Arbitrator awards nearly $880,000 to former Grand Ledge schools superintendent
GRAND LEDGE — An arbitrator has ordered Grand Ledge Public Schools to pay former superintendent Brian Metcalf nearly $880,000 to buy out what was left of his contract when he was fired and for compensatory damages.
The settlement will likely be higher because former Michigan Supreme Court Justice Robert Young Jr. also directed the district to pay Metcalf's legal fees, which have yet to be determined.
In his 58-page written finding, Young said the process used by the district's Board of Education to fire Metcalf for comments he made about George Floyd "was fatally tainted and pretextual" and the decision "was made in bad faith."
"The law does not require perfection," Young wrote in his Sept. 9 decision. "But it does require an employer, the Board,to act with integrity and a commitment to procedural fairness. The credible evidence shows that the Board demonstrated none of these qualities throughout the termination process to which it subjected Dr. Metcalf."
Young awarded Metcalf $802,872 for the remainder of his contract with the school district and $75,000 in compensatory damages. Young also ordered the district to pay "an award of reasonable attorney’s fees" to Metcalf.
Young's decision comes more than four months after the arbitration hearing over Metcalf's September 2020 termination began in May. At issue was whether the school board terminated his employment contract without just cause.
The school board's actions were "disgraceful," Metcalf's attorney, Eric Delaporte, said in an email.
"What stands out for us is the lengths to which the Grand Ledge Board of Education members went to stoke public outrage in an already tense moment, then use that public outrage to unfairly remove a superintendent who served the community dutifully for a decade," he said. "They used their power to brand my client a racist, with the specific idea that doing so — then making him sue for what he was due in his contract — would make them look like heroes fighting an alleged villain."
Grand Ledge Board of Education President Jon Shiflett declined to discuss the arbitration and referred questions to John Miller, an attorney representing the school district.
Messages left with Miller and Timothy Mullins, also an attorney for the district, weren't immediately returned.
Due process not given, arbitrator said
Metcalf, superintendent for about nine years, was fired 3½ months after he made comments on Facebook about the death of Floyd, a Black man who died at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020.
Metcalf's comments placed blame on Floyd for his own killing, at least in part, and sparked a backlash within the Grand Ledge community.
School officials maintained Metcalf's comments "compromised the confidence" of community members, students and staff in his ability to lead the school district.
Delaporte said previously Metcalf's contract was not terminated for just cause and that his client's comments were made off duty and are protected by the First Amendment.
In his decision, Young said Metcalf's comments were "ineligible for First Amendment protection because he was charged and discharged for statements he made in his capacity as superintendent and not as a private citizen." He also rejected a claim by Metcalf that he was fired because of his race.Metcalf is white.
But, Young wrote, the board did not give Metcalf due process before he was fired and "and it did not provide him with an impartial decision maker at his 'due process' hearing."
"There is an obvious bona fides problem with the Board’s termination process," Young wrote, and there were "glaring inconsistencies" in the board's public actions and in "its members’ private communications and actions concerning Dr. Metcalf’s Facebook controversy."
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Arbitrator: board 'secretly discussed' plan to fire Metcalf
Young said the board didn't hold a confidential meeting with Metcalf in the days after he made comments on Facebook about Floyd or make "a forthright determination of whether he remained fit to lead the Grand Ledge School System."
"Instead, the credible evidence shows that various Board members conducted both overt and clandestine activities that were intentionally calculated to enflame the situation or inadvertently did so," Young wrote.
After Metcalf issued a public apology and the board adopted a disciplinary plan and announced its intention to keep Metcalf on as superintendent, board members "secretly discussed a plan to fire him," and to "deprive him of his contract payout that would be required for a discharge without cause," Young wrote.
"The due process hearing was a sham used after the fact to justify a termination decision the Board had made much earlier...," according to Young's determination.
Metcalf sued the district seeking records as part of his case, but an Eaton County judge denied the request. the Michigan Court of Appeals later partially overturned that decision and required the district to provide the records he sought.
The board made "multiple communications to members of the public (and to Dr. Metcalf) that he had been “fired,” not suspended, by the Board at its June 5th meeting," Young wrote.
"It is hard to imagine how this Board could have proven itself to have been more partial than its cumulative acts showed," Young added.
Read a copy of Young's full finding below:
Contact Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Former Grand Ledge Superintendent Brian Metcalf awarded nearly $880,000
