Disciplinary charges filed against Liverpool Director of Computer Education and Services Bonnie Ladd have been dismissed due to a technicality.
Hearing Officer Stuart M. Pohl dismissed the charges Wednesday because of the school district’s failure to notify Ladd of the penalties possible for such charges. According to state law and the Commissioner of Education’s regulation, a board of education charging a tenured educator with disciplinary charges pursuant to 3020-a must, after voting on probable cause relating to the charges, take further action in recommending a penalty against a tenured administrator if a hearing is held or is waived. The proposed penalties must be served on the tenured educator at the time the charges are served to comply with the educator’s constitutional and statutory due process rights to notice.
About a third of the charges against Ladd, none of which have been made public, were already dismissed last month in whole or in part. The hearing officer also ruled that about half the charges were subject to dismissal on other grounds.
The case against Ladd and Athletic Director George Mangicaro began in September of 2006 when both administrators were placed on paid suspension. The suspensions came shortly after Mangicaro made allegations against Superintendent Jan Matousek.
For more on this story, see the March 11 edition of The Liverpool Review.
