Neshaminy Appeals Arbitrator Ruling to Rehire Teacher Charged with Shoplifting

When Neshaminy School District teacher Tara Buske was arrested and charged with retail theft and receiving stolen property in 2012, the district terminated her.

However, an arbitrator overturned Buske's termination, allowing her to return to her Maple Point Middle School classroom. The school district is requesting the courts to withdraw this arbitrator's award.

The seventh and eighth grade Family and Consumer Science was arrested at Kmart in Middletown Dec. 7, 2010, on charges of retail theft and receiving stolen property valued at $381.99, as reported by PhillyBurbs.

Buske was accepted into the Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition program for first-time, nonviolent offenders April 21, 2011, according to PhillyBurbs.

School Board President Ritchie Webb said that when Buske was let go, she invoked her right to appeal the decision to either the school board or an arbitrator.

"The law allows her to choose one or the other, but not both. She chose the former," Webb said in a press release.

Upon hearing the facts about Buske's termination, the school board decided to support the district’s decision and denied her appeal, he said.

"It was clear from the facts presented that Ms. Buske willfully committed a serious act of theft, and the Board made the obvious conclusion that a condition of moral turpitude existed," Webb stated, adding that this gave the district the right to terminate the teacher under the Pennsylvania School Code of 1949, and there is case precedent to support this decision.

The district later opposed an appeal Buske filed on Sept. 22, 2011, with the Pennsylvania Department of Education to challenge her termination, PhillyBurbs reported.

The Neshaminy Federation of Teachers then filed a grievance on Buske’s behalf, claiming her dismissal was without just cause and requesting that her record be expunged.

However, the district denied the grievance and submitted a motion to dismiss it.

On May 15, a hearing was held before arbitrator Rochelle Kaplan, who agreed that Buske failed to advise the district about her placement in the ARD program and misrepresented her absences to conceal court appearances, PhillyBurbs reported.

However, Webb said that the arbitrator ruled on May 23 that the evidence did not show that Buske engaged in immoral conduct, thus there was no just cause for her termination.

Kaplan reduced Buske’s dismissal to a lengthy suspension without pay and benefits, for the time served to date until she completes her rehabilitation program. After the court dismisses her criminal case and expunges her record, the district must reinstate Buske to her former position, Kaplan ruled, as reported by PhillyBurbs.

"I don’t know about you, but where I grew up any kind of theft was considered both immoral and illegal. When you consider the magnitude of Ms. Buske’s actions, I do not understand how anyone could conclude otherwise. Ms. Kaplan’s decision defies all reason and logic, and that is why we have chosen to appeal her ruling," Webb stated.

PhillyBurbs reported that the school district filed a petition Tuesday in the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas, requesting that the court withdraw a late May arbitration award that overturned the school board’s earlier decision to terminate Buske’s position.