Gender discrimination suit settlement will cost Baldwin-Whitehall $130,000

A settlement agreement with three teachers who sued Baldwin-Whitehall School District for gender discrimination details how much the district must compensate the teachers and pay in attorney fees.

The district has fought the Trib for months over release of the information, which a state agency has ruled is public. The Trib obtained a copy of the release Wednesday during a raucous hours-long board meeting at which one board member had to be taken to a hospital.

Baldwin-Whitehall agreed to pay teachers Holly Niemi, Katherine Musselman and Donna Vecchio $7,880, $8,108 and $44,640, respectively, out of a total settlement of more than $130,000, including more than $69,000 that the district will pay attorneys in the case.

The teachers sued the district alleging that when they were hired, they began with a lower pay scale than their male counterparts because the district gave them less credit for experience.

The settlement indicates the teachers move to higher pay grades under the union contract retroactive to the start of the 2014-15 school year.

At the meeting, the board also voted to enter a settlement agreement with 25 other employees. That agreement was not released, and the Trib has requested a copy under the state's Right to Know Law.

Disclosure of the first settlement followed a series of bizarre events at the board's meeting Wednesday night. The session ended when board member Martin Michael Schmotzer became disoriented and could not speak, prompting calls for paramedics.

Schmotzer was in good condition at a UPMC facility Thursday, UPMC spokesperson Amy Charley said.

Schmotzer was arguing with a colleague over the settlement with the three teachers, which he opposed. He then gave a copy of the settlement to Trib Total Media reporter Stephanie Hacke; she copied the first page with her cellphone camera.

School Superintendent Randal Lutz immediately demanded the paper copy back, and other board members called for an executive session.

When he gave Hacke the document, Schmotzer told her: “Now you don't have to sue the school district anymore.”

He was referring to a case in which the Pennsylvania Office of Open Records ruled for the Trib that Baldwin-Whitehall must release the settlement agreement under the state's Right To Know Law. The district has appealed the decision to Common Pleas Court — a move that Schmotzer opposed. He has said the district cannot win the case.

Lutz said that by giving out the settlement agreement, Schmotzer acted “outside the provisions in the appeal, and that's why I took it back. We will follow the requirements ... agreed upon by the judge who's heard the appeal,” he said.

A judge will hear the appeal June 11.

“Elected officials across the state regularly communicate with the media, and they don't need a superintendent's approval to do it,” said Melissa Melewsky, media law counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association. “I'm sure the superintendent thought he was doing what was in the school's best interest, but the law is very clear here: Settlements involving public agencies are public under the Right To Know Law. This issue has been settled for many years.”