DOCKET NO. 025-LH-1110

FORT WORTH INDEPENDENT§BEFORE THE INDEPENDENT

SCHOOL DISTRICT,§

§

Petitioner,§HEARING EXAMINER §

vs.§

§FOR THE STATE OF TEXAS,

JOSEPHPALAZZOLO,§

§

Respondent.§JESS C.RICKMANIII

RECOMMENDATION

Background

JosephF.Palazzolo (“Palazzolo”) came to the Fort Worth Independent School District (“District” or “FWISD”) in the 2007-08 school year. After working as a history teacher at South Hills High School (“SHHS” or “South Hills”) for that school year, he was hired as an assistant principal for Arlington Heights High School (“Arlington Heights” or “AHHS”) for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 school years.[1] He was placed in charge of the freshman class for 2009-10.

Arlington Heights is a historic high school, but it has been beset in recent years by a number of issues, including racial tensions, substandard student performance, staff discord, campus mismanagement and an “Academically Unacceptable” rating for the 2008-09 school year because of an inadequate completion rate for the students. (Tr. I,p. 112). Early in his second school year at Arlington Heights, he began to engage in conduct that created a hostile work environment for some members of the staff; was disrespectful to a number of students, parents and staff; created dissension among the staff; did not comply with directives from the principal; and implemented disparate disciplinary consequences for some minority students. While verbally counseled on a number of occasions by the principalabout these things, no formal documentation as to such conferences/reprimands was placed in his file by that principal. Because of his history, she did not want to create chaos for Arlington Heights and was relying on her immediate superiors to keep Palazzolo under control, as they had promised.

In March 2010, Palazzolo was assigned as a diversity coordinator for Arlington Heights. On May 18, 2010, the staff at AHHS had a presentation by SharonHerrera (“Herrera”), who was the District diversity coordinator from the Office of Health and Wellness. It was about a District-wide endeavor to create a separate communications channel for the teachers to raise directly any complaints they may have with the District’s Office of Health and Wellness. Everyone was assured by Herrerathat the complaints would be kept confidential and, most importantly, there would be no retaliation for the submission of any complaints. This communication channel was established to augment the campus-based Campus Coordination Committee (“CCC”), where teacher concerns were forwarded to the principal by the CCC.

Shortly thereafter, and in response to the District’s invitation to use this program, several AHHS teachers, led by Coach Chad Whitt (“Whitt”), prepared and submitted anonymous statements to Herrera and the District complaining primarily of a hostile work environment they were having to endure because of the extreme unprofessionalism and harassment of them by the athletic coordinator, Isabelle Perry (”Perry”). The complaints included chronic vulgarity and open references by her to staff and students about her sexlife; an inappropriate relationship Perry was having with an AHHS assistant principal, Harold Nichols (“Nichols”); and a belief that Perry and Nichols had altered some student attendance records(Ex. P-6).

Because of the gravity of these allegations, they were promptly turned over to the Office of Professional Standards (“OPS”) and its director, MichaelMenchaca (“Menchaca”) for investigation. Several days prior to the teachers submitting these statements, the District’s Chief of Schools, RobertRay, had contacted OPS and asked that Perry and Nichols be investigated concerning possible alterations of student attendance records. The source of his information was not identified, but from the record in this matter, it was neither from Palazzolo nor any of the teachers who submitted statements. Thus, when OPS received the teacher’s anonymous statements on June 3, 2010, OPS was already interviewing Nichols and Perry and finding that the allegations, particularly those of alteration of student records,were true.

On June 7, 2010, Palazzolo brought to OPS the same teacher statements, but which now had the names of various teacher authors on them. He also brought to OPS additional sources of information about falsification of attendance and/or grades of certain students to facilitate their graduation. In the process of turning this over to Menchaca in OPS, Palazzolo expressed concern about possible retaliation against him for his participation in this disclosure process.

On June 10, 2010, just after graduation ceremonies, Palazzolo brought a list to OPS of 21 students who had graduated that weekend. It was a list of students whom he and other teachers felt had not met District and state attendance requirements to graduate. OPS and Dr.SylviaReyna, the District’s Chief of Administration who took over that position in July 2010, along with other staff members, prepared a wide-ranging and thorough report on these and a number of other issues raised throughout the investigation. This October 15, 2010 report was presented to the District’s Board. (Ex. P-3).[2]

On or about June 21, 2010, Principal RetaAlexander gave Palazzolo his review for the 2009-10 schoolyear. The review was dated June 15, 2010. Under the domain of “School/Organizational Morale,” she checked that he “Needs Improvement.” In the comments section, she said he “must improve his approach in order to resolve numerous conflicts with parents, staff and students that have been documented during the 2009-10 school year.” (Ex. P-2, ps. 1138-39).[3] Ms.Alexander was about to transfer to Paschal High School and was finishing up business at AHHS.

On June 22, 2010, Palazzolo was advised that he was being reassigned as an assistant principal to an alternative campus, International Newcomer’s Academy, something he considered a demotion, especially since he was going to be in a lower pay grade. On June 30, 2010, Palazzolo filed a Level I. grievance seeking redress for a reassignment he considered to be retaliation for forwarding complaints about the hostile work environment concerning Perry and alterations of attendance records. He wanted reinstatement of a two-year contract, his re-assignment revoked, reinstatement of pay, and revocation of his recent appraisal (Ex. P-34). A hearing on it was held on July 21, 2010.

In an August 3, 2010 District letter to Palazzolo about that hearing, he was advised that other teachers had first brought these concerns that were still under investigation to the District’s attention and that his reassignment was a result of his performance concerning campus administration issues at Arlington Heights, as evidenced by a number of conferences with Alexander throughout the year and a March 2010 conference with Chuck Boyd, Assistant Superintendent for Secondary School Leadership (“Boyd”) and Jimmy Torres, the District’s director for the AHHS campus. Retaliation played no part in his reassignment. He was given partial relief, namely that his two-year contract which had one more year to run was validated (as opposed to a new one-year contract), he would receive the same pay as he did at AHHS, his evaluation would be modified to “Meets Expectations” in all areas, and he would go to Western Hills High School instead of INA. (Ex. P-36). One of the reasons for this change in assignment was that the superintendent said there would be no demotion if there had first not been a growth plan provided for Palazzolo.[4] (Tr. I, p. 44). RobertRay had suggested in the spring of 2010 that Palazzolo had one, but, for some reason, one was not implemented by Principal Alexander(Tr.VI., ps. 399-402).

Just prior to the reassignment on June 22, 2010, Palazzolo met with ChuckBoyd and RobertRay. When they explained it to him, he contended that it was retaliation. When Ray asked why, Palazzolo told him that he was the one that had turned in all of the statements, to which he claims Ray responded that he could understand why he felt that way and that Boyd said that he had suspected it was Palazzolo all along. (Tr.II., ps. 284-85). But the District stated the reason for the reassignment at that point was because of performance deficiencies at different points in the year, as pointed out and discussed with him over the year by Principal Alexander, and her superiors, ChuckBoyd and RobertRay. He was just not a good fit on the staff at Arlington Heights. (Ex. P-89; Tr. I., p. 145; Tr. IV., p. 148).

On or about June 25, 2010, Perry resigned and Nichols retired. But the investigation into a number of areas continued. (Ex. P-30)(Menchaca’s investigative notes). On that same day, Palazzolo submits an email to Menchaca saying his relationship with Principal Alexander began to change for the worse shortly before the homecoming dance in October 2009, primarily because of a complainthe made to her about Perry’s vulgar language to the staff and students, (Ex. P-2, p. 1271), wanting this information “on the record,” ostensibly because he was claiming all the District’s acts at this stage concerning his reassignment were retaliatory. But Perry’s vulgarity was known well before then, and Principal Alexander and others had tried to work with her on it.

On July 7, 2010, as part of his investigation, Menchaca met with Arlington Heights Assistant Principal Kerwin Cormier, because she was responsible for the attendance office at AHHS in school year 2010-11 and had information in connection with some of the allegations. She stated that Principal Alexander knew about the romantic relationship between Nicholsand Perry before Palazzolo ever told Alexander. (Tr. V., p. 5).[5] Mr.Menchaca invited Cormier to provide him with any allegations about Palazzolo after she relayed concerns to him about how divided and contentious the faculty had become due, in her mind, to Palazzolo. (Tr. IV., p. 29; V. p., 169; VI., p. 194). She submitted a document entitled “A Brief Study” on Palazzolo that covered areas of a hostile work environment; his rude, disrespectful and inappropriate conduct as a supervisor at the 2009 homecoming dance;his encouragement of teachers, particularly 9th grade ones under his supervision, to file grievances against administrators; harassment of students off-campus; his confrontation with the other AHHS assistant principals when they tried to interact with or discipline his 9th grade students; her suspicions about him stealing school property (later proven to be unfounded); a general commentary of how Palazzolo had bullied and intimidated certain staff and teachers;and how he appeared to regularly treat students unprofessionally by race or family status. She felt all of these things resulted in a deteriorating atmosphere on the campus. (Ex. P-2, p. 1510-16).[6]

The District began to investigate these allegations against Palazzolo as well. On July 14, 2010, Menchaca sent an email to Palazzolo and invited him to come and personally meet about the OPS investigation. (Ex. P-2, p. 1271). On July 30, 2010, Menchaca then requested from the District’s information technology office to have access to Palazzolo’s email at school. (Ex. P-2, p. 1269).

Mr.Menchacaand Palazzolo finally met on August 4, 2010(Tr. VI., p. 197). Mr. Menchaca asked for specific responses in writing from Palazzolo about a variety of topics, many of which were from the original investigation, including the attendance change allegations, Perry, missing computers and other electronic items perhaps taken by Perry, documents on attendance that were taken from Cormier’s office and how he got them, burglaries on campus, and racial tension on field day. As to Palazzolo, Menchaca wanted answers on student discipline and his past meetings with leadership and what they discussed with him about his performance. (Ex. P-2, p. 1204-05). When Palazzolo had not responded by August 7, 2010, Menchaca emailed him, to which Palazzolo responded on Monday, August 9, 2010, that he would try to get him a response very soon, but stated that this inquiry appears to be “a combination of issues, my grievance, and new Perry/Alexander/Boyd allegations.”

Between July 12 and August 4, 2010, Menchaca and his staff either personally interviewed or contacted a number of people as part of their investigation:Alexander; SharonHerrera; Ray; WallisVick (attendance issues); Durham (attendance issues); RandyRoberson (theft report); Detective Halford (theft issues) and LibbyBogart (hostile environment). (Ex. P-30, ps. 3652-3655).

On August 9, 2010, Palazzolo submitted a report to the Texas State Auditor’s office hotline about these matters. It was the first type of report of wrongdoing to an agency outside of the District. (Ex. P-94).

On August 10, 2010, Palazzolo filed a Level III grievance alleging retaliation for filing a whistleblower complaint(s) with various educational and other state agencies. (Ex. P-33). He wanted to go back to Arlington Heights as a designated assistant principal. The Board was meetingthat night to consider his move to Western Hills School. The hearing on the grievance was ultimately held on October 12, 2010. (Ex. P-32).

On August 12 and 13, 2010, articles critical of the District on some of the issues started coming out in the Star Telegram. (Exs. B-6A and 6-B). Numerous other articles came out over the next several months in that paper and the Fort Worth Weekly, as they followed the investigation. (Exs. B-6C-I and B-7A-F).

Between the August 4th meeting with Palazzolo and August 18, 2010, Menchaca interviewed or contacted Assistant Superintendent Chuck Boyd (Palazzolo’s management); met again with Cormier; contacted a parent who was in charge of the booster club checkbook; again with Sharon Herrera; Chad Whitt; Area Director Jimmy Torres (Palazzolo’s management); teacher Linda Bobo (missing property); Don Waldron (theft of property); Vicki Stellar (changes in attendance records); teacher Murtaza Yusufali (hostile environment); SRO Charlie Lewis (Palazzolo’s constant calling for police intervention on minor matters); teacher Brandy Stearns (attendance documents); Perry; teacher Pam Hoffman (PLATO lab/attendance issues); Kathleen Hodges (stay-in-school coordinator); teacher Virginia Jeffries (Perry and attendance documents); secretary Debbie Bell (Palazzolo management/hostile environment); Ms. F., a parent of a child from homecoming dance; David Woffard, former teacher; and Sgt. Major Fiallo (field day events). (Ex. P-30, ps. 3660-3669).

On August 24, 2010, there was a Board meeting. Just prior to the Board meeting, Trustee Needham referred some parents of a child at the homecoming dance who were attending the Board meeting to Dr. Sylvia Reyna to discuss what they had understood happened at the homecoming dance and why they were disappointed in Palazzolo’s treatment of their child. (Tr. VI., p. 277).

On August 25, 2010, Palazzolo finally responded to Menchaca’s questions of August 7, 2010 with a written statement about his recollection of events. (Ex. P-84). Concerning his leadership meeting with Ray and Boyd on March 2, 2010, he felt he was being “thrown under the bus” by Alexander, as she was having him be the “bad cop,” while she was the good cop.

On August 26, 2010, Palazzolo was put on administrative leave, with pay, as a result of the on-going investigation. (Ex. A-14). The letter reflected only that it was for “inappropriate behavior.” Palazzolo claims he was told by the District only that it was for inappropriate contact with a female at the homecoming dance as he was ushering her out of the dance. (Tr. III., p. 105). The Districtchose to suspend him at this point because the fall semester was about to commence and there were still a number of unresolved issues surrounding him in the way that he had dealt with the students and the staff. It was going to be the start of a new school year at a brand new school, Western Hills High School, and they did not want to run the risk of him possibly repeating behavior that he had exhibited at both South Hills and Arlington Heights until everything was fully understood. (Tr. I., p. 155; Tr. VI., ps. 334-35).

On September 2, 2010, the District received an anonymous letter raising concerns about two things. The first was a prior 1997 criminal conviction of Palazzolo in Oklahoma for his failure to maintain child support. The other piece of information concerned him being terminated in 1998 by the Fort Worth office of the General Services Administration (“GSA”) for, among other things, threatening the mayor of Forth Worth and City Council with litigation if they continued to do business with the GSA. He was claiming there were kickbacks going on. (Ex. P-4). The District then began to investigate this latest allegation against Palazzolo.

On September 10, 2010, the District issued a response to the Level II. grievance hearing that was held on August 26, 2010. It stated that Mr.Palazzolo would essentially remain at Western Hills High School and finish out the remaining year on the two-year contract, unless he was terminated. The examiner in that matter confirmed that valid performance reasons existed during school year 2009-10 to justify his reassignment.(Ex. B-5).

On September 22 and October 7, 2010, administrative meetings were held between the District and Palazzolo to go over some of the allegations, including the new ones concerning the child supportcriminal matter in Oklahoma and his prior termination by the GSA. Little was gained through the meetings, except that in one of the meetings Palazzolo admitted he had been terminated by the GSA. (Tr.VI., ps. 295, 298-99).

On October 15, 2010, the 35-page Arlington Heights High School Investigation Report (the “Report”) by Dr.SylviaReynawas released. (Ex. P-3). In working on it, she had been instructed by Superintendent MelodyJohnsonto thoroughly investigate any and all allegations/complaints, and that there were to be no “sacred cows.”(Tr. I., ps 71-72, 81, 86; VI., p. 287). Dr.Reynaworked closely with the OPS and a number of others to do the report. It broke out into five main categories:

  • Student academic data quality – graduation requirements
  • Student attendance data quality
  • Campus operations management
  • Campus personnel management
  • Campus and Central Office leadership responsibilities.

As a result of the Report, the principal and all of the assistant principals , except for ShawnHarris, are no longer at Arlington Heights. More importantly, it is undisputed that all of the teachers who provided statements or provided information for the investigation have been retained, including Coach Chad Whitt, who organized the submission of the original, anonymous statements.

The Report dealt in depth with the initial allegations concerning Perry and Nichols’ relationship, Perry’s profanity and harassment and the alteration of some attendance records by Nichols and Perry, why they occurred and what steps could be taken in the future to prevent such. This review included the negligent supervision of various phases of campus management by Alexander, and in particular her inadequate supervision over and accountability for Palazzolo throughout the 2009-10 school year.