By:  Ty Hyderally, Esq., Jennifer Vorih, Esq., and Isaac Lee

In a recent case, the New Jersey Appellate Division upheld the tenure rights of a public school teacher, demonstrating New Jersey’s continued commitment to high quality public education. On June 6, 2022, the Appellate Division held that “school boards have a duty to notify, in advance, full-time teachers who consider voluntarily transferring to part-time teaching positions that they may not have a right to return to their full-time position….” Parsells v. Board of Education of the Borough of Somerville, Somerset County, 2022 N.J. Super. LEXIS 81, *1, 2022 WL 1916541. The Court affirmed the decision of the New Jersey Commissioner of Education, which had reversed the decision of an Administrative Law Judge to terminate tenured teacher Catherine Parsells.

Ms. Parsells was employed as a fulltime teacher from 2010 to 2016, but decided to become a part-time teacher in order to spend more time with her child. The Board approved her request in 2017, but did not warn her that she would lose the right to return to a full-time position by voluntarily going to part-time. Ms. Parsells ultimately chose not to work during the 2017-2018 school year for family reasons, but expressed a desire to return as a part-time teacher with benefits for the 2018-2019 school year, after the end of her leave. However, the Board informed her that she would not receive benefits as a part-time teacher, and would need to be a full-time professor to have benefits. Moreover, the Board stated that Ms. Parsells would need to reapply to be a full-time teacher, and was not entitled to work again despite having earned tenure.

After the Somerville Board of Education selected non-tenured applicants to teach at the school district over her, Ms. Parsells appealed the decision to an Administrative Law Judge who ruled against her, holding that Ms. Parsells voluntarily chose to become part-time and thus was excluded from reduction-in-force protections and was not eligible to return to her full-time teaching position. Ms. Parsells appealed the decision to the New Jersey Commissioner of Education, who reversed the ALJ’s decision, finding that “Parsells did not knowingly and voluntarily waive her right to a full-time position.”

The Board appealed the Commissioner’s decision, which the Appellate Division affirmed, citing a New Jersey Supreme Court decision regarding the replacement teacher statute, N.J.S.A. 18A:16-1.1. Bridgewater-Raritan Educ. Ass’n v. Bd. of Educ. of Bridgewater-Raritan Sch. Dist., 221 N.J. 349 (2015).

Specifically, the Appellate Division held that, “imposing a duty on school boards to provide advance notice to their tenured full-time teachers that they may not get their full-time teaching job back if they voluntarily take a part-time teaching job is a proper and logical extension of the Court’s holding in Bridgewater-Raritan.” Id., at *10.

This case is a victory for Catherine Parsells and teachers across the state, and speaks to the protections New Jersey continues to provide for educators. Teachers are valued and critical employees who deserve both high praise and excellent compensation. Common sense policies, like providing notice before a teacher gives up their tenure rights, affirm New Jersey’s strong commitment to education.

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