Dan Shelton, left, has hired Thomas Neuberger, right, to represent him in the aftermath of his removal as the superintendent of Christina School District.
Dan Shelton, the ousted superintendent of the Christina School District – which has a divided and chaotic board – has lawyered up.
Shelton has hired the Neuberger Firm to represent him after the board voted 4-3 in July to not renew his contract for the 2024-2025 school year, and then affirmed that in an August meeting.
That July meeting lasted seven hours and ended at nearly 3 a.m.
Thomas Neuberger has written to the board’s lawyer asking for it to cease and desist its actions against Shelton.
It says the board owes Shelton damages for lost wages, harm to his reputation, emotional and physical distress.
The letter says Board President Don Patton and three other members have violated Shelton’s due process rights through “intentional, willful, wonton (sic) and reckless actions of these persons lawlessly ignoring settled law, as well as the advice of their attorneys.”
Patton said he expected something like this to happen because the board hasn’t been able to share some of its concerns publicly.
He said he’s not sure he understands the cease-and-desist because “we haven’t said anything at all, so maybe it’s put in place to make sure we don’t say anything.”
He said the board will respect and follow the cease-and-desist letter.
“I don’t think we would discuss Shelton, at any rate, because that’s a personnel matter, so the only time we would discuss him would be in executive session, where it would be private unless someone in there takes it out,” Patton said.
Patton said the board has no reason to discuss Shelton moving forward, unless something came up in executive session.
RELATED: Christina school board puts Superintendent Shelton on leave
Shelton’s dismissal and replacement
The disruption and petty verbiage of the board and plenty of audience members continued in the board’s August meeting.
Then, the board voted for an interim superintendent, Bob Andrzejewski, who served the same role in Christina from October 2015 to December 2016.
That was again a vote of 4-3, with the sam e four v oting ‘yes:’ Board President Don Patton, Vice President Alethea Smith-Tucker, Y.F. Lou and Naveed Baqir voted for Shelton’s removal and for Andrzejewski’s appointment.
Board members Douglas Manley, Monica Moriak and Amy Trauth voted against both.
RELATED: Christina board has heated meeting again, votes for superintendent
Neurburger cites Patton, Smith-Tucker, Lou and Baqir in his letters.
The drama over the past few months also includes votes of no confidence in Patton, calls for the removal of Baqir because he has lived in Pakistan for months, at least a few dozen “points of order” being yelled out, and an overwhelming abundance of board members interrupting each other to the point where microphones have been cut and Patton threatened the removal of rowdy audience members.
Specifically, the cease-and-desist letter says the four board members who voted Shelton out are violating the 14th Amendment, which provides a person the right to sue state government employees and others acting “under color of state law” for civil rights violations.
“I also demand that these individuals and the District immediately stop defaming my client and injuring his professional reputation, and apologize publicly for their wrongful defamatory acts and words, both orally and in writing, over the past several months,” Neuberger’s letter stated.
20240815_TSN-Demand-letter-_-Christina-Final.pdf
Neuberger included a 2005 case in which his client, Carol Schreffler, won a $1 million verdict against Sussex County Vocational Technical School District .
Schreffler was an assistant superintendent and claimed the school board punished her for helping expose the misconduct of her former boss.
Neuberger’s letter to the board said, “Numerous actions and statements adverse to my client have been issued, which became known publicly, on various media, or otherwise, which wrongfully accuses him of grievous misconduct as an educational professional, which makes them and the District open to a claim of unlimited presumed damages for this outrage.”
A lot of the reasoning behind the four board members voting Shelton out have been kept confidential. But in July’s meeting, it was revealed there was a complaint by an employee that Shelton made her uncomfortable.
While the employee’s name was redacted, here’s what Manley shared in the July board meeting .
“The investigation was able to corroborate a non-specific allegation of a single prior incident where as alleged in the complaint, Dr. Shelton raised his voice at (blank). However, while the investigation confirmed that there was an unpleasant interaction between Dr. Shelton and (blank) on June 3 that left (blank) deeply upset, the investigation could not confirm on June 3, 2024 Dr. Shelton yelled at (blank) or moved into (blank)’s space in an intimidating or threatening fashion.”
James H. McMackin III, the district’s legal council, had hired an external investigator, who ultimately determined that he could not substantiate the allegations.
Manley said the investigation did not reveal information sufficient to support a finding that the June 3 event was part of a broader pattern of conduct by Shelton.
The district’s next board meeting is not yet listed on the district calendar.
Unless otherwise noted, Christina has a board meeting on the second Tuesday of each month, which would mean the next meeting is Sept. 10 at 7 p.m.
Information about in-person location and a virtual livestream will be posted here .
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