WINDSOR — The Mount Ascutney School District Board is moving forward with a termination hearing for Windsor School Principal Tiffany Riley after they were unable to reach a settlement in a lawsuit Riley filed against the district this summer.
The board has not set a date for the hearing, which has already been delayed by nearly two weeks, but Pietro Lynn, an attorney for the district, said in an email Tuesday that it should be held within “the next couple of weeks.”
“We agreed to hold off (on the termination hearing) until after mediation. I hoped the matter could resolve,” Lynn said in an email Tuesday.
Mount Ascutney School District Board Chair Elizabeth Burrows confirmed in an email last week that the Aug. 20 mediation between the board and Riley did not result in a settlement or resolution to Riley’s lawsuit.
Riley was placed on paid administrative leave on June 12 after she made a Facebook post that seen as critical of the Black Lives Matter movement. In the post she wrote that she agrees that “black lives matter” but “I DO NOT agree with coercive measures taken to get this point across; some of which are falsified in an attempt to prove a point.”
Shortly after she was placed on leave, Riley’s attorney, Bill Meub, filed a lawsuit against the district, accusing school officials of unfairly ousting her from her position. In a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Lynn argued that Meub’s claims aren’t valid because Riley hadn’t been fired and had only placed on leave.
Then, in late July, the board voted to terminate Riley, pending the termination hearing, which could include witnesses and written evidence, along with cross-examination, per state statute. After the termination hearing, the board would vote to affirm its plan to fire Riley or reverse the decision.
The hearing was supposed to be held within two weeks of the board’s July 27 decision, but attorneys battled over whether it should be put on hold because of the lawsuit. In mid-August, U.S. District Court Judge Geoffrey Crawford said the termination hearing should go forward if mediation didn’t yield an agreement on Riley’s employment status.
In an email Tuesday, Meub said he hopes to hear Thursday when the district will schedule a date for the termination hearing.
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.