BRIDGETON – A Millville public school teaching “coach” is using a lawsuit to spell out her outrage over the district denying her pay for extra work while allegedly giving it to a younger female colleague at another school because the latter had a “personal and/or romantic relationship” with her principal.

Millville resident Patricia Atkinson, who is the “literacy, curriculum and instruction coach” at Memorial High School, names district Superintendent David Gentile as well as the Millville Board of Education as defendants.

Atkinson claims that Gentile told a local union official that Atkinson filed a grievance over the matter out of jealousy of a “pretty young female” who had a relationship with her principal. Atkinson, a resident of Carmel Road, is a district employee since 1989 and is 61 years old.

The other woman, who is in her 40s according to the lawsuit, is the literacy, curriculum and instruction coach at R.M. Bacon Elementary School. The alleged relationship was with then-Bacon School Principal Spike C. Cook, now principal of Lakeside Middle School.

Other defendants include the New Jersey Education Association, the Millville Education Association, and NJEA field representative James Jameson. Jameson was Atkinson’s representative in the grievance arbitration process.

Gentile and Millville school board President Charles Flickinger were contacted Friday but declined comment on the lawsuit. The district, which was closed on Friday, apparently had not gotten a copy of the complaint.

A phone message left at Atkinson’s home on Friday was not returned. Cook, the Bacon School coach, and union officials could not be reached on Friday.

The lawsuit, which seeks a jury trial, was filed on Aug. 22 with Cumberland County Superior Court here under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. The Avalon law firm of Blaney & Karavan is representing Atkinson.

The lawsuit has two prongs: One goal is “remedy unlawful age and sex discrimination in the workplace”; and the second goal is to “remedy a breach of Plaintiff’s employment contract, and companion claims against Plaintiff’s union for a breach of its duty of fair representation.”

With regard to the union, Atkinson filed a grievance in March 2015 after the administration refused to pay her for work she says was beyond the scope of her job.

Atkinson claims that MEA President Tina Hulitt should have been present at an arbitration hearing to present evidence favorable to her. Hulitt was supposed to testify that Gentile made what the suit calls “sexist and ageist comments” to her about Atkinson.

Atkinson claims Jameson actually had told Hulitt not to attend the hearing, something Atkinson did not learn until the hearing itself. The arbitrator on April 7 of this year found against Atkinson. Atkinson said her union refuses to try to vacate the arbitration decision against her.

According to the lawsuit, the dispute’s genesis is in district preparations to use the controversial PARCC standardized test. PARCC stands for Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers.

Atkinson states that she “performed a significant amount of assignments, tasks, and/or duties not otherwise required in her position” starting in 2014 and continuing into 2016 without extra pay. At Bacon School, her counterpart was paid at a rate of $30 per hour for PARCC work.

The suit states that Cook asked Gentile, reportedly a friend of his, to approve extra pay for the Bacon School coach. Atkinson learned of it and asked for the same rate, but the suit said the school board denied her.

Besides money, Atkinson claims the matter has cost her “diminished career opportunity; loss of self-esteem; disruption of her family life; and emotional trauma.”

She is seeking attorney fees, compensatory damages, punitive damages for “malice,” interest, and costs from the school board.

The suit further labels as “aiders and abettors” the superintendent, the teachers union, and Jameson and asks for the same damage awards from them. They also allegedly acted from “malice.”

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