Somerville Schools Wrongly Denied Teacher's Reinstatement, Court Rules

SOMERVILLE, NJ — The Somerville Public Schools Board of Education violated the rights of a teacher who wanted her job back after being granted maternity leave, a state appeals court ruled.

Three New Jersey appellate judges decided the case on June 6, overturning a lower court's ruling that Catherine Parsells "had no right to return" to her teaching position in Somerville Public Schools.

The Superior Court judges sided with Parsells, and said the Board of Education should have informed her that moving to a part-time teaching position would mean she'd lose her right to return to full-time status.

Parsells was a tenured, full-time teacher from September 2010-June 2016, according to her lawsuit against the Somerville Board of Education. She sought a transfer to an available part-time position for the 2016-17 school year.

Parsells told Dr. Timothy Purnell, the superintendent at the time, that she was interested in the part-time job "for as long as it is available, or until my family decides that full-time work would be in our best interest again."

The board approved her transfer, with benefits, and also appointed her as Preschool Team Leader for that school year.

"The Board did not advise her in advance she would not have a right to return to any full-time position if she voluntarily took the part-time position," the lawsuit reads.

In November 2016, Parsells was granted maternity leave and a childcare leave of absence from Feb. 2 - June 30, 2017, court documents show. She wrote to the board on Feb 1, 2021, saying she would like to work as a part time teacher in the 2017-18 year if the position still had benefits.

In July of that year, Purnell and Current superintendent Dr. Timothy Teehan responded, the lawsuit says. They told her the part-time role would no longer have benefits, only a full-time role.

They offered her a full-time position which she declined, citing family reasons, court documents show.

Parsella asked to extend her maternity leave through the 2018 school year, documents show, with the board of education granting her request.

In April 2018, Teehan contacted Parsells and told her "she had no automatic entitlement to a full-time teaching position and that she relinquished her rights to the same when she applied for and accepted the part-time role," the lawsuit says, and that Parsells would have to apply for any available full-time positions.

She did so, and participated in interviews, but the Board selected other applicants who had not worked for the district before.

Parsells appealed this decision to the New Jersey Department of Education commissioner, but an administrative law judge found in favor of the board of education.

A Commissioner overturned this decision, finding Parsells "did not knowingly and voluntarily waive her right to a full-time position, including the salary and benefits from it." The Commissioner ordered Parsells should be reinstated with full back pay and benefits.

The Somerville Board of Education appealed that decision, but the appeals court agreed with the Commissioner.

"We hold that school boards have a duty to notify, in advance, full-time teachers who consider voluntarily transferring to part-time teaching positions that they may not have a right to return to their full-time position," Judge Morris G. Smith wrote for the court.

Parsells' counsel, Hop T. Weschler of Sekikoff and Cohen, told the New Jersey Law Journal this decision "was a win not just for Katie Parsells but for all tenured teachers in New Jersey."

“The court made it clear that teachers can’t lose their tenure rights because of information they don’t have but school boards do,” said Wechsler.