Educator’s assignments must be consistent with tenure area of the position in which he or she is employed

Educator’s assignments must be consistent with tenure area of the position in which he or she is employed
Banschback v Middle Country CSD, CEd. 14078
Dowler v Middle Country CSD, CEd 14078

Eileen Banschback and Timothy Dowler, certified physical education teachers, were employed by the Middle Country Central School District as teaching assistants* and assigned to teach adaptive physical education under the general supervision of a certified physical education teacher.

The district conceded that they were to perform “primary instruction duties” related to adaptive physical education such as individualized education plans and preparing lesson plans, teaching students, determining student grades and giving supervision and direction to teacher aides.

Both teaching assistants appealed to the Commissioner of Education, contending that their assignments violated State Education Department guidelines and constituted an assignment outside their teaching assistant tenure area.

The Commissioner set out the following guidelines concerning their assignment:

1. Without a certified teacher present, Banschback and Dowler may teach adaptive physical education and supervise and direct teacher aides assigned to such classes, provided that they do so under the general supervision of such a teacher.

2. The certified teacher must review and approve the lesson plans and progress reports prepared by Banschback and Dowler as “deficient supervision may, as a practical matter, result in teachers being supplanted by teaching assistants, which is not permissible under law.”

* Section 80.33(b)(1) of the Commissioner’s Regulations defines a teaching assistant as a person “appointed by a board of education to provide, under the general supervision of a licensed or certified teacher, direct instructional services to students.”
NYPPL