The State Ethics Commission (“Commission”) found that a South Hadley school employee violated the conflict of interest law by accepting travel and stipends, a form of compensation, from a tour company while performing her duties as a Trip Advisor. Beginning in 2007 through 2017, the employee organized school trips as the group leader. During this this time, the tour company awarded her $5,530 in stipends and 4,516 travel points for organizing these trips. She was rewarded based, in part, on the number of participants she recruited.
The Commission found that the employee violated the law by knowingly accepting stipends and travel points worth $50 or more from the tour company for doing her job as the Trip Advisor. The Commission also found that the employee unlawfully accepted rewards from trips the School had a financial interest in. The Commission and the employee agreed to a settlement which required the employee to pay a civil fine of $7,000 for violating the law.
Following this decision, the Ethics Commission published updated Teacher FAQs (rev 10.31.19) addressing issue of School Trip Advisors and process to be followed when a chaperone teacher’s travel expenses are being paid by someone other than the teacher or the school district.
