Assistant Superintendent Lori Koerner, who was reassigned to her home earlier this month following a complaint by a Riverhead Central School District staff member about a physical altercation in the district office, is working on district property again.
The district’s decision to allow her to return to school grounds has sparked multiple complaints by district staff, as well as the president of the district’s civil service employees union.
Koerner has been temporarily assigned to work in an office at the district’s transportation facility on Edwards Avenue, pending the outcome of an investigation into the incident at the district office, which occurred on Sept. 22.
She is barred from the district’s central administration offices at 814 Harrison Avenue, where her regular office is located and where the Sept. 22 incident took place, but is permitted to be present on all other school properties as the investigation continues.
The Board of Education on Oct. 10 appointed a special counsel to investigate the complaint, filed by the district superintendent’s confidential secretary, Rodney Parrish.
Employee complaint filed with police: Koerner ‘charged around her desk, grabbed him on the shoulders with both of her hands… and pushed him backwards
School district officials have declined to discuss specifics of the complaint, but in a report filed by Parrish with Riverhead Police on Oct. 6, he accused Koerner of grabbing him by both shoulders with both hands and pushing him backwards. Parrish said he was standing in the doorway to Koerner’s office on Sept. 22 at about 9:15 a.m. when Koerner “got out of her seat, charged around her desk, then grabbed him on the shoulders with both of her hands, turning him and pushed him backwards,” according to the police report.
Koerner has not returned calls seeking comment.
School district staff began complaining to district officials about Koerner being allowed back on school grounds before the investigation is completed. The Civil Service Employees Association unit president told staff members she has demanded answers about why the district has allowed her to return to work on district property before the investigation is concluded, according to copies of an email thread provided to RiverheadLOCAL.
In a separate email, the district clerk wrote to the Board of Education yesterday on behalf of and at the request of central administration staff members, who expressed “utter disbelief” about Koerner’s return.
Employees react: ‘We do not feel safe to have her back’
“The investigation regarding Dr. Koerner physically pushing a subordinate has not yet been completed, and yet she, the Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources, is back in a building working with other employees, making contact with colleagues as if nothing has happened,” District Clerk Lisa Rheaume wrote in the email on behalf of the staff members. The email to the board was signed by Rheaume and other central administration staff members, including Parrish. The email contained “individual comments” from staff, though they were not separately attributed to individual staff members.
All comments expressed outrage both at Koerner’s alleged behavior and at the district allowing her back on school grounds before the investigation is completed and a report delivered to the Board of Education. Some faulted district administrators and the school board for being “hypocritical.”
The email spanned several pages, containing multiple comments, some quite lengthy. Excerpts:
“Someone with her title should be held accountable for her actions and held to a higher standard. Her actions set a tone to the district in entirety and that is not okay. If someone in her position can get away with putting her hands on a colleague, then what stops other employees and/or students from doing the same thing without any repercussions,” one comment read.
“We do not feel safe to have her back in the District Office and we are certain that employees in PPS and/or Transportation will not feel safe either,” said another.
“As I walk into work the screen on the wall shows that October is National Bullying Prevention Awareness month,” wrote one employee. “In my opinion it seems clear as to your decision which shows no regards to us at the district office and none of you have concerns about trying to prevent bullying here,” read another.
Board of Education President Colin Palmer replied to the group in an email Wednesday morning, advising Rheaume and the other signatories of the email that the board “does not and will not comment on any pending investigations and/or related personnel decisions.”
In an interview this afternoon, Palmer confirmed the content of his email, a copy of which was sent to RiverheadLOCAL by a source earlier today.
“Pending the outcome of the investigation, Dr. Koerner will be performing all of her job responsibilities and discharging all of her duties from an alternative work location in the District to ensure that the District’s Human Resources and Elementary Education Departments can continue to operate,” Palmer wrote. “It is expected that staff will be cooperative and professional with Dr. Koerner during this time period.”
Palmer said Interim Superintendent William Galati recommended allowing Koerner to return to school grounds, with the exception of the central offices, and school board members agreed. He said the acting superintendent and board believe her presence is necessary to fulfill the functions and duties of her position.
Galati, the district’s executive director for secondary education, grants and student outcomes, was appointed interim superintendent at special school board meeting Oct. 5.
At the Oct. 5 meeting, the board agreed to a leave of absence through Oct. 23 for Superintendent Augustine Tornatore, following a separate incident allegedly involving a verbal dispute with a faculty member, according to several sources within the district. Tornatore could not be reached for comment. Palmer declined to discuss the incident, citing personnel privacy concerns.
Reports of an investigation into that incident are inaccurate, according to a district spokesperson. The board’s appointment of a special counsel for a second investigation on Oct. 10 concerns a “a different incident involving a different district employee,” Ron Edelson of ZE Creative Communications, the school district’s public relations firm, wrote in an email last night.
“As you know, the district cannot divulge who that employee is or information about the incident in compliance with applicable privacy laws, but can definitively state it is not Dr Tornatore or any incident involving Dr Tornatore,” Edelson wrote.
Editor’s note: This article has been amended to clarify that the comments in the email sent by the district clerk on behalf of central administration staff were comments of individual unspecified staff members and not necessarily the clerk’s own comments.
It has also been amended to reflect the comments of the school district’s public relations firm concerning Superintendent Augustine Tornatore and correct the error about that investigation contained in a prior version of this article.
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