Mary Hatwood Futrell, past president of the National Education Association, has joined George Washington University as a senior fellow and associate director of the George Washington Center for the Study of Education and National Development.
Ms. Futrell, who was president of the n.e.a. for six years, also will teach education courses. The Washington, D.C.-based center conducts research and develops policy initiatives on major national educational issues.
Ms. Futrell received a master’s degree in secondary education from George Washington in 1968. In 1987, the university awarded her an honorary doctorate.
The county “teacher of the year” in Moultrie, Ga., will not be rehired even though a jury last month acquitted her on charges of manufacturing and possessing marijuana.
Vicki Sherling, a chemistry teacher at Colquitt County High School, was arrested last spring and accused of helping her husband grow marijuana in their backyard greenhouse.
The Colquitt County Board of Education did not base its decision on whether Ms. Sherling had been found guilty or innocent, said Superintendent of Schools Billy Mock. Rather, he explained, “she was relieved of her teaching requirements in compliance with the guideline on fair dismissal, which specifies immorality.”
Ms. Sherling has filed an appeal with the state board of education, and a hearing is set for Sept. 19.
A well-regarded Florida high-school teacher was arrested last month and charged with assuming the identity of a dead man.
Robert Hutchinson, an English teacher at Lincoln Park Academy in Fort Pierce, Fla., is really Ralph P. Stregles, according to the state’s attorney’s office, which conducted an investigation into Mr. Stregles’ past and notified the school of its findings last June.
Mr. Stregles came to the St. Lucie County School District two and a half years ago, said Mark Molina, a county information officer. “He went through our normal screening process and presented what were thought to be real bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral-degree transcripts,” Mr. Molina said.
Mr. Stregles, who never graduated from college and who reportedly earned a doctorate using false credentials, has been suspended from his teaching job pending resolution of the case. He is believed to have been using borrowed identities for more than 20 years.
