Read the full judgment by the NYS appellate court
Michael T. Baldwin Reports
The Bath Central School District has prevailed in a lawsuit brought by the district’s former business administrator. Margaret Burdick filed the suit challenging the Board of Educations decision to abolish the job and instead outsourced it to the Greater Southern Tier Board of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES). On December 23rd, the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division issued a three-page ruling siding with the school. The Court wrote, in part:
“We conclude that the District respondents met their initial burden on their motion. Their submissions established, first, that there was an economic justification for the determination to abolish petitioner’s position. Specifically, the District respondents established that they could realize substantial savings by eliminating their in-house business administrator and outsourcing those services to BOCES, and that those financial reasons—not petitioner’s job performance—served as the sole basis for the decision to abolish petitioner’s position. Thus, the District respondents established a bona fide reason for the challenged determination.
Additionally, the District respondents’ submissions established that sufficient savings were accomplished to justify abolishing petitioner’s position and outsourcing those services to BOCES (see Johnston, 125 AD2d at 953).”
The complete decision can be found at https://www.nycourts.gov/courts/ad4/Clerk/Decisions/2022/1223T1500/PDF/0862.pdf.
