Why Should Delaware Care?
The Christina School District, one of Delaware’s largest, has endured years of tensions among its top officials. In March, a judge dismissed a wrongful termination lawsuit filed by the district’s former superintendent, Dan Shelton, against the school board. On Tuesday, Shelton appealed that decision.
Three months after the chief judge of Delaware’s federal court called a lawsuit “painfully redundant,” former Christina School District Superintendent Dan Shelton brought his wrongful termination claim to a federal appeals court in Philadelphia.
Filed Wednesday, Shelton’s appeal claims that Delaware District Court Judge Colm Connolly violated the legal standards for reviewing a case by erring in his interpretation of the facts.
“The only factual support the lower court could draw for its erroneous conclusion was solely from outside the factual record,” the appeal stated.
The appeal 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.
In his memorandum opinion filed in March, Connolly dismissed Shelton’s wrongful termination lawsuit by stating, in part, that the former superintendent was never actually fired — rather he was placed on leave. He said Shelton’s complaint did not “ever identify an obligation” within his employment contract that defendants might have breached.
Connolly also called Shelton’s claim a “hyperbolic, painfully redundant, and irrelevancy-filled complaint.”
Despite the scathing comments, Shelton’s attorney, Thomas S. Neuberger, doubled down in the appeal, claiming again that Shelton was wrongfully terminated and that his contract with the district was breached when the Christina school board placed him on indefinite leave in 2024.
He also noted that the decision to place him on leave coincided with the resignation of the district’s longtime attorney James McMackin III.
Following the resignation, The Newark Post reported that internal school board emails showed that McMackin chose to end his relationship with the board due to what he described as “wholesale disregard of the law,” under then-Board President Donald Patton.
Shelton’s appeal argued that while some facts relating to Shelton’s termination are messy, it stated that is likely to be “inevitable in a situation where a 40-year attorney-client relationship implodes.”
In a statement to Spotlight Delaware, Patton, who is a named defendant in the case, said he can’t comment on specific details of the lawsuit, but that he looks forward to “providing factual details about my decision/votes that the public has a right to know.”
In a separate statement, Christina Board President Monica Moriak said the lawsuit is important, but remains an “adult issue,” and that the school board is focusing on student outcomes.
What led to the appeal?
Shelton began his career as a teacher at the Christina School 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.
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 and accused him of racism.
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, McMackin told the board he was stepping down from the role as soon as the board found new counsel.
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, seeking $2.7 million in damages.
At the time, Neuberger told Spotlight Delaware that warnings from the school board’s own attorney make the case a “slam dunk.”
