BURLINGTON — The Burlington School Board has fired former Burlington High School guidance director Mario Macias after his license was revoked by the Agency of Education.
The board voted 10-0 to fire Macias at a special meeting Monday night where they heard an appeal from Macias on his suspension from the district.
An AOE hearing panel found that Macias had impaired colleagues ability to do their jobs, was unaware of the basic functions of the guidance department and had inappropriately engaged a student witness in a discussion about the charges against him.
The school district suspended Macias in September after the student-run newspaper at the high school, the BHS Register, broke the news of the AOE’s licensing charges against Macias.
Michael Fisher, the clerk of the school board, said in a statement Tuesday that the school board decided to fire Macias effective immediately after considering the evidence and testimony provided at the hearing.
The board directed the district’s legal counsel to prepare a written decision explaining the rationale supporting the decision.
“This document will also be made public as soon as it is completed, reviewed by the board and executed by me as presiding officer,” Fisher said. “At this time, the board intends to make no further statement regarding this matter.”
The hearing panel found several of the charges against Macias to be unsubstantiated, including that Macias failed to provide adequate supervision of a standardized test and deliberately falsified information on a student transcript.
The panel determined that two other charges were also unsubstantiated, including the allegation hat Macias failed to maintain a professional relationship with a college student who was a substitute teacher and revealed highly confidential information about a student to a third party.
Macias has until March 14 to appeal the hearing panel’s decision with the AOE.
The AOE’s case against Macias centered on testimony from his former colleagues in the BHS guidance department, who testified that his behavior was unprofessional and aggressive.
In his defense, Macias and his attorney had argued that the counselors who testified against him had been unwilling to adapt to new leadership and were disgruntled former employees.
The AOE’s investigation into Macias started after two former BHS counselors appeared before the school board and said that they had quit their jobs due to disrespectful treatment from Macias.
Francisco Guzman, Macias’ attorney, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from VTDigger. He told WCAX that Macias was planning to appeal the AOE’s decision.
Ted Fisher, a spokesman for the AOE, said the law requires licenses for certain education jobs, including guidance directors.
