A group of Guilford parents said they plan to take the Town and the Board of Education (BOE) to court over its curriculum implementation policies, along with other complaints.

The parents said they hope the suit, if successful, will lead to an overhaul of the Board of Education and force the resignation of current School Superintendent Dr. Paul Freeman.

The plaintiffs include candidates who unsuccessfully ran on Row B in the Board of Education race in the November 2021 election. They include Aly Passarelli, Danielle Scarpellino, Bill Maisano, and Tim Chamberlain, according to Scarpellino and Maisano. The candidates had defeated GOP-endorsed candidates in a primary election, but were all soundly defeated in the November election.

According to Scarpellino and Maisano, the plaintiffs have signed a retainer with the law firm Pattis and Smith, and they expect New Haven-based defense attorney Norman Pattis to file the suit in New Haven District Court on Tuesday, Sept. 6.

Maisano and Scarpellino, both parents of children in Guilford Public Schools (GPS), said they are frustrated with what they characterize as the school administration’s “laziness.” They said they are targeting the school administration’s long history of disregarding parental concerns and being personally “being mocked” and “patronized.”

“What Paul [Freeman] does is attack us, discredit us. He’ll say we’re just angry parents, that we’re bitter about the election,” Maisano said. “Nothing could be further from the truth. We are concerned parents. This is not about just my child, this is about all the children. The ideal outcome for us is for Paul Freeman to resign. He has got to go. These folks underestimate us. Freeman is done. Freeman is done and he knows it. I have even told him that he is done.”

Among their claims, Maisano and Scarpellino insist that they have been prevented from obtaining information concerning their children, have been repeatedly denied access to records, and have been treated in a hostile manner by Freeman and other school officials. They also claim that Freeman and the BOE implemented a curriculum change when they enacted “social equity” and “justice” initiatives without the proper due process, violating their and their children’s “civil rights.”

The suit, according to Maisano and Scarpellino, takes aim at curriculum changes that the plaintiffs call Critical Race Theory (CRT). The plaintiffs claim to possess evidence to support their allegations including an April 2021 statement by the BOE which addressed equity and social justice programs. Scarpellino says the documents not only support their allegations of civil rights violations, but they also expose contradictions in statements by school officials that no new curriculum has been implemented by the Board.

“Some members of our Guilford community have publicly voiced their disagreement with aspects of the school district’s social justice initiative, accusing Dr. Freeman of advancing and the Board of Education of supporting an approach to instruction and school culture aimed at indoctrinating students in an ideology that is itself racist. Some have suggested that the school administration has changed school curriculum in support of this aim. Neither of these claims is true. The equity and social justice initiative is not based on any particular ideology, curriculum, or text. The school curricula have not been changed and cannot be changed without public Board of Education approval,” the BOE wrote, in part, in its April 2021 statement.

Freeman, declining to comment on pending or “threatened litigation,” defended the district’s curriculum, noting that it follows all state mandates and expectations.

“Guilford public schools teaches a curriculum from K through 12 that is aligned with state standards and publicly approved by the Guilford Board of Education. We follow all state mandates and expectations,” Freeman said. “Unequivocally, I am proud of the curriculum that we teach in Guilford Public Schools, and there is nothing that is being done wrong, in violation of anything, or that is inappropriate for the students of Guilford.”

Scarpellino and Maisano said that the statements issued by the BOE are false, however, and provide clear evidence of inappropriate curriculum implementation, misconduct, and dishonesty.

“We made the mistake of giving them more credit for how intelligent they were. That was our biggest mistake. We slowly started to realize they’re not liars, they’re just ignorant. They don’t know what they’re talking about and they have abdicated their responsibility of overseeing the superintendent. They are not doing their job,” Scarpellino said.

BOE Chair Kathleen Balestracci declined to comment on potential litigation, but defended the district’s curriculum, saying that she was “proud of the district’s commitment to social justice and equity.”

Balestracci also defended the Board’s actions, citing the BOE’s goal “to ensure that all students feel safe and included in our school environment, that the materials in their classrooms reflect a diversity of experience, and that students have the support that they need to succeed.”

The plaintiffs say they are determined to seek “justice” for their children and other GPS students. Scarpellino added that she has a long-standing issue with how Freeman has interacted with her concerning her children’s educational development, describing the Superintendent as“sinister” and “evil.”

“They don’t know what they are getting themselves into, because we are not going away,” Scarpellino said. “(A)s long as we have children here, I will ride my authority as a parent and a taxpayer to the highest level, period.”