Veteran District 65 Educator Sues District

Long-time District 65 Educator claims she lost 24% of her pension due to poor communication and mismanagement

You can view a copy of the demand letter here and the complaint here.

According to the complaint: Lisa Reitman worked for District 65 for 34 years. At the end of the 2022-2023 school year, Ms. Reitman planned to retire. In 2020, her husband was diagnosed with a brain tumor and passed away in May 2023.

Throughout the 2022-23 school year, Ms. Reitman used sick leave to care for her husband as his condition worsened. Reitman believed she had accumulated 194 unused sick days, which would permit her to retire with a full, non-reduced pension. In her case, there is a formula that the Teachers Retirement System (TRS) uses for calculating full benefits for teachers who are retiring before 35 years of service. Essentially, if a teacher has 34 years and enough unused sick days, they can hit the 35 and receive a full pension.

Her complaint details a Kafkaesque maze of District 65 maladministration, where a portal showed she had enough vacation days, then she asked for confirmation and received no response (but did receive an invite to a retirement luncheon). Ultimately the District reported a different number to TRS, using a formula resulting in her being short by 8 days.

According to the complaint, those 8 days resulted in her losing 24% of her pension.

The complaint documents a meeting with District 65 Staff, the Head of HR and the DEC Head in September 2023;

120. Reitman explained to everyone attending this meeting that if the District or anyone employed by the District had alerted her that "granted" (bonus) sick days would be deducted from the total number of sick days that the District and certain Defendants or agents had reported to TRS, she would have simply worked 8 more days at the end of the 2022/2023 school year.

121. At the September 22, 2023, meeting, Defendant Shklover explained to all of the persons present at the meeting that a 3-step formula was used to determine the final number of days District 65 submitted to TRS on behalf of Reitman.

122. Nobody else present at this meeting was aware of this "3-step formula."

The claim also details a pattern of District 65 staff failing to notify Ms. Reitman of her FMLA right rights — that she had triggered a qualifying event and they failed to take the required steps.

She’s suing the District under seven counts, listing various District 65 Employees including Dr. Angel Turner (Superintendent), Tiffany Taylor (Head of HR), Dr. Andalib Khelighati (Former Head of HR), Kathy Zalewski, Dr. Trisha Baker (DEC Union Head) and various staffers.

• FMLA Interference (Count I): District 65 failed to inform Reitman of her right to use FMLA leave to care for her husband.

• Procedural Due Process Violations (Count II): Reitman which was deprived without due process.

• Substantive Due Process Violations (Count III): The defendants' failure to properly calculate her sick days and promptly assist her in achieving the necessary workdays to retire "shocks the conscience."

• Racial Discrimination under 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (Count IV): Reitman, who is White, claims she was treated less favorably compared to Black employees, alleging that her retirement calculation errors would have been immediately rectified if she were Black.

• Breach of Contract (Count V): The district breached the collective bargaining agreement by failing to properly administer the sick leave bank and retirement provisions.

• Promissory Estoppel (Count VI): The District promised Reitman she had sufficient sick days to retire with a full pension, on which she relied to her detriment.

• Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress (Count VII)

Ms. Reitman is seeking $300,000 in damages.

I reached out to the District for comment, who replied with the below

The District cannot comment on pending litigation; however, it's important to note that we take this matter seriously. Our leadership team is deeply committed to centering our "Big Five" core values of dignity, courtesy, respect, professionalism, and humanization and this extends to our dedicated team members. We are hopeful for a just and expeditious resolution.