Getting an A+ in gall
Scandal principal sues union, att’y for $2M
A former school principal who caught a lucrative break from the Department of Education after being cited for misusing funds now wants $2 million in damages, The Post has learned.
The DOE sought to can former Voyages Preparatory School boss Joan Klingsberg after she was accused of blowing more than $145,000 in taxpayer dough on personal and school items — including $2,100 for restaurant and bar tabs.
An arbitrator recommended termination last year — but the case wobbled when it emerged that her then-union lawyer, Charity Guerra, was interviewing for a DOE gig while handling the case.
Klingsberg argued that the con- flict precluded a fair departmental trial, and her union offered to provide fresh counsel. She rejected the arrangement and represented herself, according to the union.
Seeking to skirt a potentially costly civil suit, the DOE later withdrew the termination and reassigned Klingsberg to a less lucrative gig in The Bronx as a staff trainer.
The agreement also included $208,000 in back pay and bonuses, according to court papers.
By signing off on the deal, Klingsberg agreed not to sue the DOE, its employees or her union, the Council of School Supervisors, according to court papers.
But while she has spared the DOE more legal hassles, Klingsberg has since filed a $2 million civil suit against Guerra personally and the CSA, papers show.
The matter is pending in Queens court.
Klingsberg’s lawyer, Joel Ziegler, said the union was improperly added to the settlement language and that CSA officials never signed off on it.
Ziegler said Guerra, who is now the DOE’s top counsel, is the primary target of the lawsuit.
“Defendant Guerra had a conflict of interest and a hidden interest not known to plaintiff,” Klingsberg’s suit states.
Ziegler argued that the CSA didn’t do enough to address Guerra’s conflict of interest.
But attorneys for the CSA counter in court papers that Klingsberg — who now makes $105,142 — is trying to wring more cash out of the situation.
She filed the fresh suit “even though the plaintiff was paid more than $200,000 under the settlement, and was reinstated pursuant to the settlement, and even though she had agreed to release all claims she had or might have had against the CSA,” union lawyer Hanan Kolko said in court papers.
Guerra’s lawyer, Melissa Cartaya, argued that the settlement clearly shielded her client and that she did nothing wrong regardless.
Cartaya and Kolko both declined to comment.