$42,000—

Costs Associated With

One Parent’s Complaints Add Up

By Eliza Hallabeck

After giving her consent verbally at the school board’s Tuesday, October 4, meeting and by e-mail, resident Susan McGuinness Getzinger was not present later in the meeting when the board discussed fees related to multiple issues Ms Getzinger has put before the board.

Board of Education Vice Chair Debbie Leidlein observed, “At $42,000, I find this to be a very unfortunate use of taxpayer money.”

Superintendent of Schools Janet Robinson gave an explanation of the various complaints and their associated costs for the board, late in the school board’s meeting.

“These legal fees were occasioned because they were in reaction to the various complaints that were brought by [Ms Getzinger], and therefore,” Dr Robinson said, “we had to respond. It began with a transportation hearing that was held at the board level.”

In January 2010, then school board Chair Lillian Bittman and members Richard Gaines and William Hart, the current school board chair, presided over a transportation hearing between Ms Getzinger and the district’s Transportation Department, represented by then Transportation Director Tony DiLonardo, Dr Robinson, and Kathy Hydeck, who works in the Transportation Department.

The hearing stemmed from a complaint Ms Getzinger filed regarding her child’s bus stop being at the end of her road and not in her driveway. At the time, Ms Getzinger’s children included a kindergarten student. The Bee reported Ms Getzinger said that at the start of the 2009-10 school year she was concerned because kindergarteners in the district are picked up at their houses, but not her child. Ms Getzinger also had a signed petition from her neighbors to move the bus stop to her driveway on Little Brook Lane.

After hearing from both sides, the school board members ruled the bus stop would not be moved, because no buses in Newtown are permitted to drive down cul-de-sacs, like Little Brook Lane.

Ms Getzinger then brought her complaint to the state level, but the school board’s decision was upheld.

“Then from there,” Dr Robinson said on Tuesday, “a 504 hearing was held at the school. That was found to have no basis of fact.” According to the United States Department of Education, 504 hearings determine whether a child is in need of educational services due to disabilities and what those services entail.

After going through the 504 process within the district, Dr Robinson said, Ms Getzinger brought her case to the state level for a hearing.

“At every level,” Dr Robinson said, “her petitions were dismissed, [it was found] that we were following the law, and that it was appropriate. What she was seeking was a change in the bus stop, and using these to find a way to change her bus stop.”

Ms Getzinger also made Freedom of Information requests that, according to Dr Robinson, the district needed legal advice on, and, finally, Ms Getzinger made a complaint to the bar association, “regarding the attorney and one of the hearing officers. And that was recently dismissed also,” said Dr Robinson.

Board of Education Chair William Hart clarified with Dr Robinson that the $42,000 spent on legal fees associated with Ms Getzinger’s complaints against the district does not include labor costs within the district.

After Ms Leidlein asked if a resolution could be found, Mr Hart said he, too, was “horrified” at the cost, but saw no options for the school district.

Mr Hart asked Dr Robinson whether she could have intervened in any other way at anytime during the process, and Dr Robinson said she could not.

Mr Hart also pointed out other residents have children who walk to a bus stop at the end of cul-de-sacs.

“We certainly can’t grant 504 [disability] status to a student who doesn’t have a condition,” said Mr Hart. “That would be harmful to the student. So there is no ‘caving’ we could do here. We could ask her to be a good citizen.”

At the start of the meeting, Ms Getzinger spoke before the school board saying she is not one of the parents who spoke during public participation that shared their satisfaction with the school district’s special education services.

“This is my son,” said Mr Getzinger, her son on her left arm, “who was deprived services from this school district. I am thrilled to hear the last two people are satisfied. I am not one of those people. My children’s rights were deprived.”

Ms Getzinger noted the superintendent of schools “is supposed to be in charge of doing the right thing for children in this district.”

“The top administrators and yourself are out of order,” said Ms Getzinger. “There is no Board of Ed when you are alone, when you decide things without the other Board of Ed.”

Ms Getzinger also said school board member Richard Gaines, who attempted to turn off Mr Getzinger’s microphone, was out of order when he decided against her children in the transportation hearing.