Teacher’s license under suspension

Discovery may lead to his firing

7/26/2014

A state Web site’s technical glitch alerted Toledo Public Schools to state discipline against a newly hired teacher and could lead to his termination.

District officials notified Stacy Tresize this month that they planned to recommend the Toledo Board of Education to fire him, because the administrators contend he provided false information on his application.

Mr. Tresize’s state teaching license was suspended this year because of allegations he sent “inappropriate, nonsexual, electronic communication to multiple female students” while a teacher in the North Royalton School District, according to district records.

Mr. Tresize was hired by TPS in April to teach at Samuel M. Jones at Gunckel Park Elementary. But soon afterward, district officials noticed that the Ohio Department of Education changed the status of his teaching credentials as suspended. TPS suspended him without pay when the district saw the state action; North Royalton would not discuss Mr. Tresize’s misconduct charge, but TPS submitted a public records request to the state.

Mr. Tresize never informed the district that his license was going to be suspended, district officials contend. The district argues that Mr. Tresize lied on his application when he answered “no” to a question that asked whether he had been failed to be rehired, asked to resign, resigned to avoid termination, or had been fired by a previous employer.

TPS references a North Royalton report to the state that Mr. Tresize resigned in February, 2012, “because of or in the course of an investigation,” by the district. Mr. Tresize says he was never told he would be fired, so he did not lie. He said his state license suspension wasn’t supposed to begin until June, 2014, and was put online in April in error.

A TPS disciplinary hearing officer wrote that Mr. Tresize, who could not be reached for comment, would never had been hired if the district knew about the allegations or his licensure suspension.

Contact Nolan Rosenkrans at: nrosenkrans@theblade.com or 419-724-6086, or on Twitter @NolanRosenkrans.