WINDSOR — The Mount Ascutney School District Board has voted to hold a termination hearing for Windsor School principal Tiffany Riley, the latest in a series of maneuvers after a controversial Facebook post she made opposing the Black Lives Matter movement last month.
The School Board met Monday and “passed a motion in public session to terminate Tiffany Riley as principal of the Windsor School, pending (an) evidentiary hearing,” School Board Chairwoman Elizabeth Burrows said in an emailed statement Monday evening. The hearing, in accordance with state law, will be held within 15 days, Burrows wrote.
Hearings to determine if a principal is being dismissed for “just and sufficient cause” can include witnesses and written evidence, along with cross-examination, per state statute, though would be in executive session unless both parties agree to open it to the public. After the hearing, the School Board must vote to either affirm its move to fire Riley or modify or reverse its action, and then must issue a written decision outlining its findings within five days.
Riley, who in March signed a new, two-year contract with the district that promised a $113,000 salary for the first year, was put on paid administrative leave by the School Board on June 12, after the social media post.
In addition to placing her on administrative leave, the School Board instructed Superintendent David Baker to tell Riley they were to negotiate “a suitable severance package and a resignation from you,” according to a letter from Baker to Riley included in a lawsuit the principal filed late last month.
The vote by the board on Monday evening to hold a termination hearing came just hours after the school district, in a filing from its attorney Pietro Lynn, responded to Riley’s lawsuit. In her complaint, Riley had claimed that the board unfairly dismissed her from her position after the Facebook post.
Lynn’s motion in Vermont Superior Court in Woodstock seeks to dismiss five out of six claims Riley included in the June lawsuit, calling them “entirely speculative and conjectural,” in part because she hadn’t been fired.
In an email Tuesday, Lynn wrote that the board’s decision Monday night does not change the case.
“The Board is entitled to hold a hearing on matters pertaining to Ms. Riley’s performance as an employee so that it can make decisions about how best to proceed,” he wrote.
Riley’s attorney, Bill Meub, sought to clarify Riley’s employment status two weeks ago when he filed a motion calling on a judge to make a declaratory judgment on whether Riley was actually dismissed last month. Another motion he filed sought to keep the school district from forcing Riley to participate in a evidentiary hearing with the School Board until the judge’s determination.
Now, in light of the board’s decision Monday, Meub said in an email that he plans to “file papers soon to respond.” A message for further comment was not returned by deadline Tuesday.
The issue stems from Riley’s post on Facebook last month, in which she wrote, in part, “I firmly believe 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.”
She also wrote that “While I want to get behind BLM, I do not think people should be made to feel they have to choose black race over human race.”
In addition to placing Riley on leave, the School Board at the time issued a statement saying, “The ignorance, prejudice, and lack of judgment in these statements are utterly contrary to the values we espouse as a school board and district.”
Anna Merriman can be reached at amerriman@vnews.com or 603-727-3216.