Knight v. Board of Cooperative Educational Services

—Judgment unanimously affirmed without costs. Memorandum: The determination of respondent terminating petitioner from her position as a certified occupational therapy assistant was based on several instances of misconduct by petitioner in abusing sick and personal leave in contravention of the employer-employee professional agreement and in submitting a false claim for reimbursement. A high degree of deference is to be accorded to an agency’s determination of the appropriate penalty to be imposed (see, Matter of Gillen v Smithtown Lib. Bd. of Trustees, 254 AD2d 486, affd 94 NY2d 776), and it…