Dr. McDonald v. Hempstead Union Free Sch. Dist.
| Docket Number | 18-CV-5658 (DRH)(SIL) |
| Decision Date | 07 November 2021 |
| Parties | DR. VARLETON McDONALD, Plaintiff, v. HEMPSTEAD UNION FREE SCHOOL DISTRICT, BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE HEMPSTEAD SCHOOL DISTRICT, DAVID B. GATES, Individually and in his official capacity, RANDY STITH, Individually and in his official capacity, and LAMONT E. JOHNSON, Individually and in his official capacity, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York |
REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION
Presently before the Court in this First Amendment free speech-retaliation litigation, on referral from the Honorable Denis R. Hurley for report and recommendation, is Defendants' Hempstead Union Free School District (the “District”), the District's Board of Education (the “Board”), and Board members David B. Gates (“Gates”), Randy Stith (“Stith”), and Lamont E. Johnson (“Johnson”) (Gates, Stith, and Johnson collectively, the “Individual Defendants, ” and together with the District and the Board “Defendants”) motion for summary judgment (“Defendants' Motion” or “Def Mot.”), pursuant to Rule 56 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“Fed. R. Civ. P.”), Docket Entry (“DE”) [40].
By way of Complaint dated October 10, 2018, McDonald commenced this action against Defendants pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 seeking “injunctive and monetary relief” for: (1) alleged violations of Plaintiff's rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution; and (2) New York State statutory retaliation claims. See Complaint (“Compl.”), DE [1]. Defendants deny any liability. See Defendants' Answer (“Ans.”) DE [17]. For the reasons set forth below, the Court respectfully recommends that Defendants' Motion be granted as to McDonald's Section 1983 claim against the Individual Defendants in their official capacities, but denied in all other respects.
The following facts are taken from the parties' pleadings, declarations, exhibits and Local Rule 56.1 statements. Except where indicated, these facts are not in dispute. Plaintiff is a New York resident, residing in New York County. See Defendants' Local Rule 56.1(a) Statement of Undisputed Material Facts (“Def. 56.1”), DE [41], ¶ 3. The District is the school district for the Village of Hempstead, located in Nassau County, New York. Id. at ¶ 4. The Board, which governs the District, is composed of five elected members. Id. at ¶ 5. Gates was appointed to a seat on the Board as a Trustee on or about March 4, 2016, and served in this capacity until his death on March 25, 2020. Id. at ¶ 6. Stith was elected to a seat on the Board as a Trustee on or about May 16, 2017, and served in this capacity from July 1, 2017 until the expiration of his term on June 30, 2020. Id. at ¶ 7. Johnson was elected to a seat on the Board as a Trustee on or about May 21, 2013, subsequently removed by the Board “for purported misconduct, ” reinstated to his seat as a Trustee on or about November 27, 2017, and currently serves as the Board's President. Id. at ¶ 8.
On or about September 28, 2017, the Board tentatively approved Plaintiff's appointment to serve as the District's Deputy Superintendent of Schools from October 30, 2017 through June 30, 2018. Id. at ¶¶ 9, 11. McDonald's appointment was contingent on the District receiving a hiring waiver from the New York State Department of Education (the “NYSDOE”), pursuant to New York Retirement and Social Security Law § 211. Id. Because Plaintiff had previously worked for the New York City Department of Education, he could not work for the District without the § 211 waiver. Id. at ¶ 10. On November 1, 2017, The NYSDOE retroactively granted McDonald's § 211 waiver. Id. at ¶ 12.
On November 6, 2017, the District's then-Superintendent of Schools, Shimon Waronker (“Waronker”), wrote a letter to the Hempstead community introducing Plaintiff as the District's new Deputy Superintendent of Schools, and informing the community that McDonald, Waronker's former supervisor, had “received a waiver from the [NYSDOE] from September 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018.” Id. at ¶ 13. Plaintiff's employment with the District commenced on or about November 7, 2017. Id. at ¶ 14.
As Deputy Superintendent, Plaintiff's responsibilities included: (1) “supervis[ing] the District's assistant superintendents and chief information officer”; (2) “oversee[ing] administration of the fiscal and human resources of assigned departments”; (3) “assist[ing] in the preparation and administration of budget from assigned departments”; (4) “support[ing Waronker] in the review and revision of operational goals and objectives and efforts to measure progress toward their attainment”; (5) “establish[ing] and maintain[ing] effective working relationships with community and state agencies, area businesses, industries, and other organizations”; (6) “collaborat[ing] and work[ing] cooperatively with advisory boards”; and (7) “respond[ing] to parent and community concerns.” See Declaration of Dr. Varleton McDonald in Opposition to Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, (“McDonald Decl.”), DE [42], ¶ 19.[1] After Plaintiff's hire, Waronker and McDonald undertook extensive reviews to curb violence in the District's schools, implement new security plans, and create new and improved attendance and discipline policies. Id. at ¶ 6 . Special investigators and a forensic auditing firm known as Plante Moran were brought in to address the District's corruption and mismanagement. Id.
In approximately early to mid-December 2017, Plaintiff and Waronker met with representatives of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (the “FBI”) at the FBI's Long Island office, located in Mineola, Nassau County. See Def. 56.1 ¶ 15. During this meeting, Waronker mostly spoke about the findings of their investigations, while McDonald provided the FBI with additional information about those findings. Id. at ¶ 16.
At this meeting, Plaintiff told the FBI about falsely reported student registrations and fraudulently procured funding. Id. at ¶ 17. The meeting also covered: (i) school safety and security issues arising from unsupervised and unauthorized students in the hallways; (ii) gang presence and the absence of effective policies; (iii) chronic student absences without corrective policies; (iv) weapons in the schools, including weapons confiscated from students and stored without appropriate inventory procedures or surrender to law enforcement; (v) attendance at the schools by students who were no longer eligible as students; (vi) former employees being paid although no longer working; and (vii) patronage hiring of ineffective and poor-performing security personnel. See Transcript of October 22, 2020 Deposition of Dr. Varleton McDonald (“McDonald Dep.”), DE [40-6], at 38:18-39:5, 44:14-22.
At the end of the meeting, Waronker and McDonald were instructed to maintain confidentiality until further FBI guidance. See Def. 56.1 ¶ 18. While Plaintiff did not immediately tell anyone about this meeting with the FBI, Id. at ¶¶ 19, 44-47, 54-56, he did subsequently speak to Lawrence Dobroff (“Dobroff”), the District's Assistant Superintendent for Business, and Maribel Touré, then-Board President, about the meeting. See McDonald Dep. 48:6-52:8. Similarly, Waronker sent an email dated December 6, 2017 to, among others, the Individual Defendants, disclosing the meeting. Id.
On or about December 4, 2017, Plaintiff and Waronker met with the NYSDOE's Deputy Commissioner via videoconference regarding the same issues covered in their meeting with the FBI. See Def. 56.1 ¶¶ 20, 23-24. Waronker and McDonald presented a PowerPoint slide deck during this meeting, detailing their concerns of corruption and impropriety within the District. Id. at ¶¶ 21-22, 25. Outside of this presentation, the parties dispute the extent to which Plaintiff spoke during the meeting. Id. at ¶ 26; McDonald Dep. 59:16-60:4.
In late December 2017, after their conversations with federal and state authorities, Plaintiff and Waronker met with representatives of Plante Moran, the District's forensic auditors, regarding the findings of Plante Moran's audit. See McDonald Dep. 61:23-62:25. After this meeting, McDonald apparently informed Regina Armstrong (“Armstrong”), then the District's Associate Superintendent for Elementary Education and Curriculum, that the forthcoming Plante Moran report set forth “questionable things, ” to which Armstrong responded, Id. at 66:14-67:18.
On January 8, 2018, the Individual Defendants voted to place Waronker on administrative leave, and appointed Armstrong to serve as the District's Interim Superintendent. See Id. at 65:19-25. On January 11, 2018, Dobroff pursuant to a request from Waronker, sent Plaintiff a copy of a preliminary report issued by Plante Moran. See Def. 56.1 ¶¶ 27-28, 33; see also Plante Moran Preliminary Findings (the “Report'), attached as Exhibit A, DE [42-2], to McDonald Decl. The Report set forth numerous financial improprieties including, among other things, that a company identified as “Easy A Tutoring, ” which was owned by Defendant Johnson's domestic partner, received millions of dollars from the District for tutoring services, but had forged approval signatures and inflated billing times and rates. See Report at 4-24. Plaintiff and Waronker spoke about the Report. Id. at ¶ 32. McDonald then sent the Report to Armstrong via the District's email system. Id. at ¶¶ 29-30. While Plaintiff did not individually send the Report to the Individual Defendants, see Id. at ¶¶ 34-36, he avers that he sent...
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