After Marlboro Elementary School Principal Patricia Walsh was put on paid Administrative Leave in May 2022 by former Superintendent Michael Brooks, the Marlboro Administration and School Board have offered no additional details. Recently, Walsh has filed a lawsuit against the district, seeking to return to her position as Principal of the Elementary School.

In response to a Freedom of Information Law [FOIL] request, the district’s Assistant Superintendent for Business and Personnel and Records Access Officer Rosanne Mele only released a two-sentence document written by Brooks.

“Please be advised that you are hereby placed on Administrative Leave during the pendency of a district investigation. Until further notice, you are not to be on District premises or attend District activities absent my authorization.” Since then, Walsh has been assigned to clerical work in the Administration building.

The district denied the Southern Ulster Times a number of additional requests for documentation, claiming that it, “amounts to a legal question and/or request for information. The Freedom of Information Law involves rights of access to records maintained by a public agency. FOIL does not require agency personnel to perform legal research, or to answer questions or to explain actions and/or inactions of the agency.”

The district has denied all of the following requests, based on this legal reasoning: seeking the specific legal statute in New York Education Law that grants the school Superintendent and/or the school board the authority to issue the Administrative Leave; Documentation to show the district has the authority to remove Walsh’s tenure status; Documentation to show that the Superintendent and/or the school board had the authority to reassign Patricia Walsh to another job in the Central Administration office while she still has the position of Principal. (She has not been fired).

The district also did not provide any documentation that New York Education Law allows Marlboro to hire a second Elementary School Principal when Patricia Walsh still holds that position.

Previously, the school board stated that their lawyers may resolve the matter concerning Walsh by March 2023.

When contacted by the Southern Ulster Times, Superintendent Michael Rydell said he could not comment directly on personnel matters or on any ongoing litigation. He did say that, “in general terms New York State Law is clear with tenured employees and the process to be followed if you’re to attempt to remove tenure and that’s through the 3028 hearing process. That’s in general terms and is not in connection with any individual, in answer to your question about tenure.”

The NYS Education Department website describes the process.

“The procedure for seeking termination of a tenured educator is found in Education Law §3020-a. The Teacher Tenure Hearing Unit, within the Office of School Personnel Review and Accountability [OSPRA], manages aspects of the statutory process, including receipt of charges, maintenance of case files and case information, and facilitation of the assignment and payment of hearing officers/arbitrators and court reporters.”

The state education website further states that OSPRA was created in 2001 and assumed the responsibilities of two existing Education Department programs, the Teacher Moral Character Unit and the Teacher Tenure Hearing Unit, and the responsibility for implementing the new fingerprint-supported criminal history background checks mandated by the SAVE Law (Schools Against Violence in Education). Given the breadth of OSPRA’s mandate, it is staffed with attorneys, investigators, and a variety of clerical and support staff critical to its mission.”