ATTY. STEVEN A.

COLAROSSI
C/O

M C Q U A I D L A W O F F I C E * 96 E AS T A VE N U E * N O R W AL K , CT 06851
TEL: 203.434.6096 * FAX: 203.855.9428 * EMAIL: STEVECOLAROSSI@GMAIL.COM

January 27, 2014

Town Clerk Margaret A. West Oxford Town Hall 486 Oxford Road Oxford, CT 06478-1298 First Selectman George R. Temple Oxford Town Hall 486 Oxford Road Oxford, CT 06478-1298 Superintendent Timothy Connellan Oxford Public Schools 1 Great Hill Road Oxford, CT 06478 Diane Soracco Chairperson, Oxford Board of Education 1 Great Hill Road Oxford, CT 06478 Re: Notice of Claims Against the Town of Oxford and the Oxford Board of Education. Dear Town Clerk West, First Selectman Temple, Supt. Connellan and Chairperson Soracco: Please be advised that I represent Benjamin Blue, an employee of the Town of Oxford Board of Education. By this letter I am advising the Town of Oxford and the Board of Education of the legal and equitable claims which I have been authorized by my client to assert against the Town and the Board of Education regarding the following matters: 1. Violations of my clients privacy rights (including, but not limited to, violations of Connecticut General Statutes Section 31-128f); 2. Violations of my clients due process rights regarding reviews and evaluations of his job performance; 3. Such other violations of my clients rights at law and equity arising from the conduct of Gerard Carbonaro who, despite forfeiting his position as a member of the Oxford Board of Education pursuant to Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-232, has

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continued to be regarded as a member of said Board and who, upon information and belief, has consulted with school district officials regarding the employment of my client. As you are aware, Section 10-232 provides that no member of the board of education shall be employed for compensation by the board of which he or she is a member in any position in the school system. If any member of such board is employed contrary to the provisions of this section, the office to which he or she was elected or appointed shall become vacant. As recent case law has indicated, the once-elected official automatically forfeits his position upon taking employment. Despite Section 10-232 being unambiguous, Town and/or Board of Education officials authorized Mr. Carbonaro to be sworn-in as a Board of Education member while he was employed as an assistant wrestling coach. By operation of Section 10-232, Mr. Carbonaro forfeited his position as a member of the Board of Education. Despite Mr. Carbonaros forfeiture of his Board of Education seat, upon information and belief, he has consulted with school and district staff regarding Mr. Blue and has been apprised of aspects of Mr. Blues employment in which th e law, and Mr. Blue, have an expectation of privacy. Although it is questionable if Connecticut law authorizes Board of Education members to review the personnel files of staff over which they have no direct supervisory authority, it is clear that an individual who is not a lawful member of the Oxford Board of Education has no right to obtain private information about a school district employee. Furthermore, Mr. Carbonaro, upon information and belief, under the guise of being a lawful member of the Oxford Board of Education, which he is not, has engaged in a habitual and consistent pattern of harassment and intimidation of Mr. Blue (and members of his family) by, among direct and indirect actions, heckling Mr. Blue at wrestling matches. School and district officials have refused to intervene to prevent a continuation of this conduct and, in fact, have apparently condoned such action. Lastly, my client has been endeavoring to work with Athletic Director Teg Cosgriff regarding successive and conflicting improvement plans which he has presented to him. My client prepared a comprehensive response and action plan to the document which Mr. Cosgriff had presented him. However, when Mr. Blue met with Mr. Cosgriff to review his response, Mr. Cosgriff presented Mr. Blue with yet another ideation of the improvement plan. This was done despite some significant flaws in the process which Mr. Cosgriff appears to be following which include (but are not limited to): (i) there have been no formal evaluations by Mr. Cosgriff of Mr. Blue; (ii) there are no factual allegations to support specific claims of improvement; (iii) Mr. Blue has received positive reviews throughout his years of service to Oxford; (iv) areas of proposed best practices are included among the areas of alleged improvement without any differentiation which would suggest significant deficiencies which do not exist; and (v) the most

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recent improvement plan makes no reference to Mr. Blues present ation of a response to the earlier version of the plan in violation of Mr. Blues rights as an employee. One of the last versions of the improvement plan actually required Mr. Blue to control adult members of his family and somehow restrain them from commenting to Town officials about the wrestling program (a suggestion which is blatantly politically-influenced, not related to Mr. Blues employment and utterly improper and to which Mr. Blue objected). Given the general concerns I have raised regarding the relationship between Mr. Carbonaro and school and district officials and the process of these improvement plans, one could draw a reasonable inference that the flawed process being used to create an improvement plan for my client is being influen ced by Mr. Carbonaros presumed ill-feelings toward my client. The claims set forth in this Notice are not intended to limit any of the other claims my client has as an employee, Oxford taxpayer or Oxford citizen (whether presently existing or which could exist merely upon the passage of time, the giving of notice or both). However, this Notice is provided in the hope that Board of Education and Town officials will work (i) to formally replace Mr. Carbonaro so that one lawfully entitled to serve will be appointed to the Board of Education, (ii) to end the on-going harassment and privacy violations of Mr. Blue and (iii) to utilize an evaluation and improvement process for Mr. Blue which is mindful of his rights. Respectfully,

Steven A. Colarossi

cc:

Town Clerk Margaret A. West (by fax: 203-888-2136) First Selectman George R. Temple (by fax: 203-888-2136) Superintendent Timothy Connellan (by fax: 203-888-5955) Members of the Oxford Board of Education