Teacher wants district to honor settlement
The attorney for a former educator in the Brownsville Area School District wants a federal appeals judge to force the school board to honor a settlement agreement they rejected during a March meeting. An attorney for Frank Bobeck claimed in a Friday court filing that one school director “seized on the occasion to mock” Bobeck when the $5,000 settlement was brought to the board on March 18. Bobeck sued the district and several officials in 2006, claiming he was forced to resign his teaching post after he complained about conditions, including lack of adequate supplies.
In 2009, a judge in the U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh threw out the suit because Bobeck was making the complaints as part of his job.
Bobeck appealed to the 3rd Circuit Court, and the case settled in December through mediation, according to the filing from Bobeck’s attorney, Richard S. Matesic.
The settlement, attached to the filing, shows that there would be no admission of wrongdoing and that Bobeck would forfeit any further claims against the district and not seek employment there in the future.
However, for the settlement to be executed, the school board would have to adopt it, Matesic indicated in the filing.
During the March 18 meeting, the eight directors present unanimously rejected the settlement agreement.
Director Nina Kaminsky said that accepting the agreement would set a precedent and Director Stella Broadwater was quoted in an article as saying, “Need a couple of grand, come to the Brownsville school district.”
Matesic said that he negotiated with the district’s attorney in good faith to come to a settlement.
“In other words, after the parties’ duly appointed representatives had participated in mediation mandated by this court, and had reached an agreement to settle this matter, (district officials) unilaterally upset the settlement, by walking away from it,” he wrote.
In addition to asking that the settlement be enforced, Matesic also asked that Bobeck be reimbursed for mediation costs, attorneys’ fees and other expenses.