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School district staffer wants title, pay raise back
Posted via APP.com:
A Freehold Regional High School District employee caught up in last year's diploma mill scandal wants her salary and title benefits back.
Diploma from Breyer State University for retired Assistant Superintendent of Freehold regional, Frank Tanzini.
Teacher consultant Lorraine Taddei-Graef has appealed the district school board's decision to reduce her salary and ban her from using or making reference to her doctorate degree from Breyer State University, an unaccredited online school that has been labeled a diploma mill.
Doing so was not only "arbitrary, capricious and unreasonable," but also violated her tenure rights, according to a petition submitted by attorney Stephen B. Hunter in January.
The board, however, is arguing that they were simply following orders from the state's Commission on Higher Education precluding district employees with Breyer State degrees from using their doctoral titles, according to attorney Marc Zitomer.
Taddei-Graef was one of four district educators and administrators, including Schools Superintendent H. James Wasser, who were stripped of these titles by the commission last year. Retired assistant superintendent Frank J. Tanzini was also told to drop the doctoral title.
In addition, the district employees involved stopped receiving the salary bumps given in return for their degrees.
Taddei-Graef had been entitled to annual increases of $2,500 after she earned her doctorate. She was informed in December that her salary would be reduced by $1,500 and be based on a master's degree level, according to her appeal.
This decision was made even though the state Department of Education's Office of Fiscal Accountability and Compliance concluded in August 2008 that the three current and former district administrators with Breyer State degrees were entitled to tuition reimbursement and salary increases for their doctorates, based on their employment contracts.
Taddei-Graef was not one of the three staffers involved in the conclusion. But she is using the state report to bolster her argument for reinstatement of her own benefits.