Former board member wins her lawsuit
July 15, 2008
By TIMOTHY LOGUE
Delaware County Times
RADNOR — As open records requests go, Judy Sherry's did not seem all that intrusive.
In April 2007, the Radnor School Board raised the salaries of all district administrators by 3.9 percent. Less than a month later, after receiving the results of a salary study, the board voted to give four administrators additional raises.
Sherry, a former member of the board, made several requests for a copy of the study and another document that contained contract information from districts with similar socioeconomic profiles.
When the district told her the items did not meet the criteria of the Right to Know Law, she filed suit in Delaware County Court.
It took almost a year, but Sherry and a legal team comprised of her two sons - Radnor alumni Daniel J. Sherry Jr. and Parker Sherry - were extremely happy when Judge Robert C. Wright finally delivered his opinion June 30.
"It was a total victory," she said of the 30-page decision, which directed the district to turn over the documents and pay Sherry nearly $30,000 to cover legal fees and court costs. "This was not a fly-by-night decision. It took time, it was well-considered and it was long."
Wright determined the salary study, commissioned by the school board at a cost of $10,400, and an "in-house" document containing contract information from other districts clearly met the definition of a public document.
"The idea of being stingy when it comes to recognizing a citizen's rights is repugnant to our system of government," he wrote. "Indeed, it turns a right into a privilege, which may be granted or denied at the whim of those in positions of power."
Calling the decision "erroneous both in the factual underpinning and the legal analysis," the school board has asked Wright to reconsider his opinion.
And if he doesn't?
"I will certainly advocate for an appeal," said school board President John McMeekin II. "I think it was a decision that is contrary to all of the other decisions and it places documents that are important for evaluating labor negotiation into the public realm. It can really affect and chills the way you can prepare for labor negotiations."
Though unsure of the exact figure, McMeekin believes the district has spent less than $30,000 in legal fees on the case.
"It's a shame that we have devolved in Radnor to citizens putting their own agendas in front of that of the students," he said. "This is money that won't go to students." When told of those remarks, Sherry pointed to Wright's opinion.
"A judge says the board willfully and wantonly denied access to public documents, so whose agenda are we talking about here?" she said. "(McMeekin's) comments reflect a culture of withholding information that he fully supports.
"It's disappointing to hear he's digging in his heals on this issue at a time when the whole (state) Legislature just voted to do away with the one of the worst open records laws in the country."
Sherry was already questioning the methodology for giving administrators 3.9 percent raises at the April 2007 board meeting when it decided a month later to further hike the salaries of Director of Transportation Burchard Blackburn, Director of Special Education and Pupil Services Andrea Chipego, Supervisor of Security Joseph Perchetti and Supervisor of Custodial Services Duncan Smith.
Blackburn's salary went from $85,453 to $88,786 with the initial raise and then to $91,241 with the additional bump. Chipego's salary went from $118,045 to $122,649 to $123,632; Perchetti's from $47,390 to $49,238 to $52,555; and Smith's from $64,222 to $66,727 to $67,725.
While McMeekin said the court decision jeopardizes the bargaining process by making "important strategic information" a matter of public record, Wright questioned how the in-house document in particular could be viewed as privileged.
"(T)his court cannot help but note that the data itself was compiled by a member of the administration; the very group with whom the board was negotiating," he wrote. Sherry said a previous compensation agreement that passed when she first arrived on the board contained incentives that led to the departure of several administrators and weakened the foundation of the district.
Despite district Solicitor Michael Levin's claims to the contrary, former school board member Richard Booker said the salary study - which arrived after the first round of raises and before the second - clearly factored into the decision to readjust the salaries of the four administrators.
"It wasn't important to me because I never believed in the rubric," said Booker, who was deposed for the case and supported Sherry's position. "I have always contended the data was manipulated, massaged and hand-picked to justify higher salaries."
After giving teachers a 5 percent raise in 2006, Booker said then-President Kathy Fisher and others on the board were looking for data that would support the raises.
"If we got a report that showed all our administrators were paid near the top - which they were compared to the rest of the state - then 30 people would have received little or no raise and been very unhappy," he said.
Before 3.9 percent raises in 2007 and 2008, the average salary of Radnor's 27 administrators was $111,538 and 18 had salaries in excess of $100,000.
Reprinted with permission from The Delaware County Times