

Educational Secretaries and Office Professionals, effective

July 1, 2006, through December 31, 2008, requires in Article 3,

Section B.15.(c) that an employee who is performing in an

unsatisfactory manner be given 30 days' notice to improve his or

her performance before the employee can be recommended for

suspension or termination. Respondent was given many months in

which to improve her performance, but she did not do so.

26. Article 3, Section C, of the Collective Bargaining

Agreement provides for progressive discipline of an employee,

commencing with a verbal warning, then a written reprimand, then

suspension without pay with Board approval, followed by

dismissal with Board approval. It also provides that the

suspension or dismissal of an employee must be for just cause.

27. Respondent was given many verbal warnings and written

reprimands for the same two deficiencies before the

Superintendent made his recommendation to the School Board that

Respondent be suspended and then terminated. By that time it

was clear that Respondent had no intention of arriving at work

on time and no intention of following the instructions of an

Assistant Principal and the Principal to follow the procedures

set forth for contacting parents of withdrawing students to

retrieve unreturned textbooks and of working with the student

obligation list.

28. In this proceeding Respondent did not dispute her

continuing late arrival for work, which behavior constituted

insubordination and was just cause for suspending and dismissing

her from her employment. She also gave no rational explanation

for her continued refusal to follow the procedures for calling

and logging contact with parents of withdrawing students, which

refusal constituted insubordination and was just cause for

suspending and dismissing her from her employment. Her

supervisors gave her more than a reasonable time to improve her

performance but it was clear that she did not want to improve.

29. By the time of the final hearing, Respondent appeared

to not yet understand that it is reasonable for an employer to

expect an employee to come to work on time and to carry out the

duties assigned to that employee. She considers herself to have

been "a positive role model" at Jupiter High School. However,

the evidence is clear and convincing that she was the opposite.

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of

Law, it is

RECOMMENDED that a final order be entered suspending

Respondent without pay as of July 31, 2007, and terminating her

employment as of August 15, 2007, for insubordination.

DONE AND ENTERED this 7th day of January, 2008, in

Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida.

S

LINDA M. RIGOT

Administrative Law Judge

Division of Administrative Hearings

The DeSoto Building

1230 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060

[phone] SUNCOM 278-9675

Fax Filing [phone]

www.doah.state.fl.us

Filed with the Clerk of the

Division of Administrative Hearings

this 7th day of January, 2008.

COPIES FURNISHED :

Arthur C. Johnson, Ph.D.

Palm Beach County School Board

Post Office Box 19239

West Palm Beach, Florida 33416-9239

Deborah K. Kearney, General Counsel

Department of Education

Turlington Building, Suite 1244

325 West Gaines Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400

Dr. Eric J. Smith, Esquire

Commissioner of Education

Department of Education

Turlington Building, Suite 1244

325 West Gaines Street

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0400

Vicki L. Evans-Pare, Esquire

Palm Beach County School Board

Post Office Box 19239

West Palm Beach, Florida 33416-9239

Shedeidra Edge

1460 Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard

West Palm Beach, Florida 33401

NOTICE OF RIGHT TO SUBMIT EXCEPTIONS

All parties have the right to submit written exceptions within

15 days from the date of this Recommended Order. Any exceptions

to this Recommended Order should be filed with the agency that

will issue the Final Order in this case.