Former Lawrence Dist. 15 administrator files suit over employment termination

A former Lawrence Public Schools administrator is suing the district, claiming he lost his job as director of guidance and support services because the school board viewed him as "anti-Orthodox."

Jay Silverstein of Atlantic Beach, who was an assistant principal at Lawrence High School from 2005 to 2007 before being promoted to the head guidance position, filed legal papers on March 5 in U.S. District Court against the Lawrence Public Schools for his termination last November despite what he said were strong job performance reviews. Silverstein claims that Lawrence Superintendent Dr. John Fitzsimons advised him in November 2008 that he would enhance his chances of receiving tenure by being friendlier with the school board's seven trustees, six of whom are Orthodox Jews.

"The main reason I brought the complaint was for eight months I was learning of accusations being made about me from the superintendent," said Silverstein, whose last day of work for the Lawrence Public Schools was Nov. 6, 2009.

His attorney, Rick Ostrove, said that the termination violated his client's constitutional right to free speech as well as freedom of association. Ostrove added that Silverstein's close relationship with Atlantic Beach resident Andrew Levey, a vocal critic of the current school board, unfairly gave the school board the impression that he was "anti-Orthodox." Levey ran for the school board in 2007 and was one of five parents to file a federal civil rights lawsuit against the district last year, claiming, in part, that the trustees were pushing an Orthodox agenda.

"A public employer cannot tell an employee who to associate with, nor can a public employer take adverse employment actions against someone for exercising their constitutional right to freedom of association," said Ostrove. "The bottom line is that the superintendent told my client he was not going to get tenure because the board had negative feelings toward him because they viewed him as anti-Orthodox."

Silverstein, whose children still attend the Lawrence Public Schools, said he is planning to run for the school board in May on a ticket with Nicole DiIorio of Inwood and a third, as yet unknown candidate.

Silverstein said he requested last July that Fitzsimons set up a meeting with school board members to clear up the accusations against him but was told by the superintendent that the local political climate was too volatile for that to occur, since it was right around the time that the five parents, including Levey, were preparing to file their suit.

"[The accusations of being anti-Orthodox] were based on who I was friends with and where I lived," said Silverstein, who is now a consultant for two private special-education schools and teaches a graduate class at St. John's University.

Fitzsimons said he was surprised by Silverstein's suit, since he had offered him another position in the district that would have equaled his $140,000 pay that Silverstein turned down. "I had urged he take it and the board had no problem with it," said Fitzsimons.

Ostrove said the position Silverstein was offered was supervisor of pupil personnel services, which would have been a demotion in title and rank and would have nearly doubled his responsibilities, since it combined jobs previously held by two employees. "He didn't want a job where he was being set up for failure," said Ostrove.

"This is yet another frivolous lawsuit, and it is unfortunate that the district will have to spend resources on the lawsuit that could be spent on the children," Lawrence school board President Murray Forman said of Silverstein's suit. "Unfortunately, this is just another in a series of lawsuits that will be successfully defended by the district."

The five parents' suit against the district last year claimed that the decision to close the Number Six School violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, and that the school board was pushing an Orthodox agenda over public-school concerns. The lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Court Judge Joanna Seybert on Aug. 24. The plaintiffs in that case say they are working on an appeal. In three cases separate from the federal civil rights case, the State Department of Education last month dismissed appeals filed by parents Blasia Baum, Leila El-Rez and Kinga Tzach against the Lawrence school board that challenged the closing of the Number Six School.

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