Stridiron v. Newburgh Enlarged City Sch. Dist.

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DARREN J. STRIDIRON and MATTHEW A. STRIDIRON, Plaintiffs, v. NEWBURGH ENLARGED CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, CAROLE MINEO, PHIL HOWARD, LISA MARIE SPINDLER, and ROBERTO PADILLA, Defendants.

No. 20-CV-6823 (CS)

United States District Court, S.D. New York

August 29, 2023

Appearances:

Darren J. Stridiron

Matthew A. Stridiron

Pro Se Plaintiffs

Caroline B. Lineen

Silverman & Associates

White Plains, New York

Counsel for Defendants

OPINION & ORDER

CATHY SEIBEL, U.S.D.J.

Before the Court is the motion for summary judgment of Defendants Newburgh Enlarged City School District (the “District”), Carole Mineo, Phil Howard, Lisa Marie Spindler and Roberto Padilla. (ECF No. 84.) For the following reasons, the motion is GRANTED.

I. BACKGROUND

A, Facts

The following facts are based on the parties' Local Civil Rule (“LR”) 56.1 Statements, (ECF No. 85 (“Ds' 56.1 Stmt.”); ECF No. 97 (“Ps' 56.1 Resp.”); ECF No. 98 (“Ps' 56.1 Stmt.”); ECF No. 101 (“Ds' 56.1 Resp.”)), and the evidentiary materials submitted by the parties, and are undisputed unless otherwise noted.^[1] Plaintiff Matthew Stridiron (“Matthew”) attended Newburgh Free Academy (“NFA”), the District's high school, graduating in June 2019. (Ps' 56.1 Resp. ¶ 1.) He also graduated from the “P-Tech” program at SUNY Orange in May 2019, receiving an associate's degree in cybersecurity. (Id. ¶ 2.) Plaintiff Darren Stridiron (“Mr. Stridiron”) is Matthew's father and has served as a member of the District's Board of Education (the “Board”) since 2014. (Id. ¶ 4.) Defendant Mineo has been a Board member since July 2014 and has served as President since the 2015-16 school year, and Defendant Howard has been a Board member since July 2012. (Id. ¶¶ 9-10.) At the times relevant to this lawsuit, Defendant Spindler was employed by the District as the Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Instruction, Secondary, and Defendant Padilla was employed by the District as the Superintendent. (Id. ¶¶ 11-12.)

1. The District's Grading Policies and the Initial Valedictorian Dispute

During the 2018-19 school year, Onyx Peterson was the District's Director of Pupil Personnel Services. (Id. ¶ 13.) In that capacity, she oversaw the District's Guidance and Counseling Department, but was not responsible for overseeing its day-to-day operations. (Id. ¶ 15.) The Guidance and Counseling Department provides the District's students with counseling services and maintains their academic records, which are stored in an electronic system called Infinite Campus, (id. ¶¶ 14, 16), which is overseen by the District's Assistant Superintendents of Curriculum and Instruction and by its Chief Information Officer, Salvatore Vasile, (id. ¶ 17).

District policy provides that class rank is calculated after the third quarter and is based on completed and in-progress posted grades. (Id. ¶ 18.) To perform that calculation, the District takes the sum of the weighted course grade multiplied by the grade point average (“GPA”) weight and then divides by the total GPA weight or credit. (Id. ¶ 19.)^[2] Although the policy does not differentiate between in-District and out-of-District classes, grades from out-of-District classes generally are not included in the class rank calculation because they are not provided to the District and posted to the student's transcript until they are finalized at the end of the year. (Id. ¶¶ 21-23.)

Christine Harrold is a guidance counselor assigned to the North Campus of the NFA, and served as Matthew's guidance counselor throughout his four years as an NFA North Campus student. (Id. ¶¶ 25, 28.) During his senior year (2018-19), Matthew took classes at NFA's North Campus and its Main Campus, and also attended the P-Tech program at SUNY Orange. (Id. ¶ 29.) He took only AP Macroeconomics and English 12 at the Main Campus. (Id. ¶ 30.) The Infinite Campus course calendars for NFA's North Campus and Main Campus are separate, such that student schedules and grades from the respective campuses are not synced. (Id. ¶ 31.)

In October 2018, the District calculated the class rank of its high school seniors for informational purposes; Matthew and another student, M.P., had identical GPAs of 101.698. (Id. ¶ 32.) Matthew's in-progress grades for his two Main Campus courses were not pulled for that calculation. (Id. ¶ 33.) Several months later, Mr. Stridiron asked Defendant Spindler when class rank calculations would be completed; Spindler advised that it would be after the third quarter, which she also confirmed with the Principal of NFA's North Campus, Matteo Doddo, a non-party.

(Id. ¶ 34; see ECF No. 88-13 ¶ 1.) On January 24, 2019, Matthew asked Harrold if third quarter grades contributed to class rank; Harrold indicated that they did not and advised Matthew that class rank would be calculated based on final course grades. (Ps' 56.1. Resp. ¶ 35.) While Harrold believed at the time that her response to Matthew was accurate, she later learned that she incorrectly relayed how class rank was calculated. (Id. ¶ 36.)

At some point in February 2019, M.P.'s parents asked Peterson about the District's GPA calculation process and expressed concerns about the confidentiality of M.P.'s grades, Matthew's alleged preoccupation with M.P.'s grades, and whether the class rank process would be fair in light of Mr. Stridiron's role as a Board Member. (Id. ¶ 38.)^[3] In response, Peterson explained that class rank was determined via a calculation and that the Board did not interfere with student GPAs. (Id. ¶ 39.)

On May 13, 2019, Vasile sent an email to Spindler, Peterson, Doddo and the Principal of NFA's Main Campus, Raul Rodriguez, attaching the results of GPA calculations for seniors generated by Infinite Campus, and stating that the calculations should be reviewed and recalculated by hand to confirm their accuracy. (Id. ¶¶ 40-41; ECF No. 88-19 ¶ 2.) Those calculations indicated that Matthew had the highest GPA in his class and that M.P. had the second highest. (Ps' 56.1 Resp. ¶¶ 43-44.) On May 14, 2019, Doddo and Assistant Principal Kevin Rothman met with Matthew and gave him a letter advising him that he was the valedictorian of NFA's 2019 graduating class. (Id. ¶ 48.) Prior to meeting with Matthew, Doddo had been hospitalized for two weeks, (see id. ¶ 47; ECF No. 88-12 at 11:14-12:13), and as a result he did not verify the GPA calculations generated by Infinite Campus prior to providing Matthew the letter naming him valedictorian, (see Ps' 56.1 Resp. ¶ 49; ECF No. 88-12 at 32:22-33:23, 90:9-91:6). He also did not tell Padilla, Spindler, or Peterson that he would be giving Matthew a letter naming him sole valedictorian. (Ps' 56.1 Resp. ¶ 51.)

M.P.'s parents disputed the determination that Matthew was sole valedictorian and raised concerns that Mr. Stridiron's position on the Board may have provided Matthew with an unfair advantage. (Id. ¶ 52.) In response, Peterson and Vasile took steps to verify the GPAs and class ranks generated on May 13. (See id. ¶¶ 40, 54.) Peterson determined that Matthew's Main Campus grades for AP Macroeconomics and English 12 were not included by Infinite Campus, which only pulled his North Campus grades when performing the May 13 calculation. (Id. ¶¶ 55-56.) Peterson notified Spindler of that discrepancy and they met to check grades and perform additional calculations to verify the GPAs at issue. (Id. ¶¶ 57-58.) Spindler also informed Padilla about the errors Peterson discovered and subsequently met with Peterson, Doddo, Rodriguez, and Rothman on May 20, 2019, to perform additional calculations to verify the GPAs and class ranks. (Id. ¶¶ 59-60.) Padilla did not participate in or attend the May 20 meeting organized by Spindler. (Id. ¶ 62.)

The calculations performed at the May 20 meeting included Matthew's two Main Campus grades that were initially omitted and mirrored the GPA generated by Infinite Campus once it also included the two Main Campus grades. (Id. ¶¶ 63-64.) Those calculations indicated that Matthew had a GPA of 101.684 and M.P. had a GPA of 101.726, information which Spindler relayed to Padilla and Mr. Stridiron. (Id. ¶¶ 64-65, 67-68.)^[4]

Padilla then designated Matthew and M.P. as co-valedictorians. (Id. ¶ 75.) That decision was not made by the Board or any Board members. (Id. ¶ 77.) On May 22, 2019, Doddo and Rothman met with Matthew, informed him that he would be named co-valedictorian alongside M.P., and gave him a letter to that effect. (Id. ¶ 79.) That letter included an apology for any confusion that may have arisen from the May 14 letter naming Matthew sole valedictorian. (See id. ¶¶ 48, 80.) Matthew subsequently gave a valedictorian speech during his NFA graduation. (Id. ¶ 81.)

2. Matthew's SUNY Orange Graduation

On May 23, 2019, Matthew graduated from SUNY Orange. (id. ¶ 83.) At that graduation, he was interviewed by a local reporter. (id. ¶ 84.) While it is not readily apparent from the parties' LR 56.1 Statements, Matthew testified that Cassie Sklarz, a non-party District employee, stood “very closely to watch the interview” and got “into a big argument” with the reporter when asked to stand further back. (See ECF No. 88-6 (“Matthew's 50-h Depo.”) at 92:14-93:15.)^[5] Matthew also testified that Ari Fishkind, a non-party employed by IBM, (see Ps' 56.1 Resp. ¶ 85)^[6], touched his arm and attempted to pull him away from the interview, (Matthew's 50-h Depo. at 93:16-94:5).

3. Grade Revisions and Matthew's Transcripts

By the time the co-valedictorian decision was issued, Matthew had been admitted by Columbia University (“Columbia”) and had received decisions from all of the colleges to which he had applied. (Ps' 56.1 Resp. ¶ 94.) On May 28 2019, Harrold advised Spindler and Peterson that she had told her secretaries that transcripts should not...