In another settlement, Millcreek schools pay $87,500 to end claim of gender discrimination

The Millcreek Township School District is again spending tens of thousands of dollars to resolve a personnel issue that arose during the administration of then-Superintendent Ian Roberts.

The district has paid $87,500 to settle the gender discrimination claims of a former administrator who was demoted and then passed over for two principal positions in a staff restructuring under Roberts, according to a settlement agreement that the Millcreek School Board unanimously approved this month.

The deal, with Joe Orlando, the Millcreek School District's former director of elementary education, brings to $337,500 the total amount that the district has paid to settle personnel complaints related to Roberts' tenure as superintendent.

Roberts headed the 6,500-student Millcreek School District for nearly three years, from Aug. 12, 2020, until June 30, 2023, the day before he started as superintendent of the 30,000-student Des Moines Public Schools in Iowa.

On June 26, four days before Roberts' final day at the Millcreek School District, the Millcreek School Board unanimously approved a $250,000 deal with Melody Ellington, who had worked as the district's director of human resources from July 1, 2021, until she resigned effective Sept. 30, 2022.

Ellington never filed a lawsuit, but the $250,000 settlement resolved her claims that she was subjected to "unlawful treatment" at the school district and that the treatment left her no choice but to resign, according to the agreement in her case.

The Millcreek School District's legal issues related to Roberts' tenure might persist. Another former administrator who was demoted under him, Timothy Stoops, is exploring filing a claim of gender discrimination against the district with the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, according to court records.

Confidentiality clause in place in Orlando's case

The settlement in Orlando's case ended a complaint he filed with the EEOC, according to the agreement. He claimed the school district "discriminated against him on the basis of gender in relation to the District's hiring decisions" for the two principal positions that he did not get, according to the settlement agreement.

At Roberts' recommendation, the Millcreek School Board in another vote on June 26 demoted Orlando as director of elementary education. He was given a teaching job but resigned from the district before starting it.

Before he resigned, "Orlando applied, but was not selected for, two principal positions within the District," according to the settlement agreement.

The agreement states that the deal also closes out a complaint of gender discrimination that Orlando filed with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. The settlement includes no "admission of fault," according the agreement. The district also admitted no fault in the Ellington deal.

The settlement agreement with Orlando provides no other details about the nature of his claims, and a confidentiality clause in the agreement prohibits the Millcreek School District, Orlando and his lawyer, Richard Ruth, from commenting on it. The settlement in the Ellington case included a similar clause.

Ruth also represented Ellington. The $250,000 agreement in Ellington's case contained no information on the specific nature of her claims. Other than Ellington, Roberts was the only school district official identified by name in the agreement, but unclear is whether his name appeared because he was the subject of the claims or because he was in charge of the school district when Ellington made the claims.

The Millcreek School Board unanimously approved the deal with Orlando at its committee-of-the-whole meeting on April 15. A copy of the agreement is attached to the agenda for that meeting.

The board approved the settlement with no discussion of its terms. The only comment on the settlement at the meeting came from the school district's solicitor, Tim Sennett, who highlighted the confidentiality clause and a non-disparagement clause in the settlement.

"What that means for the board is obviously, if you are questioned or asked about this situation, I think the proper course is, you have no comment," Sennett said. "That way there's no disparagement, there's no breach of confidentiality."

Ruth declined to comment to the Erie Times-News, citing the confidentiality clause. The president of the Millcreek School Board, Gary Winschel, also cited the confidentiality clause and declined to comment. A spokesman for the Des Moines Public Schools did not immediately respond to an email from the Erie Times-News on whether Roberts had any comment on the settlement.

The Millcreek School District did not immediately respond to a request on whether the district paid the $87,500 settlement using district funds, money from its insurance company or both. The district previously said it used district funds and insurance funds to pay the $250,000 settlement to end Ellington's claim.

Of the $87,500 settlement in Orlando's case, the district paid $64,125 to Orlando in the form of a payroll check, according to the settlement agreement. The district paid the rest — $23,375 — to Ruth, an amount that represents about 27% of the settlement.

Orlando first sued over his treatment in Millcreek

The claim of gender discrimination was the second legal action Orlando took against the Millcreek School District.

Orlando initially sued in Erie County Common Pleas Court, but he withdrew that suit before it was resolved, leaving him and Ruth to pursue the claims with the EEOC and the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission.

The lawsuit, filed in July, did not claim gender discrimination. It claimed that the Millcreek School Board improperly demoted Orlando from director of elementary education to a sixth-grade English teacher at J.S. Wilson Middle School.

Roberts asked for Orlando's demotion and other moves to reduce the number of the Millcreek School District's top officials — the 12 central administrators Roberts called members of his "core team."

The suit claimed Roberts downgraded Orlando's position in a way that barred the School Board from reducing his salary under the Pennsylvania School Code. The school district claimed the demotion was carried out properly.

Orlando in the suit sought payment of back wages. He and the school district disagreed on how much he would have been entitled to had he prevailed in court.

The district's lawyer contended that the damages should be limited to the dates of Orlando's demotion — June 26 to Aug. 11, a period of about seven weeks — and should be limited to the difference between Orlando's administrative salary of $119,700 and his teaching salary of $80,279 ― a difference of $39,421 a year or $758 a week.

Orlando's damages would have been limited to $5,306 based on those restrictions. Ruth, who also represented Orlando in that case, disagreed with the limits, according to court records.

Ruth withdrew the suit with no settlement in September. The withdrawal came shortly after Orlando got a new job at Erie Insurance Group, according to court records.

Orlando worked for six years as the Millcreek School District's director of elementary education after working for the Erie School District for 23 years, according to his LinkedIn account. He taught for 10 years in the Erie School District before becoming an administrator for 13 years in that district.

Another EEOC claim is possible for Millcreek School District

The complaints Orlando filed with the EEOC and the PHRC provided him another and potentially more lucrative route to fight his demotion.

Pursuing an EEOC gender discrimination complaint against the Millcreek School District also appears to be the strategy of Timothy Stoops, whom the Millcreek School Board also demoted at Roberts' request on June 26. Stoops had been director of alternative learning and assessment.

Roberts eliminated the positions of Orlando and Stoops and created the job of director of K-12 education, according to court records and school district records. Roberts demoted Stoops to an eighth-grade English teacher at J.S. Wilson Middle School, according to school district records. Stoops had been making $123,067 in his administrative post, according to state Department of Education records.

Stoops resigned in August, according to school district records. He had been at the Millcreek School District for 22 years, starting as a middle school principal in 2001, according to his LinkedIn account. He was later the principal at McDowell Intermediate High School.

Though Stoops did not sue in Common Pleas Court, he is exploring an EEOC case and is interested in "prosecuting a claim against Millcreek Township School District and/or others" "for gender discrimination and/or possible other matters," according to court documents docketed in December in the Chapter 7 bankruptcy case that Stoops filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Erie in May 2023.

A bankruptcy judge would have to approve any settlement, according to the documents. No records have been filed indicating whether an EEOC case was filed or resolved.

The staff consolidation that Roberts pursued — and that has led to the legal actions — focused on the top three administrators in the Millcreek School District's curriculum department, according to court records. They were Orlando, the director of elementary education; Stoops, the director of alternative learning and assessment; and John Cavanagh, director of secondary education.

Roberts eliminated the positions of Orlando and Stoops, demoted them and created the job of director of K-12 education, according to court records and school district records.

Cavanaugh stayed at the Millcreek School District. The School Board named him Roberts' successor as superintendent on July 17.

Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Millcreek PA schools pay $87,500 to settle another ex-employee's case