Opinion ID: 774022
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Rose's employment history

Text: 2 The facts pertinent to this appeal are as follows. Plaintiff Rose, a 54-year-old 1 African-American woman, has worked for the Board in various positions for over two decades. Rose began her career with the Board as a special education teacher at P.S. 184. She taught for two years at P.S. 184 until the program was dissolved. She then transferred to School District #27 where she taught emotionally disturbed sixth grade boys for three years. In both capacities, Rose consistently received satisfactory job performance ratings. 3 After serving for five years as a classroom teacher, Rose was promoted to assistant principal of P.S. 9. She worked there for two years, again receiving satisfactory performance evaluations. At the end of her second year, Rose's position at P.S. 9 was eliminated due to a decline in the student population. For the next few years, Rose floated in district 27. During this time, she continued to receive satisfactory ratings from her superiors. 4 In 1988, Rose was assigned to the assistant principal position at P.S. 305 where she also successfully performed her job duties. During Rose's third year at P.S. 305, the principal took a leave of absence due to illness and Rose was promoted to acting principal. Under Rose's leadership, the students' reading and math scores improved. When the principal returned from leave, the school superintendent promoted Rose to acting principal of another school, P.S. 307. 5 The first two years of Rose's tenure as principal of P.S. 307 passed without incident. Once again, the students' reading and math scores improved and Rose received satisfactory ratings for her job performance. Things took a turn for the worse, however, in the summer of 1992. 6 During the 1992 summer session between her second and third years as principal of P.S. 307, Rose worked as site supervisor for the summer program at P.S. 93. For the first time in her career with the Board, that summer Rose received an unsatisfactory job evaluation. Rose's supervisor, Carol Friedman, commented in the evaluation that Rose had endangered the student body by permitting an early dismissal from the school grounds and that Rose had generally failed to manage resources adequately. 7 Rose's relationship with the Board continued to deteriorate during the 1993-1994 academic year. Beginning in 1993, Dr. Lester Young was assigned as school superintendent in Rose's school district and became her direct supervisor. Friction between the two quickly became evident. Young cited Rose for a number of incidents involving her direction of P.S. 307. For example, Young reprimanded Rose for an incident where she asked parents at P.S. 307 to help cover the cost of student textbooks -- a violation of Board policy. Young also cited Rose for her failure to submit reports in a timely manner. In total, Rose claims that Young wrote over 30 letters regarding her poor performance to be placed in her file. 8 At one point during the 1993-94 school year, asbestos was discovered in the school building. During a PTA meeting held to discuss the matter, Rose was allegedly accosted by angry parents. When she reported the incident to Young, Rose claims that he told her to let it go and informed her that if she could not follow his instructions, he would replace her with someone younger and cheaper. Rose claims that Young told her that he would replace her with someone younger and cheaper on a second occasion in February 1994 in connection with a disagreement they had over the placement of a teacher. At trial, Young denied having made these or any other comments about replacing Rose with a younger person. 9 In March 1994, Rose met with Young and a union representative. During that meeting, Young outlined five unsatisfactory aspects of Rose's job performance. These were: inability to maintain a safe and orderly environment; failure to produce an effective administration plan; inability to motivate staff or work effectively with parents; failure to comply with Board and district policies; and failure to develop a calendar of activities and complete textbook orders. Young informed Rose that unless there was dramatic improvement in these areas, she would not retain her position. 10 In June 1994, Young gave Rose an unsatisfactory evaluation, and recommended to the Board that Rose's service as non-tenured principal of P.S. 307 be discontinued. In July 1994, the Board followed that recommendation and reassigned Rose to an assistant principal position at P.S. 256. In the fall of 1994, Rose officially received an unsatisfactory rating for the 1993-94 school year. 11