A petition with 168 signatures requesting an end to litigation in the Denise Fuoco case was submitted to the Washington West Supervisory Union yesterday, December 14, in advance of Harwood Union’s regular board meeting that night.
"We the voters of Washington West Supervisory Union and the Harwood Union School District do hereby request that our school boards and our superintendent no longer pursue the Denise Fucco case. [Not] doing so will force us to vote no on the upcoming Harwood Union School budget."
Fuoco is a Harwood Union paraeducator who was fired by the district last year because she did not have the credentials currently required of paraeducators working at schools receiving federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) funds.
The termination went to binding arbitration and the arbitrator ruled on October 19 that Fuoco had been wrongly dismissed, should be reinstated and made whole for her lost year of employment.
The binding arbitration found that Fuoco should have been given a reasonable period of time (six months) to become a Highly Qualified Professional (HQP) and that accommodations for her dyslexia should have been provided.
Washington West Supervisory Union and the Harwood Union School Board filed a motion to vacate the binding arbitration two weeks ago. The motion to vacate the decision argues that the arbitrator exceeded his authority by ordering Fuoco to be rehired because the school must comply with NCLB regulations that require paraeducators to have a HQP designation.
The school district, through its attorney Pietro Lynn, argued that requiring Fuoco to be reinstated puts the entire school at risk of losing Title 1 funding for paraeducators. The motion to vacate also asks that arbitration condition which called for Fuoco to be made whole (her lost wages, benefits and other costs associated with losing her job) be set aside. The motion to vacate argues that the court has the authority to vacate an arbitration award which requires plaintiffs to violate federal law.
Fuoco was dismissed from her paraeducator job at Harwood Union in mid-October 2010. Fuoco had been working as a paraeducator in the Washington West Supervisory Union for more than 11 years. She worked from 1999 to 2008 at the Moretown Elementary School and then at the Harwood Union Middle School from 2008 to 2010 when she was terminated.
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