Does Ex-Superintendent’s Lawsuit Against Urbana Schools Have Merit?

Don Owen is suing Urbana Schools, claiming his non-renewal to Superintendent violated discrimination laws. The gist of his complaint seems to be that he opposed an audit by the Board that looked into his practice of hiring minority applicants for jobs. Owen was a strong proponent of “restorative justice,” a term that means less punishment and more dialogue with students who act out.

I can’t put odds on the outcome, but here is the hill he will need to climb to win.

Discrimination laws protect employees against “retaliation” and “opposition” to discriminatory practices. He will likely point to gross disparities in punishment of minority and white students, and relate this to his hiring of minority teachers, aides, and administrators.

The U.S. Supreme Court has adopted broad interpretations of “oppose” and “retaliate.”

The story does not end there, however. What will Urbana say?

To begin, the district will likely argue that it took no concrete action against Owen and let his contract run out. They reassigned him to teaching duties but kept his salary in place (as far as I know from the news).

Urbana is not off the hook, necessarily. Courts also consider the shaming elements of involuntary job assignment and administrative suspensions.

But the case could come down to who has hiring and evaluation authority. The School Board does, and it delegates it to the Superintendent. But the Board can reassert its authority over this key management function.

The Board, in its brief comments, said it wasn’t conducting an audit (not that that’s a problem), but was conducting “an investigation of specific individuals.” That appears to include an investigation into a minority administrator who was secretly recording board meetings (that person is facing a criminal complaint).

This much is clear: This will likely take a few years and cost the district a lot of money to defend. Both sides will face pressure to settle. For the district, that could be projecting its legal costs and offering a settlement that is a healthy fraction of it—say, half of these projected costs.

On the other hand, Owen appears to be an ideologically motivated professional—he might not settle for anything.

Meanwhile, Urbana is facing an age discrimination lawsuit for capping pay increases for employees within ten years of retirement age (that is a longer capping period than the state law mandates).

The clear losers are taxpayers and students.