Labor & Employment Law

Eligibility for Jarema credit

By Harvey Randall, Esq.

Eligibility for Jarema credit

Emma v Schenectady CSD, USDC, NDNY, 28 F. Supp. 2d 711, affirmed, 1999 U.S. App. LEXIS 27395

Jarema credit and changing employers were among the employment/tenure issues considered in this 30-page opinion by U.S. District Court Judge Thomas J. McAvoy of the Northern District of New York.

In 1990 Joseph A. Emma, Jr. was appointed as an assistant principal by the Schenectady City School District. He served for three months as ?interim principal? during the absence due to illness of the permanent incumbent. In September 1991 Emma was appointed principal at another school within the district, subject to a three-year probationary period.

One month before Emma?s probationary period was believed to expire, he, the union and the district agreed to the extension of his probationary period through August 19, 1995. However, in November 1994 Emma was appointed to yet another administrative position in the district. This appointment was contingent on his satisfactorily completing a ?new three-year probationary period,? ending in November 1997.[1]

While serving in his new position Emma requested, and was granted, a leave of absence for ?personal reasons? for the period August 1996 through June 1997. He was told that ?an acceptance of a new position during the leave of absence would constitute a resignation? as provided in the operative Taylor Law agreement. Emma accepted a position as vice-principal with the Kingston City School District while on leave and Schenectady treated this as a ?resignation from his current position? with the district. Claiming that he was denied tenure as principal in violation of federal civil rights law [42 USC 1983], Emma sued and asked a federal district court judge to direct his reinstatement as principal and grant him ?compensatory and punitive damages.?

Among the claims advanced by Emma was that he was entitled to ?Jarema? credit [Section 2509(1)(a), Education Law] for his service as an interim principal and thus his three-year probationary period as principal ended in May 1994. Thus, he argued, he had attained tenure in the title by estoppel.

Judge McAvoy ruled that Emma did not qualify for Jarema credit for a number of reasons. He pointed out that the State?s Court of Appeals has held:

1. Jarema credit did not apply to administrative and supervisory personnel [Roberts v Community School Board, 495 NYS2 960]; and

2. Even if Emma could otherwise claim Jarema credit, he was not eligible for such credit because he did not serve as interim principal in a ?wholly vacant? position [McManus v Board of Education, 638 NYS2 411].

Judge McAvoy pointed out that in McManus the Court of Appeals distinguished between serving in a position because the permanent incumbent is temporarily unable to perform the duties of the position ?on a short-term basis? in contrast to employment in a wholly vacant position on a ?long term? basis for the purposes of claiming Jarema credit.

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on March 03, 2008 (boomark / email).