Almonte v. Department of Education — 132 A.D.3d 505

Majority

p. 505

In the Matter of Laysa Almonte, Appellant, v Department of Education of the City of New York et al., Respondents.

[17 NYS3d 707]

Order and judgment (one paper), Supreme Court, New York County (Peter H. Moulton, J.), entered on or about May 2, 2014, which, to the extent appealed from as limited by the briefs, granted respondent New York City Department of Education’s (DOE) cross motion to deny the petition and dismiss the proceeding, brought pursuant to CPLR article 78, seeking to annul respondent’s determination to terminate petitioner’s probationary employment, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The IAS court correctly determined that DOE did not violate the law or act in bad faith in terminating petitioner, a probationary teacher (see Matter of Johnson v Katz, 68 NY2d 649 [1986]; see also Matter of Medina v Sielaff, 182 AD2d 424 , 427 [1st Dept 1992]). Petitioner provided insufficient evidence to support her contention that her dismissal was due to bad faith or racial animus (see Matter of Che Lin Tsao v Kelly, 28

p. 506

AD3d 320 [1st Dept 2006]). The evidence shows that petitioner’s employment was terminated based on two classroom observations. Under these circumstances, the IAS court’s annulment of petitioner’s “U-rating,” and DOE’s failure to provide a mentor, are insufficient to show bad faith (see Matter of Brown v Board of Educ. of the City School Dist. of the City of N.Y., 89 AD3d 486 , 487-488 [1st Dept 2011]).

We have considered petitioner’s remaining contentions and find them unavailing.

Concur — Friedman, J.P., Sweeny, Saxe, Moskowitz and Gische, JJ.

Cases cited

Johnson v. Katz 68 NY2d 649 N.Y. 1986-06-10 p. 505
Medina v. Sielaff 182 AD2d 424 N.Y. App. Div. 1992-04-07 at 427 p. 505