School board reaches settlement with Halsey

Barbara G. Halsey and the Alleghany County Board of Education reached an agreement last week resolving — and ending — Halsey's lawsuit against the board.

Each side, with its respective attorneys, claimed the resolution was favorable to it and a positive outcome overall. Each side also re-asserted the rightness of its position.

The board announced the agreement during a special meeting March 22. Halsey, a teacher at Piney Creek Elementary School from 1998 to 2000, was suing the board over its June 2000 decision not to grant her career status (tenure), a decision which effectively dismissed her as a teacher from the school system. Under the agreement, Halsey will not receive reinstatement, promotion or back pay as she sought. The suit had also asked for compensatory and punitive damages.

The board will not pay Halsey any money. The one monetary disbursement it agreed to was $12,500 to the Alleghany Education Foundation to set up a scholarship fund for students from Alleghany who want to become teachers. The money was to come through Utica, the board's insurance carrier, which also provided legal fees for the case. The board's attorneys characterized the money as a donation representing expenses saved by resolving the case before it went to court. Halsey and her attorney said the scholarship was a key component to settling the case.

In addition, the board agreed to amend Halsey's personnel record. The record of the board's decision will be removed from Halsey's file, which will indicate that her employment ended by her voluntarily resigning effective June 8, 2000. In response to reference requests about Halsey, the board agrees to respond in writing with her dates of employment, positions held and a statement that she received excellent ratings on her performance evaluations.

The resolution and release of claims document also included the board's promise to review teacher evaluation procedures and modify them as necessary, and to provide training for evaluators.

History

Halsey had filed a statutory appeal of the board's decision during the summer following her dismissal. She dropped that appeal about a year ago, then filed the lawsuit in April 2001.

The suit named as defendants the board as a whole as well as each individual who was a member at the time of the decision: then-chairman Bobby Irwin, Curtis Weaver, Charles Joines, David Caldwell and Gary Murphy.

The lawsuit initially claimed the board's action was a political retaliation. Halsey's husband, James Halsey, had run for a seat on the board in the May 2000 Democratic primary and gained nomination, thereby helping unseat Irwin in his bid for re-election.

James Halsey lost in the general election the following November. Steve Carpenter and Sonia Joines were elected to the seats formerly held by Weaver, who did not seek re-election that year, and Irwin.

Following depositions last fall, the suit dropped the political-retaliation charge.

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