Schools paid teacher $78K while on leave

Published 2:00 am Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Limestone County Schools paid an Elkmont sixth-grade teacher $78,598 while waiting for the outcome of shoplifting cases dating back to 2008, records show.

County schools also paid a substitute teacher $36,000 a year to fill in for the teacher while she was on leave for being arrested for shoplifting.

However, school board members voted unanimously Monday to fire Tammy Boyd Hand during a called personnel hearing at the Central Office in Athens. Hand did not attend.

Superintendent Dr. Barry Carroll recommended the firing and the seven board members agreed.

Finance Director Jonathan Craft, who could not attend the meeting, on Tuesday supplied the amount Boyd has been paid since her first shoplifting arrest in 2008.

Board members could have fired Boyd last August, after she pleaded guilty to third-degree theft in Madison County.

On the advice of counsel, board members decided to wait for the outcome of a separate shoplifting case involving Hand still pending in Limestone County. However, that case was delayed, and the superintendent recommended firing.

School officials cannot simply fire an employee because he or she is charged with shoplifting or some other crime.

“We assume a person to be innocent until proven guilty,” Assistant Superintendent Mike Owens said. “We don’t fire them unless they are convicted because we don’t want to be wrong.”

In Hand’s case, the process took time. Last August was the earliest point the superintendent could have recommend firing Hand because she was not convicted until then.

In 2008, Hand was charged with second-degree theft for allegedly stealing $1,550 worth of clothing and jewelry from Dillard’s in Parkway Place Mall in Huntsville. There was no conviction in the case. The Madison County District Attorney’s Office agreed not to pursue the case against Hand if she successfully completed a pretrial intervention program, records show. She received credit for completing the program in December 2008, and she was required to maintain a clean record for two years.

However, just over a year after the Madison County incident, Hand was arrested Dec. 22, 2009, in Athens on a charge of third-degree theft for allegedly stealing a $40 flashlight and a $30 massager from Walmart, records show. A loss-prevention officer at the store accused her of changing the bar codes on listed items and going through the self-checkout lane, an official said. She pleaded guilty to the facts of that case in May. Municipal Judge Don Mansell accepted her plea and convicted her of the charge. She appealed the conviction to Limestone County Circuit Court.

Because of this arrest, Madison County rescinded her probation and she agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree theft, a misdemeanor, last August.

“When she pleaded guilty to the charge in Madison County in August, the charges in Athens were still pending,” Owens said. “Because the case would be stronger if we had two convictions instead of one, we waited. We wanted to be as sure as possible.”

When it was determined that Hand had been charged under an outdated Athens city ordinance, the charge was dismissed. She was to be recharged on the correct charge and her case sent back to Municipal Court, officials have said.

“We decided not to wait until that case is done,” Owens said.

In addition to the $78,598 paid Hand since she was placed on leave, the schools have also paid a teacher to fill in for her. The starting salary for a new teacher without experience is $36,000 a year, Owens said. Hand was on leave for approximately 18 months, so the schools paid the substitute approximately $54,000.