Right-to-Know Case Filed Against Concord School Superintendent

Roy Frazel, an airline pilot and former Concord resident, has filed a right-to-know case against Concord School Superintendent Chris Rath in Superior Court requesting that documents relating to a teacher’s resignation be released to the public.

In the case filing, Frazel is seeking various documents relating to the employment of , a popular Concord High School teacher and track coach, who spent more than two decades working in the Concord system. Higgins, who was elected to the in November, waged a fight to get her job back after administrators placed her on leave and recommended her for dismissal. Many students rallied support for her in the community, writing letters to the and creating a Facebook page to support her. Higgins, however, resigned earlier this year.

The documents he is requesting include minutes from a non-public meeting held on Dec. 20, 2010, in which he claims board members discussed Higgins’ employment without her being present, a violation of the state’s right-to-know law. In the case filing, Frazel stated that Higgins wanted all of her employment meetings to be held publicly, something an employee can legally request.

“I want the minutes to find out what they discussed,” he said. “Barb requested an open meeting with the school board about her firing … Barb is supposed to be in there with her attorney, with her union, to discuss her firing.”

Frazel said one former member of the school board refused to participate in the meeting, calling it “unethical.” The former member, however, would not discuss the matter because it was a personnel issue. Other school board members refused to discuss the meeting or even confirm which members attended the meeting. The website listed that a meeting was held on the day in question. In the petition, Higgins signed a letter giving Frazel consent to access any and all information requested.

Frazel is also requesting any and all emails on the Concord School District server that contain his name. He said he requested the emails because some involved his interaction with Higgins and he believed they were used against her. Others, he alleged, involved his ex-wife sending emails to Rath making claims that Frazel believes were used against Higgins, since she had testified against his wife in the couple’s divorce trial.

“The emails mentioned above where a huge reason for Barbara Higgins’ firing,” he wrote in the petition.

Frazel also requested information about a state statute the school district planned on using against Higgins to not allow her binding arbitration in her case, a statute that was reportedly given to Higgins just before her resignation. He is also requesting proof from district employees in information technology that the date and time of a letter produced Concord High School principal about Higgins’ case was authentic.

In July, Frazel made requests for the information from Rath but the superintendent refused to release the documents.

At its September board meeting, Frazel rose to speak before the board and requested that they overrule Rath’s decision not to release the documents.

School Board President told Frazel, “We’re not prepared to take a vote now” on the request. She said that all requests were subject to oversight by courts.

“If you want to make further assertions of your rights under 91A, that is something you go through legal steps to ascertain that information,” Ardinger said. “The first step was to request it from the superintendent. The board is not involved in that. And then you go to … a judge has to decide issues of 91A.”

Months later, Frazel had not received an update from Rath or the school board about his request, so he decided to file the court case.

Frazel said he was seeking the documents and information because he believed that Higgins was targeted due to her effort to preserve of a number of historic buildings that were eventually torn down in order to build a new elementary school on North Spring Street. He alleges that she was “railroaded” and forced to resign. Frazel bases his claims and case on interaction with Higgins before she resigned.

“She gave me everything and I was helping her with her case,” he said. “Everyone on her side – the lawyer, the union – everyone said there was no way she was going to lose this. And then one day before the hearing, [an attorney] said that there is something on the books that they aren’t going to give her arbitration.”

In court documents, Frazel claims that the statute was used to convince Higgins to resign rather than face a multi-year fight with the school board and officials to preserve her job. Higgins later entered into a confidentiality agreement as a part of her resignation and refused comment for this story.

Frazel said that he was “worried that they are going to do this to more teachers” and wants the information sent to the state Department of Education so that the matter can be investigated.

“I believe it is in the greatest of public interest to know how a teacher with an unblemished record can be forced to resign for voicing an opinion about the school district in which she resides,” he wrote in the petition. “That it will help me to show the incredible abuse of power that occurred over this issue and how the teachers contract signed by the School Board was summarily dismissed.”

Frazel filed the case in November.

Rath did not comment about the case after two emailed requests for comment.