By Attorney Thomas B. Mooney, Neag School of Education, University of Connecticut

The “Legal Question of the Week” is a regular feature of the CAS Weekly NewsBlast. We invite readers to submit short, law-related questions of practical concern to school administrators. Each week, we will select a question and publish an answer. While these answers cannot be considered formal legal advice, they may be of help to you and your colleagues. We may edit your questions, and we will not identify the authors. Please submit your questions to: legalmailbagcasciacorg. _________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Legal Mailbag:

I have a secret and maybe you can help me. Since my divorce last year, I haven’t felt much like dating. My ex fought me at every turn, and I have been exhausted. However, this year, we hired a new math teacher, and we have really hit it off. He is handsome and polite and even laughs at my jokes. Our relationship has evolved over these months, and I find myself just hoping that I will see him during the day. Yesterday, I saw him at Starbucks after work, and we had a candid conversation. It turns out that he likes me just as much as I like him! We are going to meet for dinner this weekend.

There is, however, a minor problem. As the assistant principal, I am responsible for supervising and evaluating teachers in the math department. I confess that I was so excited about getting to know him better that I didn’t really think about it. But now, I am wondering. We met last fall to discuss his student learning objectives, and we even had a mid-year check-in last week before our fateful meeting at Starbucks. He is really charming; and, I can’t imagine that he will deserve anything less than a great evaluation. Do you think I have to report this to anyone? I would rather just do the evaluation and not make this into a big megillah. This whole thing may even be a moot point — by the time the summative evaluation is due, we may have already broken up.

Signed,
Is it Love?

Dear Love:

Your letter came a couple weeks late for Valentine’s Day! I am happy for you, but you are on treacherous ground here. It is certainly understandable that a cute math teacher may have captured your heart, especially after what you have been through. But you have a professional responsibility to make evaluation judgments in a fair and objective way. Right now, it is unlikely that you could separate your affection from your judgment and render a fair assessment of his performance. Moreover, even if you could, there would be an appearance of favoritism – rest assured that your interest in the math teacher has probably already been noted. Even breaking up with him would not solve the problem at this point. I certainly wouldn’t want my ex to be evaluating me!

That all said, I recommend that you deal with this affair of the heart straight up. Go to your principal and just tell the truth. Through candid discussion, I am sure that you and he will be able to figure out a way to assure that the math teacher can be supervised and evaluated by a person whose interest in him is simply professional. The most important thing here is that you are honest about the situation. You were smart to write, and now be smart and figure this out with your principal.