Respondent asserts that the petition must be dismissed because petitioner failed to join necessary parties, failed to meet her burden of demonstrating a legal right to the relief requested, and failed to prove that respondent or the superintendent wilfully disobeyed the Commissioner's earlier decision. Respondent also contends that petitioner failed to prove improper conduct by respondent, or that any alleged irregularities affected the outcome of the election. As a threshold matter, the appeal must be dismissed for failure to join necessary parties to the appeal. Petitioner seeks the removal of respondent's members and Superintendent Dr. Edward J. Finn. Section 275.8 of the Commissioner's regulations requires that a copy of the petition be personally served upon each named respondent.
Petitioner seeks to remove the members of respondent board and the superintendent of schools.
Thus, the rights of these individuals would clearly be affected if the petition were granted. In the instant appeal, neither Superintendent Finn nor any individual member of respondent board was named as a respondent in the caption of the petition or in the notice of petition such that he or she would have been on notice that he or she was intended to be a party to the appeal and was required to submit an answer. The appeal must, therefore, be dismissed for failure to join necessary parties. The appeal is also dismissed on the merits. I found that there was no evidence that district funds had been used to produce the letter.