School district faces discrimination suit
Ex-superintendent said board shunned her after pregnancy
Former East Greenbush school superintendent Angela Nagle’s life was “turned upside down,” when, after a difficult pregnancy and the birth of premature twins, school board members began shunning her and let her go in 2016, after more than a decade of success with the district, her lawyer Ryan Finn said.
Now, Nagle is suing the district in federal court, seeking $3.9 million for lost wages and benefits as well as unspecified damages for pain and suffering.
She alleges that school board members discriminated against her based on her sex and her pregnancy. Since her contract as
superintendent was not renewed in 2016, she’s been on dozens of interviews but has found no employment, and is now seeking mental health assistance, Finn said Wednesday during opening arguments in the lawsuit before Magistrate Judge Andrew Baxter in New York’s Northern District Court.
“She’s blackballed,” Finn told jurors. “The reality is, as it stands right now, her career is over.”
School district defense lawyers, though, say they will present a different view which calls into question Nagle’s account of why the district let her go.
“The plaintiff’s credibility will be central to this case. It will be challenged,” said Malcolm O’hara, who is representing the district.
“The fact that she was not offered a new contract is not in and of itself discrimination,” added O’hara, who is with the Bartlett, Pontiff firm of Glens Falls.
The trial is expected to run for at least two weeks.
Under questioning by Finn, who is with the Jones, Hacker, Murphy law firm in Troy, Nagle painted a picture of a driven school administrator who made a steady upward climb: from an associate’s degree at Hudson Valley Community College to a bachelor’s at Siena College and then graduate work at the College of St. Rose and University at Albany.
She eventually earned a PH.D. — all the while working as a teacher, then an administrator in local school districts. She started as a physical education teacher in the Bethlehem district and spent time in other schools until she was “coaxed” to join East Greenbush in 2003.
By 2008 she was named superintendent, which she described as a “capstone” goal
“I was very ambitious. I was very driven,” said Nagle, who grew up in Colonie and is a Shaker High School graduate.
At East Greenbush, according to the testimony, Nagle was credited with pulling the district out of a longstanding slump it had entered under prior leaders.
During her tenure, several schools came off of a state watch list for poor performance, and the district’s ranking in a local business magazine skyrocketed. Budgets, which had barely been passed by voters in prior years, were being approved with ease. The number of grievances filed by the teachers union had dropped sharply.
Nagle’s status, though, changed in the summer of 2014, when she disclosed she was pregnant with twins and was expecting a difficult birth.
She had initially kept quiet about her condition. “I had had several miscarriages,” she said. “For all of those reasons we were hoping for the best but I just wanted to wait a little bit longer.”
By that fall, she told board members that she might need more time off than expected due to difficulties with her pregnancy. Things began to unravel at that point, with some board members questioning whether she should stay on. “Comments were
made. ‘Well don’t you just want to stay home with your kids?’ ” she said, adding “I loved to work.”
She started maternity leave in December 2014 — earlier than expected — and a month later her twins were born prematurely. In November, she had asked about her contract renewal but was told the “timing just isn’t right.”
Superintendents and school boards typically start talking about contract renewals at least a year to 18 months before their current agreements expire. Nagle’s ran through June 2016.
She came back to work in March 2015, once the babies — a boy and girl — were out of the intensive care unit. While staffers expressed empathy and support, Nagle said she was getting the cold shoulder from board members.
The apparent rejection prompted her to file a complaint in May 2015 with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The Commission said it couldn’t determine if federal law was violated but said Nagle could go ahead and sue.
Her relationship with then-school Board President Shay Harrison had become just about nonexistent. From regular meetings and talks with him, he was suddenly unavailable, said Nagle.
“He was always busy,” she said. Eventually, “He said I no longer feel like I should be talking to you. You should call your attorney.”
Harrison and other board members are expected to be called as witnesses during the trial. The testimony is scheduled to resume on Thursday.
At East Greenbush, according to the testimony, Nagle was credited with pulling the district out of a longstanding slump it had entered under prior leaders.