To wrap up their fiscal year, the Rochester school board approved a financial settlement with a former superintendent after an arbitrator found they improperly fired him in August 2023.

The June 15 ruling from arbitrator Timothy Howlett ordered the district to pay former superintendent Robert Shaner $732,631 and the board approved the payment by a 5-1 vote at a special meeting on June 30.

President Michelle Bueltel, Vice President Jessica Gupta, Treasurer Barb Arness and Trustees Julie Alspach and Jayson Blake voted for approval. Trustee Shelly Lauzon voted against and Trustee Carol Beth Litkouhi was absent.

“By saying you are not going to vote for this, you are saying you are not going to follow a court order,” Blake told Lauzon before the vote.

Bueltel explained why the board needed to approve payment out of the general fund on the last day of the 2024-25 fiscal year.

“This is required so that our staff can pay the award so Dr. Shaner’s attorneys do not convert the award into a judgment, which could adversely affect our district’s credit score,” she said. “We do not have an option to not pay this award. If we don’t pay it, they will take the arbitrator’s award to court and turn it into a judgment. Once it is a judgment, they can simply take the funds from the district.”

In a May preliminary report, the district was ordered to pay “total economic damages” to Shaner of $840,060, which included the remainder of his base pay and other benefits due through the end of his contract in 2027. The final figure was recalculated, based on compensation and bonuses at his new position with a defense institute and pension fund contributions due from the district.

According to the preliminary report, Shaner went on medical leave on March 21, 2023 because he had been experiencing increased anxiety, panic attacks, post traumatic stress disorder-related symptoms, insomnia and adjusted disorder systems. He later resigned on Aug. 1, 2023 without returning to his position at the district.

The report said several factors contributed to Shaner’s medical issues:.

“On December 21, 2022, Shaner wrote a letter to the president and vice president of the board requesting the board to address numerous misleading and professionally damaging social media posts by Mr. Weaver on his Facebook page. Weaver posted Shaner’s letter on his page on January 10, 2023.”;”Numerous misleading and professionally damaging social media posts by Weaver on his Facebook page;””In January and February 2023, Shaner reported that he was being harassed and experienced anxiety;”

Weaver and Litkouhi joined the board on Jan. 1, 2023 but. Weaver lost his seat in the November 2024 general election.

Bueltel spoke out against the ruling.

“The board strongly defended the district through arbitration rather than reaching a settlement, because we felt the superintendent chose to leave and that we had not done anything as a board to force the superintendent to resign,” said Bueltel. “As the relationship between Dr. Shaner and the newly elected trustees became strained, in my opinion Dr. Shaner did not conduct himself as a leader should.”

“The board was aware of the conditions being created by Mr. Weaver’s and Ms. Litkouhi’s attacks on Claimant’s integrity. It was also aware of the intolerable situations the attacks were creating for Claimant,” the report said. “The board consciously elected not to use the discipline provisions of censure regarding any of the incidents with Claimant.”

Several board members made their feelings felt about Litkouhi and Weaver.

“It is disappointing to see trustees and former trustees, especially people mentioned prominently and repeatedly in the arbitrator’s opinion, taking no responsibility for their actions,” said Blake. “Pointing fingers at everyone else, but not themselves.”

“Let’s be clear, these events were set in motion by a current and a former trustee and they have yet to take any accountability for them,” said Alspach. “Their attempts to gaslight and deflect are ridiculous and this is a pattern of theirs — working against the district. We now see the cost our students will pay.”

Lauzon read portions of a response Litkouhi had written after the case was finalized.

“The assertion that he reported he was being harassed is not supported with evidence…. there were never attacks on his integrity…. Notably absent from the arbitrator’s summary is the fact that the board granted Dr. Shaner extended leave and invited him to return to his position multiple times,” the response read. “Why wouldn’t this be included?”

Gupta added a motion to the agenda that was debated and later approved by the board for the release of all legal documents related to the arbitration case with Shaner.

Her motion passes 5-0, with Arness abstaining.

The documents will go through district FOIA protocols and legal counsel and be released on a yet to be determined date.

“We owe this consideration and discussion to our community in the spirit of maximum transparency, particularly considering the overwhelming loss of over $700,000,” said Gupta.

Weaver, the former board member who was repeatedly singled out for his actions in the case, spoke in favor of the public release of the arbitration documents.

“President Bueltel and our lawyers unilaterally decided the (district’s) strategy,” Weaver said during public comments. “I hope the board does release the documents and let them speak for themselves.”

Several board members disputed his claim saying the entire board met with district lawyers several times for updates on the case and knew how it was progressing.

“We need firsthand information,” said Lauzon. “The final ruling contained factual errors and different board members took away different conclusions from the ruling. Withholding documents only increases suspicion of misconduct.”

“Releasing all arbitration documents is reactive and performative, not principled,” said Arness. “Trust in this district won’t be rebuilt through a document dump.”

Blake offered a motion to release only key portions of the documents containing all the relevant information instead of the entirety of the documents, but his motion failed due to a tied 3-3 vote.

Bueltel did not see any advantages to releasing the documents.

“I don’t see anyone winning in this situation,” she said. “You either don’t release it and you are hiding something and you are not being transparent or you release it and every single item will be picked apart.”

Before the board approved the motion, Superintendent Nicholas Russo pointed out that costs for legal reviews of the documents, copying costs and other expenses could cost the district “tens of thousands of dollars”.