IN RE BEN FRIEDMAN, pet-ap, v. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK res-res

10155. IN RE BEN FRIEDMAN, pet-ap, v. THE BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK res-res — Offices of Richard E. Casagrande, New York (Maria-Elena Gonzalez of counsel), for ap — Michael A. Cardozo, Corporation Counsel, New York (Diana Lawless of counsel), for res — Order and judgment (one paper), Supreme Court, New York County (Michael D. Stallman, J.), entered April 6, 2012, which denied the petition to annul petitioner teacher’s unsatisfactory rating for the 2007-2008 school year, and dismissed the proceeding brought pursuant to CPLR article 78, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, the petition granted, and the unsatisfactory rating annulled., respondents’ determination to sustain the unsatisfactory performance evaluation was not rationally based on administrative findings that petitioner engaged in corporal punishment of students during the 2007-2008 school year (see Matter of Pell v. Board of Educ. of Union Free School Dist. No. 1 of Towns of Scarsdale & Mamaroneck, Westchester County, 34 NY2d 222, 231 [1974]). There was no longer any documentation substantiating an instance of corporal punishment in petitioner’s personnel file after the parties stipulated to the removal of two disciplinary letters from the file.

It is undisputed that Part 2(I) of DOE’s Human Resources Handbook “Rating Pedagogical Staff Members” provides (1) that a teacher’s evaluation must be supported by documentation in his/her personnel file; (2) that documentation removed from a file through grievance procedures is inadmissible in performance reviews; and (3) that documentation not addressed directly to a teacher is inadmissible in performance reviews, unless it is attached to and part of another document appropriately placed in the teacher’s file. Moreover, materials placed in a teacher’s personnel file must include a signature and date line for the teacher, evidencing that she has read the material and understands that it will be placed in the file, as well as a signature and date line for a witness; unsigned documents are inadmissible in evaluation reviews.