What is ‘economic risk’ of Barrington’s teacher vaccine mandate?

Resident requests financial impact of legal fees and potential lawsuits

By Josh Bickford
Posted 11/17/21

What will be the financial impact of the school district’s teacher vaccine mandate?

A Barrington resident recently sent an email to the district requesting financial information regarding …

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What is ‘economic risk’ of Barrington’s teacher vaccine mandate?

Resident requests financial impact of legal fees and potential lawsuits

Posted

What will be the financial impact of the school district’s teacher vaccine mandate?

A Barrington resident recently sent an email to the district requesting financial information regarding the mandate and the potential costs for the district’s legal counsel to defend the mandate.

“I think it would be prudent to understand the economic risk to the school district should this situation result in prolonged legal proceedings over religious freedoms,” wrote the resident, who asked to remain anonymous. “I share a similar feeling to what Dr. Douglas stated in her response last night during the discussion about athletic fields, ‘Education has to come first’ and I am going to struggle with the financing of legal fees and lawsuits.”

Barrington Schools Director of Finance Doug Fiore responded to the email.

“Currently, the legal work related to the hearing has not cost the district anything additional as it is covered by our retainer arrangement with the legal council,” Mr. Fiore wrote. “There may be an additional cost for Atty. Anderson's work at the hearing, but I have not been billed for it yet.”

The resident also asked the administration to present the potential financial impact of the situation — “I would think this analysis would include the possibility of lawsuits filed jointly or separately by the teachers,” he wrote, adding that he would like an update to be offered at each school committee meeting.

“As I compose this email I can't help to think we are going to be paying some cost for the enforcement of the school board’s vaccine mandate long after the current covid health plan has changed,” he wrote. 

The email exchange stemmed from the Barrington School Committee’s decision to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for all school department employees; Barrington is one of the few districts in Rhode Island to have a vaccine mandate. 

All but five Barrington School Department employees had complied with the mandate — three teachers had filed religious exemption requests and two other employees had filed medical exemption requests. The superintendent denied (and the school board later voted to support the denial) the exemption requests, stating that their unvaccinated status would place an undue burden on the district. 

Barrington School Department administrators, including the superintendent, were represented by the attorney Sara Rapport during the pre-termination hearing for the teachers, while the Barrington School Committee was represented by a separate attorney, Jon Anderson of the firm Brennan Recupero Cascione Scungio & McAllister, of Providence.

At the hearing, the school committee placed the three teachers on unpaid leave until Jan. 1 — they have until that time to get vaccinated or they will be fired. 

The attorney for the suspended teachers, Gregory Piccirilli, said previously that his clients fully intended on appealing the school committee’s decision. He said there was a statutory right to appeal, “back before this same board. It’s a full hearing,” he said. “We have to request that within 15 days of us getting notice of the decision.”

If the school committee upholds its earlier decision, the teachers could then appeal to the Rhode Island Commissioner of Education, Mr. Piccirilli said. The teachers could also take their case to court. 

In the meantime, the district has hired a long-term substitute to cover one of the suspended teachers and had posted job openings for the other two positions. 

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