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Dragonas v. School Committee of Melrose9/6/2005
denies this. Both agree that after Dragonas cited her twenty-five years of GAPP leadership and mentioned that people in the community would be upset if she were relieved of her GAPP duties, Burke warned her to "not go political because had been there." At this meeting, Burke also informed Dragonas that her position as lead teacher of foreign languages would be abolished at the end of the 1999-2000 school year.
Burke stated that his concerns about the upcoming GAPP trip did not abate in the spring of 2000. In addition to the unresolved housing and MCAS issues, he questioned the prudence of allowing one student with poor attendance and grades to go to Germany. On March 3, 2000, Burke issued a memorandum to Dragonas stating his "desire to reorganize lead teachers . . . along the lines of the MCAS Curriculum and testing areas." He also stated, "I have a number of serious concerns about the Foreign Language Program at Melrose High School that need . . . to be addressed."
On March 7, 2000, Martin met with Dragonas and Barbara Quinlan, the business manager for the Melrose schools, and informed Dragonas that he would recommend that her lead teacher position be abolished at the end of the school year due to the MCAS. Martin then offered Dragonas the option of retiring at the end of the school year and suggested that if she backdated her notice of departure to December 23, 1999, she would be eligible to receive a $10,000 sick leave buyback bonus. If she decided to retire, Martin also offered to secure a part-time position for her as administrative assistant to the middle school principal. Dragonas indicated that she was not interested. Martin gave Dragonas a week to accept the offer in case she changed her mind, which she did not.
On March 9 or 11, Burke convened an "emergency" meeting of twenty-five to thirty GAPP parents to discuss his concerns about Dragonas's leadership of the impending trip to Germany. Burke stated that he did not invite Dragonas to the ninety-minute meeting because he felt that "her overall aggressiveness and defensiveness" would prevent him from getting an "objective and fair view" from the parents. According to parents in attendance, Burke questioned Dragonas's competency to lead the GAPP program and her ability to speak German and stated that, on a previous trip, she had left a student ill and unattended while on a sightseeing trip. In their affidavits, the parents stated that Burke made disparaging comments about Dragonas's character, claiming she had accused him of sexual harassment (which she denied in her deposition). They also attested that Burke stated that Dragonas was someone who would "rip your face off." Burke testified that when he asked the parents whether they wanted him to find another teacher to accompany the students to Germany, they were still willing to have Dragonas accompany the students because of her experience and the trip's imminence. In response to some of the parents' objections to Dragonas's absence from the meeting, Burke apologized to her shortly thereafter.
When Dragonas returned from Germany in May, 2000, Burke did not ask her to participate in hiring new teachers for the foreign languages department -- even though this was one of the lead teacher's responsibilities -- because he expected her position to be eliminated. Dragonas stated that she felt she was treated as a "persona non grata." After the school committee decided to retain the lead teacher position (see note 7, supra), Martin posted the position within the foreign languages department and advertised the position in the Boston Globe. Three people submitted applications: Dragonas; Mariastella Cocchiara, an Italian and Spanish teacher for twenty-one years in the M
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