Posted on 08/13/2009 6:48:03 AM PDT by ETL
Asbury Park Teacher To Pay Large Fine For 4-Minute Call Made During Class
Her lawyer says a New Jersey teacher won't appeal a $22,000 fine for making a four-minute personal call in class.
Attorney Stephen Hunter says Desley Getty acknowledges she made a mistake.
The 120-day salary forfeiture will be based on calendar days and will be deducted from a base salary of about $70,000. A previous story had estimated the penalty at as much as $50,000 based on 120 work days.
Court records show the Asbury Park High School performing arts teacher was covering for another teacher in 2008 when she called suspended superintendent Antonio Lewis.
A student recorded two students dancing while Getty was on the phone and posted it on YouTube.
Getty questioned students the next day after she had learned about the video.
The district prohibits teachers from making personal calls while performing assigned duties.
Asbury Park High School is a comprehensive, four-year community public high school headquartered in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It serves prekindergarten through twelfth grade.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee talks on the phone as a woman asks a question at a town hall event
YouTube Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-L3FnWNkIzU
_____________________________________
Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee Answers Cell Phone During Town Hall
August 12, 2009
I was gonna say... this teacher should run for Congress.
Then, I scroll down, and sure 'nuf.....SJL's photo
FREEPERS RULE!
ETL's on it!
You gotta hand it to NJ. Punishments certainly fit the crime! I’m surprised the teacher didn’t have her ear chopped of in this People’s State.
“...base salary of about $70,000...”
#########
70K + first class benefits and near zero accountability ain’t bad for 8 1/2 months of work per year.
Let’s see $70,000 for 120 work days... and that just base pay. Fringes are about 25 % on top of that.
That’s about $730 per day, or annualized based upon the normal work year of 50 weeks X 5 days per week or 250 days, that’s $182,292. per year..... And we wonder why our taxes are high?
Sorry, that should have been based upon a 180 day teacher work year. That’s $86 per day or annualized at $121,527 per year...
ADarn eyes and fingers are not working together... $486 per day
Talking on your cell while driving here in Ca, while stupid, does not carry that high a fine. I think if it was her first time - a simple warning. That is a lot of money to take from someone that committed no crime.
Lol! Did your math teacher talk on the phone a lot too? :)
Just kidding.
Asbury Park is a scary place. I’d be on the phone too...calling 911.
“Asbury Park is a scary place.”
I’ll bet it didn’t use to be.
Just a guess, but formerly full of solid, nuclear families, little crime, good schools, and a clean well-behaved beach- Mom, Dad and kids, even safe for Grandma and Grandpa, on the weekends.
Big sigh.....
Without a doubt. I would say talking on a cell while driving is a ‘slight’ bit more serious, and dangerous.
If I were that teacher I would be looking for a new job. Certainly she should have known better, but that fine is exhorbitant. Insane.
It would be understandable if it were an emergency or ‘crisis’ situation. But I don’t think it was. Yet she was on the cell for 4 minutes...during a class
LOL.. As a matter of fact, my high school math teachers s@#%^d.
The article erroneously referred to a 120 day work year and I used that figure. Funny, they get paid based upon one definition of a year, but get penalized based upon a different definition.
The real problem for taxpayers is that the teachers have defined benefit pension plans, rather than the 401k thrift savings type that most people have. Most people, the investment losses in the pension funds resulted in a reduction in their retirement value. But not the teachers. It just means that the taxpayers must increase their contributions to the teachers pensions to provide the same retirement benefit as before.
The problem is, that the investment losses caused an average increased pension contribution for 2009 and future years of 26% of total salaries for Pennsylvania school districts based upon acturarial computations. That is such a huge increase that every school district in Pennsylvania would have been bankrupt if our Gov Ed Rendel had not taken 50% of our stimulus monies from Obummer and gave it to the teachers pensions. What a crook. I think it was $8 billion.
This was a one time stimulus contribution. Per the Gov’s own words to my ears during a meeting last month, our state’s flat tax rate of 3.07% would have to increase to 8% to make up the shortfall in the near future! The sheeple have no idea what is coming. It is a lot harder for Gov’ts to downsize than it is for businesses. Watch for all hell to break lose in the future as this hits the fan.
If I were that teacher I would be looking for a new job. Certainly she should have known better, but that salary(fine) is exhorbitant. Insane.
I’ve seen Asbury Park on tv, featured as being in the midst of a revival, a rebuilding revival, that is. The once well known beach town had fallen into a state very similar to Atlantic City before the gambling, not that gambling exactly enhanced the community, it just turned the young and the homeless into drug dealers and prostitutes.
Does anybody believe that the district has a similar lack of tolerance for teacher incompetence? Would the teachers' union stand idly by when one of their own faced discipline and fines for incompetence?
I very much doubt it. The perceived threat to the teachers' unions from one-off enforcement of petty work rules such as this one likely pales compared to the existential threat to the unions if teacher competence were under fire in this manner...
A few years ago in Connecticut, a school board tried to fire a teacher for incompetence in two out of three subjects she was hired to teach, and the teachers' union took them to court and prevailed...
Oh, you know those "poor, unpaid" teachers!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.