Christine Chemelli won the fight against a life-threatening illness, but her battle with the Armstrong School Board to get her job back is still raging. Chemelli, who was a guidance counselor at Kittanning Area Middle School, retired in 1999 when faced with the illness, to spend her last days with her family. "I was in a state of panic," she said. After her recovery, however, she went to the Armstrong School Board last winter about getting her job back, only to be rebuffed, Chemelli said. Chemelli declined to comment about her specific illness. "I was also advised by union personnel to wait at that point," she said. The board's position was that Chemelli's retirement was "irrevocable," meaning she could not get her guidance counselor job back. She began that job in 1978. She said she then began a letter writing campaign, having her physician, her attorney and the teacher's union, the Armstrong Education Association, send letters to the board and administration. "None of that was effective in getting them to change their minds," she said. She then reapplied for the job that had once been hers when the administration posted the position, she said, only to receive a letter stating that she would only be considered if the district could not find a cheaper alternative. In February of this year, Chemelli filed a complaintwith the Pennsylvania Human Relations Committee over the issue. After a hearing on May 23, Chemelli said she thought the issue was resolved. "An agreement was reached whereby they would permit me to work two more years," she said, adding that those two years would give her full retirement benefits. Her hopes were even higher, she said, when she was given a tentative assignment in June. But the board refused to sign off on her return, Chemelli said, and "had not offered any specific reason why." Additionally, she said the board refused her requests for both public and private hearings on the issue. "At that point, I started sending them letters," she said. "I also went to each one's home, and this made them angry with me," Chemelli said. "I felt I had no alternative, since they would not meet with me publicly or privately," she said. Finally, in September, the teacher's union and the board's solicitor came to an agreement that Chemelli could return, albeit as a long-term substitute. She would also have to forgo her 32 years of experience and return at the starting step of the teacher's salary, about half of what she was making. The board also refused that offer, she said. Still, Chemelli said she is going to continue to fight to get her job back. "I was willing to come back at half of what I was making," she said. "I'm not going to give up."

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