Why Should Delaware Care?
The Christina School District, one of Delaware’s largest, has endured years of tensions among its top officials. But one of the chapters of that drama might have ended Tuesday when a judge dismissed a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by the district’s former superintendent against its school board.
In late 2024, the former superintendent of the Christina School District sued members of his school board, claiming they wrongfully terminated him.
On Monday, a federal judge in Delaware dismissed the claim in a scathing ruling that, in part, stated that the former superintendent, Dan Shelton, was never actually fired.
Since 2024, Shelton has been on administrative leave earning a salary of $210,043, according to the memorandum opinion from Delaware District Court Judge Colm Connolly filed on Monday.
“Nowhere in the 162 paragraphs of the hyperbolic, painfully redundant, and irrelevancy-filled complaint does Shelton ever identify an obligation in the 2020 contract or the contract extension that defendants allegedly breached,” Connolly said.
Shelton was seeking $2.7 million in damages. Then-Board President Donald Patton, then-Vice President Alethea Smith-Tucker, board member Y.F. Lou and former-board member Naveed Baqir were all named as defendants.
In his opinion, the judge noted that Shelton may bring new claims against the district but warned that his counsel should “study the basic tenets of contract law” before filing.
Shelton’s attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger, said he is reviewing the court’s opinion and has “no comment at this time.”
Patton – who was singled out in Shelton’s lawsuit as having motives “to dislike and retaliate” against him – expressed his appreciation for the judge’s decision but declined further comment until the appeal window closes.
The Christina School District declined to comment, as it “does not provide comments on personnel matters.”
What led to this?
The dismissal of Shelton’s lawsuit marks the latest chapter in years of acrimony impacting the highest levels of leadership at the Christina School District, which covers the greater Newark area and a part of Wilmington.
Shelton began his career as a teacher in the district before becoming superintendent of Dover’s Capital School District in 2015. He later returned to Christina as its superintendent in 2020. Two years later, he was named Delaware’s Superintendent of the Year.
By December 2023, the Christina school board extended Shelton’s contract through June, 2026.
But just months later, the board narrowly voted to suspend him without pay for three days and to rescind the one-year contract extension. The votes then highlighted the clear tensions that had emerged between Shelton and several of the elected members of the school board, particularly Patton.
Left unclear were the exact reasons for the tensions, and whether they existed the previous year when Shelton garnered the contract extension.
Still, Shelton’s lawsuit would later hint at the depth of hostility between the sides. In it, he claimed that Patton’s history as an educator “was not distinguished.” He also said that certain incidents which occurred provide various motives for him (Patton) to dislike and retaliate against” Shelton.
Two months after the school board’s majority bloc voted to rescind Shelton’s contract extension, the three other members of the board sponsored a vote to remove Patton as school board president. They also asked the board to censure Patton for what they called “abusive behavior and retaliatory actions.”
The votes ultimately failed. Afterward Patton said in an interview on DETV that he suspected Shelton had been involved. He also accused him of being racist.
A litany of controversies ensued the following month, when the Delaware Department of Justice found the school board violated the Freedom of Information Act by holding an unannounced executive session for an improper purpose. It further found the board failed to provide adequate notice in meeting agendas for votes regarding a contract rescission for Shelton, as well as for a vote of no-confidence in him.
By July 2024, the board held a nearly eight-hour-long meeting, where the majority bloc voted to remove Shelton and place him on administrative leave.
That same month, James McMackin III — whose law firm, Morris James LLP, represented the district for 41 years — told the Christina board he was stepping down from the role as soon as the board found new counsel.
The Newark Post later obtained internal board emails that showed McMackin chose to end his relationship with the school board due to what he described as “wholesale disregard of the law” under Patton.
Tensions remained high during the school board meeting that came a month after Shelton’s removal.
Items for the meeting agenda included a series of possible referrals to the Delaware commission that oversees ethics among government employees. Among those was one that sought an opinion about whether a school board member “engaged in self-dealing with the district through alternative entities.”
Ultimately, none of those referrals were discussed during the meeting.
Instead, Patton apologized to the public for “a number of things,” stating that the board should be functioning differently. Also during the meeting, members of the public called the board “an embarrassment.”
By September, Neuberger filed a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the Christina school board stop actions he claimed were defaming Shelton and violating his rights. The letter also said the board owes Shelton for lost wages, harm to his reputation, and emotional and physical distress.
Neuberger then filed the wrongful termination lawsuit on behalf of Shelton in December of 2024. At the time, Neuberger told Spotlight Delaware that warnings from the school board’s own attorney make the case a “slam dunk.”
“I’ve never had evidence from the lawyer for the other side, where he’s saying, ‘You’re violating their rights,’” he told Spotlight Delaware.
At the time, Neuberger also noted that Shelton was still technically on payroll until the end of the 2024-25 school year.