C-TEC teacher resigns to avoid termination
NEWARK – A Career and Technology Education Center teacher has resigned while being investigated for giving students answers to a student progress test that factored into her performance evaluation.
Marsha Zimmerman had faced prior discipline for a prank on students involving pregnancy tests, selling dietary supplements to students, and the handling of school funds, according to her personnel file obtained by The Advocate.
The SLO post-test results were to be used toward determining 50 percent of Zimmerman’s yearly evaluation from the state, said Joyce Malainy, superintendent of C-TEC
“We were moving towards termination,” Malainy said. “We began going through the processes ... and then we accepted a resignation.”
The C-TEC Board of Education accepted Zimmerman’s resignation effective May 27 on Tuesday. Zimmerman had already been placed on paid administrative leave on April 24, because of the district’s investigation, and will remain on leave until the end of the school year. District treasurer Ben Streby said her annual salary is $72,715.
“The problem with these assessments is that there are no specific guidelines on how to handle them,” Zimmerman told The Advocate on Friday. “Did I cheat? No. I did not cheat.”
She said it was not uncommon for her to share tests with the students beforehand as a way to review the material. Those tests were from her own curriculum not the state tests.
A senior student reported to other faculty that Zimmerman had provided the test and answers to her class on April 16. The student’s report noted that Zimmerman passed out the exam and told students to “circle the answers as we go through these so you can remember the answers.”
In regard to the state test, Zimmerman said it was more than just multiple choice answers.
In an email to Thomas Gamertsfelder, the director of the C-TEC secondary center, Zimmerman wrote she “passed out the post assessment for a quick review. ... The review of the post assessment was, in my mind, a way to decrease their test anxieties. Never did it occur to me that this should not be done.”
As required by Ohio law, Malainy has filed a report with the Ohio Department of Education about Zimmerman’s professional misconduct. The report reads: “Teacher was investigated and admitted to providing a test and answers to students for a post-test designed to measure student growth for the OTES.”
Although the Ohio Department of Education cannot comment on specific cases, spokesman J.C. Benton said that punishment could “range from suspension to revocation of license.”
Malainy said the district has safeguards against cheating in place, which is why Zimmerman was caught.
“This is something we review with teachers,” Malainy said. “We’ll continue to be vigilant.”
Previous discipline
On Oct. 10, 2005, Zimmerman received a disciplinary letter for having female students perform and review their own pregnancy tests as part of a unit on urinalysis.
The students volunteered for the activity and were not required to participate. But according to the letter, another teacher, who was pregnant at the time, switched results with one of the students with Zimmerman’s knowledge.
The switch was reportedly done as a way to tell the students that the teacher was pregnant and as “a prank to ‘get back at’ students who had thrown water at the instructors during MASH Camp in June.”
The disciplinary letter noted that Zimmerman’s conduct was unprofessional and inappropriate for a school setting. It warned that any similar acts could lead to termination in the future.
“The pregnancy test was just something we were teaching them,” Zimmerman told The Advocate. “That was a minor incident.”
Less than two years later, Zimmerman received another disciplinary letter for providing dietary supplements to students.
Zimmerman told The Advocate that she was on a weight-loss program at the time and some of her students approached her about how she was losing the weight.
“The administration did not approve of me directing them in that manner,” she said.
According to her personnel file, Zimmerman admitted to not having written permission from parents to provide the students with the dietary supplements at the time but told administrators that she was the “middle-man” between her mother who was selling the products and the student consumers.
The disciplinary letter from February 2007 included student testimony that Zimmerman had “mixed up a (weight loss) shake and gave small amounts to the students to taste” during a class.
One student who had bought supplements from Zimmerman was younger than 18 and a diabetic, the letter noted. The label on the pill bottle Zimmerman helped the student procure warned that diabetic children should consult medical professionals before taking the product.
Again, Zimmerman was warned that any further misconduct could result in termination.
Although the file notes a disciplinary action in regard to the handling of school funds in May 2009, no disciplinary letter is on file.
“It is possible it was something that wasn’t deemed necessary to go into a personnel file,” Streby said.
Malainy, who has been superintendent of the district since January 2010, would not speak on Zimmerman’s prior actions in the district.
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