School district ends Savage case with $720,000 settlement

The Van Buren Public Schools Board of Education voted on Oct. 12 to a settlement of $720,000 to end the cases brought against it by four Savage Elementary School teachers in 2016.
On Oct. 13, School Supt. Pete Kudlak signed the agreement and the incident that tore the district apart under School Supt. Michael Van Tassel finally was settled.
The amount of the settlement was not announced at the time because of a non-disclosure agreement among the parties involved.
On Monday, the Independent received its response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed Nov. 2 with the school district which provided a copy of the settlement agreement and release of all claims.
Of the total settlement, the teachers’ attorney, Deborah Gordon Law of Bloomfield Hills, received $273,125.48 and each teacher received a check for $111,718.63.
Teachers suing the school district in federal and civil court were: Pamela Bradley, Michelle Komaromi, Rebecca Tennis, and Brent Held.
Defendants were Van Buren Public School District, its School Board, Michael Van Tassel, Jeff Moore, Shonta Langford, Amy Gee, Brent Mikulski, Martha Toth, Kathy Kovach, Kevin English, Alison Bennet, and Kelley Owen.
The settlement agrees to remove from the Plaintiffs’ personnel files the 14-day suspensions that were given to them on May 26, 2016 and any other disciplinary actions.
The agreement wording said it is a compromise of a disputed claim and no party is deemed to be a prevailing party in this litigation and the payment made is not to be construed as an admission of liability on the part of the parties hereby released and, “that said released parties deny liability therefore, and intend merely to avoid ongoing litigation and buy their peace.”
In a vote at a recent meeting, the school board agreed to add an undisclosed amount of extra funds to the amount agreed to by the district’s insurance carrier to make the total needed. It has been learned the school district’s total contribution to the $720,000 total was $320,000.
The 32-page law suit filed in May of 2016 detailed the incidents that led to the federal civil rights and civil court employment discrimination charges.
After five teachers were marched out of their classrooms in front of their students on Jan. 21, 2016, the community erupted in support of the teachers and Savage School, leading to the firing of the superintendent deemed responsible.
At a school board meeting last summer former School Board Trustee Sherry Frazier estimated the district had paid more than $500,000 to its attorneys, Collins & Blaha, to fight the law suits.