Ocean Beach School District has dealt with three educator separation agreements under its current superintendent.

LONG BEACH — Long-time teacher Shawn Stern’s resignation agreement was the third settlement reached between the Ocean Beach School District and an employee during Amy Huntley’s tenure as superintendent, which began with the 2019-20 school year.

The first agreement, with Tracey Crook, was finalized in late May 2022. Crook herself has alleged that Huntley improperly involved herself in the district’s settlement with Stern, her husband, which Huntley has denied.

Crook was a provisional certificated teacher for the school district in 2021-22, teaching third grade, and was informed by the district that she would be non-renewed for the following school year. Washington state law dictates that certificated school employees must be notified in writing by May 15 if their contract will not be renewed for the following school year, as well as the reasons for the non-renewal.

“If any such notification … is not timely given, the employee entitled thereto shall be conclusively presumed to have been reemployed by the district for the next ensuing term upon contractual terms identical with those which would have prevailed if his or her employment had actually been renewed by the board of directors for such ensuing term,” the law states.

‘Not easy to do’

School districts can take adverse actions against certificated employees, including termination, although those actions can be appealed by the employee. If the district does not prevail in an appeal hearing, it is obligated to pay that employee’s costs and attorney fees — along with their own — and reinstate them to their position. Districts can also place an employee who does not sign a resignation agreement on paid administrative leave.

“To take away a contract from anyone for any reason in the middle of that contract legally in the state of Washington is not easy to do,” said Huntley as to why OBSD might settle with an employee rather than outright terminate them. “And so any way you look at it, say an employee were to appeal that if you were going to try to take that away, you are going to pay them their full salary, plus the lawyer’s fees, plus any judgment at the end — and it may be up to a year until you have a court case.”

Crook filed a grievance with OBSD contesting her non-renewal, but the two sides later agreed to settle the dispute, which led to the district withdrawing its letter of non-renewal and Crook withdrawing her pending grievance.

The terms of the agreement called for Crook to resign her position effective Aug. 31, 2022. Along with receiving her salary and benefits for the remainder of the 2021-22 school year, the district paid Crook a one-time installment of $12,312, an amount that represented OBSD’s contributions for 12 months of insurance premiums.

Third resignation

The other resignation agreement involved a certificated teacher and was finalized in July 2023. That settlement also called for the teacher to resign their position effective Aug. 31, with the district paying out their salary and benefits through that date.

Additionally, the district agreed to pay that employee three months of pay at their base contract rate for the 2022-23 school year, and the teacher was also in line to receive $600 for professional development. OBSD agreed not to investigate or discipline the employee, and like the aforementioned settlements did not contest or object to their right to receive unemployment insurance benefits.

Huntley said the reason why this teacher did not receive their full salary for the following school year, even though like Stern they had not been informed they were being non-renewed earlier that spring, was because the employee “clearly no longer wanted to be here.”

“At that point you have to make decisions about, do you just trust to let the clock run out and not plan on the position and have an employee not show up? Do you have an employee who’s disgruntled all year and comes back and is just there [to pick up a paycheck]? All those questions an employer might have,” Huntley said. “So at that point, do we give the employee an off-ramp that allows them to find their zen somewhere else and do what they need to do, or not?

“Otherwise, we were paying them all the next school year and expecting them to come and do a job that they were clearly not interested in coming and doing. That’s just one case of that, but there have been others where for whatever reason it just makes sense for the person to be given a little help and given a send off.”

Jodie Housley, the Ocean Beach Education Association president, claimed that the other two resignation agreements aside from Stern’s that the district has granted during Huntley’s tenure as superintendent “were for teachers in good and excellent standing.”