UES Prep School Parents Sue After Longtime Headmaster's Ousting

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Parents at an elite Upper East Side school that charges $47,000 in tuition are suing the institution's executive committee for forcing the headmaster of 35 years into an early retirement, according to a law firm representing parents.

The class action lawsuit against the St. Bernard's School — located on East 98th Street between Fifth and Madison avenues — was filed in New York Supreme Court this week. Parents represented in the class claim that a small group of the school's board of trustees ousted longtime headmaster Stuart H. Johnson III to advance the interests of their own children at the expense of the rest of the student body.

"Certain members of the St. Bernard’s Board of Trustees have sadly abused their powerful positions. These trustees are alleged to have violated the law, the school’s own bylaws, and the school’s norms and practices with their arbitrary and capricious actions, which include removal of a beloved headmaster," Attorney Jim Walden said in a statement.

Johnson's tenure as headmaster of St. Bernard's began in 1985. Parents suing the school claim that the executive committee of the school's board forced him to announce his resignation in May 2019. The announcement set off a massive fight between parents who favored keeping Johnson and the executive committee.

The New York Times chronicled the ensuing drama, which featured parents on opposite factions grilling each other their favorite Shakespearean sonnets and pre-Raphaelite artists to assert their intellectual dominance. An attempt at a compromise was overseen by former U.S. Attorney, and St. Bernard's parent, Mary Jo White, according to the Times report.

Parents behind the class action are asking the court to reinstitute Johnson as headmaster of the school and to remove executive committee members from the school's board of trustees, according to the law firm Walden Macht & Haran. The parents claim that efforts at compromise with the executive committee were rebuffed, and were forced to file a lawsuit without any further recourse.