The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania announced that a vote by the State College Area School Board to extend health insurance benefits to same-sex partners of its employees will partially settle a discrimination lawsuit brought against the school district by the ACLU.
District spokeswoman Julie Miller said the vote’s expected to take place Monday.
“We are happy that gay and lesbian employees and students will now be recognized as equal members of the State College Area School District community,” said State College civil rights attorney Andrew Shubin, one of the attorneys representing district employee Kerry Wiessmann, in a news release issued by the ACLU.
Shubin and Justine Andronici, along with the ACLU, filed a lawsuit in May on behalf of Wiessmann and her partner of 25 years, Beth Resko, challenging the denial of health insurance benefits for gay and lesbian partners of employees.
The agreement between the State College district and Wiessmann is spelled out in a consent decree that has been filed with the federal court and was approved by U.S. District Judge John E. Jones III on Tuesday.
Under Pennsylvania law, school board members can discuss legal issues in private executive sessions. Board vice president Jim Pawelczyk, acting superintendent Mike Hardy and district attorney Carl Beard signed the consent decree on behalf of the district.
It is not an admission of liability by any party, and leaves unresolved the issue of damages in the lawsuit.
Under the agreement, the parties will try to settle the outstanding damages claims during the next 75 days. If no settlement can be reached, the lawsuit will resume.
“I look forward to working with the (d)istrict to resolve the remaining issues in this case,” Shubin said in an email.
ACLU officials said the district also will add “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” to anti-discrimination policies for staff and students under the settlement agreement.
Hardy introduced the new antidiscrimination policies at the school board’s June 27 meeting.
“This is a response to requests from students, faculty, staff and community members,” Hardy said, later adding: “The goal of the policies would be to further protect students and employees, and to provide a safe, healthy nurturing learning environment for all.”
There was no public discussion among board members, except for a question about whether the policies were new.
Pennsylvania law requires that before school board members adopt new or amended policies, they have to publicly review them more than 30 days in advance.
Miller said further discussion about the new anti-discrimination policies would likely take place Monday.
Ed Mahon can be reached at 231-4619.
