Central Bucks Schedules Termination Hearings For Superintendent, Principal

DOYLESTOWN, PA — The Central Bucks School Board has scheduled two public hearings for Tuesday and Wednesday to consider the recommended termination of the district's superintendent of schools and the principal of the Jamison Elementary School.

According to a public notice, doors will open at 8 a.m. each day for the hearings, which are scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. at the district offices on Welden Drive. Public comment will not be taken and the hearings will not be live-streamed or recorded.

The Laudermill hearings provide employees with notice of the charges against him/her, a summary of the evidence, and the opportunity to respond to the charges.

Superintendent Steven Yanni and Jamison Elementary School Principal David Heinemann have opted to have both hearings conducted in public. The hearings will not be recorded, but a transcript will be taken, according to the public notice.

In June, the Central Bucks School Board took steps to terminate five district employees, including Yanni and Heinemann after allegations surfaced that special needs children were abused in a classroom at Jamison Elementary School last fall.

The action came at the conclusion of an independent investigation launched by the school board in February into the abuse allegations at the school and the response of the administration to the

incident. It also followed a scathing report on the incident released by Disability Rights Pennsylvania, a nonprofit organization designated by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as the protection and advocacy system under federal law.

At its meeting on June 18, the school board voted unanimously, with one abstention, to approve statements of charges against five employees. The statement of charges is the first step in the termination process.

While the June agenda only identified the individuals by their employee numbers, Superintendent Steven Yanni confirmed he was among them in a statement to the press.

Yanni said he is “incredibly disappointed by the board’s decision regarding my position as superintendent of the Central Bucks School District.

“In the near future, I look forward to resolving the matter by ensuring accurate information is shared, as the last few months have been punctuated with inaccurate information and attacks against my leadership, professionalism, and character.

“For more than two decades, I have dedicated my life to my career as a teacher and leader. Those who know me know that I am a staunch advocate for children — their education and their well-being. That will continue to be my focus ... I will fight to regain the good name and reputation that I built over my career as an educator and advocate for children."

Here is a summary of the Disability Rights Pennsylvania Report released in April:

Following a three month investigation, Disability Rights Pennsylvania released a report into allegations of abuse of children in an Autistic support classroom at Jamison Elementary School in the Central Bucks School District. After onsite visits, interviewing multiple Central Bucks staff members and administrators, and reviewing hundreds of pages of documents, DRP found that the abuse allegations were credible and corroborated by several staff who worked in the classroom.

The students – kindergarteners through second graders - experienced abuse, neglect, illegal restraints, aversive techniques, and disability discrimination by the teacher and educational assistant in the classroom, said DRP's report.

Compounding the abuse, the DRP report says school staff failed to comply with the Pennsylvania Child Protective Services Law, which requires immediate reporting of suspected child abuse to ChildLine. Instead, school district administrators filed ChildLine reports days and then weeks after receipt of information of suspected child abuse, and the information reported in both instances was incomplete and misleading.

Though flawed, the school district’s own internal fact-finding investigation still revealed significant corroboration of the abuse, the report says. Despite that corroboration, the report says the "school district administrators erroneously informed parents of students and the local police conducting the ChildLine investigation that the school district’s investigation found no evidence of abuse.

"A culture of distrust and fear of retaliation pervades at Jamison Elementary and among school district administrators regarding these issues, which undoubtedly contributed to the lack of appropriate reporting and response by the school district," the report finds.

DRP’s investigation also revealed that the school district lacked appropriate training, policies, and procedures related to ChildLine and incident reporting, internal investigations, communication among school staff and with parents, and non-discriminatory treatment of students with Autism.

DRP recommended a series of actions be taken by the Central Bucks School District School Board to address the issues, including staff and administrator discipline, training, policy development, and additional safeguards for the safety and rights of students with disabilities.