Mullica schools spent $40,000 in legal fees to try to oust teacher Kelly Mascio

Posted: Tuesday, July 1, 2014 7:00 pm

By MICHELLE BRUNETTI POST Staff Writer

MULLICA TOWNSHIP — The Mullica Township School District paid about $40,000 to the law firm of Cooper Levenson to try to fire Kelly Mascio, the tenured kindergarten teacher who reported two 5-year-olds said they had engaged in sex play in a classroom bathroom back in September.

Mascio will meet with the superintendent Wednesday to discuss her reinstatement, after a state arbitrator ruled in her favor last month, finding she was only due a 10-day unpaid suspension for failing to notice two children had entered the bathroom at the same time.

The district provided the billing information Tuesday afternoon in response to an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request June 24. Cooper Levenson billed the district $2,170 in November 2013; $87.50 in December 2013; $2,397 in January 2014; $2,065.40 in February 2014; $8,258.71 in March 2014; and $24,735.57 in June covering the months of late March through May, according to Cooper Levenson documents.

Superintendent Brenda Harring-Marro suspended Mascio with pay the day of the incident, then filed tenure charges against her. The board of education certified those charges in February, after which Mascio was suspended without pay.

The district used a substitute teacher for a short time, then hired a new kindergarten teacher to replace her at the starting salary of about $51,000, said Mullica Township Education Association President Barbara Rheault. The new teacher was not given benefits, and Rheault said the union considers that a contract violation.

The arbitrator ruled the district must reimburse Mascio for all unpaid suspension time (minus 10 days). Mascio’s salary and benefits package comes to about $83,000 after 16 years in the district, Rheault said.

Business Administrator/School Board Secretary Karen Gfroehrer said last week that attorney Will Donio, a partner in the Cooper Levenson law firm, was in his first year as both negotiations and general counsel for the Board of Education, and he charges the district $175 per hour.

Mascio will meet today with Harring-Marro to talk about Mascio’s teaching assignment for next year, said Rheault, who is in Denver attending the National Education Association Representative Assembly, representing the township in the Atlantic County delegation of the New Jersey Education Association caucus.

MTEA Vice President Jeannine Ingenito will attend the meeting with Mascio, Rheault said.

“The arbitrator’s ruling said she should be reinstated to her original position, and that is what we are expecting,” Rheault said, but added the replacement teacher is still with the district.

A day after the arbitrator’s ruling, Harring-Marro said she would meet with Mascio to place her in a teaching staff position.

“I believe that the best way for the District and community to heal is to move forward,” Harring-Marro wrote in an email. “In the months to come, I will be continue to reach out to all of our stakeholders to facilitate that process.”

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/education/mullica-schools-spent-in-legal-fees-to-try-to-oust/article_93340340-014f-11e4-ad83-0019bb2963f4.html

All the Mascio Case Articles are linked under the first Press article at
http://gadfly01.blogspot.com/2014/02/tenure-charges-filed-against-mullica.html