A former Richmond Public Schools central office employee filed a lawsuit against the division and School Board earlier this month for discriminating against her age and demoting her from an instructional specialist to a school teacher, before she ultimately left the district altogether. 

Dawn James-Cappiello alleged that the division acted unjustly towards her by replacing her with employees that were younger than her, and asserted that RPS has made efforts to “remove and replace those of us who have been in the school division a long time.”

RPS argued Cappiello’s then supervisor – former Director of Curriculum and Instruction Autumn Nabors – demoted Cappiello based on her poor performance and lack of progress under a performance improvement plan she administered. 

An RPS spokesperson said the system does not comment on personnel matters or pending litigation.

The lawsuit comes after the State Attorney General’s Office of Civil Rights conducted an investigation into the matter, which was completed in June and found reasonable cause to believe that RPS did in fact discriminate against her age. The report suggested back pay to Cappiello in the amount of $608,485.00. 

Cappiello said in the suit that reasons for the performance improvement plan had not been discussed prior to her supervisor administering it and Nabors already planned to demote Cappiello after the plan was implemented. The investigation backed that up, noting that there were only nine business days between the plan and the demotion. 

The investigation did not find that Cappiello was discriminated against because of her age (57), however, it allowed the lawsuit because one of the employees who replaced Cappiello was “substantially younger” at age 45.

A blank PIP

Cappiello, a then 57-year old employee who had been working with the division for 33 years, “was performing her job satisfactorily,” up until Nabors’ arrival to RPS, the report said. 

After Nabors’ – then 44 – joined the division at the beginning of the 2018-2019 school year, RPS alleged that she immediately noticed deficiencies in Cappiello’s performance regarding communication, timely attention to tasks and advancing the division’s literacy program goals.

RPS said that Nabors “worked with Cappiello” to develop a performance improvement plan, while Cappiello said that she was sent “a blank PIP form” on March 14, 2019, and asked to complete it by March 22, 2019. 

Cappiello argued that the first time she heard about any deficiencies was in a meeting with Nabors on March 8, 2019, just a few days before the form was issued. 

Investigators said RPS did not provide sufficient documentation showing whether or not meetings were held to discuss expectations. 

On June 4, 2019, Nabors met with Cappiello to discuss moving to a teaching position, which Cappiello objected to, she told investigators. 

Cappiello alleged that Nabors asked whether retirement may be an option. Cappiello said she planned to work an additional five to eight years. RPS denied that Nabors suggested retirement and instead recalled Cappiello bringing it up. 

That same day, the division demoted Cappiello to a regular teacher contract for the 2020-2021 school year, investigators wrote. Cappiello was also “inadvertently” sent an email on May 29, 2019 showing that Nabors told the division’s talent office that she planned to offer Cappiello a teaching contract, just days before the meeting.

The division said Cappiello demonstrated “slight improvement” after the plan began. Investigators called the plan’s requirements “absurd,” writing that the division could not explain how Cappiello was expected to deliver on her requirements in that short period of time. 

RPS replaces older employees with younger ones, former employee claims

Both the lawsuit and investigation state that Cappiello was replaced with two other instructional specialists, beginning in August 2019. 

RPS maintained that Cappiello was replaced by employees in her protected class, individuals over 40 years old – the threshold for age discrimination in Virginia. In documents RPS handed to investigators, the division hired a 50-year old woman who worked in the position for a year, and she was later replaced with a 55-year old woman. But the documents did not mention that RPS also hired a 45-year old woman, which investigators later discovered on the division’s organizational chart. 

Investigators said RPS was unable to produce any of the 2019 applications for the individuals. 

Cappiello alleged that RPS “has a history of retiring out or removing long-term employees from the school division,” which RPS denies. She said that three other employees, two of whom were also instructional specialists, all had tenures with RPS ranging from 22 to 44 years of service and did not receive contracts in their positions.

Cappiello is demanding a jury trial and asking for back pay of more than $600,000 from when she left the district in June 2019, attorney fees of more than $4,000, and compensatory and punitive damages. 

Contact Reporter Victoria A. Ifatusin at vifatusin@richmonder.org