An Administrative Law Judge sides with the former Dodger Academy Director in regards to an unemployment insurance appeal filed by the Fort Dodge Community School District.
According to documents obtained from Iowa Workforce Development, the Fort Dodge Community School District filed an appeal to an unemployment insurance decision made in September in regards to former Dodger Academy Director Erin Brookshire. The school participated in the telephone hearing through Kim Whitmore, Director of Human Resources, and Aaron Davidson, Executive Director of Educational Services. No exhibits were offered or admitted to the record.
The incident leading to the discharge occurred when the school determined the former director had unsubstantiated charges on the credit card provided to her. The former director traveled to San Francisco as part of the job, and was accompanied by her mother. While at a restaurant, the school card was used to pay for the former director and her mother’s meal, as the restaurant would not split the check in accordance with their policy. The former director testified she had previously encountered similar situations, and had reimbursed the school for the charges not otherwise covered by the school. The school had not disciplined the former director previously for this practice. Furthermore, when the former director submitted the credit card usage, she advised the school of the charges that she would be reimbursing.
The school, however, froze the credit card on August 19th, 2024 and suspended the card for 30 days. The school then discharged the former director on August 23rd, 2024. The school believed the director received training on credit card use and policy sometime in August of 2024. In deciding to discharge the director, the school considered a warning that was given on August 12, 2024 related to card usage on a field trip and August 15th 2024 violation for an unknown incident and date.
Iowa administrative code requires the employer to meet the burden of proof in establishing disqualifying job misconduct. According to the judgement, the school did not meet its burden of proof. The former director credibly testified that she had used the card previously for charges in which she had reimbursed the school for without incident. The judgement goes on to say the school “was unable to credibly describe the two violations other than the one involving the San Francisco trip, and provided no substantiation of those allegations”.
The judge affirmed the previous decision, allowing unemployment insurance benefits.
On August 30th, 2024, Fort Dodge Community School District announced the closure of Dodger Academy, three days before the program was scheduled to transition from the summer program to the school year program.
