PROVIDENCE — In a rare move, state Education Commissioner Deborah A. Gist has revoked the teaching certificate of a Bristol Warren teacher who had a history of alcohol-related problems and drove drunk to school in September. The action ensures that the teacher can never again work in Rhode Island public schools.

Kathleen A. Borgia, 43, of Warren, was arrested at 9 a.m. on Sept. 28 for driving under the influence just a block away from Colt Andrews Elementary School, where she taught second grade. Supt. Edward Mara said he suspended her the next day, and she never returned to work.

Borgia pleaded no contest to the charge on Oct. 9 and a judge ordered her driver’s license suspended for six months, twice as long as usual for a first-time offender.

“This lady has serious issues with alcohol abuse,” Magistrate Joseph Ippolito Jr. said at the hearing. “The court feels it cannot be dealt with in a three-month period.”

Borgia resigned from her job Oct. 30 and, as of that date, no longer received a salary or benefits from the school district, Mara said.

Mara said teachers with Borgia’s experience earn about $63,000 a year. Borgia was first certified in Rhode Island in 1990, according to the Rhode Island Department of Education.

In serious cases, the state Department of Education moves to revoke a teacher’s certification. Reasons include sexual contact with a minor, misrepresentation of criminal convictions and falsifying a certification application, said Elliot Krieger, department spokesman.

Concerned about Borgia’s history of alcohol-related issues, the department reviewed Borgia’s certification file and found “an issue of concern regarding an answer she gave on her 2006 certification application,” Krieger said.

Education officials wrote to Borgia, telling her she could request a hearing to discuss the matter by Nov. 2, but she did not respond, Krieger said.

On Nov. 12, Gist sent Borgia a letter, informing her that her certification had been revoked “for cause.” Borgia’s is the 12th revocation since 2001, Krieger said.

Borgia’s history of alcohol-related incidents prompted the Bristol-Warren School Committee to fire her more than a year ago, in September 2008. But her union, an affiliate of the National Education Association of Rhode Island, appealed her case to an arbitrator, John J. Pendergast III, who reinstated Borgia last summer.

“I was shocked by the arbitrator’s decision,” Mara said. “I had not expected her to return in September.”

In 2004, Borgia pleaded no contest to a charge of domestic simple assault. She received a five-year deferred sentence and was ordered to undergo domestic-abuse and alcohol counseling.

In 2005, according to court records, the school district documented another alcohol-related incident in Borgia’s file and required her to attend substance-abuse counseling.

On July 13, 2008, Borgia was again charged with domestic simple assault, and her husband said she drove with their children in the car while she was intoxicated. The charge was later dismissed, but Mara investigated the incident and recommended the School Committee fire her.

The arbitrator argued that that even if Borgia had been intoxicated, the incident occurred away from school and during summer recess.

Robert A. Walsh Jr., executive director of NEARI, said he recognizes that Borgia’s Sept. 28 arrest differed in those respects from the July 2008 incident, but said he could not comment on the specifics of the case.

“Hypothetically, certainly there are times when that action [revocation] makes sense,” Walsh said.

Mara said he is relieved the matter has been resolved.

“I applaud Paulajo Gaines [the department’s director of educator quality and certification] and Commissioner Gist for taking this stand,” he said. “It’s a sad event in the life of this individual, but she had several chances to turn that around.”

jjordan@projo.com