Why Should Delaware Care?
The Christina School District is Delaware’s third-largest district, with more than 9,600 students. The firing of its former superintendent, two lawsuits, and violations against open records laws have left the district’s board of education labeled as acrimonious by many. A board member’s lack of official resignation and a new lawsuit against the district mark another chapter in Christina’s contentious history.
In June, Christina School District Board President Donald Patton announced that the embattled board member Naveed Baqir would resign from his position with the district on July 15.
As of July 21, the district has not announced that Baqir, who was elected to a five-year term in 2021 but has been living in Pakistan for the past year and a half, has resigned or whether he even intends to do so. Neither Baqir or Patton responded to questions emailed to them by Spotlight Delaware regarding the announced resignation date.
District officials have also not posted a resignation or vacancy notice to their website. And the district’s new board president, Monica Moriak, said in a statement to Spotlight Delaware that she has not been informed of an official resignation.
Moriak added that she reached out to Baqir about “his intentions,” but did not receive a response as of Monday.
The uncertainty about Baqir’s status piles onto months of controversy around an issue that first erupted last year when reports emerged that he had been living in Pakistan and attending school board meetings remotely.
Adding to the uncertainty is a recent revelation that a bill lawmakers passed in June aimed at removing Baqir from his seat may not apply retroactively to his past year of absences.
Baqir, whose school board term ends in 2026, did not respond to a request to comment for this story. Last fall, when facing criticism around where he is living, Baqir said during a school board meeting that his legal residency is within the Christina School District.
“Just because somebody has to go out for study to take care of families, that does not make them a non-resident,” he said.
Then, during a July 8 school board meeting, his daughter, Maryam Baqir, also came to his defense, saying during a public comment period that she felt there were “certain individuals who have inserted themselves into our private lives.”
During her comments, Maryam Baqir made no mention of an imminent resignation by her father.
“People didn’t get the votes they wanted, some changes didn’t go their way, so instead of moving forward, they conveniently changed the rules to remove someone who couldn’t be [there] in any other way,” she said.
What happened to HB 82?
Among Baqir’s most vocal critics in Delaware in recent months have been Rep. Madinah Wilson-Anton (D-Bear), and Christina School Board member Doug Manley.
In March, Wilson-Anton introduced two pieces of legislation – House Bill 82 and House Bill 83 – in response to Baqir’s physical absence from the Christina school board.
In June, questions emerged about whether lawmakers would pass HB 82, which would require school board members to live within their district’s footprint for at least 75% of a given year.
While some argued the issue was moot given Baqir’s announced resignation, Wilson-Anton said she believes “it’s important that we close this loophole and make sure that people who are elected to represent their communities live in those communities.”
Ultimately, HB 82 passed and Gov. Matt Meyer signed it into law on June 30. Meyer did not sign the parallel bill, HB 83, which would impose stricter rules around when a school board member can attend a meeting remotely.
Despite its passage, HB 82 may not immediately prevent Baqir from serving on the Christina School Board.
According to the General Assembly’s website, the bill’s effective date is June 30, meaning the new residency requirements will pertain to the school year that began this month.
Despite the effective date, Manley told Spotlight Delaware on Friday that he believes a judge will decide whether the new law can be applied retroactively to Baqir’s past physical absences from school board meetings.
He said that judge would make a decision on retroactivity as part of a lawsuit Manley filed in April in the Delaware Court of Chancery, asking the court to declare that Baqir is not a resident of the district, and therefore ineligible to serve on the board.
A new candidate?
Baqir’s term ends on June 30, 2026, and he has not announced whether he plans on running for reelection.
If he does resign before that, he would have to submit an official resignation and the district would be required to inform the Department of Elections that there is a vacancy on the board. District officials also would be required to make a formal post on their website that a resignation had occurred.
After a vacancy is announced, an application process is initiated for anyone interested in filling the seat. The school board then appoints a new member from that list of applications.
Although there has not been an official resignation announcement from Baqir, his school board seat has already garnered interest.
Last week, Kane Dennison-Gomez, a Christina School District graduate and paraeducator, filed to run for Baqir’s school board seat next May. He told Spotlight Delaware that he would have gone through the appointment process if there had been an official resignation.
Christina faces yet another lawsuit
Two days before filing as a candidate for the school board, Dennison-Gomez re-filed a lawsuit against the Christina School District claiming his reputation had been tarnished by comments made by board member Amy Trauth.
Also named as defendants in the Delaware Superior Court lawsuit is Trauth and the entire Christina Board of Education.
The lawsuit tells a story that begins with Dennison-Gomez and one other person sending emails to the school board complaining about Manley’s comments and behavior.
In his email, Dennison-Gomez even suggested that Manley could “benefit from therapeutic treatment including the possible use of psychotropic medication.”
Asked on Monday about Dennison-Gomez’s claims, Manley said, “water off a duck’s back.”
After Dennison-Gomez sent his email, Trauth – an ally of Manley’s – came to his defense. And she replied to the email in what Dennison-Gomez is now calling a manner that does not reflect board policies.
Dennison-Gomez states in his lawsuit that Trauth ridiculed him for not being a licensed professional and being “so bold as to make a psychiatric diagnosis.”
Perhaps most severe, Trauth also claimed in her email – which was later included in a school district report to the public – that Dennison-Gomez had faced criminal charges.
Dennison-Gomez’s subsequent lawsuit says Trauth exaggerated the number of criminal charges against him
The “statement concerning Plaintiff being charged with three (3) crimes – Harassment, Disorderly Conduct and Terroristic Threatening is false,” the lawsuit says.
It was the statement about criminal charges that Dennison-Gomez claims tarnished his reputation – or in legal parlance, libeled him.
Trauth did not respond to Spotlight Delaware’s requests for comment regarding the lawsuit.
Dennison-Gomez’s complaint is the third lawsuit against the district in eight months, and is the latest chapter in at least a year of acrimony in one of Delaware’s largest school districts.
Other lawsuits include Manley’s, and one filed by the district’s former superintendent Dan Shelton claiming wrongful termination. The latter carries a hefty financial penalty should the former school district leader win the case.