NEW BETHLEHEM, Pa. (EYT) — Redbank Valley School District and district employee Molly Greenawalt announced the settlement of a two-year old federal lawsuit following the April meeting of the Redbank Valley School Board.
According to a joint press release by both the school district and Greenawalt, they reached an agreement of the lawsuit filed by Greenawalt against the district in 2015. A unanimous vote by the school board to settle the suit was cast at the April meeting.
Greenawalt’s federal lawsuit alleged retaliation and hostile work environment claims under Title VII against the school district. The district for its part denies any wrongdoing toward Greenawalt, the release states.
Greenawalt, employed as a high school English teacher at Redbank Valley since 1998, “alleged that she was treated unlawfully by the district.” She claimed that she was “subjected to a hostile work environment by a former administrator based on her sex.”
She further alleged that her reassignment from a high school English teacher to a Title I teaching position prior to the 2014-15 school year “was in retaliation for her advocacy for others, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
Instead of accepting the Title I position, Greenawalt took a medical sabbatical for the 2014-15 school year.
As stated in the agreement, on November 25, 2015, Greenawalt was offered the opportunity to return to a high school teaching position opened by a retirement. The agreement stated that although she accepted the offer, Greenawalt has “remained away from work on an unpaid medical leave of absence from the beginning of the 2015-16 school year through the current date.”
The district, through its insurance carrier, will pay Greenawalt a gross amount of $85,000.00 apportioned by way of a $25,000.00 payroll check to Greenawalt, and a non-payroll check payable to “Molly J. Greenawalt and her attorneys, Steele Schneider,” in the amount of $60,000.00.
“The parties agree that the payment of the non-payroll proceeds to Greenawalt is attributable to non-pecuniary compensatory damages ($25,000.00) and attorney’s fees ($35,000.00),” the agreement stated.
The agreement continues that the payment will be made within 30 days of the latter of both the approval of the agreement by the district’s school board and Greenawalt’s “discontinuance of her complaint.”
In addition to the compensation, the settlement agreement stated that Greenawalt may return to work in the high school teaching position she previously accepted due to a retirement, “in the same classroom where she most recently taught,” until the start of the 2019-20 school year.
However, if she does not return to work by the “first teacher work day” of the 2019-20 school year, it is understood and acknowledged that Greenawalt “will be deemed to have irrevocably resigned from her employment with the district.”
As part of the agreement, the district also agreed to implement a “confidential hotline” at the beginning of the 2017-18 school year as an additional means for employees, students, and others to report harassment and other concerns. Established by a third party with no prior affiliation with the district, the hotline will remain in place at least through the end of the 2020-21 school year.
“Greenawalt and the Redbank Valley School District are pleased to put this matter behind them to refocus on the district’s mission of providing quality education to students in a safe, disciplined, and inviting environment,” the release stated.
Neither the district and its representatives nor Greenawalt will have any further public comment about the suit or its settlement.
