Allegedly fired after pointing to big legal bills, school administrator gets $300K settlement
A former California school administrator has settled a lawsuit that alleged she was made a scapegoat and fired after she pointed to big legal bills being racked up in litigation over a school district merger.
Siegrid “Ziggy” Robeson was fired in 2012 as deputy superintendent of the Twin Rivers Unified School District. She had originally sought $3.9 million but agreed to accept $300,000, reports the Sacramento Bee.
Of that amount, the school district will pay her $210,000, reinstating Robeson retroactively so that she will be fully vested in the retirement system, her lawyer, Mark Wasser, explained. A former superintendent will pay $15,000, and three lawyers and a former FBI agent who worked for the Timothy M. Cary & Associates law firm will contribute $75,000.
While still working for the Twin Rivers unified district, Robeson said the Cary firm was “profiting immensely” from litigation with former officials from one of the component school districts that had participated in the merger, her suit alleged. A subsequent audit determined that the firm had been paid $10 million between 2007 and 2012, the newspaper reports. Much, but not all, of that amount was from merger-related litigation.
It appears that the settlement with Robeson comes after earlier compensation for the loss of her $174,000-a-year job: The school board agreed in 2012 to buy out the remaining 18 months of her contract for $260,000, the Bee says.
Hat tip: Associated Press
