By Jarret Liotta
Video recording of meeting available HERE (6 mins – 11.43 mins)
A distraught parent Monday night used public comment time at the Board of Education meeting to accuse three district administrators of using retaliatory tactics again him and his family.
Parent Rahul Kale, an assistant U.S. attorney by trade, addresses the Board of Education Monday night. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
Rahul Kale, an assistant U.S. attorney in Connecticut by trade, said the trio acted after he lodged complaints about what he said was their illegally sharing privileged information about his children.
“I am simply incensed,” he said, accusing John Bayers, director of human resources, Tina Mannarino, assistant superintendent of pupil personnel services, and Colleen Palmer, former superintendent of schools, of using the retaliatory tactics.
He said not only had they had his wife, Sandhya Kale, a speech pathologist at Kings Highway School (KHS), put on leave for a complaint in which she was not named, but threatened to report him to the Department of Children and Families (DCF), and had the Westport Police Department investigate him.
“Thankfully our professional police force saw through the Central Office’s abuse of power,” Rahul Kale said as his wife sat nearby in tears.
He said the chain of events began when he cautioned Mannarino that they were not allowed to share information about his child with special needs with a consulting firm, which he said they did anyway in violation of the state’s data privacy laws.
“I did not threaten to sue,” he said. “I simply told Dr. Mannarino to correct this violation of Connecticut law.”
Tina Mannorino, assistant superintendent of pupil personnel services, and John Bayers, director of human resources, listen to accusations against them. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
A dozen or so parents were at the meeting in support of the Kale family. Also there was KHS principal Mary Lou DiBella, who was put on administrative leave for about two months earlier in the year following unspecified allegations She did not address the board.
(WestportNow, quoting a parent familiar with the matter, reported on Feb. 5 the suspensions resulted from a complaint filed with the state about the restraining of a 6-year-old special needs student multiple times. The administration later reported allegations against DiBella and the others were thoroughly addressed through a comprehensive review process and they were cleared of any wrongdoing.)
Kale said the administrators used that incident at KHS to suspend his wife, Sandhya, for 47 days, though she wasn’t named in the original complaint, while others who were named, he said, were not suspended.
When BOE Secretary Elaine Whitney tried to abort Kale’s statement after his allotted two minutes were up, several parents called out, “Let him talk!” and “Shame on you!”
Kale’s statement was followed by one from his daughter, Reva, 17, who expressed her anger with school officials.
“Dr. Mannarino and Mr. Bayers broke my trust by releasing my records,” she said, as well as her sister’s, in order to file a DCF complaint that the nature of her father’s job posed a threat to the girls.
Reva Kale, 17, a Staples High School senior, addresses the Board of Education Monday night. (CLICK TO ENLARGE) Jarret Liotta for WestportNow.com
“Do you know how scary that’s been?” she said, noting fears that she might be removed from her home.
“I am terrified by how they were willing to have me taken away from my parents in order to cover up their own wrongdoings,” Reva said of the school officials.
“You are supposed to be our role models, our educators,” she said, “but all I have seen from you this year is dishonesty and manipulation.”
Neither Bayers nor Interim Superintendent of Schools David Abbey had any statement.
“I’m not going to comment on what was said,” Abbey said.
BOE Chairman Mark Mathias, however, acknowledged that he had been contacted by Kale about the events.
“It needs to be handled administratively,” he said.
Citing the BOE as a “quasi-judicial” entity,” he said it was not supposed to get involved in situations such as these at this juncture.
“I take all concerns seriously,” Mathias said. “I also believe that all the concerns have to go through the process.”
Kale, who noted the suspension cost the district an additional $30,000 to hire a replacement for his wife, said he was going to study options of what to do next regarding this situation.
