Did School Committee illegally lay off 129 employees?

PAWTUCKET -- School Committee members may have acted illegally when they voted last month to lay off 129 teachers and other school workers prior to a required March 1 deadline.

And it's all because school board members kept a post-retirement superintendent, Hans Dellith, on the payroll without defining his title or his duties.

Now with a legal challenge by the Pawtucket Teachers Alliance pending, some on the School Committee say they may be forced to rehire all of those issued pink slips back for the 2010-2011 school year.

The claim comes as a surprise to many in a Pawtucket School Department where some are still reeling from the news that an independent auditor has found as much as $10.4 million or more in possible savings in the local budget, further calling into question next year's school budget.

The latest - and perhaps one of the most expensive - controversies to hit the district centers around the question of whether former school Superintendent Hans Dellith, who is still serving the district in an undefined capacity, is Pawtucket's "interim superintendent."

If not, said School Committee members Joseph Knight and David Coughlin this week, they and the committee they serve on may have acted illegally on two separate occasions over the past month when they followed Dellith's recommendation to lay off 129 combined school personnel.

"My understanding was that he would be a consultant for us and help us with what we needed," said Knight, who said he had the impression that Dellith would serve in whatever capacity needed, whether filling in for a principal or another administrator.

Since the School Committee is already beyond the March 1 layoff decision cutoff, Coughlin says he doesn't see how its members can legally send out pink slips now to fix the situation.

In an e-mail to School Committee Chairman James Chellel on March 6, he wondered if Dellith had deliberately led members astray.

"... Have we been negligently led to slipping the statutory mandated March 1 deadline to send out layoff notices, thus preventing the School Committee to seriously look at cost reduction for the next fiscal year's budget?" asked Coughlin of Chellel.

If Dellith is not the interim school chief, said Knight, he should not still be making key decisions like recommending teacher layoffs or negotiating a new lease for the Jackie Walsh School as he is doing now. As Knight sees it, the School Committee never granted that authority.

Chellel could not immediately be reached for comment. Dellith also did not return calls.

Teachers Alliance President Charleen Christy told The Breeze Monday that while the union has challenged the layoffs, the action has nothing to do with any questions over whether the School Committee was acting on the recommendation of the right person.

"We challenge the layoffs every year," said Christy. "We're challenging this because we always challenge it, not for any other reason."

Christy said that challenges are filed in case any mistakes are made during the layoff process, "providing our teachers with the legal rights they deserve under the law."

Christy said that this is the first year she has ever seen a second layer of layoffs, with 39 additional staff issued pink slips late last month in addition to the 90 who had already received them.

It was at an Oct. 13 meeting last year when the School Committee voted unanimously to keep Dellith on in some capacity on a per diem basis for up to the 90 days allowed by law for a retiring school administrator. Dellith would make his retirement official just after the Christmas holiday.

"Ms. (Nicole) Nordquist moved to extend the opportunity for the superintendent to work the 90 days after retirement at his rate of pay with no benefits as needed. Ms. (Amy) Breault-Zolt seconded," reads a transcript of the minutes from the Oct. 13 meeting.

According to the transcript, Breault-Zolt then lent her support for having Dellith stay on.

"I would like to recall his retirement and have him stay," she said. "I've worked with Hans for twelve years now and this district has come a long way. (I) have had four children go through the system and you have done an outstanding job. I really hate to see you go."

Now Coughlin and Knight are claiming - backed up by meeting minutes - that at no time during or after that October meeting did the School Committee approve a job title, job description, or contract for Dellith, meaning, they say, he ceased being the head of Pawtucket schools the moment he retired.

"We never voted to make Dr. Dellith the interim superintendent," said Coughlin. "I just don't know what the ramifications are, and I'm concerned about it."

"That item would not have gotten my vote if I had known he was going to be interim superintendent," added Knight.

Coughlin said that Knight has been saying for months that Dellith is not the interim superintendent, but it wasn't until last week when another attorney contacted him about the matter that he took the claim seriously.

"I'm now concerned because the motion appears to be vague and capable of at least two interpretations," he said. "It's not clear if "superintendent" in motion is just a titular reference to Hans Dellith and motion puts Hans Dellith on payroll post-retirement for 90 days as needed in an undefined capacity (e.g. consultant), or whether it puts Superintendent Dellith on payroll post retirement for 90 days as needed as interim Superintendent Dellith."

Since Deputy Superintendent Kim Mercer did not recommend the staff layoffs, as the one who legally should have become acting superintendent in the absence of a superintendent, say Coughlin and Knight, those layoffs may not have been legal.

School Committee attorney Stephen Robinson did not respond to a message left at his Providence office Monday.

According to the School Committee's governance and operations guidelines, "the deputy superintendent of schools shall assume the duties of the superintendent of schools in case of the illness and/or absence of the superintendent of schools."

Since Mercer has likely been the rightful superintendent since Dellith's retirement, said Coughlin, it appears the School Committee not only voted inappropriately to lay off 90 staff members, but may have done the same later with 29 more employees.

School Committee Chairman Jim Chellel and member Amy Breault-Zolt were the only committee members to vote against 39 additional layoffs at a special meeting on Feb. 25.

Other School Committee members had hinted that the surprise news of up to $10 million or more in overspending played into their decision to issue additional layoff notices.

School departments and municipalities traditionally lay off employees based on a worst-case budget scenario, and then hire most back after the budget picture clears up.

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