Next time somebody tries to tell you that "good" teachers don't need tenure, remember the story of Tred Burch.

After more than two years away from his classroom and facing the loss of his career, Deposit TA President Tredwell Burch has been exonerated of all charges and is back in school thrilled to be getting his students ready for the Global History Regents.

"Tenure is such an important right for a teacher to have," Burch said. "Without the rights of tenure, I realize this school board under the advice of one administrator could have fired me without a second thought."

Tenure gave Burch the due process right to a hearing — a hearing that clearly demonstrated there was no case against him.

In a December ruling, State Education Department hearing officer Mark Karper dismissed all charges without Burch even having to put on a defense. The independent arbitrator found that there was "a systemwide breakdown in the district's ability to meet the needs of a hearing-impaired student" — not any wrongdoing by the veteran teacher.

A longtime union activist whose hard-hitting newsletter has angered a revolving door of administrators in the rural Southern Tier community of Deposit, Burch was entering difficult contract negotiations in the fall of 2005 when his nightmare began.

All it took to target him, he said, was one administrator with an ax to grind who had a mother-in-law on the school board. Just two weeks after Ed Shirkey was named interim principal at Deposit High School, Burch said the administrator engaged him in a seemingly innocent conversation about a hearing-impaired student who was supposedly having trouble with another teacher.

"I started to tell of some incidents in my own classroom with the student," Burch said. "I really thought that he was interested in how to help this student, and I honestly thought she would get help."

Instead, Shirkey was building an unfair case against Burch, despite 20 years of favorable evaluations as a teacher of world history, economics and criminal law.

About two weeks later, Shirkey stopped in Burch's classroom and told him there was an investigation going on. "I was shocked. He told me right up front that it could lead to a 3020-a and I barely knew what that even was," Burch recalled. Under state law, a tenured teacher may elect to pursue a 3020-a proceeding when the district files charges seeking to discipline an employee.

In December 2005, Burch was charged with 44 specific complaints dealing with his handling of a hearing-impaired student who was having trouble with her peers and her classwork. The charges ranged from incompetence to insubordination, with the district claiming Burch deliberately failed to follow the Individualized Education Program of the student (whose parents were good friends of Shirkey's).

Burch was exiled from his classroom and placed on paid suspension. Throughout 12 days of hearing (which union leaders said dragged on due to numerous postponements requested by the school district), the district attempted to build its case. In the end, Karper, the independent arbitrator, ruled the charges completely without merit.

"The truth of the matter," he concluded, "is that the district as a whole completely underestimated the problems in providing an appropriate mainstream education" to the young girl. Soon after the charges were lodged, a full-time instructional aide was assigned to help her. That helped, the hearing officer found, but by mid-year she was transferred to a BOCES program with more specialized programs that included instructional programs designed for the hearing-impaired.

Burch noted that as the district's case began to unravel, officials offered him a deal.

"I couldn't do it," Burch said. "I knew in my heart I was innocent."

Ironically, Burch's wife, Suzanne Shepard, an English professor at Broome Community College, also has a hearing impairment.

"After 30 years together, I certainly understand the disability and was insulted to think that someone would think I didn't understand," Burch said.

Shepard, a member of the NYSUT-affiliated Broome CC Faculty Association, wrote a heartfelt column in the union's newsletter, The Hatchet, explaining how the ordeal strengthened her belief in unionism. (see related story)

"As our experience indicates, teachers are incredibly vulnerable," Shepard said. "At the whim of an irate parent, a misguided administrator or a board member with an ax to grind, an innocent teacher's life and that of his or her family can be changed forever. Only one entity exists solely for your help and protection: the Union."

NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi said Burch's case illustrates poignantly the need for due process protections under the state's tenure law. "It's often attacked, but tenure protects teachers from unfair political and personal accusations," Iannuzzi said. "It's no different from our criminal justice system, which says a person is innocent until proven guilty."

Without tenure, Burch said, he'd be out of work and out of a career he loves. "It's a small town, where the administrator out to get me had a mother-in-law on the school board," Burch said. "He had the school board under his thumb and was in a position to influence them ... I suspect they would have fired me on the spot without a second thought."

Burch praised the strong support he received from NYSUT, particularly regional staff director Catherine Klein, labor relations specialist Chris Corlett and lawyer Anthony Brock. His wife is even more direct: "They stood with us as we faced the dragons, and with their help we prevailed."

Unfortunately, one other Deposit teacher is still caught up in the 3020-a process, but Burch and Brock are hopeful his case will ultimately be resolved just as favorably.

"It's no coincidence that these charges were brought against me, the union president, and our grievance chair/negotiator," Burch said. "The witch hunt began right before we started our contract negotiations."

As a result of the district's actions, NYSUT has taken the unusual step of filing a union animus claim, charging that the district targeted union leaders for their union activity. The Taylor Law case is pending before the Public Employment Relations Board.

With a new superintendent, principal and contract in place, Burch is happy to finally be back in the classroom and put the ordeal behind him. At NYSUT's annual convention in April, The Hatchet was named "Best of the Best" among union publications. "With only 79 members, we never expected to win the big honor," Burch said. "Considering everything we've been through, it was especially sweet."

— Sylvia Saunders