Branford Board of Education Fires Denise Farina

It took the Branford Board of Education (pictured) less than five minutes last night to unanimously agree to fire Denise Farina, a tenured teacher at the Mary T. Murphy elementary school for the last 28 years.

The full nine-member board acted after its outside attorney, William Connon, explained the town’s proceedings involving the Farina case included nine days of hearings, featuring 25 sworn witnesses and nearly 300 exhibits. Connon, who served as the hearings’ overseer, said the record was voluminous.

Board of Education Chairman Frank Carrano told the board that there were 84 findings of fact, which, he said, ​“we believe to be true.”

The findings were approved by a three-member Board of Education committee comprised of Carrano, David Squires and Michael Krause earlier this month.

The full board’s ruling was expected. It came without any questions from the other board members. Carrano explained that the committee reviewed the findings and corroborated the evidence. In the end, the full board agreed that Farina, 50, was incompetent and either ​“unwilling or unable” to improve her professional practices.

The Farina hearing was unique because it was open to the public. Farina wanted that. She said she wanted the board to know how her immediate supervisors had treated her.She could have chosen an independent arbitration panel, the usual route in these cases.

Instead she chose a Board of Education panel even though she had also filed a costly federal lawsuit against Anthony Buono, the Murphy school’s principal and a former assistant principal.

The federal lawsuit claims the Board of Education discriminated against her in a variety of ways, including violating employment and disabilities statutes. It became clear from the first hearing that Farina’s legal team, primarily her advocate Mica Notz, was posing questions relevant to her federal case. Eventually issues concerning disability were barred. She is seeking punitive damages, attorneys’ fees and other compensation in her federal lawsuit.

So at the same time she was seeking reinstatement from the Board of Education she was also suing them in federal court. She has 30 days to appeal the Board of Education’s decision in state Superior Court.She has indicated she will do so. This means the Board of Education will have to defend two lawsuits.

After Carrano outlined the conclusions and Connon added that in agreeing to terminate, the board also adopted the findings of fact, a motion was made to terminate Farina.

“All in favor say aye.” The ayes responded. There were no abstentions. The motion carried.

Connon, a named partner in Hartford law firm of Sullivan Schoen Campane & Connon, LLC, waited from 7:30 p.m. to nearly 9 p.m. while the Board of Education took up other matters, including a lengthy PowerPoint presentation on the skills of kindergarten children and a long report from the Schools Superintendent Kathleen Halligan. Despite the billable hours mounting up, no motion was made to move the Farina matter up.

None of Farina’s family, friends or legal team attended the meeting. Her parents, Rosemarie and Joseph Farina, this week begged the Board of Education to reinstate their daughter.

“To strip her of her self-esteem and to deprive her of the opportunity to pursue her livelihood is unconscionable, especially during these economic hardships,” her parents wrote in a letter to the Sound newspaper. Her father was the school system’s former athletic director and football coach. Farina began her teaching career in 1981 at the Murphy school when she was 22.

With this formal termination by the board, Farina, who has been on paid leave, now loses her salary.

Superintendent Halligan testified that she recommended Farina be fired. Farina has been described as disorganized and persistently late. Overall, Dr. Halligan said, the children in her class were not receiving an adequate education. Peter Anaclerio, the former president of the Branford Education Association, the teachers union, testified that he had urged Farina to resign.

Farina testified that she was hampered in recent years by serious illnesses, including thyroid cancer, back surgeries and insomnia; and school authorities did nothing to help her. She said she had satisfactory evaluations from year to year until she became ill. It is still not clear why she did not take a medical leave or why the case did not settle.