• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Former Administrator Sues Forest Grove Schools

Posted on: Thursday, 28 July 2005, 00:00 CDT

Jul. 27--A former assistant principal at Neil Armstrong Middle School is suing the Forest Grove School District for nearly $1 million.

Don Zellner claims he was unjustly fired and that his rights under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act were violated.

Zellner, who had been on medical leave for several months of last school year, is suing the district for $425,000 -- pay and benefits he would have received over three years had his contract been renewed in March -- and $500,000 in damages because he says he was not given adequate notice before his job ended.

School officials, who received a copy of the lawsuit Tuesday, declined to discuss details of the case. The suit was filed July 19 in U.S. District Court in Portland.

The district's attorney, Brian Hungerford, did not return phone calls requesting comment.

Zellner, 46, claims in the lawsuit that he was fired by the district. His administrator's contract ran from July 2003 through June 2006.

Under Oregon's Accountability for Schools for the 21st Century Law, school administrators' three-year contracts are considered for renewal during their second year. If accepted, the old contract is abolished and a new one is started. If Zellner's contract had been renewed in March, it would have run July 2005 to June 2008.

School Board members voted not to renew his contract at a March 14 meeting.

Zellner, who was an administrator at Neil Armstrong since 1998, was on medical leave for symptoms of depression and anxiety during the fall of 2004. Jim Brown, Zellner's attorney, said the administrator used leave of accumulated sick days from his years with the district.

Zellner, who planned to return to work Jan. 4, requested a transfer to another district position saying the assistant principal job caused him "physical, mental and emotional distress for which he sought and obtained medical care," according to the lawsuit. District officials did not grant the transfer request.

Zellner returned to school in late January when the new term began but suffered a relapse on his second day of work, Brown said.

Zellner went back on leave, though he had used up his sick time, the lawyer said.

It is unclear at what point Zellner began leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act, which gives employees as much as 12 weeks of unpaid leave for severe illness or family situations such as taking care of a newborn. The law also guarantees the individual's right to return to work after the leave.

According to Brown, the school district sent a letter to Zellner that said he could return to his Neil Armstrong job or resign.

Zellner has appealed the job loss to the Oregon Fair Dismissal Appeals Board, which reviews eight to 10 school district employee termination cases a year. The school district has filed a request asking the board to reject the appeal, saying it was not clear Zellner was fired, according to Dave Willard, a Forest Grove assistant superintendent.

A hearing on the district's request will be this summer, said Randy Harnisch, the appeals board's executive secretary.

Zellner is the first Forest Grove administrator to appeal to the board since the board started keeping records in 1972, Harnisch said.

In addition to the district, defendants to the lawsuit include Superintendent Jack Musser; Willard; and school board members Mike Steele, Fred Marble, Dawn Pratt and Susan Winterbourne; and former board member Kent Hutchinson.

School board members named on the complaint declined to comment.

-----

To see more of The Oregonian, or to subscribe the newspaper, go to http://www.oregonian.com.

Copyright (c) 2005, The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Oregonian

More News in this Category