A Barrington High School teacher is now officially â€" and finally â€" fired from the district after he had been let go two years ago but unsuccessfully appealed to the state board of education to get his job back.
The Barrington School District 220 Board of Education voted at a recent meeting to terminate former math teacher Matthew Mizanin. He was found to have pornographic photos on his school district laptop while he was under investigation for “grossly unprofessional†classroom conduct, according to official state documents.
The official termination comes nearly two years after the SD220 board initially fired Mizanin in May 2018, based on charges that he “engaged in grossly unprofessional behavior and exercised extremely poor judgment,†according to the documents.
Being a tenured teacher, Mizanin filed an appeal of his termination with the Illinois State Board of Education.
ISBE conducted its own investigation and announced in December that it upheld the board’s initial decision. The Barrington school board then officially terminated the teacher at the Jan. 14 meeting on a 6-0 vote.
“Upon learning of allegations of misconduct, the district terminated the teacher, and the Illinois State Board of Education hearing confirmed that termination,†district spokeswoman Samantha Ptashkin said in a statement.
Mizanin taught math at Barrington High School. He worked there for 24 years before his dismissal, Ptashkin said.
He was first investigated by SD220 in the spring of 2018 because of “unprofessional behavior†noted by students, parents and administrators throughout the school year, according to school district documents.
Mizanin could not be reached for comment.
According to the complaints described in the documents, Mizanin failed to enter grades in a timely manner, made grading errors and misplaced student tests. He used school time to conduct personal compensation-related business, pulled students out of class to discuss private tutoring and once scared a student he allegedly knew was prone to seizures.
In early December 2017, Mizanin reportedly called one of his students a “psycho†and told him to “go see the psychologist." The student’s parents said Mizanin was previously told that the student was receiving counseling, according to the documents.
Students also claimed that Mizanin often engaged in off-topic “rants,†some of which they recorded. Christopher Rohde, chair of the math department, said in reports that a student complained to him in early March 2018 that Mizanin’s “rambling and off-topic digressions were distracting,†he was “moving too slowly through the material†and “students were not learning the course material.â€
“Mizanin’s rants in front of his students were erratic, agitated, bombastic and bizarre,†ISBE hearing officer Lisa Salkovitz Kohn said in her findings.
After more complaints surfaced against the math teacher in March 2018, Mizanin was placed on a two-month paid administrative leave pending investigation. During the two months, he was not allowed on district property without advanced permission, and he was paid his normal salary for that year, which was $113,000, according to Ptashkin.
In the course of the investigation, officials inspected Mizanin’s district-issued computer. That is when pornographic photographs were found on the laptop, according to school district reports.
Mizanin explained the photos on the computer by stating that he acted as a substitute gymnastics coach and asked one of the gymnasts during a March 8, 2018 meet to help him transfer photos from his cell phone to a flash drive.
He said the student told him to instead use the laptop and then delete the files off the laptop. Mizanin acknowledged in reports that the student did not want help with the photos.
According to Mary Dudek, assistant superintendent of human resources, Mizanin said he offered to buy the student movie tickets, and the student agreed to finish helping him later, but the district searched the laptop before the student finished the job.
The district documents state that Mizanin told school district officials that the student could not have seen the pictures during the file transfer. According to the ISBE hearing officer’s findings, however, Mizanin “lacked the technical knowledge to provide this assurance.â€
Mizanin was not criminally charged for his actions, but he was fired by the district in May 2018 and placed on unpaid leave, Ptashkin said.
As part of Mizanin’s appeal, ISBE conducted multiple hearings from May to August 2019. The state board’s investigation wrapped up in November.
Salkovitz Kohn presented her findings on Dec. 12, 2019. She found that the SD220 board proved it had sufficient grounds to dismiss Mizanin on the grounds originally stated in 2018.
“The Board of Education of Barrington Community Unit School District No. 220 has proved that it had sufficient grounds under the school code to dismiss respondent Matthew Mizanin for cause,†Salkovitz Kohn said in the conclusion of her findings.
kedquist@chicagotribune.com
Twitter: @kaitlinedquist