See You In Court! CABE Monthly Column
“See You In Court!” is written by Thomas Mooney and appears in the CABE Journal, a publication of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education.
Bob Bombast, veteran member of the Nutmeg Board of Education, was surprised to read on social media the complaint of Tom Teacher, a popular teacher at Nutmeg Memorial High School. Tom announced his resignation from his employment with the Nutmeg Public Schools on Instagram, and in so doing he complained bitterly about how Mr. Superintendent had forced him out, posting “My career gone for only $50,000 on trumped up charges! Nobody should have to go through what I went through, and I am not going away!”
Bob was understandably curious, and he called Mr. Superintendent immediately to find out the full story. However, Mr. Superintendent would not spill the tea, telling Bob that personnel decisions are none of his business. Bob responded that a $50,000 expenditure was certainly his business as a Board member, but Mr. Superintendent simply said that the money was available from the salary account.
Bob was upset at Mr. Superintendent’s stonewalling him, and he called Ms. Chairperson to demand that she call a meeting to get to the bottom of this “unauthorized” expenditure. Mrs. Chairperson gave in to Bob’s demand, and she called a special meeting, the agenda for which stated, “Discussion of a personnel matter.”
The day before the special meeting, the Board members were served with a complaint brought in superior court on Tom Teacher’s behalf by local attorney Bill Alot. In that complaint, Bill alleged that the separation agreement that Tom had signed was null and void because Mr. Superintendent had coerced Tom by threatening him that termination would ruin his career and that Tom’s union representative was complicit in letting that happen.
At the beginning of the special meeting, the Board convened into executive session to discuss the situation. Bob accused Mr. Superintendent of spending district funds without Board authorization, and he demanded to know more about the reasons why Mr. Superintendent would agree to pay Tom Teacher $50,000 if he was really a bad teacher.
Mr. Superintendent responded by saying that he would not be getting into the details of his investigation because personnel matters are outside the Board’s purview. He assured the Board, however, that Tom needed to go because a number of parents of current and former students of Tom’s had valid complaints about how Tom had treated their children. Mr. Superintendent further explained that he had worked with Ms. Board Attorney to negotiate this separation agreement and that paying $50,000 to get Tom’s resignation was a lot cheaper than going through a termination proceeding.
This explanation satisfied the other Board members, but Bob was still adamant that Mr. Superintendent had overstepped his authority by entering into this agreement without Board approval. “At budget time,” Bob stated, “we argue about every penny. $50,000 is a lot of money, and we Board members should have been in on this decision. We might have even agreed with Mr. Superintendent that this deal was worth making. But we are not potted plants, and we should have been involved.” With that, Bob made a motion to require that Mr. Superintendent obtain Board approval before entering into any separation agreements with teachers or other employees. Fellow Board member Mal Content seconded the motion.
Would you advise the Board members to vote in favor of this motion?
